June 2017 Section Emergency Coordinator's Report

ARRL Ohio Section - FSD-96
Month: July
Year: 2017
Total Number of ARES Members: 1792
Change since last month: 9
Number of DEC's / EC's reporting this month: 10
Number of ARES Nets active: 657
Number of Nets active with NTS Liaisons: varies
Call-signs of DEC's / EC's reporting: WD8PNZ W8UY W8LLY N8TFD AI8P W8DLB N8KKW N8SUZ W8FHF N8AUC
Number of drills, tests and training sessions this month: 838
Person Hours: 11485
Number of Public Service Events this month: 229
Person Hours: 3924
Number of Emergency Operations this month: 23
Person Hours: 338
Total number of ARES/RACES Events this month: 1090
Total Person Hours: 15747
Comments: ARES is busy with public service- some major marathons - and has been called for emergency duty in several important events including a verdict at University of Cincinnati police shooting trial. Very active for Field Day!
Submitted by and call-sign: Stan Broadway N8BHL
Email: broadways@standi.com
Files to upload?:

Everyone, we had some really impressive numbers for June!  Thanks for your energy, your time, and your enthusiasm!

OES hours for June:

Name	Call	County	District	PS Hours	EM Hours	Hours Net Participation
Scott	N8SY	Richland	6	60	20	80
Mark	KB8YMN	Franklin	7	5	0	8
Bob	W8RWR	Franklin	7	0	0	1.5
David	NF8O	Medina	10	56	0	13.25

Ohio ARES Monthly Activity Report

June, 2017

District 1

Seneca County-EC Scott Rosenburger KE8JC  Report submitted by AEC Steve Tarbert KC8ZKC  Seneca County now has a DMR repeater courtesy of KD8QDL (444.825 CC1). It was put on the air in the last week of June. A new DMR net has been started on Wednesdays at 7:00p. the first net of the month is to be a formal net with a training topic and the following nets being more of a round table format. 2 Skywarn nets were held in June (1-Yellow & 1-Green)

Huron County-EC Craig Franklin KD8KWU  1 Severe Thunderstorm Warning Assisted Sandusky County ARES With the Camel Back Run, Fremont Hosted Field Day at the Huron County EMA Contacted COMEX ,Kentucky EMA on 40 Meters for their drill.

Sandusky County-EC David Gierhart W8DAG   Provided communications for the 39th annual 

Camelback Run in Fremont, Ohio.

Hancock County-EC Evan Hartman W8KJR  We had the pleasure of assisting with the Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure as they started and ended in Findlay on the 18th and 24th respectively. Nearly 1,500 riders participated and passed thru our county. Both dates were met with some small challenges but I am thankful for our excellent group of volunteers and their service for this event.

Erie County-EC Edward Andres W8EJA  No Comment.

Wood County-EC Eric Willman WD8LEI  Field day events, Proclamation by Wood County Commissioners, GOBA bike event, new DMR repeater online in Bowling Green

Lucas County-EC Lowell Kern KD8KXD  LCARES provided radio communications for the Muddy Mini 1/2 Marathon on June 17th. Lucas County Skywarn was activated on June 22nd.

Ottawa County-EC James Garber KB8TTR  We had one Skywarn activation. No other changes

Wyandot County-EC Ron Wilch KE8PX  The Wyandot County Hams skipped Field Day activities this year due to lack of participation. Two of the County Hams visited the Mansfield Field Day site. We did take an active part in GOBA as they stayed in Upper Sandusky and as they went through 

Wyandot County.

Hardin County-Craig Newland KC8FEL  Hopefully I got everyone accounted for on the field day hours.

District 2

No comments submitted

District 3

DISTRICT 3 SUMMARY:  100% of Nine Counties reporting:  293 Members (+3) for 9 counties, 97 Total Events (57 Voice Net Sessions, 11 Digital Net Sessions, 24 Meetings-Drills-Training-Tests, 3 Public Service Events and 2 Emergency Operations for 1879 Total Man-Hours.

CHAMPAIGN COUNTY:  5 weekly voice net sessions and 21 ARES meeting for a total of 6 events and 138 man-hours.

