Hi everyone!
It looks like March came in like a big white lion with about 20 inches of snow this month!
Here's to hoping your back is feeling better from all the shoveling!
We begin the report this month with the numbers from February, as sent to the ARRL:
Total number
of ARES members: Approx
2574 Change
since last month: +38
# of
DECs/ECs reporting this month: 9 # of ARES nets active # with NTS
liaison:
DISTRICT
REPORTS:
DISTRICT 1: K8ARL/DEC
The DEC is registering ARES
members and is also accepting applications or referrals for the EC position. Send info to K8ARL@ARRL.NET
NIMS and ICS training by EMA
Director on February 28 - Twenty-one students for one hour each. Encouraging all ARES
members to take IS700 and IS100. Many are in taking the courses. Skywarn training for
This was a busy month with
flooding again in our county. We had 3 busy days working with the EMA Director Gary
Valentine N8GIL at the EOC, it was an experience for one of my new AECs Mike Ricksecker
W8MDR. We all had been together/ before so we knew our jobs and the cooperation was even
closer. Thanks to our EMA Director Gary Valentine N8GIL, Phyllis Davis W8LYB with the Red
Cross at the shelters. We didn't get to work with the damage assessment teams from the Red
Cross, again. Thanks to Bob Copas K8OIL as NCS who stayed on the job for 3 days. Thanks to
all the amateurs that kept us informed of what was happening in the county. Also got a
chance to talk with the Governor of Ohio and mentioned our ARES, Hancock Emergency Amateur
Radio Services (HEARS) and Red Cross involvement.
No additional comments.
4 LCARA Sunday Evening Nets
Also completed updating and repairing radio antennas at all hospitals in
Lucas County Skywarn will have
spotter training March 29 at St. Lukes Hospital Maumee from 10:00 AM - Noon. We are
expecting a large turn out of people including local boy scouts. The new county wide
digital radio system is up and running. All police and fire departments are on this new
system. Lucas County ARES installed two new digital public safety radios in the
communication trailer and one at the 911 building.
The Toledo Area Metroparks has
invited Lucas County ARES to assist them with some of their events. The events slated for
2008 are:
April 15-20
June 21 Happy Trails 5k
Walk/Race-Wildwood Preserve
August 23 Metrobarks/Dog
Days-Secor Metropark
September 20 Pack the
Parks-Wildwood Preserve & Pearson Metroparks
The DEC is accepting ARES EC
and membership applications. Send information to
February was a busy month for
weather -- 2 warnings, 5 advisories and 1 watch.
NWS issued a Severe
Thunderstorm Warning at 2:00 AM on February 5th followed by a Flood Warning starting on
February 8th. Several county and state roads were closed by high water. Also during
February, 3 snow storms of 2", 3" and 8” were recorded.
March will also be busy with
Skywarn training, Pandemic S.E.T. and testing ARES activations.
6 FORMAL TRAFFIC PASSED ON OUR
NETS
1 ADMIN NET
1 SIMPLEX NET
4 ARES WEEKLY NETS
1 CITIZEN CORP MEETING
1 ARES STANDBY FOR FLOODING
WCARES met this month with the
leader of the Medical Reserve Corp of
=====
District 1 Comments - Karl
Erbland K8ARL DEC
Skywarn training scheduled for
most counties.
Progress continues for filling
two EC positions.
Planning for several
unannounced district-wide spot drills for the first quarter of 2008.
Planning for conference /
training for District 1 ECs / AECs.
District 1 experienced a lot of
flooding in February. The floods brought me into contact with man yof the Volunteer
Organizations Active in Disasters (VOAD) representatives. I am active with our
As I write this we are
expecting another heavy snow (8\"-10\") this week (March 7), the rivers are
flooding and next week (March 10) it is supposed to rain and the last three snows will
melt. Flooding is sure to occur.
Preparing for the
DISTRICT 2: K8FRS/DEC
No Additional Comments
Nothing to report
A search for an Emergency
Coordinator is being conducted. The DEC is taking A.R.E.S. applications directly during
the search.
Nothing to report
Nothing new to report for
February.
