OK
Will now that's a case of you have to show your self off. Most of the
people in the powers that be area don't know that oh for instanst that most
cell sites only have ups's that are good for about twenty moments or so.
Then they go dark with out power. A group that I belong to asked and got
the county board chairmen and several other county board members to work
with us at the SET and they were amazed at what we as ham's could do. To
the point that a few months later during Ham Radio Month we got a very nice
resolution from the County board as a whole. show off your stuff let them
see you doing what you do.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Dodson" <ka4map@...>
To: <NRCEV@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 10:06 AM
Subject: RE: [NRCEV] We DO have jobs to do


N4AOF wrote:

To the extent that the ham radio organizations are actually involved in
serving these agencies, it would represent good PRACTICE for emergency
communications. Unfortunately my observation has generally been that
ham
radio involvement with such agencies is mostly just on paper. "The
Plan"
includes ham radio support -- but the agencies rarely drill the plan and

when they do the ham radio support is either not played or is played
separately from the agency activities. Instead of reinforcing a close
working relationship between ham radio and the Served Agency, all too
often
such drills reinforce the mistaken concept that Emergency Communications

consists of hams-talking-to-other-hams.

==========================================

Sorry you missed the big region 5 exercise put on by Ky Office of
Homeland Security on April 19th Tom! Amateur radio absolutely ran the
show in the ice storm scenario. All EOC's activated as did a
Multi-Agency Coordination Center or MACC. Several mobile command
vehicles came into service such as the one owned by the regional
WMD/Haz-Mat/ Bio response team which was designed and built by hams. It
carries everything from public safety and sat phone communications to
amateur radio, fax and satellite internet connection. Several hospitals
also had amateur radio activated in their facility command centers.
Communications were conducted by better than 90% amateur radio personnel
on all the frequencies and modes used. Aside from handling real world
events during the exercise, the E-911 Centers stayed clear out of it and
let the hams do the job.

As a side note, amateur radio operators in Ky Region five have never had
a full blown Katrina sized response, ever. Aside from community and
regional exercises and real SkyWarn weather nets in severe weather
operations, these folks have had little chance at anything huge. One
county's hams, in the past notorious for not getting involved regularly,
even put on a good show and have decided to get more involved on a
regular basis now.

End result: Facilities and governments very impressed and many even
going to the trouble to allow (even to purchase!) fixed amateur radio
gear where none ever permanently was before. Mission accomplished. Just
being involved at any level can and will help make a difference.

We as amateur radio operators don't need a "disaster of the week", just
people who stay in the loop.

73,
Ron Dodson, KA4MAP
Former SEC Ky


-----Original Message-----
From: NRCEV@yahoogroups.com [mailto:NRCEV@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
N4AOF
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 9:16 PM
To: NRCEV@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [NRCEV] We DO have jobs to do

----- Original Message -----
From: Ron Dodson
Subject: RE: [NRCEV] We DO have jobs to do

> Joe Moell K0OV wrote:
>> I disagree. With a little effort, hams COULD have important jobs to
>> do on a week-to-week basis.
>
> I agree. In Kentucky we have several groups who assist regular
> localized activities.

But NOT Emergency Communications -- the difference between Emergency
Communications versus all these other kinds of Public Service
communications
is the key to the original discussion

> In western Kentucky, we have one group who regularly
> assists local EMA with checks on county storm warning
> devices (Sirens). They report on any which fail to activate
> during regular scheduled tests.

Scheduled siren tests bear no resembelence to emergency communications

This is a valuable service to the community.

Even more than just a valuable service to the community, it is
especially
important in that it maintains an on-going working relationship between
local hams and the EMA.

But it isn't Emergency Communications....
It isn't even practice for Emergency Communications

Again I am in no way disparaging the value of such service both the the
community and to ham radio.

> Another northern Kentucky ARES group are
> called in on almost any lost person search to
> support the law enforcement search efforts and
> yes, they are trained in lost person search and
> in many cases a good deal of the members have
> even taken search management training.

Now THIS may be Emergency Communications, or at least good practice for
Emergency Communications -- IF the hams are called to provide
communications
for the search rather than simply being a good source of ready manpower
for
the search.

Again (either way) it is a valuable service to the community.

And again (either way) it is important in that it maintains an on-going
working relationship between local hams and their local emergency
services
agencies.

> Other groups work with local CitizenCorps CERT’s

I'll pass on this one, because the role of emergency communicators in
CERT
is a potentially controversial issue.

> and regional National Disaster Medical System (NDMS)

Actually working with NDMS could involve emergency communications under
some
circumstances. But there are two realities which go against including
NDMS
as an example of routine callouts of hams for emergency communications
work:
1. NDMS hardly ever gets called out at all (and hardly ever runs serious

drills)
2. In the rare instances where NDMS would be used, by definition, it
would
not involve emergency communications, because NDMS is activated in an
unaffected area to receive casualties coming from a disaster or other
mass
casualty event.

> and Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS) activities
> while others work with regional weapons of mass destruction/
> haz-mat/ bio response teams that our state homeland security
> operate.

To the extent that the ham radio organizations are actually involved in
serving these agencies, it would represent good PRACTICE for emergency
communications. Unfortunately my observation has generally been that
ham
radio involvement with such agencies is mostly just on paper. "The
Plan"
includes ham radio support -- but the agencies rarely drill the plan and

when they do the ham radio support is either not played or is played
separately from the agency activities. Instead of reinforcing a close
working relationship between ham radio and the Served Agency, all too
often
such drills reinforce the mistaken concept that Emergency Communications

consists of hams-talking-to-other-hams.

> One south central Ky group performs “Highway Overpass
> Watch” details assisting local law enforcement in preventing
> trouble at interstate overpasses on events such as Halloween
> night.

Copy and Paste my comments about the Siren Tests here. ;-)

> There is a world of things one can do if you make the
> right connections and carry out requests responsibly.

ABSOLUTELY TRUE -- and both the contacts and the "things one can do" are

important -- but the are not emergency communications.

The original point someone made was that Emergency Communications is
different from routine "emergency" services like Fire, Police, and EMS;
and
that point is also absolutely true. There are "lots of things one can
do"
on a regular basis, but emergency communications simply is not one of
those
things.

73 de N4AOF





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