March 8, 2008
Glen Sage, W4GHS
VA Section Manager

This year’s Frostfest was the Virginia State Convention. During the Section and ARES forum Daniel Sullivan, KO1D presented the review of our Section Emergency Communications Plan. This document continues to be a work in progress. We also had a review by the State RACES Officer, Mac Mc Neer, K4YEF on continuing developments at the State RACES station and the new support group (ARCA) Amateur Radio Communications Auxiliary that is providing manpower for the VEOC.

March completes my service, as Section Manager and I want to thank all those that worked so hard to improve so many areas of Amateur Radio in the Section. This includes both the cabinet and individual hams of Virginia. I will not attempt to name people for fear of missing someone. Some of the cabinet worked as many hours as full time employees. For your depth of dedication, I want to say a heart felt thank you. The Virginia Section is indebted to each of you.

On April 1st Carl Clements, W4CAC will become the new Virginia Section Manager. Carl assumes this duty with a number of years of prior service and this will be extremely helpful in Carl getting up to speed. I want to encourage everyone to give Carl your full support as he provides leadership to the Section. Every manager has their own style of leadership and we all need to allow Carl the latitude and support to follow his own unique style. Carl the best of luck to you and your new appointees as you assume the position of SM.

There is a new relationship coming together between ARES^® and the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. This is a work in progress that began about a year ago with a meeting with key ARES^® leadership and staff at (VDEM) the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. An important factor in the development of a strong relationship between the VDEM and Amateur Radio was the appointment by VDEM of a staff member that was a ham (Terry Hebert, KG4GLS) as a liaison with the Amateur Radio community. The relationship continues to be strengthened by meeting and working together on Simulated Emergency Test. Our Section SET held on October 6, 2007 and other smaller SETs involved a strong cooperative effort that allowed the scoring of over 5000 SET points due to statewide involvement from many local ARES^® units and the passing of heavy traffic volume with the use of voice, Chip 64, CW, Winlink and packet. The VDEM EOC was the real hub for much of this traffic.

VDEM has activated the VEOC RACES station on different occasions during the past year, supporting both local and Section wide emergency communications test. Personal from VDEM have frequently been checking into the Section HF voice emergency nets. This increase of cooperation has led to a real winning bond between ARES^® and the VDEM RACES program.

This kind of cooperation is vital with the impact of broad ranging disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and Rita in 2005. These large-scale disasters have seen the emergence of many different groups of Amateur Radio communications support groups. ARES^® has a strong history of cooperative approaches with these organizations. Many hams have multi-affiliation with these emergency communications organizations. If we choose a competitive stance with various communications groups we place ourselves in a position of being viewed as a liability by the agencies that we have agreed to serve.

Disasters are chaotic at best so for various groups to enter the area with a need to feel superior due to their affiliation with a particular group is counter productive. Conflicts between communications responders can leave Incident Commanders and agency heads with the decision of whether dealing with hams that are engaged in conflict is worth the tension created by their presence.

I have observed that states that have a single major communications group that served as the major response group during emergency communications crisis are far more effective. There are states and localities that are loaded with talented and well-trained emergency communicators that have lost much of their effectiveness due to energy spent in competitive efforts between rival groups. Other states ARES^® groups have agreements with the state that allows for ARES^® to serve in non-declared emergencies as ARES^® but when a declaration is made these ARES^® units are registered with the state as RACES and function in that capacity. The greatest resource that we all carry into activation is a cooperative spirit.

The Virginia Section has an agreement pending with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management to allow our Section-wide ARES unit to be registered with VDEM as part of the state RACES unit. This MOU is still in draft form and is being worked on by VDEM. The MOU will not go into effect until the Virginia Section leadership, VDEM and the Virginia Attorney General, signs it. 

This state registration doesn’t eliminate the need to register with your local emergency managements and to keep your roster updated with current membership records. It is also vital to maintain a strong local relationship with emergency management. This new agreement with ARES and VDEM will allow us opportunities of service that we have not enjoyed in many years. Lets all strive to be “easy to work with”.