CLARK COUNTY:  3 weekly net sessions, 1 ARES meeting and 1 other ARES event for a total of 5 events and 39 man-hours. 

DARKE COUNTY:  4 weekly voice net sessions and 1 other ARES event for a total of 5 events and 35 man-hours.

GREENE COUNTY:  16 weekly voice nets (GCARES, GCARES/MVMA, BARC, UVARC), 4 GCARES weekly digital nets, 1 Public Service Event plus 13 other ARES activities: GCARES Liaison Station to SEOC nets and OHDEN nets; 3 Field Day sites (BARC, UVARC, XWARN; Mesh Nodes installation, MVMA monthly meeting and training; GCARES Winlink UHF RMS Gateway installation completion & full activation; and several GCARES served agency training for a total of 34 events and 552 man-hours.

LOGAN COUNTY (RACES UNIT):  5 weekly voice net sessions and 1 training session for a total of 6 events and 30 man-hours.

MIAMI COUNTY:  9 weekly voice net sessions, 4 weekly digital net sessions, 2 Public Service Events (Troy Strawberry Festival Bike Ride and West Milton Triathlon) and 3 other ARES/RACES/MCARC events (Field Day, a General Class license course and an exam session) for a total of 18 events and 450 man-hours.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY:  3 weekly voice nets, 3 weekly digital nets and 1 monthly meeting with training for a total of 7 events and 46 man-hours.

PREBLE COUNTY:  4 weekly net sessions, 1 Emergency Operation (mock industrial chemical spill) and Field Day (PCARES with Preble County ARC) for a total of 6 events and 262 man-hours..

SHELBY COUNTY:  4 weekly net sessions, 1 Emergency Operation (Skywarn Severe Thunderstorm Warning) and SCARES Field Day for a total of 6 events and 305 man-hours.

DISTRICT 3 ACTIVITIES:  4 District 3 ARES weekly voice net sessions for a total of 4 events and 22 man-hours.

District 4

Clinton County E-ops was National Weather Service support at the Wilmington office. Clinton County was also active in Field Day as part of a joint effort with Highland County and Fayette 

County (District 7).

Brown County was active at Grant ARC and OhKyIn ARES Field Day sites.

Hamilton County was active at multiple FD sites, the Tensing retrial, SkyWARN, a Hamilton County Health exercise, Tri-State Medical Reserve Corps Summit (training), ARES training session at meeting. Membership increasing.

District 5

District 5 EC Dennis Conklin, AI8P, visited all 13 Field Day sites within District 5, as well as an additional site out of the district where many Summit County ARES members were participating. Although the sites varied from a single radio in a tent, to EMA Comms trailers, to multi-tower arrays with beams and rotors, the common thread was a high level of enthusiasm and a true spirit of preparedness.

Donald Kemp, NN8B, for Columbiana County: Columbiana County ARES participated in a full scale LEPC drill. The state evaluated drill was a product spill and fire at the Utica East Ohio (UEO) processing plant in Kensington, OH. Communications were provided between the Salem Regional Medical Center and the EMA and from UEO and the and the EMA and also to an shelter at United High School in Hanoverton, OH set up by the Red Cross. Voice and digital comms were used. Six ARES members participated. Emergency power was used at both locations. Two ARES groups had a Field Day event; one in Calcutta, OH and the other in Lisbon OH. Both events used portable antennas for HF, 6M and VHF.

Ken Dorsey, KA8OAD, for Summit County: Great participation for the DMR codeplug class, thanks everyone for being there. And thanks also to Scott (N8SY) for recording video of it.

Terry Russ, N8ATZ, for Stark County: Stark Co ARES completed 4 public service training nets for the month of June that totaled 111 check-ins. There were no public service events during the month but 15 members of our ARES team participated in Field Day operations with the Massillon Amateur Radio Club by assisting with Section Traffic messages, logging and digital operations over the weekend. The annual Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival begins July 23rd with the Community Parade.

