Well, Hamsters, this month has been eventful and busy, but fortunately not like last month with its destructive tornados. Just the good stuff. We have lots of hamfests scattered over the state. Recent past ‘fests include Byron (Heart of Georgia), Ellijay, and Atlanta. I couldn’t personally report on Byron (which was good last year also) because I totaled my car (deer strike) on the way. I made it to Ellijay with my new car and the folk were friendly as advertised and attendance was good as was the forum on D-Star with John Davis WB4QDX, Robin Cutshaw AA4RC and Ed Woodrick WA4YIH . This was a new time of year for this event and the weather was nice. Several vendors participated. The Atlanta Hamfest had a good turnout and headlined the club’s 100 years with a celebration including free 100 year pins. Several forums with good discussions on digital modes including the “D-STAR Gang” (as above) highlighted the education part. Our Division Director Greg Sarratt W4OZK attended along with Jeff Cantor K1ZN representing Newington HQ. Next up will be the newest ARRL sanctioned Hamfest for Georgia: the Newton County Hamfest in Covington at the fairgrounds for July 30 with new president John Nix N5EEO as chairman (ednix@bellsouth.net). Talk-in will be 146.925- PL 88.5. I hope you are planning for a big Field Day June 25/26. If not, then join some of us! And finally: The Central Florida D-Star Group offers the “D-Star Academy”, a one day course on July 30 at Mount Dora FL. It is designed for beginners as well as more experienced D-Star users. The goals and objectives are to present definitions, equipment, DVAPs, Dongles, linking, HI and LO speed data, the ID-1, D-Rats and comprehensive training for programming the radios. This is a “hands on” instruction format. To register, and for more information contact www.cfldsg.org. Barry Kanne W4TGA has been busy installing more emergency ham radio stations at hospitals in the state, especially the designated “Regional Coordinating Hospitals” (see http://www.gaphc.org/images/FCKeditor/RCH%20Map.pdf). Barry is our ASEC for DHR/Public Health. Federal mandates for further interoperability and back-up systems puts the onus on those of us who claim interest in EMCOMM. Latest hospitals added are Phoebe Putney Memorial in Albany (home of yours truly), Tanner Memorial in Carrolton, and Crisp County in Cordele. The hospitals are serious about this—they have to be. Effective use of these stations and radios will mean that we find operators, and they must form a club. Forming the club is easy and finding the willing operators is essential. Then the club needs a call sign so that use of the radio will denote the hospital in an emergency or drill. Further, most of these installations will include D-STAR, which demands a call to be incorporated in the set-up of the radio firmware. Radios left on the shelf for use in an emergency will be useless unless we have a plan that we execute regularly. Planning for the upcoming S.E.T. for the Georgia Section is underway by the work group. Some emphasis on use of VHF Simplex for local work is probable. Another part of the plan will be to include new contiguous Sections in a cooperative venture. One organization has said that the time to exchange “Business Cards” is not at an emergency, but long before an emergency is conceived. This is also true for the county and club near you. Know their face and shake hands before the event. Maybe even write it down as an “M.O.U.” (Memorandum of Understanding). Communications—that’s what we do! Intrasectional communication is furthered by Robert Tyler KF4VBR who is our GAARES host and webmaster. Robert is now using the “Social Networking” modes. “Twitter” is established on GAARES.ORG webpage—see sidebar. Use of “Facebook” is in the works for dissemination of information and for intercommunication of club, ARRL, and ARES sites. I have seen several notes and comments from county EMA’s and other coordinators in Georgia praising the ARES groups’ efforts and effectiveness. If I mention Chatham, Cherokee and Paulding Counties, I will leave out some that should be mentioned, so I will not. Jim Millsap WB4NWS reports on participation in a “COML” class: “The COML class was attended by about 20 public safety folks from numerous counties across the State. The class consisted of disaster