The Kansas City Union Station from last week

ARRLWeb: ARES/RACES Teams Continue Flood Duty in Middle Atlantic States

ARRLWeb: ARES/RACES Teams Continue Flood Duty in Middle Atlantic States

The ARRL article about the flooding situation. Look who wrote the Delaware portion!

No, it isn't real. I made it using Photoshop. 

From Kansas City to a mess

I've been back from Kansas City for a few days now, but I've been busy with the recent flooding situation we have been having in the western part of the county. I passed SKYWARN traffic this Sunday to the National Weather Service for a couple of hours. We had various people driving around giving reports on roads that were not passable, and where the high water was, which was then relayed to NWS.

I was amazed by the actual response, we had about 10 people on the air without any notification. They realized something was going on, and self activated. I can only imagine the activity if we would have done a phone tree or etc.

Monday I met up with Bob George at DEMA and finalized my new job. I'll be the Communication Corps Coordinator for the state. They gave me a cubicle there at the office but today I realized that I didn't have it anymore due to the Governor declaring a state of emergency (which in turn brings FEMA in and they needed a place to work). They said they would find space somewhere else for me.

I also participated in an interview about MARS on the 99 Hobbies podcast. You can listen to it here. Dave is a really nice guy and was a great person to get interviewed by. If you have an interesting story to tell about your participation in amateur radio, let him know, I'm sure he would love to have you on the show.

They just canceled my Hurricane Workshop I was supposed to go to also for tomorrow. Jeez, these people need to stop being pansies and get to work!

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Strong Angel III: Integrated Disaster Response Demonstration

Strong Angel III: Integrated Disaster Response Demonstration

The IT side of disaster response...

HYDESim: High-Yield Detonation Effects Simulator

HYDESim: High-Yield Detonation Effects Simulator

Want to know if you will be dead during a nuke? Here you go!

ARRLWeb: Florida's Turnpike to Take Part in ARRL Field Day 2006

ARRLWeb: Florida's Turnpike to Take Part in ARRL Field Day 2006

This is a great idea, I'm glad the DOT in Florida is noticing amateur radio and how it can play a part in emergency response.

Time to show DelDOT?

ARES and SKYWARN

A podcast that gives an idea of what I do in the state. It includes the SEC for Eastern Mass.

ARES and SKYWARN: "Today's interview with Rob Macedo, KD1CY , covers ARES and SKYWARN, and weather reporting. Rob is the SEC for the EMA section. What do all those acronyms mean? You'll have to tune in to find out.

Show notes

ARRL's EMA page
SKYWARN
Field Day Weather and Safety Tips
"

I'm here...

What a mess. The bus to take us to Baltimore Airport never showed up. Thankfully my Dad drove me and a few others to Baltimore. Then when we got there we had long security lines. People were being rude from TSA (what a bunch of idiots by the way). Then they weren't going to let us on the plane because it was leaving, but then we had 8 seats left. 8 of us got on the plane we were supposed to get on, all of the rest left at 1:30 and should be here at 3:10 our time. Please realize I'm in Central time.

So then, we get here, and the rooms are a mess, people are switching around and everything. Well, we got our internet set up (thank god!) and had some BBQ sandwiches at the local mall. They were pretty good.

I'll try and get on the 2 meters today. I have to research some repeaters here.

I'll take some pictures with my phone and post them.

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Airmail Version 3

Airmail Version 3

For those of you interested in Winlink 2000 (or any Pactor or Packet), Airmail has a new version out. The version is 3.3.

Download it and check it out. I'm doing it right now!

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Networking Pipeline | Blog | Pulver: Internet Should Follow Ham Radio's Lead

Networking Pipeline | Blog | Pulver: Internet Should Follow Ham Radio's Lead

Interesting....an Internet Field Day. I'm going to see if I can get in contact for any updates on his progress.

