| Total number of ARES members | 1105 (592 active) | Change since last month | 29 |
| DECs reporting this month | 12 out of 15 Call Signs |
ARES nets active | 210 sessions in 35 nets |
| ECs reporting this month | 64 out of 75 Call signs |
Nets with NTS Liaison | most nets from 37 liaison stations |
| Number of Drills, tests and training sessions this month | 68 | Person hours | 663 |
| Number of Public service events this month | 28 | Person hours | 656 |
| Number of Emergency operations this month | 2 | Person hours | 12 |
| Total number of ARES operations this month | 96 | Person hours | 1309 |
Comments By District
District 13:
- Montgomery County: Operation North Wind SET was a great opportunity to hone our skills and further relationships with local agencies and other hams in the community. Special thanks to the National Weather Service in Blacksburg, Floyd Co. ARES, and the Virginia Tech Amateur Radio Club for their participation in this worthwhile event.
- Franklin: Operation North Wind conducted simulating failure of all external antenna systems due to severe ice damage using magnetic mount antennas on metal chairs. Performance poor but subsequently have arranged for 3 stations with emergency power and antennas to operate cross-band 70/2 to other jurisdictions. Great learning experience!
- Patrick/Henry Counties: "Operation North Wind" was a very good SET. Our team preformed as good as it could which was more than adequate. I think the entire SET was excellent and showed all represented area's proficiency was up to par.
- Montgomery County: Preparation for OPERATION NORTH WIND and execution in a training mode with Montgomery County ARES.
Operation North Wind was an unqualified success and learning experience in serving our largest Served Agency - the American Red Cross. The sheer magnitude of the event pointed to potential technical problems with both our voice and digital systems that need be addressed as part of our training efforts in 2007. - We are poorer this year with Peter Cranwells loss as the EC for Craig County due to more pressing commitments and Pete has recommended a replacement.
District 12:
- ARES members supported a 100K "fun" run on 9 December involving some 14 ARES members, the county EC and me. 58 out of the 98 starters completed the race. K4YCR activated the Bedford Memorial Hospital VHF/UHF station in support of the training event over that same weekend. Happy New Year!
District 11:
- WW4GW reports: Continue to maintain liaison with adjacent counties and search for potential ARES members. Buckingham repeaters continue to function well.
- DEC comments: Things are slowly coming together in District 11. Our local group continues to slowly increase membership. I'd like to welcome Jason Hawkins, KI4SHC, as the newest member of District 11 and Brunswick County ARES. I'm sure Jason's presence will be an asset to the district.
District 9:
- Chesapeake has reviewed and published ARES Plan for Chesapeake, will be posted on website. Replacing antennas with poor SWR for shelters.
Virginia Beach - Participated in the VB Holiday Parade - Norfolk - Eager to attend a District Wide Meeting and listed events scheduled for February.
District 7:
- Hampton: Line 7 includes: 1) renovation of the EOC amateur radio installation. 9 people spent 5 hours installing new hard-line, antennas and cleaning out the EOC radio room. 2) 11 people participated in the Hampton Holly Days Parade. We kept the parade moving and helped solve problems as they arose.
- Gloucester/Mathews: Figures include all manpower for District 7 events Holly Dazzle and Gloucester Holiday Parade. District 7 personnel were augmented by members of the US Army's Dive team from Ft Eustis working the parking event at the Newport News Holly Dazzle Celebration. Due to high winds on Friday Night, the fireworks display was postponed until Saturday night. Saturday during the day, D7 folks supported the Gloucester County Holiday Parade working parade line up, traffic control, as well as ham and commercial band radio traffic. The district trailer was deployed to the Eastern Shore for a comm drill and was successful. Story is being put together for dissemination to various media outlets plus ARRL.
- Williamsburg - James City County: Dec. 1 & 2, Hollydazzle (participated in comm support)
District 6:
- "Operation North Wind" SET - several team members participated in this section wide SET. Traffic and operations were handled via 2M, Packet, and HF voice. There was over 201 messages handled using both ICS-213 and ARL Health and Welfare radiograms. Good learning experience for the participants.