scenarios and we had to design interoperability communications plans to allow all folks to communicate, no matter what band they are on. This is accomplished through assessing the responding agencies frequencies and using the NIMS structure, document on an ICS 205 and 217 forms a communications plan for the incident. The scenarios ranged from a wreck on interstate to tornado and bomb situation. Many items taken from the class apply to ham radio ARES scenarios. Most important was the ability to work together with a common goal to ensure that "communications does not become the emergency". It was a very intense 3 days of training but exciting and valuable training.” Jim also mentions a great session with the Atlanta IWT (Integrated Warning Team) workshop by the National Weather Service. He says it provided the best information he had ever gotten from a workshop. I recall a 2-day workshop through the Public Health on WMD and organized by a GEMA team from Texas A&M. These workshops are all intense and will make you a believer in the NIMS concept. Don’t miss such an opportunity, but you better have a general idea of FEMA ICS 100, 200, 700 and 800 or you may be embarrassed. We have a new D.E.C. for the Metro District—Jim Millsap WB4NWS, as Steve Garrison N4SEG takes a well-deserved rest. But we don’t let Steve get too far away. Jim, did you bring in the tornados, or did the tornados bring in you? What an entry! And the way the dominoes fall, that means that we assigned Juan Quirouga WW4WX as EC for Cherokee county. But he can fill Jim’s position quite well, if not his literal shoes. Does your ARES group have an up-to-date Emergency Plan? You might want to review some very successful documents and one recent one from Cherokee County is documented at http://www.cherokee-ares.org/training.shtml. Owners give permission for others to use this document as a template for their planning. Lots of good work in writing this document. ARRL now accepts enrollments for the new Introduction to Emergency Communications course. Mentors are still needed. For a description of the new course go to the online catalog at: http://www.arrl.org/online-course-catalog. The 70 cm band has been on the block (HR607) as some in the House planned to auction off some of the spectrum to pay for new interoperability standards for first responders. Now it seems that there is congressional opposition to some of the provisions, especially that of including the part of the 70 cm band. A more favorable bill in the Senate may prevail. We do support the communications efforts for first responders, but oppose inclusion of the 70 cm band. Wonder if the sponsoring congressman ever heard of Pave Paws? Silent Key: Dick Sandberg N9SXJ passed away on May 20. A moment of silence as one of ours passes on! ARES Report by Tom Fuller KE4QCM: AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE Total number of ARES members: * 1063 Change since last month: +214 reported (+, -, or same) # of DECs/ECs reporting this month: 57 ,# of ARES nets active: 199 , # with NTS liaison: 0 Calls of DECs/ECs reporting: see below Number of drills, tests and training sessions this month: 320 Person hours: 2517 Number of public service events this month: 21 Person hours: 466 Number of emergency operations this month: 28 Person hours: 782 Total number of ARES operations this month: 369 Total Person hours: 3765 ASEC/DECs: DEC Central/KN4DS , ASEC Digital Communications/KG4VUB, DEC East Central/KD4CK, DEC GEMA/K5AES, DEC GA Public Broadcasting/WB4QDX, DEC Georgia State Patrol/W4SKB, DEC Handiham/N0FBV, DEC Metro Atlanta/WB4NWS, DEC National Weather Service-Peachtree City/KD4YDC, DEC Northwest/KD4EKZ, ASEC Operations/KM4Z, DEC Salvation Army/WA4UJC ECs: Central: Baldwin/W4OY, Bibb/KJ4PEO, Butts/K3GWK, Crawford/WB4KNU, Dodge/KC5AVR, Houston/KI4QFF, Macon/KI4BEO, Peach/KI4YNZ, Putnam/KF4EOH, Twiggs/KJ4LAM, Washington/K4GK East Central: Columbia/K1OYQ Metro Atlanta: Cherokee/WW4WX, Clayton/AJ4GT, Dekalb/W4TGA, Fayette/AG4ZR, Gwinnett/WB4QDX, Newton/WA4UJC, North Fulton/W4UOC, Paulding/K4DMF, Rockdale/KC4ELV, South Fulton/KJ4NAX Northeast: Clarke/N4ZRA, Greene/KF4EOH, Stephens/KU4ES, Towns/W4VFZ, Walton/AI4JI Northwest: Bartow/N4QET, Floyd/KD4EKZ, Gordon/AF4DN, Murray/AI4ZV, Pickens/K4SJR, Polk/KD4EKZ, Whitfield/AI4ZV Southeast: Chatham/K4GTM, Toombs/KG4BKO, Wheeler/KI4MNR Southwest: Dougherty/N4GPJ, Grady/KE4URL, Irwin/W4CWH, Lee/W5VRV, Thomas/N4KXL, Tift/KE4RJI West Central: Muscogee/W4OZA, Troup/AD4GS Comments: ASEC/DECs: DEC Central/KN4DS, Late April and early May presented quite a bit of severe weather across the southeast, and the Central District operators all stepped up and helped provide information to the National Weather Service throughout the storms. We also added new hams to the area with a Ham Cram in Dublin, and we have another coming up in June in Warner Robins. Houston AEC Gene, KJ4QFF, had an excellent idea and began using Craigslist's Community -> Volunteers section to try and recruit new hams, and potentially new ARES members. It will be interesting to see how that works out! DEC East Central/KD4CK, So many things happening w/ church (Alabama help I was in charge of organizing for our local unit)and other things, my wife having much more pain & trouble w/ her ankle after 2 surgeries, and some remodeling at the house that ARES almost got lost in the shuffle. Things have settled down some and I am back in the saddle to get things moving forward again. I got notice of a Fall drill for the hospitals here (nuclear) and our first planning meeting is June 9th. I expect to get things moving w/ the hospitals again very soon. DEC GEMA/K5AES, Conducted numerous test sessions during the month of May with D-Rats messaging formats for training purposes. DEC GA Public Broadcasting/WB4QDX, Installation of KX4PXY D-STAR repeater at Jackson County/Athens site. Site survey for alternate site for Wrens GPB site at Columbia County Sheriff Department tower. DEC Georgia State Patrol/W4SKB, Continued work with GSP ARES Interop Team. Completed FEMA Communications Unit Leader (COML) Training at the Houston County 911 Center in Warner Robins, GA. DEC Handiham/N0FBV, END OF MONTH EARLY TO DO GOING INTO HOSP 31 MAY TO WORK ON RIGHT SHOULDER WILL SEND THIS ONE IN OK THANKS DON N0FBV END OF MAY REPORT DEC Metro Atlanta/WB4NWS, The Metro Atlanta District ARES Net was held on May 1st at 1600hrs with Dekalb County hosting and Tom Fuller, KE4QCM as Net Control. There were 36 check ins and the net lasted 45 minutes. The time for each check in is recorded in the GA ARES database under each individual with their respective county. As your new DEC, I have attended Paulding, Cherokee, and Gwinnett meetings and look forward to meeting the rest of the groups. We are currently in the process of setting up a Metro Atlanta EC and AEC meeting to discuss interoperability between our 13 counties. DEC National Weather Service-Peachtree City/KD4YDC, 1 Svr Wx Event, Aftn and evening, 26 May 2011 - 3 people (5hrs, 3hrs, 3hrs) = 11 Total man-hours; 1 hour misc working on hub repeater DEC Northwest/KD4EKZ, NOTE: 96 hours reported for emergency operations are from the Tornado Outbreak in late April. Supported Coosa Valley Cycling Association in annual Bicycle Ride. ASEC Operations/KM4Z, Participated in two webinar meetings. Work with OHS/GEMA DEC on utilizing D-RATS in the State Operations Center. DEC Salvation Army/WA4UJC, Please help the Midsouth SATERN Net each Saturday by checking in on 7.262 at 11am. We will be glad to have you. ECs: Central: Baldwin/W4OY, Continued to encourage ARES training by submitting materials to group. The mini-exercise consisting of deploying to areas in county was delayed so that more practice can be done on message development and exercising. The main goal is to develop group to a level that will permit developing a MOU with the agencies. More active participation is needed by members of the group. Bibb/KJ4PEO, We assisted Macon-Bibb EMA in installing 4 weather stations at 3 of the county fire stations and 1 at the EOC. We were activated 3 times due to severe weather. Assisted the NWS with storm damage assessments. we are also working with the North Central Health District to assist them in putting together a Go Kit for their field hospital. Installed radios in the EMA directors and asst. director vehicles. Butts/K3GWK, Members of our group assisted Clayton/Henry ARES with a HamCram. Eight participants passed the Technician License test. Butts County CERT provided GEMA Rescue Specialist Training; six of our ARES members completed the training. Houston/KI4QFF, Charles Pennington K4GK Gave a class on NTS and Message Handling Peach/KI4YNZ, Failed to attend Monthly Hospital net for May...Made June's net...conditions very poor. East Central: Columbia/K1OYQ, May was a quiet month for the CCARC and ARES. Preparations are being made for Field Day. Hope to hear you all on the air in June. Metro Atlanta: Cherokee/WW4WX, Quite a bit of time was dedicated to training in May for Cherokee ARES with 135 total hours. 