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Right from the horses mouth! New report from DHS

DHS wants volunteer assets mentioned and planned for in state EOP's:

Best Practices. West Virginia's EOP recognizes that volunteers and volunteer agencies support
the State in providing emergency health services, medical assistance, and response capabilities
during a disaster. The plan describes and defines the structure and capabilities of private
volunteer relief organizations and lists the current agreements in place with volunteer relief and
disaster assistance organizations. Rhode Island integrates volunteer organizations into nine of
their ESFs and includes them at the State EOC, including Amateur Radio Emergency Services
(ARES) and Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) to provide amateur radio
operations, the Civil Air Patrol to provide transportation and aerial reconnaissance and real-time
imagery, Medical Reserve Corps for medical surge, and the ARC and Salvation Army for shelter
operations.

All this from the fresh off the press DHS Nationwide Plan Review Phase 2 Report - June 16th 2006

You can view it on page 56 at: http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interweb/assetlibrary/Prep_NationwidePlanReview.pdf

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THE BOX: PORTABLE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS STATION IDEAS

THE BOX: PORTABLE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS STATION IDEAS

A bunch of neat portable emergency communication boxes like mine. Oh look, mine is there!

I think this is the answer they got...

Military Affiliate Radio System
The committee reiterates its long-standing support for the Military
Affiliate Radio System (MARS), a Department of Defensesponsored
program that relies on volunteer civilian amateur radio
operators to provide an auxiliary means of communication in the
event of local, national, or international emergencies. Although the
MARS program operates at low cost to the Department, the committee
believes that the Department continues to underutilize the
system and is failing to derive maximum benefit from it.
With this in mind, the committee urges the Secretary of Defense
take a number of actions to improve the utility of MARS. Such actions
should include:
(1) Increasing the visibility of MARS to senior military and
civil authority leadership;
(2) Incorporating MARS into appropriate contingency and
emergency operations plans;
(3) Increasing the use of MARS as a cost-effective and viable
alternative to commercial telecommunications for the purposes
of troop morale and welfare;
VerDate 11-MAY-2000 07:46 May 14, 2000 Jkt 064304 PO 00000 Frm 00363 Fmt 6604 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\HR616.077 pfrm03 PsN: HR616
340
(4) Ensuring that all forward deployed units possess communications
equipment capable of operation on MARS frequencies;
and
(5) Considering the applicability of using MARS as a low-cost
test bed for the evaluation of new communications technology
and equipment.
The committee notes that contemplated changes to communications
modes and frequency allocations between military and commercial
use may negatively impact the ability of MARS to fulfill its
auxiliary communications role in the event of emergency. The committee
also notes that section 1062 of the National Defense Authorization
Act for Fiscal Year 2000 (Public Law 106–65) prevented the
commercial use of certain frequencies previously assigned to the
federal government and used primarily by the Department of Defense,
and further required an interagency review prior to the commercial
reallocation of frequencies currently used by the Department.
The committee encourages the Department to ensure that
issues related to MARS frequency allocations are addressed in connection
with any review of emergency response mission requirements.



I'm going to try and get the full report from the Sec. of Defense

almanac99.pdf (application/pdf Object)

almanac99.pdf (application/pdf Object)

If you want to be in the Marines, you can as a 8981 Military Affiliate Radio System Radio Operator according to the 1999 Marines Almanac. I wonder how many recruits they have gotten for that specialty in the past few years (or do they still even allow it!)

H.R. 1119 - NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 1998

Also while I was searching MARS.

H.R. 1119 - NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 1998:

Haha read this...