Dave Brett, KD8NZF, for Mahoning County: 6/2 meet w/CCARES, 6/3 Planting Day Comms, 6/4 Meet w/TC AEC, 6/5 MCARES Net, 6/13 WRARC Ofc Mtg, 6/15 Meet w/Rocky W8RKY possible new AEC, 6/19 MCCARES Net, 6/28 Meet w/Red Cross Director, 6/30 Meet w/TCARES AEC

District 6

Wayne-100 Mile Run Communications Where is runner #123? Has runner #456 passed the Hickory Ridge Aid station? These are examples that the Mohican 100 Mile Run net control station is asked each year. The successful 2017 Amateur Radio communications was provided by Amateur Radio operators from Wayne and Medina Counties. The 30 hour operation had a net control and radio operators at 5 aid stations. Communications was to support the run activities; but mainly to track runners. This was truly a test of emergency type of operation. Communications was through a portable repeater installed room atop of the fire tower in the Mohican Forest. A diamond dual band antenna is permanently mounted at the top of the fire tower. Electric power was provided by a generator at the base of the tower. This repeater was used a couple of weeks before in an EMA exercise in Loudonville. A 2m/440 antenna was installed at a RV unit that served as net control. Only one aid station had permanent electricity. The others had a generator for night operations. When the Wayne County group started providing radio coverage over 25 years ago, the information for the 60 - 70 runners was called in as they enter each aid station. Now with over 600 runners, calling all the information in was not possible. This year, a data base was used for keeping the runner information. FLDIGI was successfully used to send in the data from some of the locations. The runner information was entered in a spreadsheet that was then saved as a csv file and sent to the net control. At net control, the information was converted to an excel file and added to the main data base. The data base program allowed calling up a runner information by name or runner number. One operator who was located with good cellphone coverage photographed the runner log sheets and e-mailed them to net control. This cut the time to enter the information in half as compared to calling them into net control and then having net control confirm the information.

Crawford- Temperatures reached 90 degrees on the Bank thermometer and the sun glared through a mostly cloudless sky but the constant wind from the southwest and low humidity made for a surprisingly beautiful and comfortable day at the 2017 "Crusin with the Cops" car show in Bucyrus Ohio on Saturday June the 10. We planned for about 24 radio positions divided into 4 hour shifts and delivered sufficient coverage to call the event a great success. The venue was packed to near capacity and the warm pavement only served to amplify the barks and chirps that result when you add black rubber and massive horsepower into the mix. Six people showed up and they carried the load like veteran heroes! Some had it a little easier than others. Some did a lot! Due to the shortage of personnel I was assigned to each of the three fixed positions for long enough to see the differences. The south gate was a more laid back, southern atmosphere. The north gate was more like a busy New York City intersection. Mike Shuster KE8CZU was flying solo at this gate for several hours and his friendly and calm demeanor has certainly earned a big thank you from not only the leaders of the Crawford County Amateur Radio Emergency Service and the FOP but the couple hundred participants who needed to 'slip out and back in' to get gas for the event. Another job that had to be hectic was the four or five rover positions that dwindled down to one that was skillfully handled by Josh Albright KD8GVI. Alongside an FOP officer he assisted in handling numerous calls including a traffic accident just outside the event perimeter, warning reckless operators, distributing supplies and cold water and returning personal items. Later he was assigned his own cart and continued to monitor traffic and perform regular checks with personnel at the north and south entry gates and monitoring of the numerous barriers on side streets that occasionally walked out of position, of course, on their own. The main man at the Main Station was none other than Tom Schluter KB8USX. His personal, professional and volunteer experience and his well thought out prospective made a lot of the parts of the machine work amazingly smoothly. Because of him the net had a sense of professionalism and radio problems were quickly diagnosed and rectified. Tom somehow coped with operating in the heart of a volcano of explosively crackling engine revving and tires squealing, smoke and noxious gases that did not appeal to my preferences, not to mention a nearby PA speaker with loud 50's thru 80's rock and roll music and regularly scheduled announcements and still he pulled off a "class act net". Al Phaler KB8RXY and his lovely wife Judy, as well as Ken Cook W8DZN took on various rolls at the south entry gate during the hottest and busiest parts of the day and flashed their friendly smiles whenever they got a chance. Thank you for your service. All in all the FOP and various car show board members seemed delighted at the outcome of the event and everyone's help. It was only a 23 hour day for me and that after only a couple of hours of sleep the night before courtesy of someone texting me at 4:40AM. Thank you to all who participated. Field day was a little different. Our original club site was flooded due to 3 inches of rain. David E. Landis W8DEL volunteered his back yard as a last minute alternative.

