Take a look at this tweet from ARRL about the Louisiana flooding:

https://twitter.com/arrl/status/765246956742508544

It says: "#HamRadio #ARES volunteers needed w/ #LAFlood. DO NOT SELF-DEPLOY; link has contact info"

What the f*ck? Can someone explain how this makes sense? I'm starting to hate the ARRL.

I can picture some ill prepared folks going out with no plan needing rescuing themselves.

To me it sounds like they need volunteers to make contact with the individual mentioned in the link and not to just pack up and head out somewhere with no direction.

They need people at specific locations.

What they don't want is someone to pick a piggly wiggly parking lot, then to get cut off from everyone.

This and what digital said.

As a former EC you need to have people with known skills and capabilities, not every Tom, Dick, and Harry with a radio. This is especially true with the close interaction with served agencies where you have to be credentialed and have the necessary ICS courses under your belt to get into some areas. The last thing I need at a hurricane shelter is someone I can't rely on. I have enough to worry about. Not to mention the safety factor as mentioned.

You can always help out from home as a rely if repeaters go down.

Caveat - I'm not as up with ARES procedures/training as I am with RACES/FEMA.
There is nothing to hate ARRL for if you understand disaster asset management.
The person in charge of deploying Licensed Amateur volunteers will have been giving taskings by served organizations such as the Red Cross.
They need as many volunteers as it takes to meet those requests.  Those people are assets.
People that come without warning become additional people to house & feed, possibly even rescue if the self deployed don't have current directions for where to safely travel.
However, if you contact as requested they can try to schedule your arrival and track your availability throughout the deployment because they will now know who they have and where they are.

If you haven't taken FEMA classes ICS-100, 200, 700 & 800 I recommend them.  They are free, don't take but a couple of hours and are a good introduction as to how incidents are managed and where you will fit in.
FEMA Independent Study
I haven't taken them yet but multiple people I respect have recommended the Kentucky ARES training.
Responding to a disaster incident is more than showing up with a radio & a bottle of water.  It is also knowing where you fit in, how you fit in and how to be the best asset you can be.

I don't often sign my aftcom messages.
This time I will, partially.
County RACES Lead.
FEMA AUXCOMM trained.

To self-deploy is to deploy to an incident without being dispatched. It is a really big no-no, because if you drive off the road enroute or somehow get killed or whatnot, you won't be covered under LODD or insurance.

All the above has pretty much got it covered.

Self deploying does no good for anybody. If you self deploy where are you going to deploy to? Who are you going to report to? What is the comm plan? (open vs closed repeaters, pl tones, net control, tactical calls) Who are you relieving and who is going to relieve you?

In my case I gave the EC several days notice of when I can be available and additionally he knows my capabilities, both technically and operationally. He'll stick me in where I can do the most good. In other words do his job as asset management.

Don't hate the ARRL on this one. It's the procedure. If you want to help I've got additional contact info that wasn't published in the ARRL memo online. Shoot them a text or email with your qualifications.

A "Self Deploy" for a Do-Gooder Lid down there could mean walking back gear-less and your pockets turned out.

More than likely the normal responding regional ARES/RACES group members are dealing with personal needs due to the flooding and can't maintain the needed coverage at a 24/7 tempo. This situation is where the guys with setup travel trailer rigs and pickup campers would shine.  You'd roll into the locations with your capability ready to run longer term communication operations. Coordinated sites would also have some sort of LE component (site security) at that location also.  I have been planning to build a small off-road trailer with the capability of at least a week of sustained radio operations for two people while in bad weather.

We never get positioned even for ARES/RACES Evac drills as individuals.  In reality you'd need people as message runners besides radio operators too. We drill for relatively localized small scale evacuations and could only imagine how it would work out for such a larger scale cluster.

Freelancing and self dispatching is a no-no. In Houston during Katrina they processed over 80,000 volunteers at Reliant Center for the 25,000 evacuees there. Which group do you think was a larger management problem? If you want to help go through the proper channels for accountability, resource management and safety.

