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ARRL Nebraska Section (NE)Section Manager
Arthur I. Zygielbaum, K0AIZ 6601 Pinecrest Dr Lincoln, NE 68516-3573 402-421-0839 k0aiz@arrl.org |
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The air has gotten colder and the trees are changing color. It's a beautiful time of year, but it's time to think about getting ready for winter and the kinds of communications emergencies that we may need to cover. I asked our Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC), Jon Morris, KAØJGG, to write something for this status report. Jon chose to write the first in a series of discussions on improving emergency communications. I will be asking each of the Assistant Section Managers to provide a paragraph or two for future issues. Before I insert Jon's comments, let me comment on a very thoughtful note I received from Ken Lemke, ACØDQ. Ken is an Assistant Emergency Coordinator for Sarpy County. Ken raised concerns about relying on D-Star for a statewide network. He raised several issues that need to be addressed. But the particular thing I want to mention is that Ken apologized for taking a critical view. I won't accept the apology. Rather, I thank Ken for taking the time to make his views known. The system we are putting together needs to be accepted to be effective. Our plan does have potential flaws, and we will need to deal with them, overcome them, or find a better solution. Jon and I will talk about the system, provide more information on the motivation and concept, and address issues such as those raised by Ken in a future report. If you have ideas, concerns, new concepts, please let us know! Jon, Nebraska SEC, has taken "emergency plans" as one of his priorities. Here is installment one. It is intended for Emergency Coordinators, Assistant Emergency Coordinators, and for every ham who is in ARES or RACES. We each need to aware of these plans and how effective and correct they are. Do you know where your Emergency Plans is? ************************************ An emergency communications plan is designed to provide a means to set a chain of events in motion. Experience tells us that every plan is only as strong as the weakest link in that chain. Is that weak link in your communications plan? We will be looking at how to identify weak points and test those plans in the next few months. Here are some common problems: *Failure to adequately test the plan. A functional exercise is a fully simulated interactive exercise that evaluates the capability of an organization to respond to a simulated event. This type of exercise strives for realism, short of actual deployment of equipment and personnel (FEMA IS-139, Exercise Design). Functional Exercises focus on policies, procedures, roles and responsibilities. This is part of the exercise design process. The functional exercise occurs after table top exercise and before a full scale field exercise. *Failure to communicate. How is your organization alerted to an emergency? Landline? Cellular Phone? Pager? Email or instant message? Whatever the means used, will it be available under all emergency situations? In most cases even if the chosen means survives, how effective it will but under the stress of heavy communications overload common in most emergency situations. *No means to communicate. What if no commercial communications infrastructure is available? Does your plan provide for a net activation for the limited purpose of passing information from the group’s leadership to its members under catastrophic conditions? Are there people who are designated to go to preplanned positions where they can contact a competent authority? They can relay requests or tasking from that authority to the group leadership for task assignments. Next time we will talk about how to fix some of these issues. Critically look at your local plan and start checking for some of these problems. To assist you in looking at exercise design concepts, check out this free FEMA course. There are many more independent study courses that at this site, if you want recommendations from list on what may apply to your situation, please feel free to contact me. http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is139lst.asp Jon Morris, KAØJGG, jclarkmorris@gmail.com ************************************ Until next month, 73, Art Zygielbaum, KØAIZ, ARRL Nebraska Section Manager Section Traffic Manager and Section Emergency Coordinator Net Reports – September 2009 Nebraska 40 Meter Net Sessions 25, QNI 147, QTC 1 Reported by KWØR Nebraska Cornhusker Net Sessions 29, QNI 401, QTC 7 Reported by KØCWW Nebraska CW Traffic Net Sessions 21, QNI 121, QTC 4 Reported by WAØASM Nebraska Morning Phone Net Sessions 30, QNI 1622, QTC 21 Reported by KAØDOC Nebraska Storm Net Sessions 30, QNI 1392, QTC 15 Reported by WYØF West Nebraska Net Sessions 26, QNI 1294, QTC 55 Reported by KØRRL Dodge County ARES Sessions 5, QNI 35, QTC 1 Reported by KCØKKE Douglas County ARES Sessions 4, QNI 153, QTC 0 Reported by W9HZC Mid Nebraska ARES 2-Meter Net Sessions 12, QNI 133, QTC 1 Reported by KCØMWM NPPARC Sessions 4, QNI 31, QTC 0 Reported by WØDED Platte Valley 2-Meter Net Sessions 4, QN 54, QTC 1 Traffic Totals: K0PTK: September 120 Public Service Honor Roll KAØDBK 117 points KBØYTM 24 points