| Total number of ARES members | 1089 | Change since last month | -4 |
| DECs reporting this month | 12 out of 15 Call Signs |
ARES nets active | 208 sessions in 32 nets |
| ECs reporting this month | 47 out of 75 Call signs |
Nets with NTS Liaison | most of these nets |
| Liaison Stations Reported : 36 | Call signs | ||
| Number of Drills, tests and training sessions this month | 78 | Person hours | 600 |
| Number of Public service events this month | 45 | Person hours | 1732 |
| Number of Emergency operations this month | 1 | Person hours | 33 |
| Total number of ARES operations this month | 70 | Person hours | 2200 |
SEC Notes
- The multi-jurisdictional events and the mutual support results are especially to be noted in the narratives from Districts 1, 2, 3, and 13.
- The D-Star progress in District 4 is commendable.
- Hats-Off to District 6 for having 100% of their 39 ARES members registered.
DEC Comments
1 Shenandoah
- Paige County / ARES provided four hams as we have for the past several years to assist the Citizens for Shenandoah organize and line up their annual Memorial Day parade. Participants this year, as in past years, were: AEC Jeff Maiden (KE4ZLH) organized the event for PC / ARES and acted as liaison with the citizens group. EC Ben Endicott (N4SFG) worked at the citizen’s group information booth for notification of last-minute changes and coordination with local law enforcement and town officials as needed. Mark Hensley (N4YSA) worked as a parade marshal organizing units. Phil Rinaca (KQ4D) worked as a parade marshal organizing units. All volunteers put in four and a half hours (4.5hr) in support of this Public Service Event.
- Paige County / ARES will be holding a meeting at 1930 on Tuesday 12 Jun 07 at the Page County Emergency Communications Center, 120 S. Court St. during which Gene Stewart (ECC Supervisor) will give us a short talk on what he expects from PC / ARES during an emergency, and give us a tour of his ECC. I also plan to use this opportunity to review the equipment we have available there and work on getting it upgraded if necessary. The AEC that was my ECC liaison has found it necessary to resign due to growing family commitments (new child). I hope to get a new volunteer at this meeting. I sent an email to all county hams for which I have an e-mail address, as well as all PC / ARES members. You are most welcome to attend if you are available. 73’s Ben Endicott, Paige County EC.
2 National Capitol
- The Tri-annual Dulles Airport Disaster Drill was a success. There were approximately 125 Amateur Radio operators that participated from 4 states. One of the positive items that came out of this drill was that the Reagan National Airport fire department was present as observers. They were impressed with the skills and professionalism that the Amateur Radio Operators exhibited during the Dulles drill. This is good as we have not been able to develop any sort of relationship with National Airport in the past. The word that I received from Dulles is that we might get called upon to support the National Airport tri-annual drill.
- The District has supported several public service events this month. These events included the two day MS 150 mile bike ride, the ADA bike ride, and several MS one day walks. District 2 also provided some support to District 1 for their annual MMT100, 100 mile ultra-marathon. The planning [continues] for the 32nd Marine Corp Marathon, to be run this year on October 30. This will be the 30th year that Amateur Radio has provided communications support for the Marathon. Howard Cunningham, WD5DBC, D2 DEC
3 Northern Piedmont
- From AD6JV EC for Albemarle: The big event this month was 'The Dam Exercise', a four hour multi-agency drill simulating heavy rainfall leading to a dam failure and subsequent catastrophic happenings in Charlottesville. Even though the exercise took place on a Thursday morning during work hours, fifteen hams participated by going into the field to simulate on-scene responses. We learned many useful lessons in the run up to and during the drill. Our thorough and competent response was noted and appreciated by the exercise managers. [this was a short version of the SET report submitted]
- From WW4GW EC for Buckingham / Cumberland: Mostly a quiet month in Buckingham / Cumberland Counties - I did participate as NCS for the Albemarle County "Dam Burst Exercise" on May 10th with the District 3 ARES Team. During this exercise we successfully utilized "Tactical" callsigns. On May 29 the Buckingham County E-911 coordinator contacted me concerning problems with the Buckingham Fire/Rescue radio system and I assisted them with bringing the system back up to a fully operational state.
- From K4MSR EC for Fluvanna: Participated in the Fluvanna County High School Graduation. Provided communications between the EMT and local school parking lots and the local PD.
- From N3DFS EC for Greene: Busy with net, Red Cross - we had a great all-day Red Cross training session yesterday; ARES was involved--on paper. The Greene County Emergency Net continues very active with quite a few check-ins, several collateral-ECs Buckingham, Albemarle, Nelson Counties. Have successfully contacted all LOCAL participants on simplex, with low power. Have successfully checked into 3 local repeaters. No formal training sessions as yet. Will distribute training notebook first, then begin to pass messages.
