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Hurricane Ernesto -- The Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) has secured operations for Hurricane Ernesto. In an after-action report, an HWN spokesman said “we were in continuous operation for 22 hours.” From the reports the prominent net received, more than 26,000 residents on Bermuda were without power. Many areas were without internet service as well. The eyewall is now north of the island and reported wind speeds on the island were near 50 mph. “Conditions should continue to improve as the day goes on.” The 2024 Atlantic Basin hurricane season is only now beginning to enter the peak of season. The second half of August and the month of September have a reputation for being busy and very dangerous. Please, do not drop your guard. You still have time to prepare for hurricane season. Never wait until the last minute to do so. The spokesman said “As always, we greatly appreciate the daily users and various nets who use 14.325 MHz and 7.268 MHz for allowing us a clear frequency. It certainly makes our job easier and I know those in the affected area appreciate it as well.” – ARRL news report, as of August 16, 2024 Hurricane Debby -- Hurricane Debby made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend coastal area on Sunday, August 4, as a Category 1, near Steinhatchee, Florida, just 9 miles southeast of where Category 3 Idalia made landfall on August 30, 2023. The amateur radio station at the National Hurricane Center, WX4NHC, the Hurricane Watch Net, and the VoIP Hurricane Net were activated as Debby slowly traversed the Southeast US and dumped potentially catastrophic rainfall over widespread parts of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Scott Roberts, KK4ECR, ARRL Northern Florida Section Manager, reported that Clay County Emergency Services (ARES®) was also active. Arc J. Thames, W4CPD, Northern Florida Section Emergency Coordinator, reported that Alachua County, Columbia County, and Franklin County ARES were also activated. Thames reported an amateur radio operator was stranded due to high water in Suwannee County. He used the statewide repeater network, SARNET, to relay the information and a monitoring operator in Jacksonville was able to coordinate with an urban search-and-rescue (USAR) team with an embedded ham radio operator and was able to facilitate the rescue of a family. Rick Palm, K1CE, editor of the ARRL ARES Letter, was at his home in Fort White, Florida, when the storm hit. “It was another wild ride, with huge trees crashing down and river levels rising fast,” Palm reported. “For two days, National Guardsmen, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission personnel and heavy machinery rolled into our neighborhood for safety/security, to measure river levels, and to begin the long process of removing downed trees, and restoring power.” Palm also reported to the town shelter and worked with Darren DeMarino, KO4DLN, and had contact with Brad Swartz, N5CBP, who is the Emergency Coordinator stationed at the EOC radio room. He managed to send a “Field Situation Report” via Winlink to the EOC in Lake City. Palm said he was a “little rusty, but got the form to go through.” (He used the KX4Z RMS in Gainesville for network access on 40-meters.) The Five Flags Amateur Radio Association, W4UC, located in Pensacola, Florida, was asked by state officials to serve as HF backup for the SARNET – a statewide 70 cm repeater system – W4UC was outside the warned area. President Biden issued an emergency declaration late Sunday and Florida declared a state of emergency for 61 of the state’s 67 counties, with the National Guard activating 3,000 members. -- The ARRL Letter The ARRL Simulated Emergency Test (SET) is coming this fall. This nationwide exercise is the chance to test your personal emergency-operating skills and the readiness of your communications equipment and accessories in a simulated emergency-like deployment. ARRL Field Organization leaders at the section and local levels, and many other volunteers who are active in public service and emergency communications, are developing scenarios in consultation with a variety of agencies and organizations for whom radio amateurs are known to provide service during emergencies. The League’s ARES, National Traffic System (NTS), the governmental Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES), SKYWARN ™, Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN), and other allied groups and public-service oriented radio amateurs are among those who are eligible to participate in the exercise to practice emergency operation plans, nets and procedures. The ARRL has longstanding relationships with several national organizations including the American Red Cross, the National Weather Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Salvation Army (among others). More information on these and other national served agencies may be found at www.arrl.org/served-agencies-and-partners. Let this year’s ARRL Simulated Emergency Test be a chance to reach out to these partners to establish or review plans and develop working relationships. More information can be found at www.arrl.org/simulated-emergency-test. National Preparedness Month is September. This is a nationwide effort to encourage all citizens to take steps to prepare for emergencies in their homes, workplaces, schools and communities. