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From: "ARRL" <memberlist@arrl.org>
Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.misc,rec.radio.info
Subject: The ARES Letter for May 29, 2024
Followup-To: rec.radio.amateur.misc
Date: Wed, 29 May 2024 22:11:07 EDT
Organization: American Radio Relay League
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Editor: Rick Palm, K1CE [ mailto:k1ce@arrl.net ] - May 29, 2024

ARESÂ® Letter Archive
http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/ares-el/

ARESÂ® Home
http://www.arrl.org/ares/

ARRL Home Page
http://www.arrl.org/

[https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/amateur/]


â-¢Storms and Tornadoes: Amateur Radio Ready 
â-¢ARES Supports New Hampshire Red Cross (ARC) Eclipse Standby Deployment 
â-¢Letters: QRP is the Way to Go 
â-¢Keystone 6 -- National Mass Care Exercise This Month 
â-¢K1CE for a Final: NTS and ARES - A Symbiotic and Historic Relationship Needed Again

ARES® Briefs, Links

The 2024 ARRL National Convention was conducted with the Dayton Hamvention®
May 17-19 in Xenia, Ohio. Attendees learned about how amateur radio is
relevant and highly involved in the modern emergency management landscape.
ARRL Director of Emergency Management Josh Johnston, KE5MHV, hosted an ARES®
booth, which was supported by ARES® leaders and members of the ARRL
Emergency Communications and Field Services Committee.

 
On May 17, Johnston and four representatives from the Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) conducted a forum "ARES®, SAFECOM®,
and Building Relationships" as part of the ARRL National Convention track.
CISA is the federal agency SAFECOM serves. Together, they led a discussion
about how amateur radio emergency communications groups can establish and
foster relationships with served agencies.


Johnston is ARRL's representative member of SAFECOM®. In 2023, ARRL was
elected to serve on SAFECOM [
https://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-elected-to-serve-on-safecom ] ®, a program of
the US Department of Homeland Security. SAFECOM supports the public safety
community to improve the emergency communications ecosystem. This
relationship gives ARRL a seat at the decision-making table for emergency
communications policy nationwide.

 
"Amateur radio operators are in a unique position to serve agencies of many
different types, but that relationship has to be well established long before
a crisis," said Johnston, who emphasized that local partnerships are just as
important as national-level relationships. ARES groups work with local,
state, and county governments, and non-government affiliated organizations,
including local offices of the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and
faith-based organizations.

 
ARRL has released two new courses [
https://learn.arrl.org/learning-paths/emergency-communications/ ] to train
emergency communications operators for volunteering within ARES®. Both
courses are published in the ARRL Learning Center. In 2023, the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) revised the Guide for National Emergency
Preparedness [
https://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-included-in-fema-guide-for-national-emergency-preparedness
] to specifically include amateur radio. ARRL and FEMA entered into a new
Memorandum of Understanding in May 2023 that outlined the importance of
trained radio amateurs within the response ecosystem.

 
The 2024 Boston Marathon is in the history books - Monday, April 15, 2024 was
the Patriots' Day state holiday in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and with
that holiday came the 128th running of the Boston Marathon. More than 280
amateur radio operators volunteered across the Start, Course, Finish, and
Transportation functions, and various operations centers -- including the
Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) State EOC Unified Command
Center (UCC) and the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) Race Operations Center
(ROC) -- in Boston, performing communications duties that included logistics
support as a primary function and backup support for medical and other public
safety requests for the race as needed. Amateur Radio operators were
supporting the BAA, Red Cross and other agencies during the event. This is
one of the largest public service events Amateur Radio supports in the US. -
Rob Macedo, KD1CY, ARRL District Emergency Coordinator, Eastern Massachusetts
Section

 .

Storms and Tornadoes: Amateur Radio Ready

Strong storms and at least 60 tornadoes wreaked havoc in the central US for
nearly 2 weeks last month. On May 1, 2024, President Joe Biden declared a
major disaster in Oklahoma. ARRL Iowa Section Manager Lelia Garner, WA0UIG,
reported that in the state, they have moved from response to recovery.
Currently, nine counties are under the Iowa State Individual Assistance Grant
Program and the Disaster Case Advocacy Program.

 
Garner said "Amateur radio has served our local agencies well. We recently
networked at a central Iowa hamfest and are building our emergency
communications capacity primarily through ARES®." "The opportunity to share
our experience and knowledge gained in the field has been critical to
supporting ARES® in Iowa," said Garner.

 
Garner added that awareness is the best tool. She stressed that amateur
operators and ARES® members work to help the National Weather Service and
other served agencies in order to make their work and the community safer.

 
ARRL Emergency Management Director Josh Johnston, KE5MHV, agrees that
everyone should stay vigilant in their awareness and preparations, even
during periods of less activity. "Make sure you are prepared at home and that
your family has a severe weather plan. This is extremely important if you
plan to be mobile or away from your home during a severe weather event. Your
safety is the most important thing if you plan to be active during severe
weather. Every ham who is interested in severe weather should take the
SKYWARN [ https://www.weather.gov/skywarn/ ] storm spotting class offered by
the National Weather Service," said Johnston.

 
He added that some of the most important aspects of preparation are
communication and building relationships. These activities, including drills
and exercises, need to be done during blue-sky days to ensure you will be
ready during days with severe weather. - The ARRL Letter


[https://cometantenna.com/amateur-radio/mobile-antennas/ma-dual-band/]


ARES Supports New Hampshire Red Cross (ARC) Eclipse Standby Deployment

This was a group effort, with input from ARRL Section staff, multiple ECs and
members, American Red Cross (ARC), Department of Emergency Services, State
Parks and Lands, and the state's interoperability coordinator. The mission we
took on was in support of the Red Cross. 

 
The Mission
Red Cross was asked by the state and towns to stage responders and vehicles
in Lancaster to deal with any mass casualty or sheltering needs in the
region. The premise behind our role in this operation was that cell service
would be clogged with calls, making it difficult for ARC teams to communicate
with their office and each other. The clogged network part turned out to be
real from about mid-day Monday until late in the evening. There is good cell
coverage in the region, but limited call capacity. ARES' role was to relay
deployment and logistics messages between the ARC office in Concord, and the
response teams staged in Lancaster if cell service wasn't available.

 
Planning and Prep
The planning team included Section Emergency Coordinator Al Shuman, K1AKS;
Section Manager Pete Stohrer, W1FEA, Emergency Coordinator Erik Rider,
KC1FZB, myself and others. Solid information was hard to come by in the
planning stage, partially because everyone involved faced so many variables,
such as how many day-trip visitors would make it to the north country, the
weather, crowd behavior, local capabilities, etc. Our plans needed to be
flexible. I made two recon trips in the weeks prior to the event to help firm
things up. The personal contacts and information that resulted were
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