? ARES?
Briefs, Links In The ARES Letter for November 15, 2023,
the Winter Field Day dates are incorrectly listed as January 23-24, 2024.
They are actually January 27-28, 2024. - Thanks, Jesse
Brumm, AJ7F
FEMA released its , highlighting the state of the nation's
preparedness at all levels of government while examining the risks the
nation faces and the capabilities available to address them. With the cost and
frequency of disasters increasing markedly over previous decades,
emergency managers must continue to adapt, forge new partnerships, and anticipate
challenges to help individuals and communities. Climate change continues
to increase the frequency and severity of weather, which compounds the
challenges that emergency managers face in addressing an increasingly complex
risk environment. The report highlights how to adapt and forge new
partnerships to face those challenges and achieve a more prepared nation. This
year's report provides a data-driven picture of national preparedness and
emergency management trends with focused discussions on four core
capabilities: - Fire Management and Suppression.
- Logistics and Supply Chain
Management.
- Public Health, Healthcare, and Emergency Medical Services.
- Long-Term Vulnerability Reduction.
This year's report provides
concrete recommendations that partners and stakeholders across the whole
community can take to increase the nation's resilience. Successful ShakeOut 2023 Exercise
and Winlink DYFI Reports The ShakeOut 2023
exercise was an extremely successful demonstration of worldwide amateur radio,
CISA SHARES, and Air Force MARS operators providing "ground truth" reports to
USGS during a simulated earthquake. Over 1,500 reports were submitted
through the Winlink system using the "Did You Feel It" (DYFI) form developed by
the Winlink team in cooperation with the United States Geological Survey
(USGS.) Reports were received from the US, several European countries,
Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand. The reports were sent directly to USGS
and distributed to several other agencies including South Carolina
Emergency Management Agency, which generated maps and reports for FEMA. The DYFI reports were processed by the Winlink Express program,
which has built-in capabilities for analyzing and mapping many types of
reports. The reports were displayed on a map generated by Winlink Express with
markers indicating the severity of the earthquake. Winlink Express also wrote real-time updates to a comma separated value (CSV)
file which was used by ArcGIS? and other third-party GIS
programs to generate additional maps, charts, and reports. The locations of reports shown on Winlink Express maps and passed to
third-party GIS programs were very accurate. To achieve maximum accuracy, Winlink
Express uses a hierarchy of methods for determining the
position: - The user explicitly specified latitude and longitude (not a default
value)
- GPS position from form or message header (inserted automatically by
Winlink Express)
- Google street address lookup to determine latitude and
longitude
- If no user-specified or GPS location, and the street address is not
valid (for example, street address but no city or state), then user's grid
square.
Using the grid square is less accurate
than GPS or address lookup, but it shows the neighborhood where the report
was submitted, rather than discarding the report due to lack of location. Some additional checks were applied to reported
positions. If a user-specified location was provided by someone with a North
American call sign (US, Canada, Mexico), and the longitude was positive indicating
Eastern Hemisphere, an address lookup was used in preference to the
submitted position, because there was a high likelihood that the user got the
sign of the longitude wrong. This procedure corrected the location of
approximately a dozen reports. An analysis was done of the
positions determined by the hierarchical processing to see how closely they
compared to the street address location. This is a summary of the distance
between positions derived by Winlink Express and the reported street
address: Distance ¡Ü 33 feet: 93.70% Distance ¡Ü 50 feet: 95.19% Distance ¡Ü
100 feet: 96.32% Distance ¡Ü 200 feet: 97.95% Distance ¡Ü 500 feet: 98.66% In
93.7% of the cases, the position was within 33 feet (10 meters) of the
street address, and 98% of the time the difference was within 200 feet. The location difference does not imply an error: The GPS
position may be 50 feet from the street address location, but the GPS position
may give a more precise location of the sender. A difference of 50 feet
could be due to which room in a house the report was submitted from. Some participants may have experienced the earthquake while away
from home, but specified their home address on the report. In conclusion, the ShakeOut 2023 exercise was a huge success. Several
goals were accomplished: - Many ham operators were motivated to submit
DYFI reports, and there was exceptional cooperation between amateur radio
organizations worldwide, CISA SHARES, Air Force MARS, state agencies, and
FEMA.
- Hams learned about the DYFI form and practiced using it.
- The
procedure for submitting reports via Winlink was successful using both Winlink
Express and third-party Winlink client programs such as RadioMail and
PAT.
- The processing and mapping of reports by Winlink Express and 3rd party
GIS programs worked well as it has for previous FEMA and state-driven
exercises.
- The hierarchical processing done by Winlink Express to derive the
most precise location was successful. GPS positions gave greater accuracy
than street address lookup, and several user entry errors were corrected
automatically.
- The ability of hams to submit timely ground truth
information was demonstrated and noted by FEMA and state agencies.
- During an
actual earthquake where the infrastructure is damaged, the ability to submit
DYFI reports via Winlink using HF radio will be essential.