4 Upper Rappahannock
- John, KD4OUZ, EC Louisa County: Another quiet month in Louisa. The repeater has been fixed, and will be back shortly in our hands, and we will then finish up the installation hopefully without a hitch.
- Dick, W6WLG, EC/RO, Orange County: Nothing new thankfully. Basic Skywarn class conducted in May with a large number attending at the Orange EOC, erected two long wire antennas for amateurs in the local area, evangelizing the onset of 2007 hurricane season and the need for emergency preparation in advance of the bad weather.
- Tom, KI4AFE, EC/RO, Spotsylvania County: Nothing new to report.
- Steve, KD4KNR, EC/RO, King George County: No news.
- Boyd, KO4WK, EC/RO, Caroline County: Isn't the weather boring? Yea! But the hurricane season is upon us. Caroline County is equipping the new communication trailer with an IC-706MKIIG for our use. And we are going to try out the trailer for Field Day on June 23. Our setup is going to be at the Caroline County Planning Dept in Bowling Green - next to McDonald's. We had 11 hams check in this month. 73, Boyd, KO4WK.
- Tom, W4LLK, EC/RO Fredericksburg City: Last quiet month for a while. This month and the next few will be busy.
- Evan, KE4BWD, EC/RO Culpeper County: No news.
- Bart, N3GQ, EC/RO, Stafford County: Summarized update on D-STAR from Emmett, K3EP: Nick, KI4OQA and Scott, K0RPX, installed the Linux computer at the repeater site. The Linux computer will function as the D-STAR gateway ... Stafford’s link to other D-STAR systems on the internet. A lot of work went into that. The gateway is now ready for the ICOM D-STAR team to log into so they can verify it is ready for D-STAR primetime. (The D-STAR ham community will not allow a system to check into the D-STAR gateway system without first receiving a clean bill of health from the ICOM technical team.) SARA recently acquired a second callsign, WS4VA that will be used on the D-STAR system. Stafford needed to change the D-STAR callsigns to reflect the WS4VA call sign before it went online with the gateway. It would have caused major headaches to change later on. You will have to make appropriate changes in your D-STAR radio programming to reflect this (E.g., WS4VA C)[sic]. Hopefully WS4VA will be available soon.
- Emmett, K3EP also made the following SARA FIELD DAY ANNOUNCEMENT (summarized): “Field Day is always the last full weekend in June; this year it's June 23-24, 2007. There seems to be some interest in us hosting our old Field Day again as we did in years past. I am willing to coordinate it again unless someone else wants it. Field Day is three things: a contest, an emergency communications exercise, and a chance to socialize. A successful field day (in my opinion) is a successful blend of the three. The last three years we ran Field Day we finished in the top 25% of 2A (the most popular category) across the country. Not bad, considering we took time out for dinner on Saturday and socializing in the evening. The contest portion of the event is fairly simple: contact as many stations as you can on 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters, with an eye on making contacts with every state / section in the US and Canada. Over 50,000 hams come out for FD in the US and Canada alone. “The plan: Where: Behind North Stafford High School (on Route 610, by the repeater) on the driving training lot and in the wood-line. When: Set up can begin 24 hours prior, so at 1400 local on Friday June 22. The contest begins at 1400 on Saturday June 23 and runs for 24 hours. Tear down begins immediately afterward. What: We will operate as 2A (2 HF transmitters on emergency power). “Food is an important part of FD, with Saturday Dinner being The Big Event (Sunday breakfast and lunch are smaller affairs). “If you want to read up on FD, here is the link: See you on Field Day.
5 Rappahannock
Successful 400 year special event station on May 11-13. AD4RG created a beautiful certificate showing the replica of the shallop[sic] "EXPLORER" built by the Deltaville Maritime Museum. The special event station was located in the Museum Library, with public access. The Emergency Planner of the Three Rivers Health District has contacted the DEC and the EC for Middlesex County to review needs and help set up a back-up emergency communication system at the Health Dept. in Saluda.
6 Virginia Capitol
We have made great progress in getting all D6 ARES members registered in the Virginia Section database. We have now reached 100% registration at 39 members within the District. Our efforts moving forward will be in recruitment and retention as we have received requests from several localities regarding establishing amateur radio support. KI4PXU: This month I took part in a local emergency drill in Charlottesville as the Martha Jefferson Hospital representative in the control group, I also monitored the ARES communications during the event to help them critique the event. I also participated in and hosted the ARES District 3 meeting at MJH. I took a SkyWarn class, completed ICS 700, and started the Level 1 Emergency communications class.
7 First Colony
- Newport News: This month, the Newport News ARES members supported several public service events, including the Children’s Festival and the Relay for Life. This is our first year for supporting the Children’s Festival at its new venue and new duration of two days instead of one, plus our first year in supporting the Relay for Life at Newport News. Newport News members also attended training at the Newport News Emergency Operations Center (EOC) on their emergency intranet communications and messaging system. Newport News also participated in 5 nets this month, with our net representative, Mike Hawk (KB4CAU), present at each net. Although no traffic needed to be passed, we are very appreciative of his continued support. We also prepared for the upcoming Virginia Operations Plan Exercise (VOPEX) in June.
