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| ARRL’s Simulated Emergency Test (SET) is October 5 – 6, 2024. This nationwide exercise is the chance to test your personal emergency-operating skills and the readiness of your communications equipment and accessories in a simulated emergency-like deployment.
New Emergency Communication Courses from ARRL — ARRL Director of Emergency Management Josh Johnston, KE5MHV, joins the On the Air podcast to share details about ARRL’s updated Emergency Communication courses, which have been broken into three successive levels – Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. The courses are available free of charge at the ARRL Learning Center. The On the Air podcast is available on blubrry, iTunes, and Apple Podcasts. It is a monthly companion to On the Air magazine, a publication for beginnertointermediate ham radio operators, produced by ARRL.
Hams Train and Give Back — Fair Lawn (New Jersey) Amateur Radio Club (FLARC) members Nancy Beattie, N2FWI, and Gordon Beattie, W2TTT, supported the Passaic County Fair at Garrett Mountain Reservation in New Jersey again this year as a way to effect an immersive emergency communications training exercise and to give back to those with whom they’ve volunteered for decades. The fair serves as the county’s annual emergency deployment exercise and engages all county and several municipal agencies while being evaluated by the New Jersey State Police Office of Emergency Management. The Deputy Emergency Management Director, Sheriff’s Officer Rob Scott, KD2ION, has a small team of volunteer hams who form as the Situational Awareness Unit identified in the Incident Action Plan. Nancy and Gordon work with Rob and two other volunteers, FLARC member Dave Henninger, N3UXK, and Aly Badawy, AL0Y.
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| Gordon Beattie, W2TTT, left, and Sheriff’s Officer Rob Scott, KD2IO |
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National Preparedness Month: Creating a PACE Plan — Imagine cell service, internet, and the repeater going down and you have no way to contact your team, or family. What would you do? Having a plan to communicate with team members or family members when infrastructure goes down is a great way to provide peace of mind, considering the threats we face today. A plan can also reduce the amount of stress we experience during these types of outages, and yes, it can happen as evidenced in hurricanes, tornadoes, and wildfires — and the list goes on.
PACE is an acronym for Primary, Alternate, Contingency and Emergency. When creating a PACE plan, thought is given to how you would communicate to team members or family members within each category. The primary plan is what you do when the world is operating as normal, with no interruptions to power grids or communications systems. An example of a primary plan would be to use your cell phone to call a team member or family member.
Alternate plans are methods of communication that would not be as convenient nor as good as the primary plan’s methods but are still viable options. An example of an alternate plan methodology is to use a satellite phone.
Contingency plans come into play if primary and alternate plan methods fail. This plan solution is not as convenient as the first two plan options. In this scenario, cell phone networks and the internet are likely down. An example of a contingency plan is to use a radio such as a Family Radio Service (FRS) handheld to communicate.
The last step in PACE planning is the emergency plan and method. This is your last-ditch option. Nothing else has worked and you need to think out of the box. In this scenario, your last- ditch effort might be to meet your team or a family member at a mutually agreed upon location. If the person doesn’t show up, then maybe you can leave a note in a pre-identified location and head home.
So, considering the points above, a basic PACE plan could look something like this:
1. Primary – Cell phone – This is the go-to method that operations personnel use as a daily solution.
2. Alternate – Sat phone -This is a backup method that is not preferred but may serve as a good workaround until the primary problem is resolved.
3. Contingency – Amateur radio -This is a fallback method that uses totally different technology, systems, etc.
4. Emergency–Time/place–This is the last-resort method when the others fail.
You would then add more detail around each of these categories, like specifying a group for texting, channels for Satellite and radio, and a Time/Place. When building your plans, you’ll want to keep in mind that you’ll want to know what the trigger is to cause you to move through the plan. This is referred to as a trigger point.
Also, within each section, you can have sub-plans. For example, if you were to planning to link up with your team member or family member at, say, 1200 at a prearranged location and they did not show up: as part of your emergency plan, you can spell out, “If I am not there exactly at 1200 hrs, wait an hour and at 1300 hrs, if you have not heard from me, start making appropriate inquiries.” And, “by 1400 hrs, if no contact, notify emergency services.” By doing this, I am defining trigger points.
