| Total number of ARES members | 1093 | Change since last month | -44 |
| DECs reporting this month | 13 out of 15 Call Signs |
ARES nets active | 142 sessions in 32 nets |
| ECs reporting this month | 49 out of 75 Call signs |
Nets with NTS Liaison | most of these nets |
| Number of Drills, tests and training sessions this month | 92 | Person hours | 996 |
| Number of Public service events this month | 32 | Person hours | 1347 |
| Number of Emergency operations this month | 2 | Person hours | 15 |
| Total number of ARES operations this month | 87 | Person hours | 1983 |
DEC Comments
2 National Capitol
What a MONTH. Never, ever schedule your entire operational event schedule in a 45 day period. Between the 1st of April and the 20th of May, there are no less than one major event EVERY weekend and some weekends had two or more. Toss in two major drills (Vertex/NCR Hurricane and Dulles) and you have all the ingredients for burn out, both at the operator level and at the leadership level. By Field Day, most ARES folks will probably be saying, "Ah, a weekend we DON'T have to operate." Yes, it has been that busy. And at some point, I still have after action reports to write.
The entire district is ramping up for the tri-annual Dulles International Airport Disaster Drill to be held on May 5. The district will have amateur radio operators at the "crash site", on 6 patient transport busses, 7 medical facilities, both hospitals and urgent care facilities. We will have operators at the airport EOC, the heliport landing zone, the triage area, shadows for selected officials. The next large scale event for District 2 will be the 32nd Marine Corp Marathon. The first planning meeting with the Marine Corp is scheduled for the early part of May.
3 Northern Piedmont
The big change this month was the transfer of Louisa County from District 3 to District 4. This was a move supported by all involved parties that makes sense in terms of the location of the North Anna NPS and its proximity to larger populations of Orange and Spotsylvania Counties. Also, the VERT exercise was a big part of the April activity from District 3 covered in a separate submission.
- Albemarle County, AD6JV : A quiet month.
- Greene County, N3DFS : Greene County Emergency Net continues active with a few participants. Have finished editing the Greene Co ARES Manual and have put together 5 so far. Will add to it periodically. 3 new ARES registrants this month, trying to encourage more to register.
- Fluvanna County K4MSR : Lake Monticello womans 2000 meter 2nd week. Provided communications for the event.
- Buckingham County WW4GW : The District 3 ARES meeting was held this month at the Buckingham County EOC and was attended by the Buckingham County emergency coordinator thereby providing us all with a chance to become acquainted. Afterwards we performed a communications test from the EOC to certain locations within Buckingham County that the emergency dispatch office had identified as problem areas. The test was very successful as the ARES personnel were able to communicate from these areas through multiple repeaters thereby providing redundant communication capabilities in case of an actual emergency. The Buckingham EOC did participate in the VERTEX exercise and in doing so verified their communications capabilities with the VADEM. The Buckingham County EC was present during all these comm tests and was very satisfied. I continue to check into the ODEN, the VDN and other nets to enhance my message handling skills and do act as NCS for one of the weekly VDN nets.
4 Upper Rappahannock
- Boyd, KO4WK, EC/RO, Caroline County: Another peaceful month. I see the hurricane predictions from Colo. St. Univ. expect 5 "intense hurricanes" this year. They have been quite accurate over the last several years (last year was an exception). So we all need to keep at being ready.
Our deputy director, Mark Garnett, KI4BML, is equipping the new emergency support trailer with a dual band antenna and a dual band rig for the ARES/RACES use. Thanks, Mark! - Dick, W6WLG, EC/RO, Orange County: A basic Sky Warn class has openings at Orange EOC on May 10, 6:30Pm - 9:00PM. Contact Melissa McDanials (540) 672-6374, for registration and more information.
- John, KD4OUZ, EC Louisa County: The County has requested a meeting, and we are in the middle of setting a date for this meeting. Our repeater is still in NC being worked on, and I have no further news on that at the moment. We are all looking forward to working with District Four, and all agree this was a very positive move for Louisa County.
- Evan, KE4BWD, EC/RO Culpeper County: No news.
- Steve, KD4KNR, EC/RO, King George County: Looking at outside projects with the arrival of better weather, and protective radio cases.
- Tom, KI4AFE, EC/RO, Spotsylvania County: Nothing new to report.
- Tom, W4LLK, EC/RO Fredericksburg City: Last quiet month for a while. This month and the next few will be busy.
- Bart, N3GQ, EC/RO, Stafford County: Our annual “Amateur Radio Demo Day” on 29 April at Porter Library was a success! Thanks to: Emmett, K3EP; Tom, AK1E; Harry, KI4JVE; Erik, KI4BXU; Al, W6BGB; Dee, K3KAT; and Bart, N3GQ. Emmett, K3EP strung up a Delta Dipole antenna outside and worked HF stations inside on an ICOM 756; Tom, AK1E demonstrated digital gear; Al, W6GBG demonstrated his Elecraft kits; Erik, KI4BXU demonstrated Morse Code equipment, nice keys, and CPOs; Harry, KI4JVE demonstrated his versatile portable packet radio station; and Dee, K3KAT and Bart, N3GQ staffed an EmComm table and PowerPoint laptop, served refreshments and snacks, and served as hosts. Photos to be posted on the District 4 list server.
We are looking forward to the Manassas Hamfest on 3 June – hope to see you there!
5 Rappahannock
- KD4QIT attempting to obtain permission to install an HF and VHF station, at his place of employment in the Rappahannock General Hospital, in Lancaster County.
