Thirteen Amateur Radio operators from the Amateur Radio Club of Alameda (ARCA) and ARES® participated in a disaster-response shelter exercise in the City of Alameda on Saturday January 9, 2010, at the request of the American Red Cross Bay Area. The exercise tested the ability of the City of Alameda’s CERT volunteers to open and operate shelters and an Emergency Volunteer Center for the city under Red Cross guidelines. It was assumed that telephone and Internet communications were unusable, so participants were able to use only Amateur Radio volunteer services for communications among the simulated exercise units: the City EOC, the Emergency Volunteer Center (EVC), two shelters, and the Red Cross command center.

For the Amateur Radio volunteers, the exercise began as they checked in on a Resource Net on the ARCA K6QLF 70cm repeater. Available ham resources were directed to the exercise site where they received assignments as net control operators or embedded communications resources. The operators set up and managed two tactical nets on simplex frequencies. Those nets successfully carried simulated message traffic among the exercise units, allowing the CERT volunteers to obtain needed resources and manage their operations successfully.

Participants met in a post-exercise “hot wash” to review what worked well and what needed improvement. The exercise underscored the importance of Amateur Radio in times of disaster, and it confirmed needs for continued training and for future joint exercises involving disaster preparedness groups serving the City of Alameda.

ARES and ARCA participants included Ron Bigelow KF6LSY, Fred Blas KI6BES, Garret Conklin KJ6GEC, Anthony Disalvo KI6TZG, Bruce Gillis KI6CYT, Shari Goforth-Eby K6AVW, Rose Kennedy K6LEZ, Sanford Lavine KO6JF, Chris Machini KI6TYY, Mike Piper KI6NHE, Flavia Rogers KJ6BIQ, Marianne Schenone KI6MYU, and Michael John Torrey KF6YRG.

Sanford Lavine KO6JF
Emergency Coordinator for the City of Alameda, East Bay Section
ARRL, The National Association for Amateur Radio™
www.arrl.org

The Benicia Amateur Radio Club conducted a 10 hour drill on Oct 15th as part of the “Great California Shakeout.” Launched at 1015 hrs, stations from Solano, Contra Costa and San Francisco counties checked in hourly simulating their availability. As directed by the Auxiliary Communication Service (ACS) of Solano County OES, Amateur Radio Operators are not to self-deploy but rather, to check in on their ACS repeaters and await assignments. This drill was intended to provide a typical resource list of such available stations.

The initial activation of the Benicia EOC Amateur Radio room began just after 1000 hrs with two Division Fire Chiefs observing. Following the first of eleven hourly nets, the Fire Chiefs expressed how impressed they were with the wide ranging turnout. Newspaper coverage announced the planned event for some very positive coverage.

Averaging 18 to 20 Amateurs each hour resulted in a total of over 200 checkins operating from batteries, vehicles and generators proving that loss of commercial power would not present a problem as 100% of the participants were using alternative power sources. The drill concluded at 2008 hrs.

Thanks to members of Satern, MDARC, Benicia CERT (BERT) and Benicia ARC for their participation.

Congratulations to all on a successful drill.<

Art Mayoff, AB6HB, ACS Team Leader

Nominations are open for the 2009 ARRL International Humanitarian Award

<http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/awards/humanitarian.html>. The award is

conferred upon an amateur or amateurs who demonstrate devotion to human

welfare, peace and international understanding through Amateur Radio. The

League established the annual prize to recognize Amateur Radio operators

who have used ham radio to provide extraordinary service to others in

times of crisis or disaster.

A committee appointed by the League’s President recommends the award

recipient(s) to the ARRL Board, which makes the final decision. The

committee is now accepting nominations from Amateur Radio, governmental or

other organizations that have benefited from extraordinary service

rendered by an Amateur Radio operator or group.

Amateur Radio is one of the few telecommunication services that allow

people throughout the world from all walks of life to meet and talk with

each other, thereby spreading goodwill across political boundaries. The

ARRL International Humanitarian Award recognizes Amateur Radio’s unique

role in international communication and the assistance amateurs regularly

provide to people in need.

Nominations should include a summary of the nominee’s actions that qualify

the individual (or individuals) for this award, plus verifying statements

from at least two people having first-hand knowledge of the events

warranting the nomination. These statements may be from an official of a

group (for example, the American Red Cross, The Salvation Army, a local or

state emergency management official) that benefited from the nominee’s

particular Amateur Radio contribution. Nominations should include the

names and addresses of all references.

All nominations and supporting materials for the 2009 ARRL International

Humanitarian Award must be submitted in writing in English to ARRL

International Humanitarian Award,
 225 Main St , Newington ,
 CT 06111
 USA .

Nomination submissions are due by December 31, 2009. In the event that no

nominations are received, the committee itself may determine a recipient

or decide to make no award.

The winner of the ARRL International Humanitarian Award receives an

engraved plaque and a profile in QST and other ARRL venues.

Winners of the 2008 ARRL Humanitarian Award were the amateurs of the Sichuan

Radio Sports Association, the Chinese Radio Sports Association (CRSA) and

the many Amateur Radio operators in China who assisted with communications

support during aftermath of the May 2008 earthquake in that country.

I am once again, after a year or two off, coordinating communications for the Bay Area Ultra Runners’ Dick Collins Firetrails 50. This is a 50 mile race run (mostly over East Bay Regional Parks land) from Castro Valley (Lake Chabot Marina) to Berkeley (Lone Oak picnic area in Tilden park) AND BACK. There’s also a “mere” marathon run concurrently. The event is coming up fast and we need help again. This is a great chance to work with a terrific communications team to support a truly class event. (You can read all about FT50 at http://www.firetrails50.net/ ) It never fails to be a learning experience, even for those of us who have been doing public service and emergency communications for years.

This is a before-dawn to after-dark event (though only the insane work all those hours.) There are posts where a hand-held easily does the job, and others where some laws of physics must be strained to secure communications. Most posts can be driven to. One is a hike, or a run, or a bike ride. There’s something for everybody!

There will be further mailings, but if you want to get in on the fun please let me know as soon as possible. If you already know where/when you want to work, tell me. If you have time/travel restrictions, tell me that. If you need more information, tell me that. Please respond to ft50communications@sbcglobal.net.

Neil Fullagar, K6NCX
for 2009 Firetrails 50 & Golden Hills Marathon Communications
Alameda County Sheriff’s Communications Team