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security works with a wide variety of organizations to highlight the importance of emergency preparedness and to promote individual involvement through events and activities across the nation. We encourage you to consider this year's Simulated Emergency Test (and all preparations for it) as a demonstration of amateur radio's readiness. More information on National Preparedness Month is found at www.ready.gov. |
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Minnesota ARES® Field Operations Team Supports Minnesota Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (MNVOAD) for Flood Response |
July 9, 2024 -- Several weeks of heavy rain in Minnesota led to widespread flood conditions in late June/early July. Around half of the 87 counties in Minnesota were impacted. On July 4, with more than 600 volunteers in the field performing flood recovery work and 118 cases open in the Crisis Cleanup System, Ryc Lyden, KDØZWM, MNVOAD president, called out ARES/MNVOAD Field Operations Teams. His first call was to the Minnesota Section Emergency Coordinator Benton Jackson, KØBHJ, for support. The deployment would be to Waterville, about 70 miles southwest of Minneapolis. The plan was to bring ten hams into Waterville on Saturday, July 6, at 0830 to help with site assessment and situation reporting. Jackson called me to be ready with trailer assets for the day and possibly longer. Kevin Dirks, KAØWJC, South Central ARES District Emergency Coordinator (DEC), a former firefighter and member of the military, was appointed as on-scene leader for the ARES team. What we initially knew: The damage was mostly from flooding only; comms were generally functioning; grid AC power was available. There were reports of city water main problems. Support on the ground was from the Red Cross and Salvation Army – shelters and feeding stations were established. There was a coordination call with FEMA, state government officials, the dozen NGOs which were arriving, and on scene. Local and county emergency management was also represented. The FEMA rep asked for the details of the assistance needed -- who, what, when and exactly where. This was precisely what we provide up the line in our reports: conditions, actions, needs and a personnel accountability check. The flood damage was widely distributed. I called Doug Reed, NØNAS, and Peter Corbett, KD8GBL, on my team to decide on the loadouts [a set of items or equipment carried for a specific purpose – ed.] The operation was recovery, so work product was limited to the daylight hours. No diesel engines nor larger towers were needed. The operation was limited to FM repeater and VHF FM simplex modes as the area was not hilly. In the event we were directed to set up in a parking lot, I did bring a small gasoline-powered genset and 200 watts of solar panels power. We were assigned to the City Public Works building parking lot and set up near a lot of sandbags on pallets. Reed wanted me to put more antenna mounts on the trailer, which would save time – we could be on the air while setting up the mast. I had one, and added a second mount later. The area was heavily invested in Yaesu Fusion digital assets. We had few Fusion radios in our stock. Lyden came up with a few newer Fusion radios and the local hams programmed them for us. We were on the air in half an hour and soon had the restroom door code and 115V of power. We sent our first crew out to a mucking out site. (“Mucking out” is the removal of mud, muck, silt and other typically semi-solid material from a home, caused by water inundation). The first CAN-P came back and there was a need for hose. (A CAN-P report is a progress report used by firefighters that stands for Conditions, Actions, Needs). I asked for details – the need was for 50 feet of 1.5-inch hose. We passed the message up the line. We sent out a second site team. Just after they arrived on site, Lyden, out visiting work sites with the Fire Chief, got the word that the water was receding and the teams on scene were doing an excellent job of reporting. We would not be needed any further. We walked over to the Salvation Army canteen truck, had a nice BBQ chicken lunch and packed up. The County Emergency Manager stopped by to thank us and say hello to Lyden. We felt welcomed and valuable. Lessons Learned 1. Have a plan way ahead of time; be prepared. In recovery versus response, you might have 24 hours to pack. That is not a lot of time to build, install and test new equipment or capabilities. 2. Have gear for local repeaters. That includes all four (at least) digital modes. I am not a fan of Internet repeater linking for disasters. FM is the great unifier. 