- AD4RG EC Middlesex county is working on plans for special event station at the Deltaville Maritime Museum on the 11, 12, and 13 of May in celebration of the 400th. anniversary of the Jamestown Settlement. Capt. John Smith explored the waters where the museum is located and was injured by a Stingray at Stingray Point approx. 2 miles from the site of the museum. Volunteers at the museum constructed a replica of the boat used for the exploration of the Chesapeake Bay (Explorer) which is now touring various events around the Tidewater area in support of the celebration.
6 Virginia Capitol
- Hampton: 6a includes the training conducted on the Hampton Public Service Net (1/4 hour on 5 nets at 18-20 participants)
- Newport News: Newport News ARES members participated in the Virginia Emergency Response Team Exercise (VERTEX), a drill simulating a Category 3 hurricane striking the East coast. Part of the way through the sequence of events, the exercise took on a new meaning for Newport News ARES when the Virginia Emergency Operations Center (EOC) telephone system failed - for real - for about an hour. As a result, amateur radio became the only method of communicating with the state EOC during that time. Newport News also participated in one public service event. We also planned for upcoming public service events and exercises in May. Net representative Mike Hawk, KB4CAU, participated in all nets this month.
- Gloucester & Mathews County: EC Earl Evans/KE4NBX, A/SEC-Training and County RACES Radio Officer, Joe/K4JJS, and several others from District 7 were on hand at the start of the now snow-cancelled 2007 Gloucester Daffodil Festival. After some four inches of snow fell on the festival area, the event was cancelled as it was too hazardous to walk around the area. A few operators stayed on scene until we were able to get all of the vendors and exhibitors out of the streets so we could take down the road blocks and detour signs. On another issue regarding safety, there was a serious thunderstorm during the month that generated one or two EF-0 tornados here in Gloucester (depending on whose "official" report is being read). Be that as it may, one EF-0 tornado landed approximately 300 yards from the K4JJS/W2JMS home location. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and there was only one seriously damaged home in the path of the tornado. Power outages lasted several hours in the northern portion of the county. No formal nets were started although several hams were monitoring local repeaters and passing weather related traffic.
- Williamsburg-James City County: 4/28-Provided communications for the 11th annual Pedal the Parkway, bike event on the Colonial Parkway. Parkway was closed only to bicycle traffic, we had stationary operators along the 8 mile route as well as "bike mobile" operators, providing radio contact for sweep vehicle, injury reports if any, traffic control, bike mechanical issues, etc. 4/25-Participated in the Vertex exercise, representing James City County EOC which was not officially activated but ARES did play. Monitored for message traffic.
7 First Colony
Follow-on comments had not arrived, will include next month (K4YCR)
9 South Tidewater
- It seemed to be Public Service Month, the local foot, bike and swim races are very abundant. Chesapeake and Portsmouth ARES group teamed up to for the Swamp Stomp Half Marathon and the Tour de Cure even included members from all the local ARES groups. Portsmouth ARES, contacted VA-EOC via the Williamsburg repeater for VERTEX Exercise. Also, their Communications Trailer is complete and fully loaded and available for Local, District and State Wide response if needed.
- Virginia Beach participated in two drills this month - Virginia Beach Amphitheater Hazmat Drill with all VB hospitals activated. Other event was VERTEX 07, with a check-in from the State EOC. Public Service: Virginia Duathlon and the Tour-de-Cure.
- Norfolk participated in Vertex 07, as a result their communications plan was revised and worked with the Norfolk EOC to resolve problems. Public Service: 10K Race in Norfolk.
10 Southeast
Our primary repeater in the area, the 147.195, lost the internal power amp. Dick, W4RRH and Ron, N4TJI repaired the machine and returned it to full operation. For about 2 weeks the repeater was operating at 0.5 watts to the antenna. Many thanks to Ron and and Dick!
11 Southside
District 11 is still plugging along. Not much to report this month. Hopefully next month will be better.
12 Central Virginia
ARES members assisted with the March of Dimes walk as well as David Horton's Promise Land 50K foot race in Bedford County. N4TIU has put up a new antenna and support mast at the Campbell County EOC, needs only feedline and grounding to complete. Campbell County has asked that ARES put something permanent at their primary shelter at Yellow Branch (school), survey is progressing. KG4HOT reported on a Jeep/4x4 event being planned for Nelson County in September.
13 South Piedmont
- Floyd: April's Adopt-A-Highway was postponed until May due to weather.
- Henry: We still have no "Served Agencies" to serve. We will be ready if or when they need us.
- Franklin: Efforts focused on weekly Net training exercises - NTS and ICS213 formatted messages.
- Montgomery: Early this month we participated in a new local bike race, the Dirty Dawg held at Mountain Lake Resort. Despite poor weather conditions the event went well and our participation was greatly appreciated ... ARES was not activated during the VA Tech incident however two of our on campus ARES ops Ben Mills, N4CV and Phil Fenstermacher, KG4GYT met with Red Cross shelter personnel including two hams from out of town and offered support and local repeater use.
This was the kickoff month for two Ad-Hoc technical groups. The first, consisting of W4RPI and AD4YU, initiated an open-sourced, software code development program in support of Winlink, designed to overcoming technical challenges and restrictions available via current “sound card modem” software. This professional team has for some inexplicable reason chosen to name initial efforts as the ‘Wells-too-cheap-to buy-a-modem’ project.
The second Team, consisting of KA3NZR and AB4A, held preliminary discussions on a training syllabus containing all of the elements of the League’s EmComm Level One course. While not meant to compete with the League, this team’s product would allow (after approval by the Section Leadership) for a cost free alternative for EMComm Level One qualification.
14 Southwest
“Mears” supplied communications for the Abingdon, VA March of Dimes walk during April. There were 6 members and 2 spouses that participated. There were approx. 70 walkers. The walk was approx. 2 miles in length.
Submitted:
Henry L. Wyatt, K4YCR
SEC VA ARES