However, my goals for the month
of March are:
1. Check in to
2. Meet one of the hams who was
somewhat active way back when Henry County had some ARES activity and get the \'lay of the
land\' regarding potentially interested ARES members
3. Meet a ham (Keith) who works
at the
4. Help out with and attend a
meeting of Henry County Skywarn on March 24
Hopefully, I will have
something to report next month!
A search for an Emergency
Coordinator is being conducted. The DEC is taking A.R.E.S. applications directly during
the search.
No additional comments.
Van Wert County - Ralph Shields
WB8YIH
No additional Comments.
A search for an Emergency
Coordinator is being conducted. The DEC is taking A.R.E.S. applications directly during
the search.
No Additional comments
DISTRICT 3: W8ILC/DEC
7 of the 8 Counties in District
3 Reporting.
The West Central Ohio Regional
Pandemic Flu Exercise the first 3 Tuesday's in Feb was the biggest event. At peak day we
had 26 operators at EMAs, Hospitals and Health Depts. Amateur Radio was only used as
backup if needed and was not a player.
We did have Amateur Radio at
each site. Fred Stone, EC W8LLY was the Coordinator for Amateur radio. More on the
exercise later. Hours etc and key points learned.
Many Meetings with agencies
throughout all counties this month.
March Weather report will be
addressed in March report.
DISTRICT 4: N8TVU/DEC
Counties reporting:
Counties not reporting: Adams,
Brown, and Warren.
We do have 2 candidates for the
EC position that is vacant that are being considered as a replacement for Gordon Duncan
KC8ZJY that resigned his position in January due to personal reasons.
Butler County ARES has an MOU
with the Butler County VHF Association for use of their repeaters and club station that
ARES utilizes as their Amateur Radio Emergency
The BCVHFA just obtained a
grant to replace a lightening damaged antenna on their 146.970 repeater and to install a
new 144-440-1.2 GHz antenna and 1 5/8” hard line for a new D-Star system being
provided by R & L electronics. The grant was for $3,470.00 and the work will be done
by Wirenet Incorporated. The work will begin as soon as the weather breaks.
The Butler County ARECC will
not be available the first week of April due to the Rohn 45G will have two additional 10
foot sections added to it raising it to approximately 58 feet. This is the first step in
redesigning the BCVHFA radio room to incorporate some of the radios needed for the ARECC.
A $15,000.00 renovation of the
equipment is planned for 2008-2009 that will add D-Star
compatible radios on 144-440
and 1.2 GHz voice and data that will connect to the in house computer system for access by
team members in the field, 220 MHz FM for the 220 net being built, 6 meters, plus the
installation of tri-band antennas which will replace the mono and dual band antennas.
Projects in Clermont,
Hamilton County
ARPSC-ARES-RACES is asking for additional assistance with the Flying Pig Marathon May 4.
If you can help out, please go to the Flying Pig website, look for the Volunteer tab and
sign up. In the comment section type in the word “ARES” so we will know what
amateur radio network group you signed up for. The signup is for the sponsors of the
Flying Pig’s insurance coverage and is requiring all volunteers to register.
District: We have attempted
twice to hold a District 4 meeting for the EC’s and AEC’s to bring everyone up
to speed on the district projects both on going and being planed, and the services that
the served agencies are in need of, only to have to cancel due to (1) an ice and snow
storm and (2) to a blizzard! Hopefully we can find time to have the meeting before the
Public Service Event season starts.
DISTRICT 5: KB8WPZ/DEC
Counties Reporting:
Mahoning: Nothing to report
Carroll: Working with Tom
Cottis, EMA Director to make sure ARES meets the EMA’s needs for 2008.
Tuscawaras: Nothing to report
DISTRICT 6: KC8GNL/DEC
Morrow ---- We had a silent key
in our county and within our ARES group, Mark Blank KB8UXA died in a auto crash Feb 23rd.
I met with the Morrow County
Hospital COTS coordinator. COTS is providing ham radio to member hospitals and the
coordinator didn’t know what "ham radio" was. I gave a overview on ham
radio, ARES and what we can do with the radio's. They have a dual band radio on order, but
no antenna or funding for an antenna. I am also working on a SOP between ARES and our
Skywarn training is scheduled
for April 15th at 6:30pm in Mt Gilead at the Heath Depth building.