Military Affiliate Radio System
   Last year, the committee expressed its support for ``the
continuation and expanded use by all services'' of the Military
Affiliate Radio System (MARS). MARS is a low-cost Department of
Defense (DOD) sponsored program that provides DOD and the armed
forces with an auxiliary and emergency communications
capability as an adjunct to normal communications. It also
relies on thousands of highly-trained, volunteer radio
communications personnel to relay morale and quasi-official
communications traffic for the armed forces and U.S. government
civilian personnel stationed abroad. The committee reiterates
its support for a robust MARS program and notes with concern a
decline in the use of the system resulting from the development
of advanced communications modes (e.g., satellites). The
committee notes that advanced modes of communication may not
always be available or cost-effective, and that failing to
exploit MARS resources more aggressively could result in the
loss of this relatively inexpensive auxiliary communications
capability.
   In the past, MARS has demonstrated its ability to provide
limited emergency communication support to non-DOD federal
entities. The committee supports the continuation of such
efforts as a way of helping to ensure that a trained and
qualified reserve of MARS operators remains available to DOD in
the event of a national emergency. To this end, the committee
directs the Secretary of Defense to submit a report by December
31, 1997 identifying how DOD is utilizing the MARS system and
recommending ways in which it can be expanded. Specifically,
the report should:
         (1) Explain DOD oversight of the program, identify
       how the individual service programs are currently
       organized and configured, and discuss possible mission
       expansion, contraction, or adjustments;
         (2) Identify ways to improve the reliability of the
       MARS system;
         (3) Recommend ways to integrate MARS resources in
       support of other government agencies, identifying
       options for interfacing and linking MARS with regular
       DOD communications resources and with other emergency
       communications resources and systems;
         (4) Propose ways to better organize, train, and
       utilize MARS personnel resources;
         (5) Identify necessary adjustments and realignments
       to the structure, staffing, and grade levels throughout
       the MARS program;
         (6) Provide an estimate of the costs to DOD of
       obtaining MARS-type services commercially or ``in-
       house'' using other active DOD personnel and identify
       the cost savings to the Department through the use of
       MARS; and
         (7) Identify the level of funding that will be
       required to institute each of the recommendations.

The committee they are talking about is the Committee on National Security for the House of Representatives. I'd like to see the report from the Sec. of Defense which would have been William Cohen in 1997-8. I wonder if I could get it via a FOIA request?

There is quite a lot of interesting stuff coming up. I didn't realize so many people knew about MARS!

MARS was mentioned in Hurricane Andrew too!

http://chppm-www.apgea.army.mil/news/A%20POST-HURRICANE%20ANDREW.doc

Tonight I decided to go on Google and search the term:

"military affiliate radio system" mil

The mil added a lot of documents with the term MARS on official military websites. One of the documents I came across was a Post Andrew After Action Report. Turns out they liked our EEI reports back then too. I thought that the first time that MARS was brought into the light was in the Failure of Initiative report from the House of Reps for Hurricane Katrina.

Try the search out, you will find a lot of neat documents and pictures.

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The Nature of Disasters and Implications for Amateur Radio - Winlink Information Resource

The Nature of Disasters and Implications for Amateur Radio - Winlink Information Resource

A neat Winlink wiki, and check out this interesting article on there about Disasters. Read the bottom part, for the fun of it.

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AT&T: Network Disaster Recovery: Program Background

AT&T: Network Disaster Recovery: Program Background

Check out this website. These guys really know their stuff. They set up a whole suite of services to replicate a lost switching center.

Is this line secure?

Is this line secure?: "The biggest problem with homeland security as it’s been presented to us is this: How do you know you’re secure if you can’t even provide a coherent definition for the word?

That’s the question that comes to mind as I consider several so-called secure phone lines run by the Department of Homeland Security.



Perhaps secure means the lines are encrypted, and therefore nobody can eavesdrop on them. That, unfortunately, does not seem to be the case.

Consider the “secure” emergency lines that the Department of Homeland Security has installed to each of the 50 state governors’ offices. They virtually never ring — with calls from DHS.

“Every time that phone rings, it’s telemarketers,” Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner told USA TODAY.



Minner says that when her line rings, it’s someone offering a time-share condominium or the latest deal on long-distance phone service.

“I wonder about the security of that line,” Minner said."

Kansas City, here I come...again!