3. Focus on the mission. Keep the agencies, officials and your time on conference calls out of the weeds on our radio and organization details. 4. We must never have radio problems. If we can’t make 1977 (or even 1999) radio technology work under field conditions – we need to find a new hobby. 5. Preprogram radios and test stuff. Yes, the trailer lights worked 27 times before – test them anyway. 6. “There is a form for that.” We needed a Resource Request form and the right CAN-P form. I should have started a roster. A small printer would have been an asset. 7. Not every situation needs Winlink nor even HF capability. 8. You need to be able to set up in half an hour. 9. While on scene, we asked for very little. We wanted to be assets, not liabilities. 10. Emergencies are local. I told Benton: Have someone in every county on the ARES call list. 11. There were volunteer relief groups on scene that were requested locally, out of normal channels. We could have a role tying them into the overall operation. Our trailers got cool VOAD stickers. This was fun. We’ll do this again. -- Erik Westgard, NY9D, Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator, Minnesota ARES |
An EMP-Resistant All-Bank EmComm Go-Kit: Addendum |
[Editor’s Note: The August issue of QST carries the article “An All-Bank EmComm Go-Kit” authored by Randy Richmond, W7HMT, Assistant EC with the North Bend, Washington ARES team. The article details the construction of an easily deployable, Winlink-capable, transceiver/battery combination. Here is Richmond’s supplement to that article that describes ways in which the kit was designed to be resistant to potentially radio damaging electro-magnetic pulse (EMP)]. The EmComm station go-kit is housed in a surplus steel instrument case that has been modified to increase its resistance to electro-magnetic pulses (EMPs) while the go-kit is standing by for deployment. At the same time, the go-kit station takes very little time to deploy. Having some experience with EMI suppression in my pre-retirement job as an electrical engineer, I knew that the case with its relatively loose-fitting lid would not make an ideal Faraday cage. To be an effective EMP shield, you want very little voltage difference between any two points of the case even under high induced currents. This is mitigated by ensuring low resistance connections between all surfaces of the “cage.” To improve the EMP resistance I fitted the four mating edges between the case and its lid with plated copper shielding finger stock EMI gasket strips. To ensure good electrical contact with the case, I removed the paint along those edges of both the case and its lid and painted the exposed steel with conductive suspended silver paint (to prevent rust while still retaining conductivity). Then I pop-riveted the gasket to the edge of the case that overlaps the lid using stainless steel rivets (to prevent bimetallic corrosion). The setup is only EMP-resistant when its external cables are removed and the lid is secured. In actual deployment with antennas connected, it is very unlikely that any radio could survive a significant EMP event. However, when I use this station, I do bring along coaxial lightning protectors, which screw directly to the case’s UHF coax connectors in the hope that it might improve survivability while deployed. Often, hams house their go-kits in steel ammo cans. The steel itself is a good shield, but without modification it is an incomplete Faraday cage because the rubber-gasketed waterproof lid is only grounded along two of the four edges at most (assuming that a good steel-to-steel electrical contact occurs through the paint and/or rust on the hinges and latch). What would improve the EMP resistance of steel ammo cans is to put the same kind of EMI gasket along the sides of the can where the lid edge overlaps the can’s sides. Here is an eBay source for such EMI gasket. If you are considering building an EmComm station go-kit, I hope this shows how you can also make it EMP-resistant. Radio-destroying EMPs are rare, but if or when one should occur, it will surely be the time when EmComm deployment is needed most. If you want to be ready when needed most, consider EMP-proofing your EmComm equipment. About Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) An EMP or electro-magnetic pulse can induce high current in exposed wire, even as short as PCB traces, but especially in long wires such as antennas and antenna coax, and the national electrical grid. This high current results in voltages that can easily exceed the maximum rated voltage of the electronics attached to those wires, resulting in degradation, damage or destruction of the attached electronics. EMPs can occur naturally from a nearby lightning strike or extreme solar flares (such as the 1859 Carrington Event, which disrupted and damaged the early telegraph systems). They can also occur artificially from nuclear explosions, especially explosions in the upper atmosphere of the earth (such as the USA Starfish test of July 1962, which damaged many electrical and electronic systems in Hawaii). A Faraday cage (named after Michael Faraday, credited with significant contributions to the discoveries of electromagnetism and inductance) consists of a continuous covering of conductive material which distributes electric charges canceling field effects in the cage’s interior. Faraday cages are considered among the best protections for electronics against EMPs but are generally only useful while the electronics are being stored (because most electronics are not functional or useful while inside a Faraday cage). -- Randy Richmond, W7HMT, North Bend, Washington Shelter Management and Comms |
