ARES/RACES
COMMUNICATIONS PLAN
This document describes the
plan for Auxiliary Emergency Radio Communications by Amateur Radio. This plan covers activation under normal
condition (FCC jurisdiction) and
special conditions (FEMA jurisdiction).
In the State of
The ARES/RACES organization
operates under the rules and regulations of the Federal Communications
Commission, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Parameters
set forth by the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) for the Amateur Radio
Emergency Service.
The County ARES/RACES organization is
managed by the Emergency Manager for
The ARES/RACES organization
consists of Amateur Radio Operators who own their own equipment. Further, the Amateur Radio Emergency Service
is able to provide trained operators; and, an extremely resilient and trained
force of operators with equipment to call upon in times of emergency. It is the role of the ARES/RACES to
coordinate this resource.
The ARES/RACES organization
is not used as a standard communication channel between emergency management
agencies when and where common carrier communications exist in sufficient
abundance to conduct normal communications.
The ARES/RACES organization
will be activated immediately upon presence or threat of emergency and will be
of the greatest service during the initial phase of an emergency situation. It
is further assumed that the use of ARES/RACES will decline slowly during an
emergency as other services are restored to provide necessary communications.
The
ARES/RACES organization may continue operation after communication service is
no longer required by the County. This
will further serve the people of
The
ARES/RACES organization will provide licensed radio operators, along with
privately owned equipment, to provide support to official emergency management
agencies in times of emergency. It is
noted that this service is highly resilient, extremely well equipped, and is a
volunteer organization.
When
the County ARES/RACES organization is activated, it will provide communications
for official emergency management agencies.
This role includes the transmission of messages between these agencies
and is to include, but is not limited to, movement of messages between the State of Oregon Emergency Coordination Center
and The County Emergency Operations Center, and Emergency Operations Centers
serving cities and other jurisdictions within the County.
Operations
outside the County or the State of
The
operation includes HF/VHF/UHF voice systems (where available), VHF packet
(printed message) radio networks.
The
ARES/RACES organization may be activated by contacting the Emergency Manager
for
In
extreme emergencies, any member of the State ARES/RACES organization may
activate the County ARES/RACES organization.
In
limited local situations, a local emergency management agency may activate the
local ARES/RACES organization by contacting their local ARRL appointed Assistant
Emergency Communications Coordinator and requesting activation.
Until
officially notified that an emergency exists by a governmental official, all
ARES/RACES members will treat the incident as a potential emergency. While
this may not appear significant, it is imperative that an official declaration
of emergency is made before extraordinary actions are taken.
V. EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES
The
Following statements are guidelines for operation and management of resources
during a communications emergency. By
the vary nature of being an emergency, some degree of improvisation will be
necessary to accomplish the goals. The
following list is non-sequential and without
priority ranking except where noted.
·
The ARES/RACES
Emergency Coordinator or Assistant Coordinator should notify the other
management members as soon as possible after being notified that an emergency
situation exists.
·
The second
person notified begins the telephone calling tree to notify the remainder of
the organization. This is normally the
Net Manager assigned by the
·
The third person
notified should begin a net control operation on the 2 meter repeater frequency
designated. The third person may
designate another station to act as net control. A backup net control station should be
designated when a suitable station is available.
·
The Emergency
Coordinator or Assistant EC will be dispatched to the incident site to command communications
resources at the site and to establish communications links with the
·
The Emergency
Coordinator or Assistant EC will activate the Emergency Operations Center
Communications Section.
·
If the scope of the
emergency warrants, shifts of personnel need to be established. Each shift should have an Emergency
Coordinator or Assistant EC to supervise operations. If the work load is heavy, rotating shifts of
six hours is desired. If the load is
lighter, eight hour shifts are acceptable.
In extreme situations, twelve hour shifts may be needed.
·
Consideration
needs to be given to those volunteers who need to be at their place of
employment. In such cases, scheduling
these members in an evening time slot may be helpful.
·
If there is a
shortage of Emergency Coordinator or Assistant EC's, a lead person needs to be
identified for each shift and location.
·
If the emergency
situation may evolve to one of the communities becoming isolated (flooding,
slides, extreme weather, forest fires), the duty EC shall deploy as many
volunteers as necessary as early as possible to the impacted area.
·
If deploying
individuals to a remote site, establish a safe staging area where all
individuals can rendezvous before proceeding to the remote site. The lead vehicle will be the convoy
leader. The convoy should agree on a
simplex radio frequency and all vehicles in the convoy should be on that convoy
simplex frequency. If possible, one
vehicle in the convoy should be operational on the NCS operational frequency (the
second vehicle in line is usually a good choice). In difficult terrain, all vehicles should
maintain contact with each other.
Contact may be visual or by radio.