The Winlink Development Team is grateful for the cooperative effort
of USGS, CISA SHARES, Air Force MARS, FEMA, their stakeholders, ARRL and
the many other amateur radio organizations for the roles they played to make
this exercise successful. An AAR will be forthcoming. -- Winlink
Development Team (WDT) SCARES Members Receive Awards for Tunnel 5 Fire Response As previously reported in the ,
Skamania County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (SCARES) was activated for 4
intense days in July 2023 during the Tunnel 5 Fire along the Columbia River
in Washington. Members augmented the EOC staff and also provided lifeline
communications to a small isolated community west of Underwood, Washington,
when landline phone lines were not operational. Eight SCARES members donated
their knowledge, skills, and abilities for a total of 189.2 hours. On December 5, 2023, SCARES and those eight participants were
honored with awards from ARRL Western Washington (WWA) Section Manager
Monte Simpson, W7FF. These were presented by WWAAS EC Mike Montfort, KB0SVF,
with the assistance of the DEC for Washington District 4, Michael Barnhart,
AE7GQ. Both Skamania County Sheriff Summer Scheyer and Undersheriff Tracy
Wyckoff attended the presentations to honor the recipients. Sheriff Scheyer said "The incredible, selfless efforts made by our ARES
members provides a valued service to our community and to our Sheriff's
Office. As both a community member and Sheriff of Skamania County, I am
forever grateful for those who have donated their time to provide such an
integral service." The inscription on the plaque to the group
reads "The Western Washington Section commends the exemplary performance
of Skamania County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) for providing
emergency communications to the Skamania County Sheriff's Office and the people
of Skamania County during the Tunnel 5 fire July 2023. The actions of this
team reflect highly upon the Amateur Radio Service, the Western Washington
Section and ARES." In addition, each participating member received a
mounted Emergency Communications Commendation certificate from the ARRL. Recognition of outstanding efforts is a key tool in helping
EmComm leaders retain their valued volunteers. -- Steve Aberle, WA7PTM,
Assistant Director, ARRL Northwestern Division Letters: Wilderness Heart Attack Emergency Handled
by Winlink A while ago my ham radio friend and I
went camping along the Jemez River, New Mexico, in one of the many Jemez
Campgrounds. It was a perfect place for ham radio operators to be, as there is
absolutely no cell phone access there at all. There was no FM repeater
reachable from that area either, which was fine by us. We busied ourselves
with FT8 and FT4 as well as phone operation. We sent several Winlink messages
earlier in the day utilizing stations in Wickenburg, Arizona and
Framingham, Utah. We sent SMS text messages to our grandchildren, as they don't like
email. As the evening wore on, my friend started having
symptoms of a heart attack. He was familiar with the symptoms, as he had
several stents and previous heart problems. We needed an ambulance, but
there was no cell service, and it was miles to another phone. It was late at
night and, being unfamiliar with the area, we were at a loss as to the best
way to proceed. I knew that Winlink has the ability to
send SMS text messages, and my son was on call that week so he would answer
a text message. I composed a message giving my location, including the GPS
coordinates and the urgency of the situation. I sent the message via
Winlink VARA HF to a station in Wickenburg. I waited for what seemed to be an
eternity (in reality, only 10 minutes) and checked for a response. He had
replied with a message that he had contacted the state police -- they would
take care of the situation. In approximately 20 minutes, an ambulance arrived
and my friend was on his way to the hospital. He is alive and well today. Being a Technician licensee is a wonderful start to the
world of emergency communication, but when real emergencies occur, having
General- or Extra-class privileges and an HF radio is even better. --
John Mocho, KC5QOC, Albuquerque, New Mexico (with thanks to Jay
Miller, W5WHN) Neighborhood Radio Watch: Ideas The purpose of a Neighborhood Radio Watch (NRW) program is to promote safety and cohesiveness of
the neighborhoods of our community by using radios to communicate. When
normal communications are lost, radio comms can save lives, or at least,
reduce fears. When times are tough, the ability to communicate with others can
be calming. In normal times, scheduled radio nets for the purpose of radio
training and practice can help neighbors get to know one another. That tends
to make life better for those involved. For neighborhood communications,
CB,
(GMRS) and (FRS) radios are
options. We've tested out CB. I have a 4 W mobile CB
radio used as a base (a President Walker III) and an Antron 99 antenna up
about 18 feet. The other rig was a Midland 75-822 with an MXTA26
antenna. In spite of the excellent antennas, CB contact dropped off after about 2
miles. I did hear a friend once at about 2.5 miles, but he was so far down
in the mud that he could have been a genuine mud duck. I had to open the
squelch all the way, and still his voice could not have been more faint. GMRS proved to be better. My base station is a Midland
MXT400 (40 watts) with an N9TAX Labs Slim Jim up in a tree about 20
feet off the ground, fed by LMR-400 coax. The other rig is a Midland MXT115
(15 watts) with a tiny 7" mag mount on the hood of my Jeep. We communicated
on channel 16, using maximum power. Coverage was about 3 miles, maximum. A
better antenna on the MXT115 would more than likely mean better coverage.
