Hurricane Sandy Spawns Lessons Learned for Connecticut ARES

Article posed from ARRL.org ARES E-Letter, December 19, 2012
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Hurricane Sandy Spawns Lessons Learned for Connecticut ARES



In last month's issue, Connecticut Section Manager Betsey Doane, K1EIC, reported on her section's comprehensive deployment for massive storm Sandy. This month, her Section Emergency Coordinator Wayne Gronlund, N1CLV, offers his perspective on lessons learned from the event:

The old adage that "a disaster is not the time to be exchanging business cards" was validated. In areas where strong relationships had been previously developed with our served agencies (Red Cross, Connecticut Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, and municipal governments), requests for Amateur Radio assistance in shelters and at EOCs were quickly and effectively handled at the local level. In those areas where ARES/SKYWARN officials exercised active/strong leadership and were proactive in offering and providing Amateur Radio support, there were a lot of useful and productive assignments available to our volunteers.

The five regional DECs and the SKYWARN DEC (or their designated representatives) participated in statewide SEC nets conducted every two hours. The SEC net gave me a good feel for where things were going well and where they were not. Section Manager Doane was an active participant and helped me to identify and address any issues in our response.

VHF/UHF frequencies (both repeater and simplex) provided the primary platform for our disaster response and emergency communications needs. During the widespread power outages, many of our repeater systems shifted to emergency power and continued to function. Repeater owners and control operators did an extraordinary job of keeping us on the air. The KB1AEV linked system in particular remained viable and provided coverage for approximately 80% of the state. Many of the facilities where we rendered assistance would not easily accommodate deployment of HF antennas.

Areas for Improvement

A significant number of our volunteers are affiliated with both ARES/SKYWARN and the Red Cross (and to some extent, other volunteer groups who provide disaster support). Depending on the nature of the incident, volunteers may choose to assist one of the other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) whom they support rather than ARES/SKYWARN. This "double counting" of resources creates a shortfall in the numbers of operators expected to be available to help.

Getting more ARES/SKYWARN leaders at all levels (ASEC/DEC/ADEC/EC/AEC) to exercise what we in the Coast Guard call "trained initiative" would improve our effectiveness when communications up/down the chain of command are difficult or not readily available. Those leadership officials with local situational awareness who know what needs to be done and how to get it done right without being told do so, could help to decentralize control and make the entire organization more responsive. Note: this is NOT suggesting self-deployment of ARES/SKYWARN members, but rather leadership being exercised at the lowest levels of the organization.

-- Wayne Gronlund, N1CLV, Connecticut Section Emergency Coordinator

Radios to Go!

I think this book may be of interest to the newest among us, and a refresher of ideas to those of us experienced.  Click on the title of the book below to order.


Handheld Radios are More Powerful Than You Think!

Radios to Go!
Getting the Most from Your Handheld Transceiver
by Steve Ford, WB8IMY

Modern technology has allowed manufacturers to pack a wealth of features into handheld transceivers. With so many features, however, it isn’t always easy to get the full benefit from your investment. Even the user manuals don’t tell the whole story. Your radio may have “hidden” capabilities that aren’t described in the manual at all. For example, did you know that a dual-band 2-meter/70 cm handheld transceiver can be used to communicate through Amateur Radio satellites? It’s true, but you usually won’t see this discussion in your average user manual.

If you own a handheld transceiver, or if you’re trying to decide which transceiver to buy, Radios to Go! is the essential guide. Helpful topics include:

• Why Are They Called HTs? (And Which One Should I Buy?) 
• The Care and Feeding of Batteries 
• Memories 
• Scanning 
• Alphabet Soup: CTCSS, DTMF and DCS 
• IRLP and EchoLink 
• Antennas 
• Microphones and Headsets 
• Software Management 
• Expanding Your Horizons: APRS and Satellites

VHF Society Swapmeet 2013

The Utah VHF Society has announced plans for the 2013 Business Meeting and Swap Meet, usually the largest swap meet in the state. It will be held, as usual, on the last Saturday in February.  In 2013 that will be February 23. The place, however, wil be new. Due to rising prices at the state fair park  the 2013 event will be at the Davis County Fairgrounds, 151  S 1100 West, in Farmington. Time is 9 A.M. Further details will be forthcoming.

The Utah VHF Society is a statewide organization that promotes the construction and maintenance of repeaters, particularly  those in lightly populated areas of the state where the ham population may be small enough to need  financial help to keep a repeater on the air.