When working on your PACE plan, try to avoid having a single point of failure. If all your plans rely on the internet, then you are totally vulnerable to internet failures. A good way to look at this is to expect that things are going to fail and to plan accordingly.
PACE plans should be reviewed and updated on a regular basis to account for changes to the channels you use, people included, phone numbers, etc. Instructions can be printed on a wallet-sized card and given to each person.
PACE plans are not just for communications. They are used for power, water, transportation and other utilities and services. We develop these plans to ensure mission success. Have you or your team developed a PACE plan? — Scott Read, KM6RFB, Placer County (Northern California) Emergency Coordinator; COMT, COML, AUXCOMM [See also the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency site for more information.]
Opportunity Knocks: Vermont Task Force to Assess State Emergency Communications
— Vermont’s Public Safety Communications Task Force announced that it has hired a provider to assess the state’s emergency communications capabilities across the board, including the capabilities of each of the 38 emergency communications centers (ECCs) statewide. The task force will be working with Mission Critical Partners (MCP) to evaluate the potential for statewide public safety communications and to develop cost and governance models to achieve it. MCP and the task force will be collaborating on a multitude of assessments including performance of all systems within each ECC; testing coverage to find out where gaps exist; each center’s hiring, training and retention strategies and tactics, and how successful they are; evaluation of cybersecurity strategies; and each center’s continuity of operations and disaster recovery plans. “The Public Safety Communications Task Force is pleased to be working with MCP,” Jennifer Morrison, task force co-chair and commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Safety, said in a statement. “The firm’s integrity and quality of work speak for themselves.” More information on an apparently golden opportunity for Vermont and other states/sections’ ARES programs. — FEMA Disaster Emergency Communications News Clippings and Topics of Interest Vol. 14 Issue 14, July 16-31, 2024
For Hurricane Debby, Arc J. Thames, W4CPD, Northern Florida Section Emergency Coordinator, reported that an amateur radio operator was stranded due to high water in Suwannee County. He used the statewide 70-centimeter FM repeater network, SARNET, to relay the information and a monitoring operator in Jacksonville was able to coordinate with an urban search-and-rescue (USAR) team with an embedded ham radio operator to facilitate the rescue of a family. [More information and updates on the amateur radio community’s response to the recent spate of tropical storms is available on the ARRL public service page.]
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| Amateurs Support National MS Society’s Ride Across Minnesota 2024: Lessons Learned |
| The July 2024 National MS Society’s Bike MS: Ride Across Minnesota involved five days of covering 246 miles. The goal was to raise $500,000 for medical research. We had 290 riders for the week and 26 volunteers on the Route Safety Team. There were four to five rest stops (each with an amateur operator) on each stage/day of the event. Hams generally organized “Net Control,” usually at the finish line/camping site, and coordinated resources. We borrowed five repeaters and invited local hams for support.
The course was not hilly by Colorado standards but did cover a lot of territory. Preparing the ICS-205–the Incident Radio Communications Plan–took effort: We needed to select repeaters and get the trustees’ permission to use them. Many were Yaesu System Fusion (digital mode) repeaters, and we needed to shut off the digital mode for the week to prevent random Internet/out of area interference. (Also, many operators did not have the digital mode radios). The “Safety” phone was on Google Voice, forwarded to us.
One ongoing challenge/opportunity was the mash up of volunteer groups. We had motorcycle riders, bike officials and van escort groups; most were not hams. Six staff members were the key decision makers and support. A simple, secure and elegant solution was to use the “Work” version of Zello. This accommodated everyone and had a GPS mapping feature. You could see the locations and velocities of assets and have comms with all your team. Decision making was by the book: NIMS-prepared resource teams did their thing and would seek guidance when needed. Daily hot wash meetings were held and we worked hard to improve on our performance. There were a few minor medical incidents, a dog chasing bikes, some SAG runs and a close call or two with fast oncoming semi-tractor trailers.
On one of the days, routine comms shifted heavily from Zello to the ham repeaters and the Race Director was convinced his cell phone was broken. (Emailing forms around to a team on 97% mobile devices and managing real time incidents was not a realistic thing).