- Richmond ARC - performed some basic radio upkeep and training for the D-700 Packet station at the Red Cross Communications center. Many thanks to Ricky AB4FJ (ADEC-6) and Steve K4CMR for their assistance in this work.
- Chesterfield ARES NET - this fairly new net has been going well. We are in our fifth week of operation and have been averaging about 10-11 check-ins each week.
- W4FEG: The net name changes as of 1-1-2007 from the Tri-county net to Goochland A.R.E.S net. We continue to train in our net sessions. The planning that went into the north wind set was great. We need more of this kind of training. I sure wish for all a great New Year.
District 5:
- Antenna installation has begun in Middlesex County at the EOC and Shelters.
District 4:
- District 4 is looking good!
- *From Dick Becker, W6LWG, EC/RO Orange County: “Participated in the VOPEX drill on Dec 5, 2006. Current ARES members of Orange VA (K0UN and W6LWG) were present as well as ARES member from Culpeper (KD4BWD), and volunteer operators (W4HDM, KI4KBO and KI4MNK). The drill exemplified the dedication of amateur operators as witnessed by the evaluators from FEMA and HLS. When the critique of our performance was made by the evaluators and EOC Ops Manager following the drill, we heard "You guys were awesome!" Everything clicked and we were able to provide support in the communications as defined in the applicable county operations manuals. The official critique mirrored the same response as in the end of drill comments. I applaud and I sincerely appreciate all who supported their counties in this drill. Way To Go!!”
- *From Tom Hitt, W4LLK, EC/RO Fredericksburg City: “Another quiet month.”
- *From Steve Lynd, KD4KNR, EC/RO King George County: “Continued testing County dual-band radios (#1231). Starting to determine which area repeaters KGFR Company 2 station can "hit." Plan to start testing packet gear in January.”
- *From Bart Bartholomew, N3GQ, EC/RO Stafford County: “On 6 Dec 06, the Stafford ARA president (Jerry, WA3CVB), trustee & previous EC(Emmett, K3EP), and EC/RO (Bart, N3GQ) met with the County Sheriff, EM, and Communications Director for 1 ½ hours to discuss short and long range repeater and EmComm plans. All County personnel were highly supportive. In January, we will jointly present Stafford County with our now 9-page short and long range (5-year) planning document that also requests supportive EmComm funding, most of which may have to come from grant funding, the source of which we are looking for! Emmett, K3EP (NCS) and I enjoyed participating in the 9 Dec 06 Southwest Virginia SET – got my 80m NVIS dipole up just in time! I am working on producing an EmComm Tip Sheet for use during EmComm and club weekly nets – have 93 quick tips so far.”
District 3:
- December was a quiet month in District 03. We are still awaiting a more thorough after action report from Louisa County on the VOPEX exercise. While there was little activity around the District, there were no problems reported.
- From Albemarle County EC AD6JV: Quiet month! Happy New Year!
- From Green County EC N3DFS:
Slow month in Greene. Have finalized the training manual, bought notebooks. Have more plans for Jan 07.
From Louisa County EC KD4OUZ: - December was a good month for us out here in Louisa. We had a total of three successful drills. All related to VOPEC. Louisa came out at 100% with the MAIN VOPEC drill. There were no write ups on anyone that took part on this. ARES and the County, along with other folks like the Red Cross, VDOT CERT, etc. came out squeaky clean. It was a job well done by all counts. Some time I hope in the first quarter of 2007, I will be meeting up with the head coordinator again to talk over getting some more equipment into the EOC.
District 2:
- December was a quite month for the most part. Loudoun County participated in the annual First Night Leesburg. We heard from Dulles Airport and the planning for the tri-annual Dulles Disaster Drill, scheduled for May 5, 2007, will begin on January. All of the jurisdictions that actively participate have been notified. Those are Loudoun County ARES, Prince William County ARES, and Fairfax County ARES. The lead for the amateur support for the drill will be Tom Dawson, WB3AKD as the crash for the drill will occur in Loudoun County. Prince William and Fairfax Counties will be providing ARESMAT support to Loudoun County. Howard Cunningham, WD5DBC, will be providing support between the three ARES teams as DEC.
Henry L. Wyatt II - K4YCR
ARRL VA Section Emergency Coordinator
January 17, 2007