1. Open Meeting ARRL East Bay Section ARES ® October 2013

2. ARRL East Bay Section ARES ® John Rabold KS6M Section Emergency Coordinator, ARRL East Bay Section ks6m@arrl.net

3. Mission Statement ARRL East Bay Section ARES ® supplies volunteer communications services to its served agencies in support of their public-service responses to critical incidents.

4. Mission Statement Definitions Served agencies of ARRL East Bay Section ARES (“EB-ARES”) are entities... that serve the public during critical incidents AND that the ARRL or EB-ARES have agreed in writing to support with volunteer communications services at such times that may be government, non-government, for- profit, or not-for-profit.

5. What distinguishes EB-ARES from similar emcomm programs? ARES is an ARRL program EB-ARES serves multiple served agencies EB-ARES requires written agreements with served agencies approved by the ARRL and signed by the ARRL Section Manager EB-ARES seeks to collaborate with other programs

6. Leaders and Members The EB-ARES Full Member designation Announced in November 2010 Implemented in September 2013 Requires course training  ARRL Introduction to Emergency Communication (EC-001)  FEMA EMI IS-100, 200, and 700 Signifies a higher level of training and skill to served agencies and ARES leaders

7. Leaders and Members EB-ARES Membership Status: October 2013 Full Members: 27 Associate Members: 82 Total Members: 109

8. Leaders and Members EB-ARES Leaders Almost all now meet the training standards for EB-ARES leaders at the Emergency Coordinator (EC) level and above  Full Member training and designation  FEMA EMI IS-800 and 802  ARRL Public Service and Emergency Communications Management for Radio Amateurs (EC-016)

9. Leaders and Members The Emergency Coordinators (ECs) are the core of ARES activity A community's EB-ARES EC  Coordinates the ARES activity of all EB-ARES members who live there  Supports all EB-ARES served agencies that have operations there  Manages some larger responsibilities by appointing assistants (AECs)

10. Served Agencies New served agencies  American Red Cross Blood Services Northern California Region (9/2012)  Kaiser Foundation Hospitals Oakland/Richmond (3/2013) In discussion with several prospective served agencies Participated in exercises with prospective served agencies (11/2012 and 5/2013)

11. Served Agencies Lessons learned: Served Agency Messages Intra-agency: EB-ARES can be on both sides Inter-agency: We can't do the job if the other agency is not supported by Amateur Radio!  If not supported, offer support to that agency  If supported by another emcomm program, collaborate with that agency and emcomm program to ensure effective communications

12. Opportunities and Challenges Relevance Member Skills and Equipment Exercises

13. Relevance "ARES is full of mostly well-intended, mostly untrained people in silly hats, with radios, producing mostly good effect, mostly by accident." The challenge is to get the call to be useful to an agency during an incident. That will not happen if the agency believes that ARES will not be useful in that incident.

14. Member Skills and Equipment Learn how to send and receive voiced messages: a basic emcomm skill Learn more efficient (faster, more accurate, more useful) messaging techniques  Candidates Packet NBEMS using MT63 and other modes Winlink 2000  Adds a computer and an interface device to the basic emcomm station

15. Member Skills and Equipment The Rim Fire (2013) “During the activation, Fresno County ARES used [NBEMS] fldigi and flmsg... to pass traffic from the shelter and the Red Cross headquarters. 'We found that the faster speed and wider signal [resulted in] fewer errors,' Pruitt said, adding that the Red Cross 'was very impressed' with their ability to send and receive traffic in the Incident Command System general message form (ICS- 213), filled out and printed.” http://www.arrl.org/news/ares-races-volunteers-conclude-rim-fire-activation

16. Exercises Inside Amateur Radio With the general public With the served agencies

17. Exercises: Inside Amateur Radio Contesting  HF contests for Generals and up  VHF/UHF contests All hams are eligible Even a single-band HT is useful Could be made into challenging message- passing exercises Require local coordination and promotion to create critical mass … but require only that! EB-ARES ECs, AECs, and members can initiate local activity

18. Exercises: With the general public EB-ARES ECs, AECs, and members can initiate local activity CERT National Night Out (each August) Great California ShakeOut Public service events  Provide an important public-safety service  Show the public what we can do  Give the public what it wants

19. Exercises: With the served agencies They can participate in our exercises  ARRL Field Day  ARRL Simulated Emergency Test (SET) We can participate in their exercises We can design exercises jointly Learn how to execute served agency communications most effectively EB-ARES SEC, DECs, and ECs will do this

20. What can an interested ham do? Join ARES and other ham radio emcomm programs Earn the EB-ARES Full Member designation Learn how to send/receive messages by voice Consider upgrading your emcomm station Learn to use more-efficient messaging techniques Participate in exercises already available Encourage your EC to make more exercises available Look for opportunities to meet EB-ARES served agencies

21. ARRL East Bay Section ARES Find ARRL East Bay Section ARES at arrleastbaysection.org/ares Twitter: @EB_ARES

22. ARRL East Bay Section ARES John Rabold KS6M Section Emergency Coordinator, ARRL East Bay Section ks6m@arrl.net