District 7

DELAWARE: Field Day 2017 is in the books with our group earning more than 9,000 points in 4F, a new category for us working form the Red Cross building where we relocated our Net Control and a club station. New location, new setup, new problems to overcome but our group is working on things to fix them now rather later. And in the middle of Field Day was a triathalon we've supported for several years. Somehow, we got it all done.

KNOX: 4 Nets with total of 40 check ins. The Net Controllers were; Tom Evans - KD8HSA, Terry Widsor - KE8ANS, William Bradley - KC8BB, Don Russell - W8PEN. ARES membership participated in the Field Day / ICS Interface Training. Topics; ICS 201 for Incident Summary, Objectives meeting, Strategy meeting, Demobilizing.

LICKING: Licking County had 3 clubs operating at 2 locations for field day this year and had a great turnout, fun, food and fellowship. We activated the Licking Co. Severe Weather only 1 time this month. Work on the EOC and tower is near completion. Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th. 

MADISON: We participated with the Red Cross, EMA, Madison County Hospital, Engineer's Office, and Public Health to perform a simulated emergency drill on June 17. ARES proved valuable as there was a miscommunication among the Red Cross members and the ARES group was able to communicate between the remote location and the EMA Office to get the communication back on line. We also had approximately 20 members who worked HF, UHF and Digital modes around the clock on Field Day at the Deer Creek Township building.

MARION: Once again we were asked to monitor the Marion County Hot Tamale Bike Ride. We were at various locations to ensure riders were on course and able to complete the ride safely. Thanks to KD8UUB and KE8AFF for the great job as NET controllers for this event and also our weekly voice NETS, they are both a great asset. FIELD DAY! We had 3 stations, CW, Phone and Digital, along with our GOTA station. We had help from some new members and also had a few people stop in and express interest in joining. I was informed that this year may have surpassed previous years in total contacts for our group. We had 368CW, 441Phone and 18Digi. Thanks to all and a few main operators like NR8I for CW, AC8XU for phone and the guys that logged all of the contacts. KD8KCH and KB6ZNS for making the logging network run smooth. We completed our CPR and AED training provided by 1st Consolidated Fire Department. Also a thanks to this fire department for allowing us to use their facility for Field Day and our monthly training. We truly do have a great group and community to work with. UNION: We had a couple nets this month that I did not get a count for. We had a good Field day. We also had an ARES meeting in June where Tony, KC8PZ went over the basics of a radio gram. Tony also agreed to be our NTS liaison. We discussed what we as an ARES group need to work on and what we want to work towards. I look forward to our next meeting on the 3rd Monday of the month. I also have been working on getting things coordinated with a MS Bike Ride to provide amateur radio support for it working with area amateur radio operators. The bike ride is July 8th. I appreciate everyone’s willingness to help out with it on such a short 2 week notice. 

District 8

Lawrence County change should have been minus 30 not plus 30 since he is reissuing memberships. Counties reporting: Athens, Gallia, Hocking, Lawrence, Pike, Ross, Scioto EC Comments:

Athens: ACARA operated Field Day from Athens County Fairgrounds - 1A on solar power. SCARF did not deploy this year but was invited to work with ACARA. ACARA held NIMS IS-100 training on Monday, June 24 with 3 participants and will hold IS-200 training on Monday July 11 at Athens Red Cross. Two ACARA members supported Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure in north central Ohio - Jeff Slattery, N8SUZ, GOBA Communications Director and Jan Slattery, KD8PUJ, Net Logger.

Gallia: *Public Service Event - communications for 5K run at Pomeroy, OH * FD operations for our group is included *I received 8 completed ARES registration forms today during our club's meeting. *We are working on a monthly digital net. We have an established DMR repeater for our area. *We will be operating a SKYWARN net as of 07/06

Hocking: Had a great Field Day event at the home of KB8GUN in southwestern Hocking County. Good participation from the club and made many contacts. Lawrence:

Change -30 The reason for the drop in membership is that I am having members complete up dated applications. The number will rise as more applications are completed. I am only listing members that can be alerted. We are implementing a new alert system that uses text messaging. Many of the applications were old and information was not correct. I'm not kicking anyone out!

