UPDATE - 3/19/12

At yesterday's Annual CT ARES meeting, two key points were made:
1) CT ARES GOAL
To "light up" all Emergency Operations Centers (EOC) in the state (167 towns +2).

KEY POINTS
- There are 30 town EOCs in Region 2

- We will need to deploy at least 1 ARES member to each town's EOC.

- You may be asked to support the ARES mission at an EOC in a town in Region 2 other than your own.

2) Dates of Exercise
Towns have been given the option of doing this over the weekend of Saturday/Sunday: July 28-29
and/or
Monday/Tuesday: 7/30 & 7/31.
- This is to accommodate the fact that some Town EOCs are staffed by paid professionals, and a Monday/Tuesday drill would avoid the towns incurring week-end over-time expenses.

UPDATE: JUNE 12, 2012

As you know, CT ARES will be combining its annual ARRL Simulated Emergency Test (SET) with the CT DEMHS Statewide Exercise scheduled for late July 2012.

I have recently learned that CT ARES will be participating on BOTH days* of this very important Exercise.

This is a 2 Day Exercise
- Day 1 (Pre-Landfall)
- Day 2 (Post-Landfall)

MODES of ARES COMMUNICATIONS
VHF - voice
Packet – data*
HF – voice
*Now is a good time to make sure that you can operate Packet successfully BEFORE the Statewide Exercise.

CRYSTAL BALL
I have gazed deeply into my crystal ball and, based on the information I have available at this time, this is how I see things happening in Region 2.
- Translation: “Best Guess” … subject to change and revision. 

Day 1 (Pre-Landfall)
IMPACT ON ARES
Cat 3 Hurricane approaches
- ARES-SKYWARN activates the New Haven/Middlesex County Net.
- ARES-Region 2 conducts a “pre-impact” net to test communications from each EOC.


ASSUMPTION:
The Cat 3 Storm has blown through Region 2 by 0730 hours on DAY 2.

Day 2 (Post-Landfall)
IMPACT ON ARES
- CT ARES-SKYWARN activity slows operations considerably by 0730 hrs.
- CT ARES-Region 2 activates with both Tactical and Resource Nets going live at 0800 hrs.

COMPLICATIONS
There are several issues that are going to affect Region 2 ARES play:
a) Not every Town EOC will be participating.
b) Not every Town EOC will be conducting their exercise on Saturday, 7/28 and Sunday, 7/29
c) Not every town will operate the full shift each day.

Towns have these options available to them:
(Pre-Landfall / Post Landfall)
- Sat/Sun
- Mon/Tue

IMPACT ON ARES
If a town EOC is not operational (or declines CT ARES assistance), we will run our S.E.T. exercise from the EOC parking lot - or just across the street (as appropriate), and then deploy to another site where needed.

OFFICIAL EXERCISE HOURS (Repeats Mon/Tues)
Saturday (7/28) : 8 am – Noon
- Brief ARES Comm Test from EOC sites.

Sunday (7/29) : 8 am – 2 pm
- THE BIG DAY for ARES

Please reserve BOTH these days and hours for CT ARES duty.

UNRESOLVED
- ARES coverage or availability for Monday (7/30) and Tuesday(7/31)

Stay Tuned…

Thank you!

Regards,
Douglas Sharafanowich
District Emergency Coordinator, Region 2
Connecticut Amateur Radio Emegency Service (CT ARES)

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

8/1/2012

Hi Everybody,
A BIG “Thank You” goes to the 43 stalwart folks who came out to play over the past 4 days. Your participation made SET 2012 work and the success that it was.

While I have not had time yet to tally the check-ins, and am still awaiting most participant’s After Action Reports*, I feel that Region 2 made a good showing in this year’s drill.

SUMMARY:
• We concentrated on finding ways to get the message through, using available Repeaters and Simplex options.

• We spent time honing our NTS message skills, and in some cases learning how to create messages in NTS message format (the ARRL Radiogram), and practiced sending them.

• We introduced the protocol of using the Resource Net as the first and last place to check into and out of an “event”.

• We initiated the use of Packet Radio and Winlink Airmail into the mix of SET activities here in Region 2.

• We estabilished “Face Time” in EOCs where we were invited to come and operate.

• We made a good impression at the 4 new sites with ARES activity (Shelton, Meriden, Madison, Chester)

• We discovered that the EAST AREA is a veritable RF hole, with blocking hills and deep valleys preventing good Simplex communications with the other AREAs in Region 2.

• We saw that a 5 watt HT, with a Rubber Duck antenna (or improved aftermarket, radio mounted) antenna, is near useless for “AREA Simplex” two-way communications.

• We encountered great difficulty in making contacts on 75m and 40m Phone during scheduled morning Region 2 nets.

• We had mixed results on 10m Phone. Region 2 communications were difficult, but that the contact from Region 2 to Region 1 (Middletown Region 2 EOC to a station in Trumbull) worked well.