Plus, FM gives a good signal until it starts to die. First it starts to
crackle, but still remains copyable, then nothing. We'll be
testing 5-watt Radioddity GM-30 handhelds as soon as they come in.
For most neighborhoods, 1 mile of coverage would do it. We're hoping these
handhelds can do the trick for us, even with just the rubber duck. At $35,
that's a pretty good price point. The FRS radios we've
tried are good for about half a mile. Since GMRS and FRS can talk on the
same frequencies, FRS can be a decent option for those who don't want to
spend the $35 to get a GMRS license. -- Reid Tillery, K9RFT, Alachua County (Florida)
ARES Radio Room Dedicated to
Veteran Emergency Coordinator Oregon City,
Oregon - The newly established Emergency Communication radio room was named
in honor of long-serving Emergency Coordinator for Clackamas County, David
Kidd, KA7OZO. In a ceremony held on November 21, the
emergency communications radio room in Clackamas County's Disaster Management
offices on the Red Soils Campus was named in honor of Kidd, a longtime
amateur radio volunteer who stepped down as the county Emergency Coordinator
for radio amateurs in May, after 20 years of service in the position. Kidd became the Emergency Coordinator for the
(CARES) in 2002. Under Kidd's leadership, CARES formally signed a memorandum
of understanding with Clackamas County Disaster Management (then Emergency
Management) in 2005, putting in place a strong working relationship between
dedicated amateur radio volunteers and county disaster management. Steve Jensen, Kidd's successor as Emergency Coordinator,
said, "David built CARES from just a few people to one that has strong
cooperation with Clackamas County, city subunits, and a large, active, trained and
committed membership." Jamie Poole, Interim Deputy
Disaster Manager for Clackamas County, announced at Kidd's retirement that the
newly established radio room for the county would be named in honor of
Kidd and his service to the county. CARES is a group of
licensed amateur radio volunteers in Clackamas County who provide critical
communication links during disasters and major events. CARES works closely
with Disaster Management in the county. -- Jeremy Tanzer, KI7BDP, Assistant Emergency
Coordinator, Oregon City; Assistant Emergency Coordinator, Training, Clackamas Amateur
Radio Emergency Service (CARES) K1CE for a Final: "ASAP" - Short Feed Lines
Feedback The following are two responses I received on last
month's item on keeping feed lines as short as possible: Changing from 40 feet of RG-58 to RG-8 or -213 should not have made that
much of a difference. Assuming these are HF dipoles and not a VHF or UHF
antenna, the difference in loss should only be about 1.2 dB/100 feet, which
is only a change of about 1/2 dB from removing 40 feet. (See the graph of
loss vs. frequency for various cables in The ARRL Antenna
Book). If you had a change of "epic proportions," then the RG-58 run (or the
connectors) was seriously defective. I'd take a close look and test that old
feed line! -- 73, Ward Silver, N0AX I am the
EC for Jones County, Iowa, and as such, I read the ARES Letter on
a regular basis. Of particular interest to me was your "final" comments
about keeping your antenna feed lines short. My comments: - I was
surprised that you had been using RG-58 to your HF dipole. Just changing to either
RG-213 or LMR-400 would have automatically increased your received signal
levels, especially on 20 meters and up, and given you a bit more
output.
- Moving antennas closer to the shack (house) can have the unintended effect
of coupling more noise into your dipole from electronic devices in the
house or radiated power line noise from the house wiring. You can also end up
with your RF output coupling into devices in the house and causing RFI that
was not noticeable before. That is an effect that too many hams with
"postage stamp" lots get dragged into, especially when they have antennas
(anything from simple dipoles to tri-band beams) located adjacent to or above the
house.
In my installation, which is on acreage,
all HF antennas are located at least 50 feet away from the shack, with my
main HF antennas fed through about 250 feet of LMR-400 to their support
tower that is a bit over 200 feet from the shack. The main HF wire antenna is a
160-meter OCF and it works very well on several HF bands with just 100
watts applied. (I do have a Collins 30L-1 amp to increase the power to 500
watts when necessary.) I realize that all too many hams do not have the luxury
of having that much space to allocate for antennas, but they do need to
consider the consequences of trying too hard to pack too much into too little
space. Note: I lived on a "postage stamp" lot until I moved to Iowa in
2000. Rick, I am a retired EMC engineer who has had the
opportunity to review and contribute to both editions of the Bonding and
Grounding for the Radio Amateur book by Ward Silver, N0AX. I have
three towers, the tallest of which is 77 feet and which has taken two direct
lightning hits. I have had several antennas blown apart and RF relays on the
tower with welded contacts, but zero damage to anything in the house or
shack because I applied the principles covered in the book. Keep up the great work on EmComms and how various groups handle their
emergencies and simulated event tests. Thank you. -- Dale Sventanoff,
WA9ENA
ARES? Resources 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 and submit it to your local
Emergency Coordinator. Support ARES: Join ARRL ARES is a program of ? . 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 (), 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! The ARES Letter is free of charge to
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Mike KK7MA