I have standing orders to self deploy during a local disaster, but I have credentials through the town. Anything else and I would be required to check in with the incident commander, my local Emergency Management Chief, or similar.

A lot of CERT people tend to get over ambitious and get in the way of the professionals.

OP, I wouldnt read into it too much.
In this day & age they probably have to say that.

Duh! My name's Piccolo. I gots me a PRC 320. Piccolo promptly get OTA on 7.225 and pisses everyone off and screws things up to a fare-thee-well.

Actually if I were to self-deploy the area I'd likely try and hook up with the Cajun Navy and see if they could haul me and the rig to an area that is cut off and be the neighborhood message center by checking in with the YLISSB people,steering WELL clear of the organized effort.

A ham that goes THAT route would likely be an asset although a small one. Had they gone through the coordinator they would likely be of more use.

The LAST thing they need there is some well meaning idiot setting up shop and walking over the ECOMM frequency checking in every 2 minutes to say "All's well in my area." and tying upthe frequency with unneeded stuff.

Anyone remember Sean Penn during Katrina? "I wanna save lives!" Two minutes later he was being fished out of the drink because he forgot to put the sea cock in and sank himself.

The Cajun Navy is doing one hell of a job because they know what they are doing. Joe Iownabassboat  would likely be more trouble than he's worth. For one thing he doesn't know the geography.    

Note the word 'local'.

Yup, and there is a reason for that. Anyone who has done the ICS training understands the problems of people showing up un requested. My immediate superiors know who I am, and what my skills are. I should report to them and have them use me as seen fit, I could easily be a liability otherwise.

Here's an interesting point.

You show up self deployed and check yourself in with the area coordinator.

He instantly hands you a mop or assigns you to sort papers or something.

If that happened to me I would simply mop the floor or sort papers. It likely has to be done.

Still, how many people would be pissed off that they are not assigned to do something 'cool'?

Probably most of them.

Most people forget that the basics have to be done, too.

Anyone that has ever seen a Special Forces team operate sees Master Sergeants mowing lawns and mopping floors. These things have to be done and someone has to do them.

Our last drill, I spent 4 hours doing the administrative paperwork while others simulated a mass casualty event. It's the definition of Team. Check ego at the door.

I looked at getting into the emergency comms volunteer thing at one time but then something in the 'rules' caught my eye.  It forbid firearms.

So where am I going to leave it?  Leave it at home.

Ha ha ha ha ha right, good one, did you make that one up or did someone tell it to ya?

It turns out they were very anti-gun.  I don't mind checking my politics at the door, but I expect them to do likewise.  I prefer to carry, more so in times of crisis.

Concealed means nobody but you knows that you have it.

We had a long and lively thread on this, I think it was last year.

I am not deployable and that is one of the reasons.  During a recent flooding event my local ARES group was asked to assist by providing comms for damage assessment post flood.  Same evening local new reported looters.  I will not come around a building and run into one, too old and slow to fist fight or run.  Consider the fact you are carrying a radio and may be wearing a vest, etc.  What a great target for a bad guy.

YOU can leave your ego at the door. I can leave my ego at the door. We both know that things of ALL sorts have to be done and we're willing to do them.

Picture the problem with Joe Big Ego showing up and trying to 'take charge'. I'll bet there is a lot more of that then people realize. Everyone wants to be a big fucking hero.

"I'll have you know I was the coordinator of the Lower Muleshoe AARC and the cops had me set them up a repeater once! No! No! You're doing it all wrong!"

I would be a prick if I was the coordinator. You either want to help or go home.


ETA wanna he a REAL hero?

Show up with food, beverages, a mop bucket, mop, broom and dustpan, 409, paper towels and start cooking and cleaning.

You would blow minds and be VERY welcome.

QFT

Ya know, I've heard all that "do not self deploy" a million times before, but honestly?  I hate it.  

The two major incidents I was involved in (minor scale, not like Katrina or anything), the locals were the SINGLE MOST critical to success for us.

FBI, FEMA, blah blah blah? Yeah, Chief Bigboypants wants to be King of all the Agencies, people throw up caution tape and light sets over every square foot, lots of harrumphing about jurisdictions and permissions.....

