New Alabama Section Manager

William (Jay) Isbell, KA4KUN

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2007/11/21/100/?nc=1

2007 SKYWARN Recognition Day
November 30th 6 PM through December 1st 6 PM

Governor Riley signs, 2007

Amateur Radio Week Proclamation!

Alabama Amateur Radio OP Participates

in the 2007 National Hurricane Conference

Alabama amateurs deliver a 1, 2, 3 training punch in March 2007!

• March 1^st, State EMA Pandemic Exercise

• March 8^th, State EMA, industry and Alabama Homeland Security Mobile Communications Functional Exercise

• March 14^th,  Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) Exercise

Amateur radio operators from all over the state found themselves providing Emergency Management communications support for real life exercises. From delivering Pandemic supplies across the state, supporting communications vehicle upgrade test and evaluation to providing vital communications support for a large scale mock chemical spill disaster. 

Amateurs took the exercises to heart and gained valuable real life experience from these activities.  Amateurs put their training to the test and it paid off.  These type events provide great training and vital relationship building opportunities between amateur radio and our served agencies.  During a disaster is not the time to meet your emergency manager.

Alabama amateur radio emergency service has been busy in March.  The March exercises were kicked off with an actual disaster on March 1^st. The deadly Tornado outbreak that covered most of Alabama killed nine people in Enterprise Alabama.  Amateur radio played vital roles on this day supporting the exercise and emergency communications.

March 1st

State EMA Pandemic Exercise

March 1st was more than the first day of March for some ARES members in Alabama.  It was the first time we have played an active role in an Alabama Department of Public Health Strategic National Stockpile Transportation exercise.  The event, Co-sponsored by the Montgomery County / City EMA, saw participation of amateur volunteers organized from 20 counties to provide secondary communications for convoys of simulated vaccines destined for a hypothetically pandemic stricken population of Alabama.  These agencies needed to know how long it would take to have the medications reach distribution points in the state, and what communication road blocks might be encountered along the way.

Some ARES volunteers began their day long before the sun rose, traveling to Montgomery from Mobile, Jefferson, and Madison Counties to take part in this real-time exercise.  Outfitted with mobile HF, APRS, D-STAR and UHF/VHF radios, some 11 vehicles joined the Department of Conservation armed escorts in convoys to see not only that vaccines could be timely delivered, but that agencies in Montgomery knew where they were, and that checkpoints had been reached.  HF Reports were relayed from stations not originally part of the exercise, showing the amateur community truly steps in when needed.  Many repeaters, private and club owned were utilized as were digipeaters scattered throughout the routes covered over this 3 1/2 hour convoy. 

After action reports showed great abilities, and capabilities of our volunteers.  BUT, there is always room for improvement and we did find that to be true here as well.  On the bright side, the participants demonstrated excellent teamwork and professionalism, amateur volunteers successfully demonstrated an initial capability to manage communications during a statewide SNS delivery, and participants demonstrated a positive attitude and the ability to recognize and react to shortfalls as they were uncovered and to smoothly adjust operations.  However; Alabama needs to make a push for better digipeater coverage, HF monitoring stations were found to be primarily in the "skip-zone" and should be placed further from the affected areas, and better use of linked repeaters such as D-STAR or Echolink and IRLP nodes could have been used to extend the reporting capabilities of mobile stations.  Despite the shortcomings uncovered, it was a great exercise and we received high marks for our performance.

March 8th

Homeland Security has placed 9, fully loaded, emergency communications vehicles in Alabama.  These vehicles are positioned in strategic locations across Alabama.  Each vehicle contains satellite internet, computers, video, on board and off-board power generators, a powerful switch matrix, networking and a load of radios including amateur radio.

Fort Payne Alabama hosted this first full scale functional field test and evaluation for the Alabama Homeland Security project.  Amateur radio operators assisted in the evaluation of the communications test and capability for the EMA.   The Fort Payne, Northeast Alabama area has many diverse mountain and valley terrains which provide many RF “black holes” These areas provides excellent challenging conditions for an communications test.

Amateurs from around the area including the Alabama SM and SEC provided valuable feedback to EMA concerning vehicle form, fit and function.  These vehicles are a great asset to Alabama emergency capabilities noted Alabama SEC Jay Isbell, KA4KUN.

March 14th

Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP)

The Calhoun County Alabama ARES/RACES group and many amateurs in surrounding counties and across the state was involved in a mach Weapons of Mass Destruction Exercise. Randall Landers KG4EUD the Calhoun County Emergency Coordinator for ARES and Assistant District Emergency Coordinator for District 7, coordinated the ARES and RACES operations from the Calhoun County EMA. The exercise was held at the Anniston ARMY Depot, that houses seven percent of the Nations stockpile of chemical weapons that was mandated to be destroyed by congress in 1986. The destruction of chemical weapons is called CSEPP, Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program.

The drill started when a mach helicopter crashed into an igloo that housed VX Nerve Agent. That caused a plume of VX Nerve Gas to be released into the air. All residents in Calhoun County have a Tone Alert Radio that goes off if an accident ever occurs at the depot. The residents would be told to either evacuate or to shelter in place. Also the entire region is broken into grid zones. After the first call went out that a level IV event has occurred at the depot,

ARES/RACES group members responded to predetermined locations, agencies and hospital's and the EOC. Once the EOC staff was set, the group was handed Emergency Alert System Messages that told which zones we're to evacuate, and which zones we're to shelter in place. The EOC staff comprised of Ken Yates, KI3N which was primary net control for the exercise. Lee Green KG4GQT was the radio relief and computer grid zone mapping. While Randall Landers KG4EUD was in charge of operations, he also used D-STAR radio and computer with D-CHAT software to use Digital Data to stay in touch with other agencies and keep voice frequencies free. He also used the D-CHAT software to stay in contact with the back-up command center.

Tracy Stephens went to the Joint Information Center for FEMA Communications Support. Jim Norton KG4WFO went to Regional Medical Center, Calhoun counties largest hospital for communication support and to give up to date information as it come through the EOC. KI4GLX David Craig manned Stringfellow hospital for communication support. Dave Dostie AE9Q was at the Anniston ARMY Depot at the SIMCELL giving injects for all surrounding counties during the exercise.

The group used 80 meters on HF, VHF D-STAR for D-CHAT Digital Data, VHF repeaters for communication support for Nextel two-way communications and 800 MHz Digital Trunking system.

Surrounding counties we're involved in the exercise, however the plume never left Calhoun County. The exercise had all agencies involved and many elected official's. The entire exercise was evaluated by federal evaluators. FEMA Region 4 Director Phil May and FEMA CSEPP Project Manager Terry Madden K5ZFN was on hand at the Calhoun County EOC. Terry Madden was amazed at the new technology of D-STAR and the use of D-CHAT and it capabilities.

During the after action meeting, the federal evaluators had nothing but great remarks to say about the Calhoun County ARES/RACES group. How they have solved previous issues at the hospitals with using Amateur Radio as another communication tool to receive fast accurate information.

This was a very real and successful exercise for the Anniston ARMY Depot and over 100,000 residents of Calhoun County Alabama, noted Randall Landers KG4EUD, Calhoun County ARES Emergency Coordinator. Residents that live just hundreds of feet from the Depot property. The Depot has safely destroyed thousands of chemical munitions over the past several years.

Alabama Be Ready Day

Amateur radio receives positive mention in two federal Katrina Lessons Learned Reports.

Click on pictures to read the report.