Next Monthly Meeting
Tuesday, August 24, 7:30 pm
Gwinnett Emergency Operations Center, 800 Hi Hope Road, Lawrenceville
 

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The current ARES Training Net script is now available on the Net Info page (updated April 26, 2010).  Please download and use effective immediately.

Two Saturday training sessions have been scheduled at the Gwinnett Emergency Operations Center to allow members to bring in their equipment, receive hands-on training become proficient at data communications.  The first session will be Saturday, August 14th from 9:00am until 1:00pm and focus on FLDIGI and Outpost configuration and oepration.  The second session is scheduled for Saturday, September 11th, also from 9:00am until 1:00pm.  Both sessions will be held at the Gwinnett EOC.

Gwinnett ARES members who have equipment should bring it to the training sessions.  Those without equipment should still attend training and will have the opportunity to use other equipment available.  All Gwinnett ARES members should plan to attend these sessions. 

The Digital Committee will continue to evaluate new modes and applications going forward and make recommendations as necessary.  This will keep Gwinnett ARES on the forefront of new data communications capabilities to serve our county.  The Digital Committee consists of David Adcock (KA4KKF), Chairman, Earl Whatley (AF4FG), Kyle Albritton (W4KDA), and Hal Collier (W4IGE).

FCC Rules that Amateurs May Participate in Non-Government-Sponsored Drills by Employers - In a Report and Order (R&O) released Wednesday, July 14, the FCC stated that under new guidelines, amateurs employed by non-governmental agencies, such as hospitals, may participate and operate in drills sponsored by their employer. Specifically, the FCC will now permit Amateur Radio operators "to transmit messages, under certain limited circumstances, during either government-sponsored or non-government sponsored emergency and disaster preparedness drills, regardless of whether the operators are employees of entities participating in the drill."

New Storm Spotter Class Offered

To obtain critical weather information, NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) established SKYWARN with partner organizations.  SKYWARN is a volunteer program with over 230,000 trained severe weather spotters. Any person or organization can become SKYWARN spotters, but must first receive training from the National Weather Service.  Topics will include: basics of thunderstorm development; fundamentals of storm structure; identifying potential severe weather features; information to report; how to report information; and basic severe weather safety. The NWS Storm Spotter class provides ARES members with valuable training and is encouraged.

Class size is limited and priority will be given to students who have not previously attended this course.  To register send an email to ema@gwinnettcounty.com with “Skywarn” in the subject line by August 2, 2010.

This was the first event to utilize D-STAR for its only communications providing voice and data communications on a linked repeater network to the Net Control station in Monroe.  The IC-2820 radios used were furnished by Georgia Emergency Management Agency.  These were radios purchased under the recent D-STAR grant to build out a statewide repeater network and will be distributed in the near future to EMA offices around the state.  The radios furnished voice and position data for the ten Support and Gear (SAG) vans located throughout the course.  Their position was displayed on a map projected on the wall at Net Control for event officials to monitor and direct resources along the course.

Participating from Gwinnett were KF4PWI, KJ4DRW, KA4KKF, KG4IUM, KI4KXO, KB6RRX, WA4YIH, WB4QDX, WB4WTN, N8EKA, W4DWJ and KI4SBT.  The event organizers were pleased with the communications provided by the Amateur Radio community of over 40 total volunteers.

New Gwinnett Emergency Operations Center Opens -

The new facility was designed with space for a permanent Amateur Radio station to support emergency communications.  Equipment purchased by the county has already arrived and will be installed in the room dedicated for Amateur Radio.  Provisions for HF, VHF, UHF and 23cm antennas were built into the facility with dedicated conduits from the Amateur Radio room to the roof antenna mounts.  When equipment is installed, capabilities will be in place for voice on HF, VHF, UHF and 23cm along with VHF Packet and D-STAR voice and data on 2m, 70cm and 23cm.  High speed D-STAR data will be possible on 23cm.

Greg Swanson, Gwinnett's EMA Director, has approved ARES monthly meetings to be held at the EOC.  The EOC station will be actively used for ARES nets, training and meetings.

Louis Shulman, KJ4DRW, operates the 80 meter HF station as NCS for the state ARES net. Photo by N4TRB.

2009 SET Simulates Power Outage - The 2009 Simulated Emergency Test began on a Friday evening with an activation due to a simulated widespread power failure.  It was assumed that repeaters would only be available for a short time so planning took place quickly on Friday evening while backup power would still be available.