Last year you might have remembered me going to Kansas City to participate in the National SkillsUSA competition for Web Design. It was definitely an experience that I won't forget. I know that it was quite a feat to beat all of the other Web Design competitors in the state of Delaware by two electronic geeks, myself and Amos Scott. All of our competitors were design artists who actually had classes in Web Design...well we weren't.

We didn't do so well in the national level competition but we are going back again, this time for Robotics and Automation. No, we aren't going to be participating in some Robot Wars type competition. We will end up programming and operating a robotic arm, pneumatics, conveyor belts, and plenty of sensors. Amos once again will be joining me for the competition as the programmer. I'll be the hardware guy.

These robots that we learned off of are called the Intelitek SCORBOT. Pretty simple to operate and program.

I'll be leaving this Sunday I think (maybe monday) for a week. I'll have T-Mobile Hotspot at the Hyatt hotel we will be staying at. I'll make sure I blog (maybe some moblogging with my phone).

In other news, I went to a dirt track race at the new (old) Georgetown Speedway. They just recently rebuilt the place after many years of non use. Very nice track now and there were plenty of cars as well as spectators there. I'll be sure to take some pictures next time I'm there.

73

 

People who don't like internet tied to radio

I know there has been some people lately that don't like the internet being tied to their amateur radio frequencies. Here is some food for thought:

Why tie up the precious radio spectrum if there is an alternative? Wouldn't it be more efficient to use the optimal route first, regardless of its method, and the radio route only when necessary? After all, this is no game. No "radio all the way" unless there is no other way. Lives and property depend on efficiency, not playing radio.

Good quote.

dailywireless.org - Cisco Does VSAT

dailywireless.org - Cisco Does VSAT

This guy has an interesting idea for communities to get internet backbones of their own, in advance of a disaster.

New Sussex EOC

Yikes!

I've spent the day recovering from the biggest mess I've ever seen in emergency preparedness history. This whole Grecian Firebolt thing was crazy, and there were way too many disconnects in the system. Turns out I won't be deploying to Ft. Dix, neither will anyone else, and really, I don't know what will be happening.

John Scoggin became ill, which meant the ECU was going to be staying in Newark. So then I get a phone call from the Emergency Coordinator for New Jersey who wants to continue the deployment section of the exercise. We started to set up an emergency plan in regards to setting up a small portable station. I started packing my stuff getting my emergency kit ready as the entire thing became a mess.

Then I get a call from Chief Army MARS yesterday. I tried to give her some of the information that I knew on who was creating the scenario and who our hosts were supposed to be. I told her it would be in their best interests that we didn't deploy and we should just work on it for next year. I don't know where they [MARS HQ Staff] are going from there. I'm planning on playing with New Jersey Army MARS. They have created their own scenario regarding a hurricane for Grecian Firebolt. I'm going to try and go up to DEMA sometime this week to activate the new MARS callsign AAN3EDE there at the station.

Either way, this was a huge learning experience for me. I basically found out that I'm not prepared to deploy anywhere. It would take at least a day to pack. I also need a portable antenna (VHF and HF). I'll probably invest in a Buddipole.

I also realized that you need to have multiple backup people and assistants, as well as plans for any exercise or situation. I should have learned that from the "span of control" in ICS.

Now that all of that chaos is out, I have the entire week to get all of the other million things that need to be done..done.

Today I fooled around with connecting to Winlink PMBO's via HF. That was the first time I've ever done so. I was able to connect to a region 1 ARES PMBO as well as the AV2ANY station on MARS. Pretty cool...HF Email.

I'm also going to see if I can get MARS-ALE software working this week. I put a request for assistance on the Yahoo group so I'll see what they have to say.

Also last week I took the ICS-200 course at DEMA. It was pretty good and I would suggest it to anyone who is interested in really understanding ICS. You can take it online or in a classroom environment. I always manage to meet a lot of interesting people in the classroom settings.

