Wake County ARES

Please join us for the ARES Net this Thursday, Sept. 2nd about 9:15 (after the PCTN) on the 146.88 repeater. The net this week, in memory of hurricane Katrina 5 years ago, will host a presentation by Bob (k4rlc) Condor about what it was like to serve as an ARES and Red Cross volunteer during the aftermath. It will be interesting and enlightening. Bob will also discuss some volunteering differences between how things were and how they may be different now.

The following is a list of upcoming activities:

Sat. Sept. 25th – 9:00am – 12:00 noon – A training exercise to establish communications capabilities with the Wake Co. Mobile Command Center. The exercise will evaluate VHF simplex capabilities with selected hospital sites throughout Wake County. (If you plan to participate in this exercise please send me an e-mail ai4rt@hotmail.com and let me know in what part of the area you live). Listed below are the areas that need coverage for the simplex test:

WakeMed Raleigh Hospital (278.9 ft) – 3000 New Bern Ave, Raleigh, NC 27610
Duke Health Raleigh Hospital (308.4 ft) – 3400 Wake Forest Rd, Raleigh, NC 27609
Rex Healthcare Hospital (459.3 ft) – 4420 Lake Boone Tr, Raleigh, NC 27607
WakeMed Cary Hospital (462.6 ft) – 1900 Kildaire Farm Rd, Cary, NC 27518
WakeMed North Hospital (456 ft) – 10000 Falls of Neuse Rd, Raleigh, NC 27614
WakeMed Apex Hospital (459.3 ft) – 120 Healthplex Way, Apex, NC 27502

The Regional Centers are:

Eastern Wake Regional Center (347.8 ft) – 1002 Dogwood Dr, Zebulon, NC 27597
Northern Wake Regional Center (341.2 ft) – 350 E Holding Ave, Wake Forest, NC 27587
Southern Wake Regional Center (413.4 ft) – 130 N Judd Pkwy NE, Fuquay-Varina, NC 27526
Western Wake Regional Center (456 ft) – 232 High House Rd, Cary, NC 27513

The Mobile Command Van will be located at:
Wake County Commons Bldg. (282 ft) – 4011 Carya Dr., Raleigh, NC 27610

It is also evident that we will need various relays throughout the area. This exercise is a good opportunity for you to try out those transportable rigs, masts and antennas. We have now obtained approvals for specific set-up locations and for you to check out the location you would like to work and what type equipment you think will be needed for successful simplex contacts.

Our local SET that was planned for the end of October will now be combined with a Statewide SET that is being planned to take place sometime after that date. More information as received.

If you haven’t already, please complete the FEMA ICS 100, 200, 700 & 800 courses to become certified to participate in activities involving our served agencies, the State & County EOCs. These agencies are beginning to notch up their emphasis on even allowing anyone into their EOCs who is not certified.

If you have completed some or all of these courses, but not yet uploaded the information into our database, please make sure you do so. If you have problems please let me know so you we can help you with the process. The database feeds upstream and finally into the Homeland Security database of certified volunteers…. which will be used for field checking of volunteers certified to work with government agencies.

If you have any suggestions, questions or comments, please e-mail me.
ai4rt@hotmail.com

John
ai4rt
EC Wake Co., NC

The text of Bob’s Presentation is courtesy of SERA and is used with permission.

The following changes have taken place in ARES and are effective June 6, 2010

Tom Brown N4TAB is the Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC)

Steve Misel K4WEB is the Central Branch Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator (ASEC)

John Snellen AI4RT is the Wake County Emergency Coordinator  (EC)

NCEM/FEMA will conduct a FSE (Full Scale Exercise) on May 4 and 5, 2010.  This HURREX will simulate a major hurricane impacting the coastal region of NC and will include massive communications infrastructure failures.  ARES will activate at 0700 HRS on May 5th through 2000 HRS on Tuesday, May 5th and 0700 through 1900 HRS on Wednesday, May 6th.  Those Operators wishing to participate in this exercise should contact Tom N4TAB to volunteer.  Additional details may be available prior to the exercise, so check here for updates.

