1.
Because of the
disastrous hurricane season last year and the year before, the theme of the
Hamvention this year was “Amateur Radio IS Public Service.”
2.
On Thursday, there was
an all-day QRP symposium. For those of you unfamiliar with the term QRP, here’s
the origin: In Morse Code, the abbreviation QRP means “reduce your power,” or
if asked as a question means “shall I reduce my power?” QRP has thus come to
mean low power operation, specifically 5 watts of transmitter output or less.
Topics covered at the symposium included antennas, radios, and operating
techniques. Of interest to us in ARES, there was a talk on Emcomm from a
QRPer’s point of view, by Mike Boatright KO4WX, of Decatur, GA, who is active
in ARES and Emcomm. He spoke about Emcomm in general, especially since
Hurricane Katrina last year, and how QRP can often get the job done by getting
the message through while conserving batteries. In the aftermath of Katrina, many operators found their
generators running out of gasoline and no more available because the lack of
electricity precluded gas pumps from working, while those operating on
batteries at low power could operate for several days. The author noted that although
a signal level would be down from 59 to maybe 55, that’s still not a bad report
unless the noise level is very high. He noted of course that emcomm operating
should not be confined to QRP if safety of life or property is at risk. In that
case use all the power you need to get the message through. His talk covered
training, preparation, go-kits, antennas, and other emcomm related topics.
3.
In a later
conversation I had with Dave Patton NN1N, ARRL’s Manager of Field Services,
Dave was quite opposed to QRP for disaster communications. He said you need a
minimum of 100 watts and sometimes a linear amplifier. My own opinion is that
the truth is somewhere in between. If you are conscious about using the minimum
necessary transmitting power at all times, you can conserve your batteries and
still get the communications through. If you don’t need a kilowatt, don’t use
it. If you do need power, by all means use it if you have it.
4.
On Friday there was a
forum on the Red Cross. The first feature was a 15-20 minute video showing the
timeline of Hurricane Katrina and the
American Red Cross’s response. It was rather biased, I felt, in promoting how
the Red Cross did such a wonderful job, but ignoring the fact that it took a
much longer time to get its act together than it should have – nearly a week
passed before the Red Cross got into gear and started performing like it
should. I felt that the video also gave short shrift to ham radio. While it
praised the hams briefly, it noted that the hams were quickly overwhelmed by
the volume of communications. According to other speakers, the hams did a much
better job than the video implied.
5.
The first speaker
after the video was Greg Sarratt W4OZK, ARRL Alabama Section Manager. He gave a
good PowerPoint presentation on the hams’ response to Hurricane Katrina and
later to Hurricane Rita. He manned the Montgomery AL EOC and check-in center
for the hams who volunteered for emcomm service in the aftermath of both
disasters. About 250 hams participated and there was excellent teamwork, no
complaints about the primitive working conditions, and many lives were saved.
Two major points that Greg made in his presentation were: (1) that although a
little CW was used and although digital modes are impressive and can do great
things, like convey long lists of supplies and names of people in shelters, it
was really the voice communications that were mostly relied upon, so learn the
ITU phonetic alphabet, participate in contests to hone your rapid and efficient
communications skills, and practice with drills, simulated emergency tests, and
Field Day; and (2) the ARRL radiogram form, as simple as it is, is still the
most effective form for capturing all the needed information most messages ever
need, and using it made everyone’s work easier and better; so learn to use the
form, learn the different parts of the form and the details of what each part
is all about, and check into or at least listen to traffic nets occasionally to
learn how passing written traffic is done efficiently and correctly. The Ohio
Single Sideband net, for example, meets daily at 10:30 am, 4:15 pm, and 6:45 pm
on 3.9725 MHz. Listen in on their sessions and learn how they pass traffic.
THAT’s mostly what you’ll be doing if you’re called upon to help in a disaster.
6.
According to Riley
Hollingsworth K4ZDH of the FCC Enforcement Bureau, this effort was ham radio’s
finest hour and got very favorable publicity in Congress’s report, which noted
that FEMA badly failed in its mission.
7.
Next we heard from a
non-ham woman who represented the Red Cross. She expressed deep gratitude for
all the hams in the audience who participated in the hurricane disasters last
year, and there were many in the audience who stood and received a warm round
of applause. She explained how the hams were valuable from the Red Cross’s
point of view in expediting communications when all else failed.
8.
There were more
speakers but at that point I had to put on my Local Government Liaison hat and
leave that forum to attend another forum on Antenna Zoning and the Law.
9.