Saturday morning brought a deployment to four Gwinnett park locations as simulated "charging stations" for county employees.  Without repeaters available, ten meter HF communications was used between park locations.  Two person teams were dispatched from park locations to gather information based on GPS coordinates.  That information was communicated back to the park via two meter simplex.

An 80 meter HF station was setup at the Harbins Park location and Gwinnett was able to check into the state ARES net.  Jan Jubon (K2HJ) and Louis Shulman (KJ4DRW), served as Net Control Stations for the state ARES Net from the Harbins Park location for two of the scheduled nets.

A lunch debrief was held following the exercise to discuss the exercise.  GPS operation and converting coordinates between formats was identified as an area for future training and will be featured as the program for the October 27th meeting.

Photos from SET 2009 can be viewed at the following link courtesy of KF4PWI:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98753120@N00/sets/72157622514583898/show/.  Other photos from WA4ZXV, N4TRB and KJ4DRO are available in the Photos section of the GwinnettARES Yahoo Group for viewing.

John Harmon, N4JCH, operates a field location.

Gwinnett ARES Practices Field Deployment - Saturday, August 29th marked a successful field exercise for Gwinnett ARES.  Thirty-four members gathered at the East Metro Health District office on Riverside Drive to receive exercise instructions and were dispatched to locations around the county.

The exercise simulated setting up and operating field communications stations supporting a mass inoculation of county residents for the Flu Virus.  Shopping Center locations were used as eleven simulated locations for field Public Health points.  Traffic from each location was accurately passed to Net Control at the EMHD office EOC.  Reports included the number of children and adults served and waiting.

Stations from Newton and Rockdale counties also participated in the exercise as a part of the East Metro Health District and provided reports to the EOC.  The exercise concluded with a debrief session to discuss successes and lessons learned.

The exercise provided many lessons learned including the challenges of simplex communications over the large area of the Park.  Field teams within range of remote teams and Net Control served as relays, but slowed communications and search area coverage.  GATC members participating in the exercise did not have any previous experience working with communicators as a part of teams.

The exercise concluded with a debrief and lunch.  Logistics was coordinated by Amy Woodrick, KE4IKF.  The Incident Commander was Mike Reiser, WB4WTL.
 

Each of the hour long classes provided information on the topic as well as hands-on demonstrations of each technology.  An RMS Packet node onsite allowed emails to be transmitted and received via Winlink 2000 and the Airmail client.  Digital Saturday was also featured in the ARES E-Letter published by the ARRL.  The story can be viewed at
http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/ares-el/index.html?issue=2008-04-22.

A special thanks goes out to the instructors for the sessions.  David Adcock, KA4KKF, conducted PSK31 and APRS training.  Paul Branson, KA4YZR, provided training on Packet basics.  Ed Woodrick, WA4YIH, taught D-STAR data.  Tom Olley, KG4VUB, the Assistant SEC for Digital, provided instruction in Winlink 2000 and John Davis, WB4QDX, gave instruction on D-STAR Operations and Programming.

It is hoped that Digital Saturday will allow Gwinnett ARES members to become more proficient and use various modes of digital communications.  Presentations form Digital Saturday can be viewed or downloaded here.

Thanks to GARS for the use of the site and to Mike, K4HBI, for the use of the repeater.  A new Pocket Frequency Card has been uploaded to the website and may be downloaded in the Frequencies section.

UPDATE YOUR PERSONAL INFO - All ARES members now have access to the Online Member Database to view and keep their personal information up-to-date.  Information such as address, contact numbers, email addresses and license info may be updated by each member.  If you have not received your logon information and password, contact Tom Hughes, KD4OEZ.

If you have not registered your contact numbers such as cell phones and PDAs to receive Gwinnett ARES notifications, contact Scott Hartlage, KF4PWI.  Notifications with the Emergency Notification System offers the fastest and most reliable notifications for callouts, weather nets or other important information.

Deployable Status - If you have not completed the required FEMA online courses IS-100 and IS-700, remember that you must complete these two courses along with either the Gwinnett County Basic Skills Test or ARRL EC-001 to receive the new Gwinnett ARES ID.  The new ID card indicates DEPLOYABLE status and is recognized by Gwinnett County first responders.  The old ID is no longer valid and not recognized by county agencies.  Contact Ken Dalton, KI4BQS, AEC for Training for more information or to email training confirmations or test answers at training@gwinnettares.org.