25 members attended NTS Traffic training with K4GK, Charles Pennington as facilitator. Steve Bramham, W4SKB and Jim Millsap, WB4NWS attended 3 days of All Hazards Type III Communications Unit Leader Course (COML), taught by The Office of Emergency Communications, Homeland Security, at the Houston County 911 Center in Warner Robins, GA. There were 3 misc activities for 11 hours: 1 meeting at EOC with EMA Director, Newsletter, and installation of new VHF repeater on Mt. Oglethorpe in Jasper, GA. Total ARES hours for May was 146. Clayton/AJ4GT, We had 5 weekly nets, 1 general meeting, and 1 hurricane drill for 46.63 man hours. A special event bike ride for a few of our group, Mike, AJ4GU and Dan, W4DED for another 24 man hours. A very successful Ham Cram for 85 man hours with a Skywarn net to boot. It was a very busy month. We are now preparing for Field day in June. The AEC for Clayton County, Dan - W4DED, has to become net manager for Butts County. This should help simulate activity in that direction. Dekalb/W4TGA, Installed new HF antenna at Grady with Chris Balch (KJ4NAX), Installed new station at Tanner Medical (Carrollton) with Bill Dickert (KD4EKZ), Installed new station at Phoebe Putney (Albany) with Gene Clark (W4AYK), visited Crisp Medical Center and West Georgia Medical Center prior to installing new stations there. Attended MMRS meeting. Fayette/AG4ZR, Miscellaneous events include 911 practitioner, Fire Dept. coordination, planning, and nets. Newton/WA4UJC, Severe weather in our area resulted in 14 hours of operations during the month. We only had minor damage in the county. We assist the 911 center each week by sending some of our people out to check the sirens each week. North Fulton/W4UOC, • Four NFARES members helped with communications support of the Special Olympics Georgia Summer Games held at Emory University the weekend of May 20-22. Great fun was had by all. • Five NFARES members helped with communications support of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. They participated as part of a national exercise simulating an earthquake along the New Madrid Fault. The test was successful. Paulding/K4DMF, Most of this month’s activities consisted of working on the trailer EMA gave us; installing flooring, insulation and cabinets. One of our AECs is attending Hazard Mitigation Meetings with Paulding County (2 this month). Paulding’s Lt Duane Lockhart (Training Supervisor, Paulding Fire and Rescue) got his tech license: KK4BBX. We’re working on licensing other county employees South Fulton/KJ4NAX, Assisted with the Diabetes Association's Tour de Cure in Fayette and Coweta counties. Also assisted with Georgia Special Olympics Summer Games at Emory University. We are working with Special Olympics to provide radio support for the Fall and Winter Games in Cobb County. Discussions with AFCEMA continue. We got displaced due to the April storms but home to resume those efforts in the coming weeks. Fulton County Public Health is ramping up planning for a second Point of Distribution to be centered at Turner Field. ARES has been invited to those discussions. Also, in the last month we have added 1 new hospital installation and have visited two other hospitals to install amateur radio equipment in those facilities. Northeast: Stephens/KU4ES, Monthly Stephens County ARES Net has been moved to the second Thursday night of the month at 7 PM on the K4TRS Repeater (145.250- T71.9) in Toccoa Towns/W4VFZ, PS Man hours include Net Control for SABA Bike Race and operator for Hayesville N.C. 5 K foot race, and preparation of radio gear for these events. Northwest: Floyd/KD4EKZ, NOTE: 96 hours reported for emergency operations are from the Tornado Outbreak in late April. Supported Coosa Valley Cycling Association in annual Bicycle Ride. Gordon/AF4DN, Provide communications for the Fairmount GA Memorial Day 5K run with a total of 8 operators. Attended the NW GA quarterly EC