73

Glen Sage, W4GHS
Virginia Section Manager

February 15, 2008
Glen Sage, W4GHS
VA Section Manager

It is with regret that we post the notice of the passing on January 23 of L. Alan Bosch, KO4ALA of Arlington Virginia. Alan was a ham with multi interest that included emergency communications leadership, serving as a mentor to kids at the Thomas Jefferson Technical High School, as an author having had articles published in QST and actively working with two different local clubs. His local clubs were the Arlington Radio Club and the Vienna Wireless Society. Alan served for a number of years and was currently ARES Emergency Coordinator for Arlington County at the time of his death. Alan also served on the National Capital Region Amateur Radio Council (NCAC). During the attacks on the Pentagon on 9/11, Alan was involved in responding. KO4AL served with communications and was a member of the USMC Marathon Ham Radio Planning Committee. Alan’s key is now silent but those that served with him and knew him as a friend and fellow ham will miss him. As members of the Amateur Radio community we extend our prayers and sympathy to Alan’s family.

As of late the Amateur Radio community has had to deal with threats to our ability to communicate effectively in emergencies. The first of these is the lack of consistency with jurisdictions within the Commonwealth of abiding by both the spirit and letter of the law when it comes to the writing of local tower ordinances. The Code of Virginia § 15.2-2293.1. is very clear as it pertains to Amateur Radio towers and reads as follows;

Placement of amateur radio antennas.

Any ordinance involving the placement, screening or height of antennas shall reasonably accommodate amateur radio antennas and shall impose the minimum regulation necessary to accomplish the locality's legitimate purpose. In localities having a population density of 120 persons or less per square mile according to the 1990 United States census, no local ordinance shall (i) restrict amateur radio antenna height to less than 200 feet above ground level as permitted by the Federal Communications Commission or (ii) restrict the number of support structures. In localities having a population density of more than 120 persons per square mile according to the 1990 United States census, no local ordinance shall (i) restrict amateur radio antenna height to less than 75 feet above ground level or (ii) restrict the number of support structures. Reasonable and customary engineering practices shall be followed in the erection of amateur radio antennas. This section shall not preclude any locality, by ordinance, from regulating amateur radio antennas with regard to reasonable requirements relating to the use of screening, setback, placement, and health and safety requirements

In spite of this clear language of state code a number of jurisdictions have stipulate a height of 50 ft.. Many other restrictions have crept into the language of tower ordinances that would allow only those hams with strong financial resources to be able to construct a tower. The intent of Virginia law was to prevent this type of local ordinance.

A Section Manager does not have the time to be involved in resolving this issue at every local level. It is vital that every ham club in each locality research their local ordinances to ensure that state code and local code is consistent. If local code is not consistent the state and federal law has preemption. If we do not act, our effectiveness in emergency communications will be impacted in negative ways.

A second threat to our effectiveness in emergency communications is the introduction of HR904. As the proposed law is written the only mobile operations of Amateur Radio would require being “hands free”. This proposed law has been tabled until the 2009 session but will surface again nest year. Now is the time to contact the sponsor of this bill and get the language revised to exclude Amateur Radio from this bill that was designed to deal with cell phone use while a vehicle is in monition.

No person shall use a mobile telephone or other wireless electronic telecommunications device while operating a moving motor vehicle on any public highway in the Commonwealth unless such mobile telephone or other wireless electronic telecommunications device is equipped with a hands-free accessory.

There are exemptions from this proposed law but Amateur Radio is not one of them. Marty Mait, AG4DN is our State Legislative Liaison and is working on this issue.

In their recent broad meeting the ARRL has created two new appointments in the area of ARES. These are Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator and Assistant District Emergency Coordinator. This change was requested at least two years ago by the SMs and has now been adapted. In many Sections the naming of people to these positions has been a common practice but it required using a different title when registering these appointments with the league. In the Virginia Section, Assistant Section Emergency Coordinators were registered as DECs and Assist DECs were usually not registered as a league appointment but records were kept at the Section level. This new ruling will allow for appointments to be consistent with their function.

The ARRL also decided to drop the senior discount on membership. This discount was a reduction of $3.00 per year. The board action reads as follows; Item 26. “Mr. Edgar moved, seconded by Mr. Frenaye, that Bylaw 5 be deleted effective January 1, 2009 as recommended by the Administration and Finance Committee. This would have the effect of eliminating the dues rate concession that is available to members who have reached the age of 65. After discussion, a roll call vote being required with a minimum of 10 affirmative votes needed for adoption, the motion was ADOPTED with 12 affirmative votes. All Directors voted in favor except Messrs. Allen, Sarratt and Norton, who voted opposed. “ This was done as a cost saving measure.

The Board received a progress report from the Programs and Services Committee on its study of Section Governance. The committee recommended that Section Managers continue to be elected by Section members.

Remember to go to the Section page for the Section Traffic Manager's monthly report and to ARES VA Home page for the Section Emergency Coordinator's monthly report.

73

Glen Sage, W4GHS
Virginia Section Manager