ARES

The Ohio SET – Win or Lose? On this writing we’re only days past the Ohio Simulated Emergency Test (SET) so I don’t have a great deal of solid numbers yet. Before it started Major applause is due Matt Curtin, KD8TTE, who spent literally months creating a major exercise that affected not only amateur radio but several major agencies as well. In fact, the Director of FEMA was briefed on the event, and congratulatory messages from the government’s IPAWS (Integrated Public Alert and Warning System… or, “Lookout here come the nukes!”) organization were received. Matt’s approach was to play us as we would when a real emergency blossomed – keeping everyone including me in the dark, except to know that we were to activate for the weekend. Here’s a view of those who registered:  Sponsor: 4th Civil Support and Sustainment Brigade (OHMR)  Participants:  FEMA Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) R&D  DHS SHARES  US Coast Guard Auxiliary  121st Air Refueling Wing (Ohio Air National Guard)  179th Airlift Wing (Ohio Air National Guard)  Ohio Emergency Management Agency AUXCOM  National Traffic System (NTS), Ohio Section, American Radio Relay League (ARRL)  Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES), Ohio Section, ARRL  Affiliates of Radio Relay International  Brian F. Griffin, MD, DAAPM  Buckeye Net  Central Ohio Poison Center  Central Ohio Traffic Net  Clinton County ARES  Columbiana County Ohio EMA AUXCOM  Coshocton County ARES  Cuyahoga County ARES  Delaware County ARES  Eastern Ohio Amateur Wireless Association (Belmont County)  Fairfield County ARES  Franklin County Ohio Amateur Radio Emergency Service  Franklin County Emergency Management & Homeland Security AUXCOM  Greene County ARES  Guernsey County ARES  Hamilton County ARES  Jefferson County Ohio ARES  Lake County ARES  Licking Co. ARES  Lorain County ARES  Mahoning County ARES  Marietta Memorial Hospital AUXCOM  Medina County ARES  Montgomery County ARES  Noble County ARC  Northwest Ohio ARES Traffic Net  Ohio Digital Emergency Net  Ohio Single Sideband Net  Preble County ARES  REACT International  Salvation Army SATERN West Mi. N Indiana  Seneca County ARES  Tri-County Traffic Training Net  Warren County Amateur Radio Emergency Service  Washington County ARES  Wayne County ARES  Wood County West Virginia ARES  Wyandot Area Ham Operators Organization That’s a pretty good array of emergency communicators! My sincere thanks to all, registered or not! The goal We had one thing in mind this year: getting back to basics and that involves sending messages. Being able to handle formal traffic has not been an emphasis of ARES, somehow we figured we would just be able to walk into a situation and slay the giant. Well, it doesn’t work that way and it was way past time to study up and get to the next level of performance. In addition, we wanted to practice ‘real world’ alerting and activation. We could not deploy, of course, so Matt worked up a series of video conferences in Google Meet which would put the ham operator in ‘face to face’ communication with the agency person. The scenario There were at least three major medical scenarios spread across the state, and message traffic was being conducted from the scenes to hospitals and medical advisors elsewhere. In order to create the situation and be there for ham operators, a group of leading physicians developed the scenarios, and took hours to create the video meets involved. The play Some went exceedingly well. Some were more on the dismal side. A lot of that had to do with counties that either weren’t alerted or weren’t brought into play. That happened to about three counties. Others were busy, a few were not. It was spotty. There were some delays in handling the traffic. On the good side, a lot of messages did get passed, and in particular Buckeye Net, and it’s stellar design to join the flexibility of voice net checkins with digital net movement of traffic, shone beyond expectations. Steve Judd, WB8YLO, spent four years designing the system and this first field test worked very well. “Going the extra mile” kudos go to District 10 EC Mat Nickoson, KC8NZJ, who worked into the wee hours Saturday night to create specific additional injects for the Northeast Ohio gang. The result We know where we stand. We’ve set a baseline of capability and we now are very solid with what training we need to pursue for the rest of the year and beyond. All participants are to be congratulated on something very important- very important during times of stress and deployment- and that is the good nature and professional attitude everyone displayed. We’ll have more detailed reports as we wade through the traffic that was gathered. We want to look at delivery times, accuracy, and possible bottlenecks. We want to look at ways we can redesign the system to make this work better in real life. So there’s more to come. In the meantime, my thanks and thanks again for all who invested their time and energy to make it happen.

Delaware County ARES

This is how it’s done! Leading up to the Simulated Emergency Test, it was obvious I was not going to be around since state duties required my presence at The Sarge. So Joe, K8MP, Bob, W8ERD, Larry, AC8YE, and Craig, W8CR were all pressed into service for our group. The biggest challenge- to develop skills in digital messaging. Nothing could have made me happier or more proud than how these guys took over, and took off! Although work was done before, beginning September 22 the team started nightly fldigi test nets that ran ~every~ night. Attendance was excellent, ranging from 5 to 15 on the nets. You all are really impressive with that! Come time for SET, and off you went- with a lot of messages being moved from the different locations. I haven’t had a chance to tally up how many messages yet, this is being written only a day or two after SET. But I managed to record the entire two day period of traffic, so we have all the messages to analyze. And what’s more exciting, is that Bob is continuing the digital nets even after SET! We know that without constant practice we lose our function with these programs, not to mention things seem to come disconnected or get out of line. What’s it mean? This is way more than just an exercise - it is proof that when we get into a’ ‘gray sky’ situation where communications is sketchy, we can draw on well- practices expertise to pass messages for our agencies! Well done, gang! Red Cross Winlink Exercise November 14 is the next national Winlink exercise for Red Cross volunteers. Each Thursday Winlink messages can be passed getting ready for the training. This exercise will be simple, with attention to using Red Cross forms that are embedded in Winlink.

ARES

Stan Broadway, N8BHL

Section Emergency Coordinator - Ohio Emergency Coordinator - Delaware County