meeting along with the AECs and two ARES members. Had a program of how CERT and ARES can work together as a team and shared information about the CERT program in each EC's county. Chanda Gravitt, KK4BBL Gordon Co. CERT coordinator was our guest speaker. There were 13 in attendance with 5 counties represented. Discussed starting a ARES/CERT net so that CERT members who are hams would get more involved with the radio and communications portion. Discussed making this a weekly net, and starting a Yahoo Group so that folks would get reminders and other information across the two groups. Discussed bands to make contact with our neighboring counties on Field Day before the event started at 2. Murray/AI4ZV, Please see Whitfield County combined report. Pickens/K4SJR, Pickens County - K4SJR. Pickens County had 5 regular nets in May. We had one EOC operation and two misc operations. We had one remote operation from Brasstown Bald. I called the Pickens County VHF/ARES net from 145.370 with a mag mount antenna on a grill next to a picnic table. I was able to take 28 Winlink check-ins through N3DAB-10 using FT 8900, TNC and laptop. I checked in to the HF ARES State net and passed the Winlink check-ins from the parking lot at Brasstown Bald (4300 ft). Pickens County had a total of 105 hours for May. Polk/KD4EKZ, NOTE: 48 hours reported for emergency operations are from the Tornado Outbreak in late April. Supported Coosa Valley Cycling Association in annual Bicycle Ride. Whitfield/AI4ZV, AI4ZV attended the Whitfield County Local Emergency Planning Committee meeting on May 19. This is a combined report for Whitfield and Murray County Southeast: Chatham/K4GTM, Participated in the Hurricane Awareness Tour (HAT) with the NWS at Savannah Airport on May 5. Read a summary at http://kf4lmt.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/the-hurricane-awareness-tour-and-noaa-42-stops-at-savannah-iap/. Chatham and several surrounding counties participated in the Region J Hospital Hurricane Evacuation Exercise on May 19. Read a summary at http://k4gtm.blogspot.com/2011/05/may-19th-ares-support-of-region-j.html. Southwest: Lee/W5VRV, NINE HOURS COVERS MY TIME AS NET CONTROL ON THE GEORGIA TRAFFIC NET & GEORGIA TRAFFIC AND EMERGENCY NET. IT ALSO INCLUDES MY TIME CHECKING INTO THE VARIOUS NETS Thomas/N4KXL, Our bunch had training in APRS at the Thomas County EOC. a good turnout with John Swicord, KE4RWR... as the instructor. Thank to John! Tift/KE4RJI, No drills, weekly check ins only West Central: Troup/AD4GS, We had a map reading class in West Point, GA. We helped with the Atlanta/Athens Bicycle ride. And, finally, the STM’s report on Georgia NTS activities: Public Service Honor Roll (PSHR) K4BG 130 K4GK 120 WA4UJC 105 K4BEH 100 W4WNE 100 WB4BIK 90 N5EEO 90 Station Activity Report (SAR) traffic W4WNE 544 K4BG 230 N5EEO 147 K4GK 132 WB4BIK 56 WA4UJC 10 K4BEH 10 KJ4DRW 2 Section Nets Georgia Statewide HF ARES Net QNI-695 QTC-3 Sessions-5 3975 KHz 2200 UTC Sunday K4GK Net Manager Georgia ARES Digital Net QNI-89 QTC-0 Sessions-5 3583 KHz 2130 UTC Sunday (PSK31) WB4NWS Net Manager Georgia Single Sideband Net QNI-2062 QTC-36 Sessions-31 3975 KHz 7 P.M. Daily KE4VPD Net Manager Georgia Traffic and Emergency Net QNI-1098 QTC-48 Sessions-31 3982.5 KHz 7:15 P.M. Daily W4AYK Net manager Georgia Cracker Net QNI-985 QTC-5 Sessions-31 3995 KHz 7 AM M-Sa and 8 AM Sun K4LTD Net Manager Georgia Traffic Net QNI-344 QTC-73 Sessions-26 3987.5 KHz 1:00 P.M. M-Sa WA4UJC Net Manager Georgia CW Training Net (GTN) QNI-74 QTC-0 Sessions-28 3549 KHz 9 PM Daily Slow Speed CW KG4FXG Net Manager Georgia State Net (GSN) QNI-310 QTC-186 Sessions-62 3549 KHz 7 PM and 10 PM Daily K4GK Net Manager Submitted: 10 JUN 11 Charles Pennington, K4GK Section Traffic Manager (STM) Georgia Section Note: The Net Manager’s report from Georgia Traffic and Emergency Net to the STM had some erroneous data which are corrected here—but perhaps not in time for Charles’ report to HQ. Mea Culpa.--Gene Well, that is enough for today. CU at FD! Find a FD site at http://www.arrl.org/field-day-locator. I haven’t yet decided where I will be but I will be at Field Day. Send "Traffic to the SM" to my home QTH. NTS can refer it via the Georgia Traffic and Emergency Net, or you may use standard Winlink address for Winlink. CQ FD CQ FD CQ FD de W4AYK