But me and my guys usually (quietly) hit up people who could actually help us and just focused on the important stuff.  It bothers me when people honest-to-God says things like "It'll be easier if we start tomorrow morning" .

'Scuse me?  I thought we were here to solve problems, protect the public, etc.  You set up an IOC and did a press release, sucker.  That's not a legitimate response!

I specifically went around the "correct" procedures for several things during the second one and ended up getting recognized for the results

There are lots of reasons to not self deploy.  Ill skip most of them for a very important one.  If you take off on your own to be Johnny Hero, who will know where you are, if you are ok, and if you make it out ok?

Sent to me by a friend:

"For those outside of South Louisiana who can't see first hand what is going on here let me give you a quick rundown. Over 3 trillion gallons of water fell in 48 hours. That's the same amount of water that New Orleans uses in 320 years. Baton Rouge and surrounding areas got more rain in 48 hours than Los Angeles gets in 3 years. Nearly 100,000 people had to be rescued over 3 parishes. 90% of homes in Denham Springs are considered damaged or destroyed. Interstate Highways were flooded!!! I-12 was closed for 40 miles in both directions between Baton Rouge and Covington. I-10 was closed for 20 miles between Baton Rouge and Gonzales. Early estimates put the damage at $17 Billion."

I can only speak for my local area, a medium to large sized metro city and surrounding communities, but here the ARES/RACES guys are looked at as a joke.

I live in the surrounding community and am a volunteer EMS/Fire. I can see no situation where the EOC would request support from any HAM group. I can tell you if you showed up at our fire hall, requested or not, we would find something for you to help out with.

Just got home from day 1 of my deployment.

When I checked in at Red Cross HQ they gave me an assignment to a shelter that had opened but HQ hadn't heard from them since. Get set up, hit the linked repeater system, and give an update.

Took a while to find a spot to set up and operate without being in the way of anybody. Got set up and started going down the list of repeaters. Hit one of the 440 repeaters but I was weak. Hit a 2m repeater and finally got a good signal. Once checked in I checked with the shelter manager. "OK just who are you in contact with?" Red Cross HQ in Baton Rouge. She grabbed my arm. "Come with me." Lets just say that there was a major issue that HQ needed to clear up ASAP. Once the traffic was passed and the response received and passed to the shelter manager you could sense the tension level dropping.

Cell service was mostly back up by the time I stood down. Will work that shelter again tomorrow to make sure that conventional communications are restored.

Zombie Squad.  Haha. I'm a member over there.

Thank you for the update and an excellent example of why we learn to do what we do.
If you could get a pic of your setup at the shelter that would be well appreciated as a real world example.
The none sexy stuff like if a cable run to an antenna how you got it out the door (assumption used for an example).
thank you for your effort and your update.

Candy bar fail.

Thanks for the update.  Sounds like amateur radio has been a helpful tool, over there.

Stay safe!

Back from day 2 ... and the last day.

Got set up in 10 minutes. Left the mast and antenna set up from yesterday. Got checked in. This time the 2m repeater wasn't doing the trick but 440 repeater got me in. Who knows why it was the other way around yesterday. Pretty much did nothing radio related. Checked in every two hours as requested. Then spent the day keeping the dining room where I was set up clean and picked up. Toted and hauled anything that needed to get done and still be within earshot of the radio.

Shelter manager stated that conventional comms were reliable and my services were no longer needed. A big thank you from her in establishing first contact with HQ. She really didn't get ham radio before but she gets it now. Got the OK to stand down at the 1700 check in but do show up tomorrow.

On my way in a broadcast on the repeater network was for ARES to stand down. Swung by HQ and got filled in. In a nutshell conventional comms has been established across the entire affected area and we all can stand down. I do have to go back to the shelter tomorrow and pick up my antenna and mast.

Lessons learned
- Get a linked repeater network. This did wonders for those of us who were sent off into the boonies. Hit a local repeater that is then linked back to where ops is located.