- 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 for the NN Relay for Life.
- A total of 49 man-hours were utilized. The two-day Children's Festival in NN was another D7 project worked by Joe and Earl. Total D7 manpower for the event was 35 hours. Tour de Chesapeake was the third D7 event worked by Joe and earl and total D7 manpower for the one-day event was 71. The black eye pea burgers[sic] served for lunch reminded us as to why we should always pack and carry and lunch with us. Joe attended training with the CERT and Medical Reserve Corps personnel (two hours), one being a seminar pertaining to pandemic flu and the second was a basic introduction to sign language for the hearing impaired with other D7 personnel (eight D7 man-hours total). Edward Shuman, WD0FYVDistrict Emergency Coordinator District 7 - First Colony – VA
8 Eastern Shore
Our ESHARC/ARES group in District 8 supported the Eastern Shore SeaFood Festival on Chincoteague, VA May 2 with 13 Hams. Virginia Governor Kaine was present for the Festival. We supported the March of Dimes Walkathon in Onancock, VA May 20 with 8 Hams.
9 South Tidewater
Virginia Beach participated in the PUNGO Strawberry Festival Parade, attended a "Day for the Disabled" at the Norfolk Zoo. Ham Radio displayed along side the CERT Team and the Norfolk Dept. of Emergency Preparedness and Response. All Teams are RAMPING up for the start of the hurricane season.
12 Central Virginia
6 ARES members, including me, [WA4RTS] worked the annual Kidney Association 10K race on May 28. New antenna for Campbell EOC is up and awaiting feedline. We are working on getting an HF and VHF/UHF antenna installed at the county shelter at Yellow Branch Elementary School. I attended a planning meeting for the Virginia Ten Miler, an event that has been supported by Amateurs in this area since the first race in 1974, new management, but still looking to us to provided health and safety communications on race day. This event requires around 50 active stations.
13 South Piedmont
- Henry / Patrick: Provided communications for the March of Dimes Walk on May 6th.
- Floyd: ADOPT A HIGHWAY CLEANUP ALONG ROUTE 8, MAY 12, 8 PARTICIPANTS.
- Franklin: Continued with on-air training activities and prepared for forthcoming Red Cross activation.
- Montgomery: Public service events this month were the annual Wilderness Road Ride and Mountains of Misery held Memorial Day weekend. Local 2M repeaters were used. The WRR was largely uneventful and without any major incident. “MoM” is always more challenging since the course spans 3 counties and terrain is difficult. Additionally, cell coverage is generally poor. This year three 911 calls were made, two of which were relayed via 2M to net control at Mountain Lake where cell phone calls made. One of these was relayed from a rest stop at the intersection of 2 rural roads. This leads me to the major lesson learned this year. The course maps we had were generally adequate, however, when it came to relaying specific information describing a particular location where a biker was located, details on the map were inadequate. Having a detailed county map or “Virginia Gazette” at net control would have helped. As it turned out, the 911 operator heard the radio transmission describing the location and knew where to dispatch an ambulance that arrived 10 minutes later.
- D13: Attended Red Cross briefing of their emergency Exercise scheduled for early June and coordinated with ARES members in Roanoke, Franklin, Craig, and Montgomery counties for mutual assistance. [Since this was already in the inbox, I included for this month] Today, June the 2nd, ARES was activated in support of the Roanoke American Red Cross/Multi jurisdictional Emergency Managers exercise- and earned a performance rating from ARC Officials of 98 out of a possible 100! JOB-WELL-DONE to all! Please note that this was not your average 2 Meter drill! It was conducted from the bottom floor of the Roanoke Civic Center and without access to a repeater. At least one of their 2 Meter stations was connected by an unheard of 200 feet of RG-8 to the antenna with great success. In addition to Franklin and Roanoke County support, members of Craig and Montgomery Counties joined to staff Botetourt County operations. This was an extremely complex multi-jurisdictional exercise involving Roanoke ARC operations, a Roanoke ARC shelter, the Roanoke City EM, a Craig County ARC shelter plus the Craig County EM, and the Botetourt ARC shelter plus the Botetourt County EM. The Roanoke County ARES organization is to be congratulated on overcoming extremely difficult technical challenges and making this event an ARES success.
14 Southwest
K4GV reports that Scott County held a disaster drill on May 12th that involved all county agencies as well as ARES/RACES personnel. We were observed by a representative from VDEM and graded by him. Our local EM was told that the drill was a huge success, and that everyone did a very good job. We used all modes of communications (VHF, UHF, HF and Digital HF).
Thanks to all those submitting their reports and activities.
Submitted:
Henry L. Wyatt, K4YCR
SEC VA ARES