·
Estimate the
staffing needs for the emergency with a moving three-day window. That is, estimate the staffing needs for the
next three days, and update the estimate each day until the emergency
ends. Schedule specific volunteers to shifts
where possible. Where staffing needs
fall short, be prepared to request mutual aid assistance from District I or the
State EOC. If mutual aid resources are
needed, try to schedule at least one
·
Try to limit the
number of volunteers in the EOC to three.
·
In field operations,
it may be necessary to assign a radio operator to a specific field officer with
the objective of providing that officer with immediate on-site communications.
·
Keep a list of
all communications members who have participated, including EOC, field, and
home stations. Include an accurate
estimate as possible of the date and hours of participation for each
volunteer. Summarize the data and report
it to the Emergency Manager for the County and the Emergency Communications
Manager for ARES for the State of
·
Station
operators must realize that all traffic over the ARES communication circuits is
privileged communications. Even though it is operated over open airways
and the general public may freely listen to communications, NO ARES OPERATOR WILL DISCUSS OR ATTEMPT TO
INTERPRET ANY COMMUNICATIONS FOR ANYONE OTHER THAN THE PERSON DESIGNATED TO
RECEIVE THAT COMMUNICATION. NO ARES
MEMBER WILL, IN THE PERFORMANCE OF HIS OR HER DUTIES, PROVIDE ANY STATEMENT TO
ANY MEMBER OF THE MEDIA, OTHER THAN DIRECTING HIM OR HER TO THE PUBLIC
INFORMATION OFFICER.
The Emergency Coordinator
may activate the net at anytime to test the effectiveness of the net.
AT NO TIME MAY AN ARES MEMBER CARRY, DISPLAY OR USE
ANY FIREARM
·
Establish a net
control station outside of the
·
Have the EOC be
a station on the net rather than be the net control. This keeps fewer operators in the EOC where
space is limited.
·
The Following is
the general priority for establishing communications circuits:
1. Two meter FM repeater net and net control
2. Two meter FM link to incident site
3. Two meter FM link to District 1
4. HF link to
5. Two meter packet to NODE mailbox on line.
6. Any additional frequency for additional capacity
as needed
7. Any frequency for out-bound Health/Welfare traffic
·
Establish
maintenance or servicing schedules for equipment. For example, gasoline and oil for field
generators and mobile stations, weather proofing emergency shelters and
antennas.
·
Analyze volume
of traffic and reliability of each communication circuit and make adjustments
as necessary.
·
If the site is
remote and without reliable cellular telephone service, contact Airtouch Cellular and AT&T Cellular and request a
portable cell site. Airtouch Cellular name for the
portable site is COW (Cellular on Wheels).
This request will aid relief agencies in the recovery phases.
·
If the emergency
is large be prepared to establish a communications site with an Army Reserve or
National Guard Unit. This assignment
could be either at a fixed field location or with a mobile command post. The biggest issue is to establish and
maintain inter-agency communications.
The same plan may be true for other served agencies.
Radio Procedures and Identification
·
The radio callsign for the
Emergency Operations Center for Columbia County is KC7TLZ.
When operating 2m or 70cm
(440) FM voice, use an individual's callsign when
calling that when calling or identifying a location, use a location identifier
for example:
C-Com
Vernonia Fire,
Scappoose
Fire,
Location shelter Each shelter or site with location name and type of operation
(ie:
"High School Shelter" or "Supply
Coordination"
It is not necessary, and is a waste of time to use
the procedure of calling a station as “KC7XXX this is KC7ZZZ”. When there is a change of radio operators at
a given location, the new operator should identify himself/herself using their
own callsign.
This aids in tracking personnel.
Keep your own personal log, including dates, time, and locations.
·When
operating 2m FM voice, the following prosing or control words are helpful
Over
Pausing for a reply from another
station
Out
Last transmission in this
communication has been sent
Closing
Station This station is leaving the
air and may not listen for any additional calls
Wait
/Standby Instructs the other station
to stop transmitting and wait for further instructions.
Some operators will use QRX. While not particularly appropriate for voice, it means Wait or Standby.
·
If your station
needs to move a message in a net controlled session, at the next pause in
activity simply say your callsign (or location) and
the precedence of your traffic. For
example, “Scappoose Shelter “- “Priority”.
After recognition from Net Control, announce you have “Priority for (callsign or location)”.
Then wait for Net
Control to give you permission to call your desired station. Then, proceed with the transmission of the
message.
·
In so far as
practical, formal traffic should be in writing and signed by the originating
official to insure authenticity and accuracy.
There are forms available for this.
The
High Frequency (HF) Network operates on 3,993.5 MHz (primary) with backup frequencies of 7.228, and
1.928 MHz. The use of backup frequencies
is governed by propagation.