Pike: Provided additional manpower for local Dogwood Pass 5k & 1/2 marathon run

Ross: Two members participated in communications support for the Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure 

Scioto: Quarterly ARES Meeting saw planning for new tower location expansion for additional equipment. Field Days saw over 200 contacts and overnight operations at new tower site. Site is tallest hill in Scioto County.

DEC comments: Great cooperation with ACARA offering SCARF a chance to operate from their location. ACARA got great public media coverage with news articles appearing in both local newspapers - Athens Messenger and Athens News. Athens City Mayor Steve Patterson stopped in to read his proclamation for Amateur Radio Operators Appreciation Days. ACARA also received a written proclamation from the Athens County Commissioners. Athens is also working on getting ARES members with NIMS certification by offering hybrid online/classroom training. FYI Athens now has a new EMA Director with the appointment of former 9-1-1 Director Dan Pfeiffer. Dan is a great supporter of amateur radio for emergency operations communications support.

District 9  (SEC- maaan is it nice to have Sonny back again!!)

COSHOCTON COUNTY: Comments: ARES mtg had a DMR Mobile/Portable SharkRF OpenSPOT Demo in the Coshocton County EOC. It was presented by Warren KC8WX, followed by a Live working DMR Repeater Demo by Arlin KD8EVR. Great presentation, thank you. We had a super Field Day. Nearly a couple dozen attended with 15 ARES. Our EMA director was in attendance, thank you. Stations set up were: Phone, Digital, CW, and vhf/uhf. KB8PXM did a Demo of DMR and Winlink and sent Winlink mgs out from FD. KC8WX also showed DMR. Messages were sent out from FD using OSSBN. Thanks KL7RF. Thanks to CCARA for another field day and for the food prepared by KD8ZBR and KC8PUW.. Signature: Steve Wheatcraft, AA8BN EC ............

GUERNSEY COUNTY: Comments: 8 ARES members operated field day this month.. Signature: Richard W. Wayt, WD8SDH EC ............

DEC-9 Comments: I have returned from retirement as the DEC for district 9. This district has become very laxed since I stepped down over a year ago. So I have decided to return and try to get this district back into shape. I will be attending club meetings in most of my counties to get their ARES programs active. However three of my counties do not have an active club, and will require some special effort on my part. The ARES population in this district quite low and will take some time to get some of the counties active again. I need to get active ECs in eight counties and work with them to support ARES actives in their counties. Presently I only have two out of eleven counties with active ARES programs. However many of these counties have trained ARES members and just needs a functional EC. We will give it a try. Sonny Alfman W8FHF, DEC-9..

District 10

 Field Day was a blast, as usual. July is a busy month for public service events. Hope to see you at some of them!

Ashtabula County: No comments.

Cuyahoga County: Our members participated in several Field Day activities. Monthly training continues.

Geauga County: No Comments.

Lake County: June was full of ARES activity. First was the Sunday in June Bike ride, keeping track on over 800 plus riders. They rode three different routes ,a 25 mile ,40 mile, 65 mile or combined two for 105 miles. We coordinated with a Ham radio SAG team from Geauga Co. during this event. As always the big operating/ training service event in June is Field Day. We logged over 329 hours preparing for and operating during FD. The last day of the month was the Fairport Harbor annual Mardi Gras Parade. This was the 76th event parade that was for the first time was canceled because very stormy weather during the assembly stage.

Lorain County: ICS 213 Sent To OHDEN Via Field Day Site. Receipt Of ICS 213 Confirmed By OHDEN. Medina County: We had Field Day (4A with GOTA and digital), one station ran on solar power all the time. A half marathon. The bi-annual EMA Disaster Drill. At the local sewage plant a simulated chlorine leak was the scenario and we handled dispatch and other messages. Several cities took part. Something new was a members' drone used for the first time.