Posted: 3/18/2008 9:04:53 PM EDT
|
I was listening to the local net tonight and the Red Cross ran theirs. Remembering how the net was operating down in the flood area awhile back, helping out was always on my list of things to do. After more thought on joining one net or another, I figured you guys would be a good source of info as to which one may have better functions or suit me better. Im no high dollar outfit, nor do I have a lot of experience. I do have equipment in all vehicles and a handheld 2M/ 220 & 440 ability. (Uber-paranoid Post-SHTF/TEOTWAWKI movement cover is not to be discounted.  )
|
|
Honestly, Im a fan of RACES, but that is because I have the station not 20 feet from me at work. I have hooked up with the ARES/Red Cross guys out this direction, and they seemed to have their Shit a little more in line. ( Out this direction anyway)... Im not sure if I will join them, but who knows. 6 one way, halfdozen another I guess. You can listen in on the Sno Co RACES on Pilchuck Mondays at 20:00, Sunday nights is ARES at 20:30 on Skyvalley/Jim Creek |
|
We don't have RACES locally. In fact I'm not aware of any activity within the state. I've heard this is a growing trend. I believe the same can be said about CT also. I'm an ARES Assistant Emergency Coordinator. Red Cross is our primary served agency so they don't have their own local net. However, they do have HF nets between the chapters. Mission It'll vary based on location since we all face different events. In Florida our big thing is hurricane activity. In our city the MO is that if one hurricane shelter opens they all open. Each shelter is equipped with a dual-band antenna and the operating location is provided with critical emergency power. Our shelters are all schools and ARES and the EOC have actually gotten this incorporated in the building specifications for the school board. There isn't a new school built that isn't qualified as a shelter and they all have comm capabilities. We also serve the Fire/Rescue folks when needed (the March issue of CQ Magazine details some of this). During a mass casualty incident (apartment fire, chemical event, etc) we staff the local hospitals to provide redundancy of the traffic being passed about inbound medical transports. We also provide support to surrounding counties. Last year you probably watched S GA and N FL burning on TV. I believe it was classified as the largest wildfire in the Southeast. Our neighboring county lost their landline infrastructure and cellular crashed under the additional burden. We moved in to restore communications between the fire line, EOC, and shelters. Public Service In addition to the official support we provide to the county we support the community where feasible. In February we manned mile markers and passed health/welfare traffic during the 26.2 with Donna National Breast Cancer Marathon. Earlier this month we did the same for the Gate River Run, the country's largest 15K race. We also lend our services to event's such as the Clean It Up, Green It Up where the city comes together to clean our waterways. There are numerous events throughout the year that provide our operators the opportunity to test their equipment and net abilities outside of actual emergency conditions. Equipment You need to check with your local group(s) but for us 2M will work just fine. We don't use any 440 frequencies as official emergency frequencies. The use of HF is also minimal and really not needed by the general operator in the field. It's typically just used to communicate to the State EOC or outlaying counties that can't be or aren't currently linked to local repeaters. If you look for a new radio, I'd seriously recommend a dual-Rx model. This can be a great benefit if you need to monitor two different nets. It also gives you the ability to listen to one and scan other local frequencies. Well, hope that gives you something to work with. |
|
I'm a RACES/ACES member. One of my resolutions for this year was to get active in the RACES group. We operate on M, 70cm, 1.25M and 10M. Primary on 2M/70cm using 223 Mhz for some coordination and 10M as a deep back up. We have two repeaters that are public use under normal conditions but used for RACES for emergencies. One neat thing that we do is use Amateur TV to transmit signals back from a disaster scene back to the Emergency Operations Center so that the 50 or so civil authorities there can get a better idea on what they're dealing with. We have a portable camera pack with 1.2 GHz link back to our portable comm trailer. From there we beam it back to city hall where it's distributed to all the big screen TV's scattered about the EOC. Between the local networks and our own camera coverage we get a good picture on what's going on. I participated in an eight hour long drill two weeks ago and was surprised at how well the police, fire, EMT, hazmat, Red Cross, and environmental people worked together. The city uses a trunking comms system which allows them to have tactical channels of their own and for join use. We're linked with other near-by cities of similar size to have mutual aid provided. In our chlorine gas explosion drill we had hazmat trucks from several other cities come in and participate with ours. There was a bit of humor in our drill. The scene was suppose to be that a construction truck had lost control and ran into the chlorine gas tank at the sewage treatment plant killing the driver and contaminating a couple of dozen construction and plant workers. The only casualty was suppose to be the driver. It was warm here last week so the truck's driver had the windows down. The pyro guys let off the explosions and were tossing green and yellow smoke bombs. The local police on patrol actually heard the explosions and saw the gas so even before the public started calling in the reports they were responding. So our poor "dead" guy in the truck is suppose to be laying still but he was being bothered by flies. The police were observing him with binoculars and could see him moving to swat the flies from his face so over the bull horn they were ordering him out of the truck at gun point (AR-15's!). The guy was playing dead but the police thought he might be trying to lure them in. Finally an exercise umpire came in and told the cops that the guy was dead and they could proceed. |
What are you using for this? I haven't done this yet but have considered it. I'm looking into NBEMS at the moment which should (in theory) support both email and the sending of images. Our district EC is on a digital kick at the moment so this could get good. |
|
There's no RACES in NH anymore, either. Not sure why that is, it was gone when I showed up. I participate in a couple of the local ARES training nets regularly, but haven't done any field work. We do a lot of volunteer work for marathons, races, big events, etc. A couple times each year we do a larger-scale simulation, though not nearly as extensive as others I've read here. Lately there's been a lot of work with the state hospital association to get hospitals equipped with backup comm gear. And of course we're well-connected to the Red Cross. The last few years we've had much-worse-than-usual flooding in the spring and ARES has helped provide communications to areas with landline outages. From what I've seen, most field work would be with 2m/440 equipment (we have a 440 linked repeater system that covers a good portion of the state, otherwise it would probably all be 2m). HTs and mobile rigs are key. Cross-band repeat is a big plus so you can get away from the vehicle and still have 50w and a good antenna. Most HF work is done at central base stations and is used more like a backbone for long-haul comms. We have VERY extensive/redundant repeater coverage in most of the state which has never yet been compromised, so HF isn't even strictly necessary except as a matter of contingency planning. LG. |
With perhaps two exceptions all of our hospitals have both radios and permanent antenna installations. The hospitals, ambulance services, and fire/rescue all use the same computer system but we pass the same traffic. We've learned during drills that information isn't always entered into the system (sometimes incorrect and sometimes not at all). We provide a checks and balances system. |
P.C. Electronics stuff. The long distance haul is made with a 20 watt amp that's been added on. www.hamtv.com/cat97.html#420 |