A UHF/VHF regional
communications network developed through the use of simplex and duplex operation
to provide communications to the EOC.
The
local ARES nets operate in the 144-148 MHz band with the specific frequency of 146.88 negative offset (pl tone of 114.8Hz)
for
The Packet BBS system for the
emergency management operates under the VRNONA node for mid and south-county. Far north-county (
This list is not intended to
limit or restrict modes of operation for ARES/RACES organizations. This list specifies the minimum operation
expected in statewide emergency situations.
(See attached Appendixes)
All voice and Morse code
(CW) traffic is to be handled in standard, official ARRL message format with
full use of check numbers. Traffic
requires all ARRL fields with the exception of the handling instructions, which
are optional (See
Appendix). Operational messages may use
less formal procedures. The intent is to
use less formal procedures when communication is direct between to stations and
the message is not third party in nature.
These messages should still be logged, who, what, when, where.
All packet traffic should be
handled in ARRL format or other recognized state-wide format whenever possible
and whenever it does not otherwise obscure or delay the handling of the message
(See Appendix).
The
following message hierarchical precedence is to be use:
·
Emergency The highest priority. Message content is most urgent and contains
information relating to potential loss of life or serious injury. Messages with this precedence take priority
over all other messages and demand immediate allocation of communications
assets.
·
Priority This is and urgent message that needs to be
forwarded through the communications systems with great speed.
Welfare A
Welfare or Health & Welfare message contains information concerning the
well-being of the originator or is a query about the addressee. Within the Welfare Priority, all out-bound messages from the disaster
area take precedence over in-bound queries.
In the early phases of an emergency situation, all Welfare messages,
both in-bound and out-bound may be refused so as to keep communication resources
available for operational and priority tasks
Routine These
messages are more casual in nature. A
routine message has contents that are not mission critical and will not inflict
undue hardship or distress on either the originator or recipient.
CALLING TREE for COLUMBIA COUNTY
John Clouse, Emergency Management Coordinator,
EOC at
Martin Anderson, KC7ILK, ARES/RACES Emergency
Coordinator,
Cell phone: 503 396-1835 E Mail:
kc7ilkmartin@ados.com
ST. HELENS
Robert Hafer, KC7PD, ARES
Assistant EC,
Robert Dent, WA7WIM, ARES Assistant EC,
CLATSKANIE
Carl Reische,
KD7COF, ARES Assistant EC, Clatskanie 503-728-9783
RAINIER
Stan Lewis, WA7SL, ARES Assistant EC, Rainier 503
556-1924
SCAPPOOSE
Scott Nielson, W7SVT, ARES
Assistant EC, Chapman 503-556-5277
MIST-BIRKENFELD
Dan MacDougall, KC7WUM, ARES
Assistant EC, Mist 503-755-2115
VERNONIA
Norm Roberts, KB7CD, ARES Assistant EC, Vemonia 503- 429-2405
EOC Tactical Call is Vernonia
Fire, W7VER Sysop:
KB7CD, Norm
Vernonia Fire Business Phone: 503
429-8252
Chief Paul Epler, KC7YRB
Vernonia Police Business Phone: 503
429-7335
AREA RADIO FREQUENCIES
Repeater List for
Location
144-148 MHz
State wide 145.250/- TEST
Clatskanie 145.350/- W7RAM
Scappoose 146.740/- W7SVT 114.8
Tillamook 147.220/+ W7HNR
Tillamook 147.260/+ N7QFT
Waldport 147.000/+ KA7TRY
Kelso 147.300/+ 114.8
420-450 MHz
Repeaters
State wide 442.000/+ TEST
Clatskanie 444.500/+ KC9TX 127.3
Scappoose 444.625/+ N7BRU
Waldport 444.475/+ KA7TRY 100.0
Raymond 443.825/+ KA7DNK 100.0
Camas 443.925/+ W7AIA
APPENDIX
C PACKET CONFIGURATION & ROUTING
With packet radio, no time is wasted trying to
decipher communications that contain "hit" and "misses"
caused by electrical interference or changes in propagation. It uses the radio spectrum efficiently. One radio frequency can support many packet
users. It also uses time
efficiently. This is done by
Bulletin-board systems by permitting packet operators to store messages for
retrieval by other amateurs at a later time.
One
of the disadvantages of packet radio on a BBS network is "hidden
transmitters". These are individuals
who are connecting with each other on the same frequency that the BBS is
on. The BBS will not transmit packets if
the squelch is activated, and if the BBS does transmit, packet collisions
happen and cause more time and power to get the messages through to the
receiving station.
