Emergency-Communications

Chuck Motes, K1DFS, writes:

A big Thank You to all those in Connecticut who participated in the annual Section Emergency Test (S.E.T.) this year.  It took place during the first weekend of the month.

Members of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES) CT and NTS CT were active on their respective nets, and a large number of messages were sent and received.  Of particular note was the use of the ICS-213 Form, which is the heart of municipal, state and federal communications messages.  A lot of us picked up very successfully on that form.  Also in use (for the MARS COMEX) was a report called the SWEAT.  It’s the report the feds (military) use to assess conditions and emergencies nationwide.  It’s short, it’s quick and it’s fast.  Hams in Connecticut made extensive use of the report.

These reports were sent via voice, via digital on HF and VHF and via Winlink radio and internet.  One set of these reports numbering 52 in total was relayed to MARS via 60 meters in one burst using MT-63 digital.  This was a month-long opportunity for hams to contact MARS stations directly, and is authorized through the end of October.

The MARS COMEX (Army and Air Force) was terminated normally on 23 October.

Thanks to all — hams, ARES, NTS, especially the Section Emergency Coordinator, the District Emergency Coordinators and the NTS officials–everyone who participated in the S.E.T. and in the COMEX.  Call it a resounding success.

73 to all, and have a great Halloween!

——————————————————————–
ARRL Connecticut Section
Section Manager: Charles I Motes Jr, K1DFS
k1dfs@arrl.org
——————————————————————–

From the ARRL Letter, October 21, 2020:

The Nationwide Red Cross Emergency Communications Fall Drill is a joint exercise with the Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES) set for November 14, an evolution of the highly successful Spring Drill that had hundreds of participants from some 40 states and Puerto Rico.

The Fall Drill will be a Winlink-specific event with the following goals: (1) pass traditional Red Cross (ARC) forms from as many states and as many radio amateurs as possible to one of six Divisional Clearinghouses, and (2) bring as many radio operators as possible up to a “basic” level of Winlink proficiency. [To prepare, there is a twelve-week series of Winlink Workshops held each Thursday at 0100Z on Zoom. Join the SEC-ARES group for announcements and discussions. Include your name and call sign when registering on SEC-ARES.]

Winlink Proficiency Goals have been written, a Winlink Technical Support Team has been formed, and Metrics for Drill Success have been developed. The proficiency goals are established as a training guideline and references online training resources. Many hams new to Winlink should find these resources helpful.

Over 300 radio amateurs have signed up for the event and more than a hundred were on a Briefing Call on October 5. There will be one other Briefing Call, in early November. This event is open to all radio amateurs; if interested in more information, contact Mike Walters, W8ZY, for ARES-related questions or Wayne Robertson, K4WK, for Red Cross-related topics.

A simulated emergency test will be conducted in Maine on Saturday October 24th from 8 AM until 1 PM. The goal of this exercise will be to relay, send and receive messages over voice and/ or digital means from and to various county Emergency Management Agencies (EMAs) and Maine Emergency Management Agency (MEMA). It will be a simulated weather emergency whereby the internet has gone down and repeaters have failed, therefore more focus will be placed on simplex communication (VHF/HF).

If you are interested in participating, please reach out to your local ARES/RACES team for more information.  –Maine Telegraph Newsletter, October, 2020

Tom Kinahan, N1CPE, writes:

For almost the whole month of October, (now through October 26) the Department of Defense is conducting a series of exercises that will train the connection of MARS members to the Amateur Radio Service.

There are opportunities for hams to participate in this exercise.

1) Every day at noon local time, there will be a net on 60 meters channel 1 (5.3305 MHz USB) to have checkins from hams. The NCS will ask for your callsign, city and state. As the month moves on, there may be other unplanned requests.

2) Familiarize yourself with the METAR which is transmitted on VHF AM from all major and some less major airports as weather information for pilots. See if you can transcribe the weather information. They speak fast, and usually in mumbles. This is valuable information to the DoD in times of communication outage. Contact me for additional details.

3) There will be ICS-213 messages originating in MARS for certain ARRL and other local ham radio leaders refiled into the NTS system for delivery. NTS nets may carry these messages. Be ready to copy these messages and deliver them, by checking in to your local NTS net.