- A HT is worthless. A few dumbasses went off with nothing but an HT expecting to ping the machines from inside buildings. Forget it. A 50w mobile is bare minimum. At my shelter I walked around with a HT just to monitor what was going on. That building must have been made of lead as if you weren't near a window it wouldn't receive anything. Lots of RFI in that building also.

- Indoor antennas suck. A few tried setting up indoor antennas and that didn't work either.

- Crossband repeat gives you mobility. Unless you really enjoy sitting for hours doing nothing then consider crossband repeat. Set up to hit ops on say 2m then setup your HT on 440 using the minimum power setting. Saw a RACES guy with this setup and it worked great.

- A quickly deployable mast and antenna is nearly a requirement. My setup was a speaker tripod. Onto that are sections of fiberglass camo net poles. Bolted an all metal dual band J-pole to that. Ran the coax through a window. Even with this setup it was sketchy at times to get in clearly.

- Be prepared for anything. One deployment went like this. Shelter opened at midnight. No comms. Ham dispatched to established comms with HQ. Short story due to the shortage of hams to deploy he was on duty for 30 hours straight. Oh and no food ever showed up. As a bonus there was no running water. That shelter was immediately closed down and the residents relocated to another shelter. Be prepped to be self-sufficient for 48 hours. One of the national Red Cross guys I talked to said pretty much the same. The ham was sent home. You did your duty.

- Personally I need to get a go-box going. I was full ghetto with my stuff just laying around being ugly as hell. But it worked and got the job done.

- Need to see about rigging up a beam antenna to the deployable mast. The #2 comm guy at Red Cross HQ said the same thing. Would make life a lot easier for all involved.

- Use all the tools available. One deployment resulted in the guy unable to hit any repeater. However he checked in using Echolink on his phone. Got to look into that.

This experience has restored my faith in the human race. The random acts of kindness never stopped. One woman of faith came by just to give hugs and lend an ear. A local chef came by with plates of trout. The trucks from all over with food and supplies and when I left the storage room was packed. I passed the time talking with the shelter residents that yeah, dude, I've been there. Then went on how I went instantly homeless in Gustav. But I made it.

It's an old and well worn saying, but it's true. "When all else fails, amateur radio."

For a semi real time overview of what is going on here, hit this link. http://www.redcross.org/get-help/disaster-relief-and-recovery/find-an-open-shelter

Zoom in on the Baton Rouge area then go a bit east. Click on the individual shelters to see what the current population is. My deployment was to N. Park Recreation Center on Eden Church Rd.

Hospitals where I am are notorious for not being able to hit the local repeaters from HTs.  Even reception is poor at many times.  What with all the RFI and EMI in them, on top of their general construction with reinforced block/concrete walls good luck. Being near a window helps. But get deep in the interior and it's a crap-shoot.  

Something I learned today at the local hospital: The MRI machine is constantly running.  Even when it's not being used it's still spinning away in its magnetic fields.  Tech was telling me that the unit is cryogenically cooled with liquid helium.  If they actually have to shut it down it takes a GE rep to come to the site to purge the system and bring it back online.  So be careful not to trip over the power cord, hihi.  Oh, and it's got a faraday cage surrounding the room.  

Our ARES group actually worked with the area hospitals and got the building spec changed for the school district so that every new school was equipped with a radio station and an external antenna along with critical power.

One thing we found in the schools is that the phone systems are on timers. Even though the power was on none of the phones worked when the school was used as a shelter during off-hours.

Only got one photo. The antenna setup. Coax was run through the window on the right.



Detail of the antenna. It's not a commercial item. Some dude homebrews these and sells them at local hamfests. Been using one at the QTH for years. Had a second one just for situations like this.

i know this may sound like overkill but i'm not getting into my vehicle to deploy anywhere without first putting three+ days of water and food in the back.  it doesn't matter whether i'm going to the high school a mile away or the county EOC 30 minutes away.  two or three cases of water and enough staples for three days, at minimum.  my three day "go-away" bag contains a Coleman-fueled camping stove and everything else needed to have hot meals at every sitting.  any craptastic deployment day can be significantly improved with a cup of english breakfast tea and some honey; in a vehicle-borne deployment effort there is no reason not to take everything you might need for three+ days.

