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Radio Amateurs Comm Support in Boston Marathon Bombings

Story posted from ARRL.org
4/16/2013

As has happened many times in years past, over 200 Amateur Radio operators participated in communications for the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15, 2013. Unlike prior challenging situations such as very warm weather for the runners or other weather-related challenges, this year’s marathon will be remembered for the bombings that took place at the finish line. Despite this heinous act, professional first responders, medical volunteers from the American Red Cross that staffed the route, and Amateur Radio operators performed magnificently in the face of adversity.

“Within minutes, cell phone systems became overloaded and making phone calls and text messages was difficult. Amateur Radio operators performed communication duties under duress and performed admirably. No Amateur Radio volunteers were injured on the course in this terrible act,” said Steve Schwarm, W3EVE, who is the Amateur Radio Course Communication Coordinator and associated with a consortium of clubs and groups known as Marathon Amateur Radio Communications (MARC).

“At the finish line net control, which was only 400 feet from the initial blast, we heard the explosion. I poked my head outside to confirm what I thought it was and saw the white smoke. We immediately knew what had happened and commenced a roll call of all ham operators and medical tents.  State Police authorities initially ordered us to lock down and post a ham for security watch outside the net control trailer. Thankfully none of our people were hurt,” said Paul Topolski, W1SEX, Amateur Radio Finish Line Coordinator.

Following the explosion and roll call, Topolski stated that they began pulling together updates and sent the information via the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) Web-EOC software tool and provided updates via Amateur Radio. Shortly after sending a few updates both Boston Police and Massachusetts State Police gave the order for the tent area to be evacuated. “In my mind, the course end of things is where a lot of work needed to happen as runners eventually needed to be stopped, congregated and transported to safety and staging areas,” Topolski said. “At the finish line, our job was to check on the safety of our people, provide those initial updates and evacuate per police instructions. Three of our Amateur Radio operators redeployed to the Boston Marathon Course Net Control Center.”

Across the course outside of the finish line after the bombings occurred, first aid stations were consolidated to larger first aid stations to pool runners for pickup and to keep runners warm as there were enhanced tents along the route where runners could be kept warm and hydrated. At the Heartbreak Hill first aid station, amateur operators had a complete base station setup, including a computer, and were prepared to handle health and welfare traffic as required. Several shelters were set up along the route at churches and schools, and Amateur Radio operators from secured first aid stations went to those shelters, providing communications in those areas until runners were moved out of their locations.

“My role at the request of Steve, W3EVE, as event organizer before the race was to shadow the course medical tent coordinator for the Red Cross, Kandi Finch,” said Rob Macedo, KD1CY, who is also the Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator. “It was a challenging position but all organizers on both the Amateur Radio side and Red Cross side said things went well in coordinating during normal race conditions and particularly after the bombings.”

At course net control, which was away from the bombings, ham operators controlled their nets calmly and professionally while also expressing an appropriate level of urgency. Over a dozen amateurs at the net control center pooled together to announce messages and keep status of changes along the course route as required.

Net Control Center Coordinator, Karen Brothers, K1KEB, kept in constant contact with MEMA, where Terry Stader, KA8SCP, was stationed. Stader became the MEMA ‘Ops’ point person at the State Emergency Operations Center as runners were transported from the shelters to other staging locations. From his location at the EOC, Stader was able to sort out the sheltering plan and reception centers for the runners, subsequent transport of runners from shelter locations and give out information on MBTA bus and train operations.

Jim Palmer, KB1KQW -- who served as a net control at the Net Control Center -- stated that nets were doubled up on operators, to allow one person to operate the radio while the other listened and logged priority calls and ambulance requests, creating a more efficient operation. “Several ambulance requests for dehydration and exhaustion were handled due to the runners needing to be stopped,” Palmer said. The specific net that Palmer ran also provided a link between the marathon course and the American Red Cross in its Cambridge facility. Lou Harris, N1UEC; Frank O’Laughlin, WQ1O, and Dan Howard, K1DYO, staffed the Red Cross in Cambridge.

Many amateur operators who volunteered along the marathon route praised Net Control’s support after the bombing. “Net Control did an awesome job,” said course volunteer David Wihl, KB1VEG. “The workload was busiest after seven hours on the radio, and it didn’t let up for another couple hours.”

Several young radio amateurs from the Clay Center Amateur Radio Club also supported Net Control Operations, both as direct net control operators and runners for the operation as they have done in the past. This provided a tremendous learning opportunity for these young operators, from both an Amateur Radio perspective and an overall learning perspective.

“Despite the total lack of warning in this situation, amateurs followed a creed I’ve long since preached since the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the mutual aid response to those attacks: ‘blessed are the flexible for they will not get bent out of shape,’” said Steve Schwarm, W3EVE. “Amateurs on the course did what they had to do to assure their own safety and runner safety working with the Red Cross medical people. They did an outstanding job and I was told so by Red Cross organizers as well.”

From an ARES perspective, a heightened state of awareness on the Boston Marathon event is typical, but within 15 minutes of the bombings, Eastern Massachusetts ARES Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator, Carl Aveni, N1FY, issued an ARES Stand-By and requested that amateurs give availability for the next 24 hours. Within minutes, 20 amateurs offered their availability.

