Friday, September 16, 2016

Section Emergency Coordinator's monthly report for August

ARRL Ohio Section - FSD-96
Month: August
Year: 2016
Total Number of ARES Members: 1639
Change since last month: 4
Number of DEC's / EC's reporting this month: 10
Number of ARES Nets active: 390
Number of Nets active with NTS Liaisons: 10
Call-signs of DEC's / EC's reporting: WD8PNZ W8UY KC8WHK WF8B AI8P KB8STK N8KKW N8SUZ W8FHF N8AUC
Number of drills, tests and training sessions this month: 85
Person Hours: 1316.3
Number of Public Service Events this month: 81
Person Hours: 2289.8
Number of Emergency Operations this month: 143
Person Hours: 163.5
Total number of ARES/RACES Events this month: 763
Total Person Hours: 5528.3
Comments:
Submitted by and call-sign: Stan Broadway N8BHL
Email: broadways@standi.com


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EC’s - PLEASE forward this to all your members!

Hey everyone!   I have attached the August report summary from all our active counties.  We had 85 training sessions with 1316.3 hours. We ran 81 public service events totaling 2289.8 hours. There were 143 emergency operations with 163.5 hours.  Overall, that’s 5528.3 hours Ohio ARES members contributed to their communities! Well done!

PLEASE ATTEND OUR OHIO ARES CONFERENCE, September 24th at the Marion Technical College (OSU Marion) campus!  Our folks are working diligently to give you some excellent information!  I know there are many conflicts with activities and that’s what we get for having a major, active organization! But those EC’s who are not engaged in activities are expected to attend, and of course ALL ARES MEMBERS are invited! This will be worth your time!  Registration is available from the arrl-ohio.org website at http://arrl-ohio.org/SEC/form.html    This is a very nice venue, with comfortable seating and lots of plusses! The Marion ARES gang will be taking good care of our housekeeping, coffee and welcoming, so we thank them in advance!

I truly hope to see you there!

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OHIO SET – “Not your gramma’s SET!”   The Ohio SET will be held on the national date of OCTOBER 1 – and our team is planning “the Big One” to be a true test of our capabilities!  Here’s the deal: last year we handled a long-term power outage, and considered some of the radio-related issues that would present. This year, we’re moving way past that to TEOTWAWKI – “The end of the world as we know it”.  Consider what would happen in society with a total breakdown, caused by any of several reasons. Food, water, all the necessities would become targets and behavior would presumably take a really bad turn.  It will be up to us, as a remaining communications link, to pass important messages back and forth with other counties and the Sarge, to share what would surely become a much-desired commodity- information.

One cool addition to this year’s SET is the incorporation of the Ohio Military Reserve!  We will be working with the OMR which will be conducting a tabletop to go along with our scenario. Next year, we are expecting actual movement of troops!  So we have a military audience this year contributing to the exercise.

Expect to begin around 8 with alerting coming from the OHEOC to district then county EC’s.  There will be injects throughout the day to keep everyone interested.   Please plan to participate- it requires all of our effort to make this a success!

Fall Stuff – We’re leaving summer behind, and with that most of our active months are complete. I thank you all for everything you’ve done to make amateur radio a vital part of our communities again this year! Your work gets noticed!   As we go into winter, don’t let the activity die…get some training topics ready for your monthly meetings to keep the interest and activities going!


RNC – GRAB THE NEAREST OCTOBER ISSUE OF CQ MAGAZINE!  We have a big report coming out in the October edition of the Ohio ARES activities during RNC!  The editors were very impressed with your work and grabbed the story and photos we contributed!  Nice work, again, everybody!!

Ohio ARES Monthly Report  August, 2016
District 1
Totals include figures from Northwest Ohio Traffic and Training Net and District 1 Skywarn. More than usual severe weather for the later part of summer. Been quiet up til then.

District 2
 On Tuesday the 23rd - We participated in a Full scale Tornado Exercise at the Defiance Co Elementary School, Including City Police, County Fire departments, and Life Flight. On Wednesday the 24th District 2 was struck by 2 super cell Tornadic Storms that spawned 8 Tornados in a 6 county area. This storm caused a lot of property loss in Defiance & Paulding Counties, It was fortunate that there was only minor personal Injury. This storm passed between A large manufacturing facility composed of several steel span buildings and a Natural Gas compressor station so things could have a LOT worse. We activated a storm spotter net during the event and I submit after action reports from my net control team.