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_10_18/506065_BOB_what_it_should_be_.html&page=12#i10538647

ar-jedi

Yep cant tend to the needs if your in need .

 

I went way overkill myself.

- Case of MREs. All expired and over 10 years old but it will make a turd.
- Case of water.
- Generator. Honda EU2000.
- Gasoline.
- Three days of clothes.
- Toiletries and more important, toilet paper.
- Rain gear complete with shrimper boots.
- Spare coax including tools for installing connectors.
- Powerpole connectors and tools for installation.

This is just off the top of my head. The truck cab was packed. Luckily the S did not HFT and it was a relatively easy deployment. Heck I was even able to go home each night and sleep in my own bed. However I had no idea what the situation would be so I prepped for the worst. I'm going to go over this in my head. I know I left behind something I should have brought along.

" but it will make a turd. "

This was the best thing I read all day.

There are some real good info in this thread.  Much appreciate the follow up.  

Prosise

Still doing a personal after action report.

Antennas seemed to be the big issue across the board. Those of us who had portable masts had a leg up on the guys with a mag mount on top of the truck. Heading to the plumbing section of the big box store tomorrow to see what widgets can be adapted to mount an Elk log periodic. http://elkantennas.com/product/dual-band-2m440l5-log-periodic-antenna/ Thought process is that you want your signal to go in one direction so mount a beam to do that.

Running coax through a doorway is a bad idea. I know of two locations that did that and both had their cable cut. I got lucky and found a window I could crack open and thread the coax through. I could use some ideas on what the rest of you have done.

50 foot of coax was just barely enough. Also all I had made up was RG-8X which is a bit lossy on VHF/UHF. Going to get 100' of LMR-240 and make up a 50' section and two 25' sections.

There is talk from the emergency communications coordinators of installing a 40m dipole so NVIS capability can be an option. Even with the linked repeater network we were still having issues of trying to get there from here on VHF/UHF. For example like the guy mentioned above who couldn't hit a repeater and checked in on Echolink. NVIS would have done the trick there. Had built this antenna and used it once in a field setup doing a special event station. http://www.hamuniverse.com/ae5jufielddayantenna.html Doing HF in the field complicates things so I'm putting it on the back burner till HQ figures out what it is going to do.

Got to get off my butt and get properly credentialed. I got to serve only because I know the HMFIC of state emergency communications and he knows me and what I'm capable of. I'm not the kind of guy who is going to load up and go three states over to help but I certainly can be of help locally. Here in south Louisiana it seems that as soon as one crisis is over another one begins.

One of the biggest things you can do is NOT use their supplies and become a burden on yourself.

Personally I would have come with at least 2 weeks of self-sufficiency.

You are going into an ughknown and you want to be an asset instead of a liability.

Why a Log Periodic?  When your description sounds like you are describing a Yagi-Uda antenna.

At least in this case the shelter volunteers insisted and demanded and followed up that I had plenty to eat and drink. A volunteer that is dehydrated and hungry is not an asset. The red beans and rice with sausage was stunning. Wife can't cook it that good.

However you should be self-sufficient for 48 to 72 hours till the infrastructure gets caught up.

One because I have three Elk LP so no need to buy anything else.

Two because the Elk is a dual band antenna so I can do 2m and 70cm without changing anything in the antenna system. In this case we had a list of repeaters on both 2m and 70cm, some linked, some not. It was a case of starting at the top of the list and moving down till something was found that worked. Freely switching between bands was a help.

There are a bunch of mono-band yagis out there but not a whole lot in dual banders. One model from Arrow is intended for satellite work. Problem with that one is if you have vertical polarization on 2m you then have horizontal polarization on 70cm with the accompanying 25db loss.

Just tripped across a great resource. The guy who was homebrewing the dual band j-poles must have sold the rights to Arrow. Link. Looks identical to my two.

Why buy , they are easy to build .....

Do you have any pictures of that? I'd love to see them.

 

Great thread BTW. Thanks everyone.