The ARES sub-regional command center at the Acushnet, Massachusetts EOC (under call sign WA1EMA) was utilized as a control point to obtain critical situational awareness of the rapidly changing situation, as well as to monitor resource nets per a report filed by Acushnet Emergency Management Communications Officer Ed Caron, KA1RSY; he also serves as the South Shore Massachusetts ARES District Emergency Coordinator. A total of five Amateur Radio operators were deployed to this facility. An ARES resource net was called on the 147.18 Bridgewater repeater with Byron Piette, K1YCQ, as net control with 11 stations checking into the net.

“In terms of having amateurs within ARES who cannot get directly involved in the marathon, we have a process where we have them monitor in case of a situation like what occurred on Monday. That process paid off and facilitated a rapid response to our request for possible additional support,” said Carl Aveni, N1FY.

Some radio amateurs who volunteered in the Boston Marathon have posted their stories online; read one such story is from Tim Carter, W3ATB, of Meredith, New Hampshire.

WORLD AMATEUR RADIO DAY

Each year on 18 April, radio amateurs celebrate World Amateur Radio Day. On that day in 1925 the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) was founded.

Amateur radio has truly entered the 21st Century. In less than 100 years amateur radio communications has evolved from crude spark-gap technology to digital signal processing and software-defined radios. The amateur's HF choice between voice and CW has been expanded to a broad range of communication choices from television to spread spectrum.

Amateur digital communications has evolved. At the end of World War II until the early 1980's, radioteletype, also known as RTTY, was the only HF digital mode available to amateurs. In the 1980's, AMTOR made its debut along with the increased popularity and availability of personal computers. AMTOR was the first amateur digital communication mode to offer error-free text transmission.

From the early 1980's, the rate of change increased dramatically. Packet Radio emerged and for a period of time was the most popular form of amateur digital communication. As microprocessor technology became more sophisticated, there was a rise in modes such as Clover, PACTOR, and G-TOR that were capable of error-free exchanges under marginal band conditions. In the late 1990's, there was an invention that harnessed personal computer technology to create PSK31.

In the VHF-UHF frequency ranges, Packet Radio had less activity at the close of the century than it did in the 1980's and 1990's. However, Packet Radio was reborn as the popular Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) and traditional packet systems still exist to support public service activities with greatly enhanced functionality.

Thanks to individual amateurs, hams now enjoy digital meteor scatter contacts and even moonbounce on VHF and UHF frequencies with modest stations. An ordinary computer sound device and software that can be downloaded free from the internet is all that is needed.

The Japan Amateur Radio League developed the D-STAR digital voice and data standard and there has been significant amateur growth as amateurs establish D-STAR repeater networks on the VHF, UHF and microwave bands.

All of these development have inspired amateurs around the world to experiment in their own HF, VHF, UHF and microwave band digital communication.

Activities on the occasion of World Amateur Radio Day  can be a great opportunity to spread the word about what the "hams" are doing in the 21st Century.

Training Comment for the SLC SE Division Net

Training for the April 3. 2013

Salt Lake City Southeast Division Emergency Preparedness Net

By T. Michael Smith (KM7TMS)

This is KM7TMS with tonight’s Training Comment.  About this time last year we were involved in Utah’s first ever Shake-out drill.  It was an exciting event despite the reduced monies that ended up available.  I know some of you participated as I did, and your presence helped make the event memorable.

This year we are all again invited to join thousands of people who will Drop, Cover, and Hold On at 10:15 a.m. on April 17th* in the 2013 Great Utah Shake Out!  I hope you have signed up to participate.  As of early evening there were 760,000 participants signed up for this basic drill.

Of course, this simple general public drop cover and hold on drill is directed to give us all the fundamental practice on what should be our initial response to an earthquake.  However, it is not all that is happening.  Like last time most of what happens will be outside of our court.  Various other agencies and organizations are doing various things.  For instance, my training comment for last November included a mention of how the Utah Preparedness folks stationed at the state capital were looking for volunteers who would want to learn the software utilized in tracking various donations given for sizable emergency events.  They intended to include such a record keeping aspect to their 2013 ShakeOut drill.

As public moneys are tight these days, not a lot is being spent.  Salt Lake City is apparently planning nothing, other than encouraging participation in the basic drill and organizations to do what else they may want to do.  This accents the ongoing importance of volunteer organizations like this net and the local CERT teams in our neighborhoods.  That is, when the agency first responders are busy it will basically be up to the local neighborhoods to tend to themselves until help arrives.

Living in the real world with limited resources and abilities, we should take this occasion to ask ourselves this question: are we better prepared than we were last year for a big quake.   I think I can say yes to that question -- in most aspects.  Susan and I have more supplies and equipment than a year ago.  But more importantly, because we have continued in our various preparation activities, we are more experienced, knowledgeable, and better networked than we were a year ago.  I hope all of you can say the same.

Beyond the personal situation we can ask ourselves if we have stronger, better prepared community groups than we had a year ago.   Many of us can say yes, and I will point to two examples of this.  For instance, the recent Southeast Division’s meeting on MESH technology held over at the Foothill Stake Center was surprisingly well attended.  Similarly, this not easy, but promising powerful new technology continues to generate interest around the wider valley, state and in other states.  In that same progressive manner, the CERT classes have continued to produce new CERTS and refreshed CERTS.  There is still much that needs doing in the CERT program, but there are now more of us in our communities.

Those found in the emergencies will best benefit from the preparedness we promote, and that promoting maybe the most important thing we can do.  Preparedness quickly becomes a shared activity, and good preparedness is a community endeavor.

With those important promoting and sharing thoughts I will conclude tonight’s Southeast Division Training Comment.  This is KM7TMS thanking you all for our attention and returning the mic back to net control.