Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Where Does Amateur Radio Fit - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Amateur Radio Emergency Communications

Where Does Amateur Radio Fit in Emergency Communications?

Potential Gregg County Threats

• Communications Emergency

★ Outage or Overload of Public Service Communications

• Weather-Related

★ Tornadoes, Hail, Flash Floods ★ Hurricane-spawned tornadoes, flash floods ★ Hurricane coastal or interstate evacuations

• Hazard Material Events

★ Railcar or trailer incident ★ Chemical or power plant incident

• Medical-Related Events

★ Epidemic

• Terrorism

★ IED incident ★ WMD incident

Amateur Radio Primary Mission and Roles

• Primary Mission

Provide an alternate or supplemental communications infrastructure and message traffic handling capability utilizing local amateur radio resources, to serve government or private served agencies when requested.

• Primary Roles

★ Skywarn weather spotting/reporting for NWS ★ Supplementary and/or Backup Incident Communications

✴ Available in case main incident comms fail/overloaded ✴ Shadowing Key Incident Officer personnel

★ Assigned to provide communications infrastructure

and/or operations for another volunteer group

✴ Red Cross, CERT, Salvation Army, etc.

Emergency Communications in Amateur Radio

• Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES)
• Part of ARRL Field Organization
• Not restricted by FCC Part 97 in terms of drills
• ARRL is an NVOAD and affiliated with Citizen Corps
• Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS)
• Overseen by Department of Defense (Tri-Service)
• Uses amateur equipment, but outside amateur bands
• Increasingly being used by State of Texas EM
• Overseen/sponsored by National Weather Service
• Usually part of local Amateur Radio EMCOMM group
• Spotters report observations to supplement Radar
• Provide data during weather-related disasters
• Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES)
• Dates back to 1950’s as part of the Civil Defense
• Specifically defined/restricted by FCC Part 97
• Overseen by FEMA

ARES/RACES & American Radio Relay League

• Interacts with government AND “served” agencies
• Activated by ARES Emergency Coordinator (EC)
• Network of Local-based organizations
• Drills/Nets not restricted by FCC Part 97
• ARES stations can communicate with any Amateur
• Follows NIMS procedures
• ARRL recommends groups have dual affiliation
• Usually same people used for both in most locales
• ARES can allow drills/nets when RACES cannot
• Complimentary, but mostly common practices
• Interacts with State or Local governments
• Activated by request of State or Local governments
• Can be a State-Level or Local organization
• Drills/Nets restricted by FCC Part 97
• RACES stations limited to RACES-authorized stations
• Follows NIMS procedures

ARES Operational Model

Old Local MOU Model New EM Model

• Local Memo of Understanding

with individual served agencies

• Did not always recognize single

resource/command management

• Reduces flexibility in larger, more

complex incidents if tied to one served agency

• Potential priority and

coordination conflicts for Amateur Radio infrastructure resources

• Designed to support ICS/NIMS

model

• Recognizes single command

management of EM volunteer resources

• Allows maximum flexibility for

potential assignment

• Reduces potential priority and

coordination conflicts for Amateur Radio infrastructure resources

• Being de-emphasized by ARRL
• Not used in Gregg County ARES
• Model being used by Gregg

County ARES

How Local Organizations Fit Into NIMS and a Declared Emergency/Disaster

Incident Command/Unified Command Area Command/ Unified Area Command Local EOC Local-to-Local Mutual Aid/ Private Sector/ NGO Assistance Intrastate Mutual Aid/ Interstate Mutual Aid/ (EMAC) Private Sector/ NGO Assistance Technical Specialists Resources & Equipment State EOC Federal Agencies and Departments Joint Field Office Funding Assistance Requests National Incident Management System (NIMS) and National Response Framework (NRF) Coordination Command HF Liaison Nets NGO Incident Typical Focus Areas: CERT: Preparedness, Search/Rescue, Medical Red Cross: Damage Assessment, Shelter, Medical, Financial Aid GCEC: Skywarn & Incident Supplemental/Backup Communications

Incident Command System Structure and Typical Amateur Radio Placement

ARRL ARES Organization Structures in North Texas and Gregg County

ARRL North Texas Section ARES Districts

Additional Section/National ARRL ARES Resources Available if Local Resources Not Sufficient for a Specific EmComm Incident

Current Local/State ARES & RACES Structures

Gregg County ARES Emergency Coordinator (EC) Gary Lewis - WG5L ARRL NTX District 8 ARES District EC (DEC) Gary Lewis - WG5L ARRL North Texas ARES Section EC (SEC) Walt Mayfield - KE5SOO Gregg County RACES Officer (CLO) - Darrell Toland - N5REO District 12 RACES Officer (DRO) - Phil Clements - K5PC Region 1 RACES Officer (RRO) - John Newman - N9JN AEC Darrell Toland N5REO AEC Kurt Harris KD5UVB AEC Tom Noe W5TDN AEC Jim Quinn AJ1MQ CLO ALT Gary Lewis - WG5L CLO ALT Tom Noe - W5TDN CLO ALT Kurt Harris-KD5UVB ARRL HQ Field Organization/Emergency Preparedness Steve Ewald - WV1X / Mike Corey - W5MPC

Current Local Skywarn Structure

Radar Observer Gary Lewis - WG5L Net Control Tom Noe - W5TDN Primary Mobile Spotters Kurt Harris - KD5UVB Larry Morgan - KE5KEI Jim Quinn - AJ1MQ Priscilla Quinn - AA5PQ NWS and City of Longview Reports Darrell Toland - N5REO Stationary “At Home” Spotters - Various

Key Online Resource: LETARC Web Site

http://www.letarc.org (Emergency Communications Menu Item)

ARES Page and EmComm Compendium

http://www.letarc.org/main/emergency-communications-3/are/

GCEC/LETARC EmComm Compendium

• Executive Overview
• This Overview Presentation
• Served Agency Contact List
• Local ARES Unit Participants Guide

★

FEMA & ARRL training and operating capability requirements

• Gregg County Amateur Radio Emergency

Communications Plan

★

Infrastructure inventory, frequency plan, and possible deployment scenarios

• Skywarn Net Operations

★

Specific Skywarn net operations procedures

• ARES Net Operations

★

Specific ARES net operations procedures

Skywarn Page

http://www.letarc.org/main/emergency-communications-3/skywarn/

ARES Participant Registration/Data Collection

http://www.letarc.org/main/emergency-communications-3/emcomm-registration/

Select Data Items Shown - Additional Items

• n Multi-Page

Form Must Be Registered for LETARC Site & Logged In To See Form