Knox ---- Skywarn Training this
year will be April 3rd, 6 pm at the Knox County EMA office located at
Richland-- Had 2 Skywarn nets
for severe thunderstorm warnings. Also was on stand-by for the EMA due to possible
flooding and had a phone outage to cover for
District counties that will be
involved with GOBA had road testing for repeater use done in late February.
DISTRICT 7: N8WL/DEC
Congratulations District Seven
(7) for having every E.C. position filled. That is certainly great news and a credit to
our DEC Steve Katz, N8WL. With the summer approaching rapidly the calls or Public Service
events is increasing and the need for communications assistance is also on the rise. I
know we all will do our best to get the job done properly.
COARES conducted Em Comm 001
training session Sat 2/9. EC attended IS-300 and IS-400 raining sessions. Arnold Sports
Festival started on 2/29 and covered 3 days. Time for this public service event will be
reported on the March FSD-212 and will include the entire three-day event.
Working with AEC Dean Calvin of
Also working with EC Ron Wilch
of
Our Group was asked to help out
in damage assessment of the Miami River flooding event out of the
Checks being cut from the
county to the vendors for the new EOC equipment were delayed, so the new ham equipment
that we are getting thanks to a Homeland Security grant have been slow coming in ( but it
is starting to come in). The two new repeaters in
We received training on the
MARCS radios this month from the Union County EMA, as our ECC has a MARCS radio located
there. Quite interesting in it's capabilities but, if a tower would go down for some
reason that system is shot. They are also quite expensive...$3000 for a HT. Treat them
with kid gloves!
We are also putting together a
"Go-Kit" for volunteers that may come to our area in case we have a large scale
disaster and need help from surrounding communities or have volunteers from our own
community that have not participated in training for whatever reason. Things like maps,
frequencies, light, etc will be in the kit. Our small group has come to the realization
that it is very difficult to have many trained operators standing by all the time and as
such, we need to make it as easy as possible to "do business with us" in a time
of need. The kits should be ready by spring storm season.
DISTRICT 8: N8SUZ/DEC
Counties Reporting: Gallia,
Ross, Scioto, Hocking,
Upcoming Combined Basic and
Advanced Storm Spotter class on Tuesday, April 1, 6:00-9:00 PM at Gallia county 9-1-1
Center taught by Charleston office NWS.
Ross comments: I operated
Radios in
DISTRICT 9: W8FHF/DEC
Counties Reporting: Guernsey
and
Winter Net numbers have been
down this year.
------------------------- END OF FEBRUARY
REPORT TO THE ARRL -----------------------------------
OHIO ARES CONFERENCE IS MARCH 29th
Please plan to attend the Ohio ARES Conference this March 29th (Saturday). The conference
will be held at the Ohio Fire Academy, 8895 East Main Street in Reynoldsburg, Ohio. The
conference will begin promptly at 9:00am, and we'll be out at 3:00pm. The agenda for the
conference, along with links for direction will be posted on the Ohio ARES website, www.ohioares.org
WEATHER SPOTTER TRAINING AT FULL SPEED IN THE OHIO SECTION
Ohio's most common disaster occurrences are weather related: Blizzards, flooding,
tornadoes, etc. Please do your part to be a TRAINED weather spotter this year, with the
emphasis on TRAINED. Calling in a tornado when all it is is scud clouds will just promote
panic to the scanner listeners, who relay on the TRAINED Amateur Radio weather spotter for
accurate information. If you have missed your local training, There are plenty more
opportunities in the counties surrounding your area. Check them out! A link for spotter
training in the Ohio Section is available on the Ohio ARES website, www.ohioares.org.
NEW EMERGENCY COORDINATORS IN THE OHIO SECTION:
Please give a warm welcome to the new EC's in the Ohio Section!
Jon Barkhurst, WB8NTA - Morgan County
Donald Kemp, NN8B - Columbiana County
Eric A. Kuhn, K8UHN - Lawrence County
Eric K8UHN replaces long time EC Mike Love, WB8YKS. I want to take this time to thank Mike
for his many years of service as EC for Lawrence county.
Please give these new EC's a warm welcome, and I hope to see them at the Conference on 3-29!
That's all I have for now. I'm back to getting the conference ready. 73, and let's be
careful out there!
Frank Piper KI8GW
ARRL Section Emergency Coordinator - Ohio