To address this problem, the following procedures
were adopted and became State policy:
·
The
·
The EC of the
affected City or
·
The EC of the
affected City or
·
It is the
responsibility of the Packet Radio Operations Manager at each City or County
EOC to arrange with the nearest operational packet radio digital network BBS operator (BBS Sysop) to implement regular polling of
the effective packet radio station mail drop located at the local EOC. (In
cases where the local EOC maintains a network BBS, polling a mail drop is not
necessary. The new operational
procedures will then only apply to the local BBS operation within the EOC)
·
The Packet Radio
Operations Manager at each City or
County EOC will provide for at least one alternate mode of packet (another packet BBS) link from the local EOC that will also
utilize polling as the primary communications method to fink with the existing
digital network for the mode chosen.
·
Regular tests
should be scheduled to evaluate the effectiveness of new operational
procedures. Unscheduled use by each EOC
is encouraged as well as locally conducted exercises.
·
The Packet Radio
Operations Manager will maintain a pool of qualified amateur operators at each
local EOC through regular training sessions that shall reflect any changes in
hardware and/or software used in the local operation, as well as any changes in
the new operational procedures as determined by the EOC or the State Task
Group.
·
These new
operational procedures are intended to simplify packet radio operations on the
part of the local EOC. The new
procedures will remove the necessity, by local EOC operators, to access the
packet radio network for the purpose of sending and receiving messages as level
2 users. This will greatly reduce
training requirements and provide the local EOC with a broader operator pool
who may have limited or no knowledge of the packet radio net-work.
These
new operational procedures apply primarily to EOC operations that do not operate
a fully operational 24 hour network BBS.
EOC's that do operate a network BBS need only
be concerned with training local operators in the operation of the BBS.
SETTING UP MAILDROP:
AEA users turn on the maildrop
with the MAIL ON command. Kantronics TNCs enable the maildrop by
allocating memory to it by using the PBBS (n) (FIO) command. The PBBS defaults to 5K or 100K) depending on your
TNC and memory. Set your maildrop callsign to your call
with an "SSID" of "-I" which means if your call is W7JX-U,
you would use W7JXU-1.
AEA MYMAIL
W7JXU-1 (FIO)
Kantronics: MYPBBS W7JXU-1 (FIO)
You
can name your maildrop of 6 character (or less) name,
such as JXUBBS if you wish, but this is atypical. Study
your TNC manual on how to set up the Mailbox system, and test it out by using
it..
MAIL FORWARDING:
·
Some ideas from seasoned ARES packet users:
Use
tactical calls for the EOC packet station.
Do not use the operators personal call, as this causes confusion when the shifts
changes. Do not use simplex frequencies
normally used by voice or popular communications channels. Set your TNC users to 1, because you can't
talk to more than one channel at a time and not get confused. Make sure you are familiar with the packet
software so you don't have to train on it at the worst possible time. To control the connection, the station initiating
the connect should also make the disconnect. Use "over" prompts, such as the
"double prompt" (>>).
Use this as the packet version of "over" or "back to
you". Don't forget to set the
"flag” to reverse forwarding at the end of your message.
All the users of packet in the county should be on
the same BBS mailbox. All the EOCs should have it’s own callsign and have sent that information to the State EOC
packet system, KC7KFI.
N7QQU - KEN
- ASEC/ARC Liaison
N7QQU@WORLI.OR.USA.NOAM N7QQU-3 145.77
DISTRICT ZERO - STATE:
ECC
- W7OEM@W7OEM.#SALEM.OR.USA.NOAM
EC
-
SYSOP
- EVAN N7IFJ@KC7KFI
RACES
- TAMI W7HEC@KC7KFI
DISTRICT ONE
NET
MANAGER - BONNIE
ECC -?
(N) K70US@KA7AGH.OR.USA.NOAM
EC
- DAVE KA7IJK@W0RLI.OR.USA.NOAM
SYSOP
- ALLEN N7YAF@W0RLI
Asst. SYSOP - MFKE KB7VNS@KA7AGH.OR.USA.NOAM
EOC
- Clatsop Emergency Services - KC7OOH-6
EC
- SCOTT KC7OOH@W7FBM.OR.USA.NOAM
SYSOP
- MIKE N7LFK@W7FBM
EOC - COUNTY COURTHOUSE KC7TLZ- I .
EC - MARTIN KC7ILK@W7VER@OR.USA.NOAM
AEC - NORM KC7CD@W7VER@OR.USA.NOAM
ECP - KC7TLZ-2 C-COM - SYSOP - BOB WA7WIM
ECP - W7VER-5 VERNONIA FIRE - SYSOP - NORM
KC7CD@W7VER
ECP - KC7TLZ-3 SCAPPOOSE FIRE - SYSOP - SCOTT W7SVT
ECP - KC7TLZ-9
ECC - ECCMB on 144.99