The Red Cross had a
large booth at the Hamvention, and they had on display an Emergency
Communications Response Vehicle (ECRV). ECRVs are large SUV’s outfitted with
every kind of electronic communication known to man including several ham
radios for HF, VHF, and UHF. The Red Cross has 9 of these vehicles in service
around the country and they are stationed within 10 driving hours of anywhere
in the US. They are quite impressive with their huge array of antennas,
including satellite dishes that extend upward several meters. The Red Cross
wants to train more volunteers, especially hams, to be able to operate the
equipment in these ECRVs (not just the ham gear but ALL of it), and there is an
intense multi-day training course to learn it all.
10.
There was a forum on Friday that I did not
have a chance to attend and it was about Kenwood equipment’s ability to
incorporate GPS (Global Positioning System) to determine the exact location of
the emergency responder and transmit the position so others can determine where
he or she is.
11.
Another forum that touched on emcomm was the
“Town Meeting” conducted by Bill Pasternak WA6ITF of Amateur Radio Newsline
fame. The Ham Radio Video Corps came into being after Dave Bell W6AQ, Allan
Kaul W6RCL, and Bill Pasternak realized that little or no video footage existed
on the work the hams did during the hurricane season last year. It might have
been the hams’ finest hour, but it was never recorded for posterity. People
were too busy helping with emcomm to think of videotaping some of it. So the
Video Corps has been created to make sure that this omission never happens
again. Topics covered in the forum included the gear you need to videotape hams
in action, how to shoot video, preparing the story, the art of editing, legal
aspects, and the involvement of the ARRL in support of this activity. If anyone
listening tonight has a video camera, analog or digital, and would like to
engage in recording ham activity, there is a real need. Please contact me after
this net so we can enlist your talents at documenting Field Day and other ham
radio (especially ARES) activities here in Licking County.
12.
Another emcomm forum I did not have the
chance to attend was SATERN – the Salvation Army Team Emergency Response
Network. SATERN has grown into a very large network of emcomm volunteers, and
participates in emcomm in response to all kinds of disasters, such as
hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, floods, forest fires, terrorist attacks.
13.
There was also a MARS forum that I could not
attend. MARS is the Military Affiliate Radio System and the forum discussed
joint exercises between the military and Homeland Security.
14.
On Sunday morning, there was a forum which
combined a Disaster Communications Overview with the ARES program. Greg Sarratt
W4OZK, the ARRL Alabama Section Manager repeated his earlier talk on Hurricanes
Katrina and Rita from Friday. Kay Craigie N3KN, First Vice President of the
ARRL, spoke on the ARRL’s response to Hurricane Katrina. She noted that most
disasters are local in nature and emcomm in the past has been handled in a
timely manner. Katrina, however, was a mega-disaster beyond anyone’s
expectation, and the response by FEMA and the Red Cross was flawed by being too
little and too late. She elaborated that the ARRL has formed an advisory committee
consisting of a dozen or so people to recommend future policy regarding the
ARRL response to emcomm in disasters. Finally, Harold Kramer, WJ1B, ARRL Chief
Operating Officer, and Dave Patton NN1N, ARRL Manager of Field Services, spoke
about their experience leading the ARRL’s response to requests for ham radio
assistance following the hurricanes.
15.
Finally, one of the exhibits in the ARRL EXPO
area featured the outcome of the ARRL’s efforts. All the major ham radio
suppliers pitched in and donated a huge amount of equipment – HF rigs, VHF rigs
and handhelds, antennas, coax and connectors, repeaters, amplifiers, and lots
of other gear – for the emcomm relief efforts during Katrina and Rita. The
equipment was all returned to ARRL afterward and checked out for proper
operation. ARRL then acquired large watertight storage/shipping containers with
foam padding inside and put together a series of go-kits. There are HF kits,
VHF kits, etc. Whatever is needed is ready to go, can be air-shipped anywhere
in the country in a matter of hours, and deployed in the field as soon as
needed, even the same day in some cases. So three or four of the ARRL go kits
were on display at Dayton. One HF kit had a Kenwood TS-570, power supply and
coax. Another had an ICOM IC-718, power supply and coax, and a third had a
dozen or so ICOM HT’s and a lot of AA cells. All of the equipment was basic
“entry level” gear – easy to operate, no fancy bells and whistles, very little
complexity, and mostly intuitively obvious to operate correctly by the average
ham. So next time the big one hits, ARRL will be much more ready to support the
ham community and allow the emcomm participants to provide better and faster
public service.
That’s
a summary of what was at the Hamvention this year. If you have any questions,
please ask!
Steve
N8WL
Licking
Co. EC