District 3
CHAMPAIGN COUNTY: The four public service events refer to (4) days of operating a 40m demonstration station at the Champaign Co. Fair.   
CLARK COUNTY:NA
DARKE COUNTY:NA
GREENE COUNTY: Voice Nets: 5 Greene County ARES, 4 Bellbrook ARC, 5 Upper Valley ARC (Fairborn); Digital Nets: 5 GCARES; Drill/Meetings: 1 GCARES, 1 GCARES/Miami Valley Mesh Alliance; Public Service Events: 1 Bellbrook ARC.
LOGAN:NA
MIAMI COUNTY: MCES ARES/RACES Net 145.23-: 8/7, 8/14, 8/21, 828, MCES ARES/RACES Net 147.21+: 8/4, 8/11, 8/18, 8/25. Weather net on Aug 20th. Conducted a county wide radio check drill on Aug 27th where operators staffed the various fire stations and EMS locations around the county to check radio communication of the two primary repeaters and simplex frequency. Radio coverage results are still being processed, but show good results with the W8FW (Troy, Ohio) repeater and coverage of half the county using the W8SWS (Piqua, Ohio) repeater.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY: 2 Officers attended the District 3 meeting held on Aug 13, On Aug 20 our partner agency Dayton Skywarn did activate due to Tornado touchdown being indicated in Darke and Miami Counties, operators in both counties were activated and relayed information to Dayton Skywarn who relays directly to NWS Wilmington, a high end EF0 was confirmed in Darke County. On Aug 28 both Dayton and Cincinnati were dealing with Flash Flooding, Norwood received over 4" of rain while Kettering saw 3". And on Aug 30 we held a tabletop exercise during a bi-monthly membership meeting. They included representatives from Mound ARA, Centerville ARS, Huber Heights ARC, Dayton Chapter of the American Red Cross and Dayton Skywarn. We learned how the Red Cross and best utilize Amateur Radio in the event of normal communications aren't available and what the capabilities of our partner clubs could do if they're resources were needed, and who has what priority of what repeater and where to send people who are looking for information.
PREBLE COUNTY:NA
SHELBY COUNTY: 4 SCARES Sunday evening nets 8-5,6-2016 Shelby County Relay for Life 8-20-16 Tornado Warning Shelby County 8-27-2016 Ohio OSQ Party 8-28-2016 Monthly meeting

District 4
Adams: No comments
Clinton: Called out by served agency – NWS
Hamilton: Assisted Boy Scout Pack with tracking a HAB using APRS and 2m beacon. Bike Ride. All ARES membership meeting. Local flood warnings monitoring (2 days). County wide floods on standby by EMA (2 days). Assist Cincy FD with ham radio installation in command van. Many admin and misc meeting hours.

District 5
Stark County - Terry, N8ATZ Stark County ARES completed 5 public service nets for the month of August that totaled 142 check-ins. We provided communications support for the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Grand Parade on Saturday, August 6th utilizing 27 operators. Communications support included parade staging, route monitoring, dispersal and medical support. This is the largest public service effort in the county handled by radio operators. This totaled 162 volunteer service hours. Assistant EC David Beltz, WD8AYE worked with our county EMA office to complete the remodeling of the Communications Center that now includes new furniture, county communications radio, a new amateur radio dual band system and a new computer system with internet service that will support our digital operations during drills and local emergency response.