K1CE for a Final: On County Shelter Management |
Always remember, a shelter is a refuge of last resort. Friends or families that can temporarily house you, is the first choice. Many counties do not have pet-friendly shelters. If you go to a shelter, there is often little to no privacy. They can be noisy and you will likely get just a cot and possibly a blanket. In my rural county, there are 21 locations that potentially can serve as shelters during various incidents. It is important to understand what the types of shelters are, and that county emergency management does not open every shelter at once. (Opening shelters requires personnel to work in those shelters; they need to have staffing on a 24 hour basis). There are three different types of shelters that are available: risk shelters; a special needs shelter; and host shelters. Host shelters can provide shelter after a storm has passed. These shelters are in older schools and community centers. They do not provide protection from an incoming storm. Risk shelters can provide a certain amount of protection to those taking shelter from an incoming storm. In my county, these shelters are newer construction at local schools. If it is a risk situation, then the county has four newer schools to choose from. It is important to know that a risk shelter can be used as a host shelter, because after a storm passes no additional protection is likely to be needed. Host shelters cannot be used as risk shelters. The last type of shelter is a special needs shelter, for those with limited medical conditions. Potential residents of a special needs shelter must have a form filled out annually on file. The Health Department helps with nurses for special needs shelters. Also, anyone coming into a special needs shelter must have someone with them to help with their care. While nurses are on-scene, they do not have the time to devote time to each individual patient that is in the special needs shelter. All ARES members should have a working knowledge of their area’s shelters and shelter policies – you may be asked to deploy to one. – Rick Palm, K1CE, Columbia County, Florida |
The Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES) consists of licensed amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment with their local ARES leadership, for communications duty in the public service when disaster strikes. Every licensed amateur, regardless of membership in ARRL or any other local or national organization is eligible to apply for membership in ARES. Training may be required or desired to participate fully in ARES. Please inquire at the local level for specific information. Because ARES is an amateur radio program, only licensed radio amateurs are eligible for membership. The possession of emergency-powered equipment is desirable, but is not a requirement for membership. How to Get Involved in ARES: Fill out the ARES Registration form and submit it to your local Emergency Coordinator. |
ARES® is a program of ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio®. No other organization works harder than ARRL to promote and protect amateur radio! ARRL members enjoy many benefits and services including digital magazines, e-newsletters, online learning (learn.arrl.org), and technical support. Membership also supports programs for radio clubs, on-air contests, Logbook of The World®, ARRL Field Day, and the all-volunteer ARRL Field Organization. Join ARRL or renew today! www.arrl.org/join The ARES Letter is free of charge to ARRL members. Subscribe: www.arrl.org/subscribe Find ARRL on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X (@arrl and @arrl_ares), and Threads ARRL Store: www.arrl.org/shop Support programs not funded by member dues at www.arrl.org/donate Contact us to advertise in this newsletter (space subject to availability): ads@arrl.org |
The ARRL Letter is published on the third Wednesday of each month. ARRL members may subscribe at no cost or unsubscribe by editing their Member Data Page at www.arrl.org/opt-in-out. Copyright © 2024 American Radio Relay League, Incorporated. Use and distribution of this publication, or any portion thereof, is permitted for non-commercial or educational purposes, with attribution. All other purposes require written permission. |
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