If anyone complains “there are never any call outs for hams,” consider the panoply of MS Bike Rides across the country that regularly involve amateur radio operators in support.
Pro Tips
If you set up, tear down and move five times in a week, fussy antennas and gear are a no. Hard-to-program radios are a constant nuisance as we bring in and rotate team members. Logging matters. Lost riders are bad form. Zello does speech to text –it worked well. Focus on the mission. Wear the issued volunteer shirts and be kind to those asking random questions. How do you “shadow” a super fit bike ride marshal for 246 miles? Bits of first aid knowledge are very popular in a time of severe volunteer medic and EMS shortages. Be 100% self-sufficient–the race director is not your concierge. We brought batteries and solar: finding live AC power in parks and church parking lots takes time and effort. Don’t bore event leadership with radio details–it all just works. You cannot get good at this job by just watching videos–real world practice is the key. You will often be teamed with or work for non-hams; keep them informed and in the picture.– Erik Westgard, NY9D, Minnesota Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator [Editor’s note: see NY9D’s fascinating and educational QRZ bio entry.]
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| Opinion: Net Managers – Want to Recruit and Retain More Check-ins? Do This! |
| What’s the first thing a radio amateur wants to know when he/she gets on the air? Well, I know what my first interest is, whether in QSO or on a regional phone net – it’s how strong is my signal? I dare say that it is every ham’s first interest.
Pro Tip: For net managers eager to bolster their net’s roster of regular check-ins, have your net control stations (NCS) give a simple, two-character signal report when acknowledging checking-in stations. For example: Net Control of the North Florida ARES Net on 40 meters calls for check-ins. A station calls to check in, giving his/her call sign. Net Control acknowledges the station as follows: “K1CE, S7.” Thus, in a split second, not wasting any of the net’s time, the check-in knows that his signal strength is pretty good at the NCS end. (For FM repeater nets, the NCS could give the checking-in station a signal report as a degree of quieting: e.g., “N5CBP, 90%Q”).
Personal note: I check into my daily net Rota with just 5 or 10 watts RF output. It’s important, and significant in a disaster situation, to know that I can make it into the net on QRP. (Plus, it just plain satisfies the innate interest in all of us to know how strong our signal is!)
So, if you’re a net manager or net control station, and want to entice newcomers or recover previous members who might have lost interest in your net, give this simple, efficient signal report protocol a try! – Rick Palm, K1CE [Comments? Please send them to k1ce@arrl.net – thanks!]
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| K1CE for a Final: On Leadership |
| Thought of the Month for Emergency Coordinators: To lead people, walk beside them. As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. When the best leader’s work is done, the people say we did it ourselves! — Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher and writer
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| The Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES) consists of licensed amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment with their local ARES leadership, for communications duty in the public service when disaster strikes. Every licensed amateur, regardless of membership in ARRL or any other local or national organization is eligible to apply for membership in ARES. Training may be required or desired to participate fully in ARES. Please inquire at the local level for specific information. Because ARES is an amateur radio program, only licensed radio amateurs are eligible for membership. The possession of emergency-powered equipment is desirable, but is not a requirement for membership.
How to Get Involved in ARES: Fill out the ARES Registration form and submit it to your local Emergency Coordinator.
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| ARES® is a program of ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio®. No other organization works harder than ARRL to promote and protect amateur radio! ARRL members enjoy many benefits and services including digital magazines, e-newsletters, online learning (learn.arrl.org), and technical support. Membership also supports programs for radio clubs, on-air contests, Logbook of The World®, ARRL Field Day, and the all-volunteer ARRL Field Organization.
Join ARRL or renew today! www.arrl.org/join
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| The ARRL Letter is published on the third Wednesday of each month. ARRL members may subscribe at no cost or unsubscribe by editing their Member Data Page at www.arrl.org/opt-in-out.
Copyright © 2024 American Radio Relay League, Incorporated. Use and distribution of this publication, or any portion thereof, is permitted for non-commercial or educational purposes, with attribution. All other purposes require written permission.
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