District 6
Richland County had a Skywarn net, no problems

District 7
Delaware: After 6 months of planning and preparation the Delaware ARES was staffed along with the Marion and Morrow County ARES groups to support the first Ironman 70.3 event in Delaware. Our combined groups provided all of the radio coverage from the 1.2 mile swim at Delaware Beach to the 56 mile bike ride and finally to the 13.1 mile half marathon. Everything went as planned and our coverage was much appreciated by the sponsors, fire/EMS and law enforcement in all three counties.
Fairfield: Public service event, Millersport corn festival.
Franklin: Our Emergency Communications Testing program has begun at several locations in Franklin County. We have established an MOU with the Franklin County Coroner's office and will begin testing their radio systems next month. Also coming up First AID/ AED training and Active Shooter Training scheduled in December. Website development and database work continues.
Licking County: We were asked by EMA Director Sean Grady to help with parking and security at the Hartford Fair, LCARES had teamed up with CERT and both teams provided parking and security support for Friday night’s Rough Truck event. We had a total of 7 hams, 5 were LCARES members, (Bret (EC) KD8SCL, Mike (AEC) WD8JLP, Tim KA8PCP, LaVergne N8HLP, David KB3DAJ) 1 was the LC CERT Coordinator Lori Dixon KD8OLM and 1 was the EMA Director Sean Grady W1GDY. CERT had 8 members on site. Bret was mobile command with Sean who had MARCs comms with the SO and was operating a briefcase mobile rig with a mag mount antenna on simplex sitting in the back seat of a 4 seat Gator. Sean, John & Bret also was providing help with security and checking on the LCARES & CERT members. Things went very well except for the rain and heat, but we adapted and conquered. After we were advised that we can secure for the evening, Bret got a report from one of the fairs directors that the fair board was impressed and pleased with our performance and communications abilities and that they are thinking about next year already. A big kudos to both teams.
Marion: August - 2016 August was a busy month for the Marion ARES gang starting with a camp out the first weekend. Don Freeman, KD8BKT, hosted the group at his fantastic Summer home and campsite at Indian Lake. Several trailers, tents and motor homes were parked together for a great weekend. Everyone had a fun time on Don’s pontoon boat and exploring the area on golf carts. Saturday night saw a cookout out and potluck featuring Don’s secret recipe chili cooked over the campfire. We finished the evening under the stars watching an Indiana Jones movie thanks to Dan Wade, N8WOB, who brought along his projector and a large screen. The next week the ARES provided security from 7pm until 4am for the Ohio Buckeye Classic All Color Antique Tractor and Equipment Show, held at the Marion County Fairground from August 11th to the 13th. There was several hundred tractors and other farm equipment on display along with vendors showing their products for the event. August 21st brought around two thousand bicycle racers into Marion and Morrow Counties for the Ironman 72 event. The ARES members were positioned at the aid stations and other locations along the route to provide communication back to the EOC and event sponsors in case of medical emergencies and give progress of the riders around the course. The monthly training session included a discussion of the antenna locations and installation at the 911 Call Center by Jim Bird, KD8KCH, who is leading up the project. Doug Ford, KB8FMC, gave an informative program on what is needed in a 24 hour go bag, showing what is in his, along with suggestions others might need in their personal bags.

District 8
Counties reporting: Athens, Hocking, Jackson, Lawrence, Ross, Scioto, Vinton EC comments: Athens: Several members activated special event station K8M to commemorated the 60th anniversary of the King Midget Motor Car manufactured in Athens after WW II. Hocking: We are currently converting a 6x12 box trailer into a new Emergency Communications vehicle for our HVARC. Work is progressing nicely and it should be ready for limited use in the next couple of days. We will be trying it out at Lake Logan during the Ohio State Parks on the Air if anyone wants to come join us. Ross: Limited attendance at last Ross/Pike ARES meeting. Looking to plan a disaster exercise at this month's meeting. Scioto: Lightning strike took out repeater and we were operating on lower power on back up for a lot of the month DEC comments: Public service events in October - Buckeye Trail Marathon in Perry/Athens Counties October 1. Komen Athens Race for the Cure October 23

District 9
Coshocton: Monthly ARES meeting had KB8PXM,Charlie, talked about his experience as a Red Cross Volunteer and his recent Coshocton County ARES involvement with the RNC event . He volunteered for the Akron Red Cross station. We went through the process and he was issued cims credentialing in short order. The system worked well. Thanks to Charlie for volunteering his time. During the Ohio QSO party we activated the Coshocton EOC, using the W8CCA club call. Op AA8BN. A couple dozen contacts were made, a few of which were other states. KL7RF operated psk at home with a dozen contacts. Coshocton county EC AA8BN
Muskingum: No comments

District 10
Public service event season is winding down. Hope to see everyone at the state wide conference!
Ashtabula County: No report submitted from Ashtabula County.
Cuyahoga County: Cuyahoga County had another busy public service event month. We look forward to winding down after September.
Geauga County: No Comments.
Lake County: We operated in the Dry run for the Perry Nuclear Power Plant Drill at the Lake County E.O.C. During the dry run we discovered a 80m Antenna problem. Part of the antenna was on the ground and in the weeds due to maintenance mowing on the roof. A new antenna has been installed. We are now ready for the FEMA Drill on the 13th. Number Six activation of the James A Garfield home was celebrated with a birthday cake for the Park Service employees. We ended the month providing communications for the first L..C.H.S Bike Tour of Lake County
Lorain County: No Comments.
Medina County: No report submitted from Medina County.

OES activity for August, 2016:

Marshall
N8PIB
Marion
7
0
0
0.5
Scott
N8SY
Richland
6
25
10
50
Mark
KB8YMN
Franklin
7
7
0
4
Bob
W8RWR
Franklin
7
0
0
1.5
David
NF8O
Medina
10
27.25
0
8.5
Tony
KC8UR
Knox
7
0
0
8
Jack
KB8WPZ
Mahoning
5
10
0
10
Randy
KA0AZS
Montgomery
3
0
0
4.5
John
K8PJ
Pickaway
7
0
0
2