If you have any questions, please let me know!

Mike Walters, W8ZY, writes on announce@ct-ares.groups.io:

CT ARES SET 2020

Inject 1

Saturday October 03, 2020  09:00 Local

***THIS IS A DRILL***THIS IS A DRILL***THIS IS A DRILL***

OPERATION “Storm Zebra”

The National Weather Service, The Red Cross and The Department of Defense have asked the amateur community to mobilize and gather data on local conditions. At this time all local nets should activate and establish a NCS. Each net should note the number of stations on the net and if those stations are emergency power capable.

Each net is asked to designate at least one station capable of sending messages by Winlink. The more stations capable of Winlink the better.

Stand by for information requests.

Mike Walters, W8ZY

CT ARES SEC

***THIS IS A DRILL***THIS IS A DRILL***THIS IS A DRILL***

Winlink Global Email is catching on in New Hampshire, according to Jay Taft, K1EHZ.

“We encourage more NH ARES members to become engaged so every ARES group has Winlink capability. Here’s how:

• If you have the equipment for FLdigi you have the equipment for Winlink.

• Contact Jay Taft K1EHZ at k1ehz@arrl.net for assistance getting started.
  • Individual coaching over the phone to download, install and configure free software.
  • Zoom coaching sessions for small groups.
  • On-air message practice using Winlink gateways and peer-to-peer connections.

• Download programs and training material.
  • Winlink Express   https://downloads.winlink.org/User%20Programs/Winlink_Express_install_1-5-32-0.zip
  • SoundModem   http://uz7.ho.ua/modem_beta/soundmodem105.zip
  • “Getting Started with Winlink” Training Modules   http://gmares.org/?page_id=26

• Participate in the ARES Academy – Winlink Workshop – October 17th, 0900-1100.

• Join the Wednesday Winlink Net on the radio or over the internet.

• Establish a local Winlink internet gateway, or a digital repeater to the Bedford gateway.
  • Some equipment is available for long-term loan.

Sean McGrath, W1SMM, writes in the “RI ARES” Facebook group:

Thank you to all who participated in tonight’s RI ARES Simplex Net. It was a first for me operating a Simplex Net Control Station, Air Mobile.

In the plane was myself, W1SMM as W1RIA NCS, W1PJS Paul working NetLogger and KC1AQQ Stephen paper logging by county/town.

The plane is a Cirrus SR22 flown at 1500 feet MSL around 115-120 knots. The radio was a handheld Anytone 878 w/bluetooth to the aircraft headset.

I have an audio recording from my home QTH in Cumberland I will upload when I figure out how 🙂

These are the check-ins we have recorded. If there are any stations missing or any errors please let me know and I will fix the logs.
W1SMM W1PJS KC1AQQ WA1RHS K1DOC N1ZO KB1YHF W1YTF AA1PQ KC1MZA KC1EPX KC1KWB KC1NMD KA1KML K1BCM N1GKE KC1KMJ K1JST K1EWG N1JMA WX1X K1DAB KA1BNO WA1VIN KB1UZD KC1NEU KC1NEK K1NPT KB1USF KB1EKN

ASEC Frank O’Laughlin, WQ1O, writes on Facebook:

Cape and Islands conducted its annual summer field communications exercise on Saturday, August 8, 2020. Exercise #68 “Operation Windbreaker” had three primary field sites, several individual field ops and several home stations. The main sites were: outside the Sandwich Human Services Building, outside of Falmouth Hospital, and in Eastham near Larry, K1LRJ, home area.

VHF signals were excellent. The HF voice operation went quite well with our Cape/Islands stations as well as the off-Cape stations that hosted a 75-meter net over 75 miles away in another part of MA. Digital modes on HF had mixed results due to some glitches, but a couple of stations did well.

In Sandwich we had a crew of five including a couple of our new folks, Jermy, KC1NGL, from Sandwich Fire; Dennis, N1RDN, from Sandwich CERT; and Jason, KC1MLQ, from Yarmouth. Our 440 MHz simplex backchannel (was diplexed off our main dual band antenna to two radios) with the Falmouth field site worked even better than expected.

My thanks to all of our people who participated and special thanks to those off Cape stations that conducted the net, as well as stations that contacted us from various locations.