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$5,000 satellite "hurricane" phone for the paranoid

$5,000 satellite "hurricane" phone for the paranoid: "Filed under: Handsets
Well, with the recent hurricane seasons we've been having, it might not be exactly paranoid to throw together some survival gear and emergency communication equipment, but we can't help but thinking this new 'Personal Hurricane Kit' from Assemble Communications is a bit of a cash-in on the hysteria. Luckily, it is a full featured cash-in. Released last month, the $5,000 device comes in a watertight suitcase which holds the battery-powered Inmarsat satellite antenna and handset. But along with making your calls, the kit allows you to connect your computer for broadband satellite Internet, making this the obvious choice for mobile professionals stuck in a bit of bad weather. The price for the 6-pound kit includes 400 minutes of talk time and 150 megabytes of Internet access, so we recommend staying away from streaming those 'Lost' episodes -- as ironic as it may seem at the time.

[Via SOSD]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments



"

Hurricane/Tsuanmi Satellite Access

Check out this neat article

Hurricane/Tsuanmi Satellite Access: "In anticipation of the upcoming hurricane season, Hughes Network Systems, announced today that it is making available emergency communications offerings during this hurricane season, designed for rapid service restoral.

NOAA is predicting a very active 2006 North Atlantic hurricane season (June 1 - Nov. 30) and is urging people in hurricane prone areas to make preparations. NOAA's outlook indicates an 80% chance of an above-normal hurricane season.

Hughes has a range of emergency communications offerings under HughesNet, for enterprises, government agencies and relief organizations:




Access Continuity Service: a private satellite network with pre- installed terminals that automatically switch-over in the event of primary path failure;


Emergency Network Restoral: a pre-established private network with satellite terminals deployed rapidly following an incident; and


Emergency Business Internet: expedited installation of satellite terminals providing broadband Internet access to affected locations.

Satellite communicati..."

New Air Force MARS chief announced

This is very interesting...

New Air Force MARS chief announced: "The Air Force Communications Agency (AFCA) has announced the appointment of MSgt Donald Poquette as Chief of Air Force Military Affiliate Radio System (AF MARS). Poquette, who holds the Amateur Radio call sign KE9XB, will assume his duties and the AF MARS chief's call sign AGA3C immediately. He succeeds AF MARS Chief Ray Collins, AGA3C, who announced his retirement earlier this year. Poquette has more than 20 years of radio communications experience. He has maintained high-power HF global stations, managed several radio work centers, and served as quality assurance inspector and frequency manager. Additionally, he has gained valuable experience as installation MARS director and with assisting the previous AF MARS chief with associated responsibilities. The Air Force MARS office is located at AFCA Headquarters, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois."

Explaining how my portable Winlink box works to Pat Ryan, KW3Z

Typical Hamfest

When will it ever slow down?

What have I been doing the past few days?

I got out of school back on the 22nd of May and I've still been pretty busy doing a couple things.

Back on the 24th I had to go to a Communication Corps meeting to go over some different things that we need to work on to get this program off the ground. A lot of the main things that were talked about was standards. We need standards for our Emergency Communication Radio Teams, what type of forms we use (I suggest ICS-213) as well as our training and credentialing. I've been working on getting the rest of the group aligned so that we can pick some common standards.

Also the Sussex Tech Hamfest was this past weekend. Once again it was a huge hit. I believe that we had more people then last year and I know that we had more displays and things for hams to do. I worked with the ARRL for the hamfest and we had an awesome booth. I showed off my Winlink box and answered questions about the Comm Corps initiative. The Sussex Tech hamfest team did a heck of a job running it. I posted a lot of pictures at http://www.kb3juv.com/hamfest06.htm.

On the 30th, I had a Senior Class Awards Ceremony out at school. I won quite a few different scholarships and achievement awards. Some of note include the Dayton Amateur Radio Association Scholarship and the ARRL General Fund Scholarship. They even posted me (as well as all of the other winners) on the ARRL site: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/05/30/103/?nc=1

Tonight is graduation. Thanks to all of you who have sent cards. Only one more week here in Delaware before I deploy to Ft. Dix for Grecian Firebolt 2006.

More on that in a future post.

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