State ARES Meeting, April 24, 2020 in Raleigh.  Bernie Nobles WA4MOK, NC SEC has announced the annual State ARES meeting to be held at the NCEM State EOC on Saturday, April 24th, beginning at 10:30 AM. ARES members and Amateur Radio operators interested in ARES are invited to attend.

Contact N4TAB for additional information.

A graded FEMA Exercise for the Catawba NPP will take place on Tuesday, March 9, 2010.  Amateur Radio operators will be needed at the State EOC in Raleigh from about 0830 HRS unit about 1500 HRS.  Interested ARES members please contact N4TAB.

The Catawba NPP is located in York, SC and primary ARES support will be in the Charlotte general area, with the NCEM Western Branch office activated as the RCC for the exercise.

The State EOC in Raleigh will activate on Saturday, January 30th to support operations related to the winter event.  The state, National Weather Service and local utility companies are expecting significant snowfall with a high potential for disruption of power.

ARES is currently in LEVEL 3/Minimal Deployment mode in support of the State EOC.  We are currently “deployed from home” and maintaining awareness via WebEOC for actual deployment where needed.

Those of you who have completed the required training will be able to deploy.  Others who have not yet become compliant may be able to fill a role as a liaison station (from home).

If you are available to work this event, please contact me or Tom Brown with your availability.  Our contact information is listed on the Leaders page.

At this time, Wake County EM is still planning their initial response. It is likely that the Wake EOC will be activated, and may or may not need Amateur Radio backup.

Please review our Activation Levels and take the necessary steps to secure your safety.

73,

Stephen Misel K4WEB

DEC Central Branch

Update: 1/29/10 @9:45am: Per NCEM briefing, State EOC will activate in the evening of January 30th, not January 29th as previously stated.

The following information was presented by Stephen Misel, K4WEB, on this evening’s Wake ARES Net:

I’d like to announce that Wake County ARES is in the process of bringing in a new served agency, the City of Raleigh Emergency Management.

We were contacted earlier this month by James Mercer, Director of Raleigh Emergency Management.  James recognizes the value ARES represents and expressed an interest in forming a relationship with us.

We are in the process of assembling a list of equipment to be installed in the Raleigh EOC.  Once this equipment is procured and installed, Raleigh Emergency Management will officially become Wake County ARES’ third served agency, joining North Carolina Emergency Management and Wake County Emergency Management.

When the necessary equipment is operational, we anticipate the ability to operate two dual band VHF/UHF radios and an HF radio with voice and various data capabilities.  This configuration is similar to the setup currently in use in our radio room at the State EOC.

Wake County ARES will participate in a small exercise on January 22nd with Raleigh EM.  We do not anticipate the need for additional volunteers, since the necessary equipment is not yet in place.

This is a very exciting time for our group.  If you’re not currently a member, now is a great time to join.  For information on joining, please visit www.wakeares.org.

If you are a member and have not yet completed the mandatory training, we can not deploy you to any served agency for disaster service or drills until this traning is complete and we have your certificates on file.  Please understand this  is a state requirement and we have no discretion in the matter.  The good news is the training courses are available for free online and all required training can be completed in a few hours.  For more information on NIMS training, please visit www.wakeares.org and click on the Training tab.

NO WAKE EM/NCEM ARES ACTIVATION IS EXPECTED for this event, however your maintaining Situational Awareness is prudent.  Should activation occur, info will be posted here and coordination will take place via the 146.880 repeater.  Make sure that you have the relevent ARES frequencies programmed in your radios.  That info is on this website.

Those who have received WebEOC training can log into WebEOC as you were trained and using the password that you were given during training.  Be careful not to post anything into WebEOC unless you have been instructed to do so (i.e. Read-Only).

Tom Brown N4TAB EC Wake County, A-SEC Central Branch

North Carolina Emergency Management’s monthly newsletter MEMO has a MARS Winlink article on the front page!  Special thanks to everybody that contributed to this effort, over a several year period.  Click this:

http://www.nccrimecontrol.org/div/em/newsletters/November2009.pdf

Allan Sadowski AH6LS has been appointed as DEC for the Central Branch of NC ARES.  In this role, Allan will continue high level support and expansion of the MARS Winlink system in use by NC agencies and provide guidance and direction to Central Branch activities, in general.