ARES

ARRL Hires Emergency Manager

As another step in ARRL’s increased focus on strengthening its emergency communications capabilities and long-standing working relationships with federal and state agencies and private emergency response organizations, ARRL has hired Paul Z. Gilbert, KE5ZW, of Cedar Park, Texas, as its first Director of Emergency Management. Gilbert brings more than 30 years of experience in public service in both his professional and amateur radio endeavors. Beginning with his appointment as Emergency Coordinator in 1987, he has held multiple positions in the ARRL Field Organization. Currently in his second term as South Texas Section Manager, he has also served for more than a decade as the West Gulf Division’s Assistant Director for Public Service, acting as liaison between Division leadership and local, state, and federal emergency management organizations. Professionally, Gilbert most recently was Radio Officer, HQ Staff, for the Texas State Guard, where for the past 6 years he has been responsible for planning and implementation of the organization’s communications capabilities. Previously he was a Public Safety Radio Coordinator for a Texas agency, charged with overseeing that organization’s large- scale disaster communications response and identifying and eliminating in-state interoperability issues. Gilbert, who has an Amateur Extra-class license, is a member of Army MARS, and holds numerous DHS certifications, including COML, COMT, COMT Instructor, and AUXCOM Communicator. He is a member of the FEMA Regional Emergency Communications Coordination Working Group (RECCWG), a graduate of the FEMA Emergency Management Institute’s Exercise Design Course, and was a founding member of the Texas Division of Emergency Management Communications Coordination Group. In his new role, Gilbert will manage a team responsible for supporting ARRL Emergency Communications (EmComm) programs and services, including the Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES®) and National Traffic System (NTS), as well as lead the continued modernization of those programs in consonance with the future emergency communications needs of the public and ARRL’s key partners.

Delaware County ARES

In the fire and medical services, there is one word which is absolutely forbidden: “Quiet”. Once uttered, it cannot be retracted and there is no avoiding the avalanche of activity that will always follow. Back-to-back runs forcing a crew to miss dinner, bathroom breaks, and about anything else scheduled for that shift. A silent Emergency Room crew watches the blinking lights as medic after medic backs into the dock. No dinner tonight! So it is with trepidation that I hesitantly reach for the “Q” word to describe our ARES activity in Delaware County. But truth is truth. Lack of events does not mean lack of activity! County hams were on the watch as severe weather generated a “F-0” tornado spinup starting in downtown Delaware, moving east to drop some limps at casa-de-W8KTQ. No serious damage was reported, but it was an example of how quickly these things can spin up. Our advice to ALL is ‘be prepared’! 1. Watch your weather/radar apps to be aware of pending conditions. 2. Have a severe weather alert (or two) to give you instant awareness of wtches and warnings. 3. ALWAYS have your radios ready and your batteries charged! 4. EVERY TIME there’s severe weather in the area, tune in to the .76 repeater for the Central Ohio Severe Weather Net. COSWN absolutely depends on all of us to participate- the more experienced weather spotters out here, the better and more accurate the reporting. 5. Listen! Transmit only if you have a severe condition to report. Then, be precise! The severe conditions were actually reported by hams passing through the area, I didn’t recognize the calls as being local. We all should be lurking on the net to provide those important reports! Coming up: SET. This is going to be a big deal. First, it’s aimed locally- just as every disaster starts and ends locally, our exercise will center around something that might happen here in Delaware County, or perhaps next door. And it will center on the most basic skill ARES has to offer- sending messages accurately. Joe, K8MP and Craig W8CR will be leading our operation (the old fat guy will be at the state EOC again). I don’t know what the situation is- I do know that a team of real people - doctors, emergency managers- will be acting as the “Sim Cell” to feed us information and events to handle. This should be an “All Hands” event! Study up on traffic with some excellent videos produced by Matt, KD8TTE- subscribe on YouTube to KD8TTE and view the playlist.

Ohio ARES

Is the League turning a corner? The ARRL shot itself in the foot a few years ago when then Emergency Director Mike Cory declared, “We don’t do emergency communications! We do ‘Public Service’. “ That article was a cliff over which Mike jumped, and for years after it would bring ARRL members well into his ‘personal space’ as they decried that sentiment. It instantly brought the competition to change its “Public Service” column to “Emergency Radio” and steal some serious thunder from venerable QST. Yes, we DO handle emergency communication, regularly, and with expertise. But there are some serious bumps in that road. One crater in the path has been the relationship between ARES and NTS traffic. I think it’s fair to say that traditionally, ARES has been convinced that NTS isn’t interested and has not been there when given the opportunity to play. In all honesty that has been the case in Ohio, where SET messages were held until an evening net instead of being handled as priority messages right then and there. Messages have been received days after SET was concluded. As we have been progressing this year we’re seeing that change in Ohio with the advent of Buckeye Net’s masterful handling of digital traffic and willingness to spin up immediately for emergencies. They “get it”. I’m tremendously encouraged by the potential marriage to increase our ability to communicate here. Another encouragement comes from the hiring of Paul Gilbert KE5ZW. He is head of a new “Emergency Department” indicating a little more attention may be paid to bring the league’s treatment into the current century. Something else with this announcement is important: they’ve placed NTS under the same Emergency Department- bringing the two functions together where they should have been all along. So we’ll hope to get more support and guidance from the League in our joint efforts. Our SET in October should show this marriage as a strong working partnership as county ARES units, engaged in their own situations, are able to hand traffic off to district level nets, then to Buckeye Net. Like putting an envelope in a mailbox, our concern is done- the message will get there through Buckeye Net and free us up to handle our own situations. Nice the way that works. Many counties and districts are training (yours SHOULD be!!) and one of the primary topics is in keeping with our “next step up” direction. ASEC Matt Curtin, KD8TTE, has formulated an entire series of well-organized, easy-to-swallow YouTube videos on handling traffic- from simple origination to fairly complex applications. A couple deal directly with our coming Simulated Emergency Test (SET) October 3-4. I strongly urge you to view these! In fact these are so germane we plan to organize them into a course of study, and make them available as another step to achieving ARES Level 2. We’ll have more on that after SET. With prolonged inactivity comes another condition that usually follows… “Lethargy”. Without frequent activations and public events it’s easy to just decide to sit this one out. After long years, it’s easy to figure the new guys can get all that digital stuff. But what would happen if nobody responds? We ALL need to continue investing our time and effort to make this whole thing work! We’re pitching ARES and amateur radio at the very highest levels (yes, that includes Washington DC) as a viable backup system that still works today. In fact, that’s the way amateur radio is perceived at the highest levels. That claim will only be true if YOU continue to participate! We have over the past few years had a couple really well thought out programs that tanked simply because nobody responded. I urge you to take the bait! Keep your interest, keep showing up, and keep responding! I know systems are much stronger than they used to be, and we may not get called as often, but when it gets ~really~ bad, we have to be able to make this work! We are constantly looking at alternative ways amateur radio can be of service under those conditions. The “Watch Desk” project of situational awareness is one of those. But there are some basics we expect of ARES members that can be put to test in emergencies: Put an antenna together from scrap, solder a connector, figure out how to get power from a battery or vehicle. Understand how to operate in a net. Be fluent in handling messages. Be available! We need to keep this machine well oiled and working and that’s up to you! Let’s exercise our abilities for the SET! Hope to hear you on the air.

ARES

Stan Broadway, N8BHL

Section Emergency Coordinator - Ohio Emergency Coordinator - Delaware County