Information posted from The Microvolt, December 2012, Utah Amateur Radio Club

Utah VHF Society Swapmeet
February 23, 2013 at 9am
Davis County Fairgrounds
151 S 1100 West
Farmington, UT

Training Comment for the SLC SE Division Net

Training for the November 29, 2012

Salt Lake City Southeast Division Emergency Preparedness Net

By T. Michael Smith (KM7TMS)

About two weeks ago our net control and others were invited to attend a Utah State Emergency Preparedness Office event. Some of you may have been invited. Not being able to attend, Susan asked me to go which I was interested in doing. The event was held in the old EOC room in the Capitol complex. It was worth going just to get to know the state level emergency preparedness operations a little better. However, our training was targeted to one important aspect of emergency management. It is a side of the response often overlooked. It is a side of the activity that is also very important. To introduce this topic, I’ll begin by setting it in a context of a typical CERT event, rather than just the state-level event our training was oriented toward.

Let’s begin by remembering the Southeast Division field exercise of Fall 2011. We met at Sugar House Park and drilled parts of the incident command structure and a CERT field response in preparation for the 2012 Shakeout Drill. We practiced setting up and staffing an Incident Command Post, designating an Incident Commander and a communications person, who received mock field reports and sent information to a Salt Lake City Emergency Management communicator. We briefly reviewed the Planning and Administrative units of Incident Command and established the Operations and Logistics units, which became the main elements of the drill.

You may recall that our SLC CERT Coordination Guide places communications in logistics. Also in logistics are the supplies and facilities management tasks and the team support tasks. Tonight, I want to focus on one aspect of the supplies and facilities management. It is the activity that was the subject of the state workshop I attended and something a field Command Post can encounter.

Imagine yourself as a CERT volunteer assigned to run the Logistics unit or even the front-line person working with supplies, when someone shows up asking if you would like to borrow some expensive piece of equipment, like a generator. What do you do?

Hopefully, you would have a conversation with the lender before you decided to proceed. As there is no easy Salt Lake City CERT-manual answer to this question and as circumstances can greatly affect what you might do, I’m not going to advance an answer right now. Rather, I’m going to tell you a little about the Donations Training I recently received from the Utah State Emergency Training personnel.

In the workshop, we were introduced to sophisticated software that some emergency operations centers are using to handle donations. I’ll not attempt to explain the details, but I’ll say it’s a lot more rigorous than a pad of lined paper at the typical CERT IC Post table such as we might set up in our drills. Indeed, the EM software tracks donations and provides data that those seeking supplies can access. Bottom line for the point I want to make here is that what is donated to the emergency response is rigorously tracked. The major point in the meeting was that in the event of a major emergency those operations centers that are big and deep enough to utilize this type of software are going to need trained volunteers, as in CERTS, who can create those supply records and help manage those donations. Now, not many of you valued hams may want to do this, but you might consider it. And, more importantly, you might pass on to your local CERT groups that in the event of an emergency we are going to need people in logistics who can deal with donations and loans.

By the way, the workshop was not really about tracking loans. In fact, in an emergency they say that trying to keep track of and route the donations is difficult. Furthermore, they said the best donations are cash donations. Of course, I don’t expect to see cash boxes at our little IC drill tables, but I do offer what the big operations are doing as a model. Keeping track of loaned equipment is difficult in the best of times and fraught with problems in the emergency situation. If you’re ever in that situation, you can decide what you want to do. Talking to the IC beforehand on loans and donations is wise. If I am the local Incident Commander or the logistics person and can persuade the owner to also volunteer to operate the equipment, then I’m probably a lot more interested than if he just wants to lend equipment I may not be able to track. If he wants to donate it I’m probably interested. I might just decide this is over my head and refer him to the state office or any other appropriate up-line people.

The State’s 2013 shakeout exercise will include a donations and supplies movement component. If you know of any CERTs who might be interested in participating in tracking donations in a drill environment, please have them contact Susan Thomas at the Division of Homeland Security. Because CERTs have some emergency training and a basic understanding of the Incident Command System, their assistance is being sought in dealing with the donations during emergencies. By the way, Utah was donating materials to Hurricane Sandy.

At this time, Salt Lake City does not plan to directly participate in the 2013 Shakeout drill but may have a Fall 2013 exercise. Of course, we in the Southeast Division may decide to have a drill during the week of the Shakeout.