Meeting Minutes and Action Items

ORWG Communications All Hands Meeting

April 28, 2001

Linn County Sheriff’s Office

Minutes and Discussion

Meeting was called to order at 0915 hours by Major David Rudawitz, Director of Communications for Oregon Wing. Working from a prepared agenda and briefing slides, introductions were made around the room.

Major Rudawitz discussed his vision to have a very user friendly and highly supportive ORWG intranet where members can come and find all the CAP information they desire. This should include official information as well as training materials, interesting information and links to other websites as appropriate. Documents posted to the website should be in both Word and HTML format for text and PDF format for less common source programs. A list server for communications was also discussed and it was agreed to initiate such a program as well.

The issue of privacy was discussed relative to the use of the old CAPSN numbers which are the member’s SSN. It was agreed that only the new CAPSN numbers will be used when a CAPSN is needed to be posted.

Training was discussed and it was agreed that more training is appropriate for aircrews to assist them in communicating on CAP radios.

Communications upgrades in work for corporate aircraft include the replacement of the Neutecs with Nat integrated CAP radios and GPS units. The Nat radios may not be used to support anything except voice as they are integrated in to the aircraft’s communications stack and may not have other devices connected without violating FAS regulations. The new GPS units need to have interface cables installed so they can provide a data signal feed to future APRS applications. Pacific Region is developing tech orders for this enhancement.

In line with the direction of the Deputy Commander, Communications will detail and document it’s procedures. This will help to understand the processes supported by the section, identify opportunities to streamline existing processes and provide guidance for new staff members on what process are performed and how they should be done.

Major Rudawitz reinforced his concept of using fly-away radio kits for supporting ES mission base requirements. A prototype system is in service and will be used at the upcoming SAREXs and the Eval. As funding and new radios become available, this unit will be upgraded and additional units prepared. Training on the use of these systems will also be necessary.

Lt Col Jim Howell, ORWG Chief of Staff, briefly discussed the Incident Command System (ICS) and how it is being adopted by CAP and integrated into mission operations. Information about self study training in ICS was distributed. All communications personnel are encouraged to take training in ICS.

Major Rudawitz reviewed the plan he has submitted to Operations to modify the way ORWG initiates missions and alerts members. This plan involves that addition of mission alerting officers (MAO). The MAO will be an on-call position with a duty roster. The MAO will be the individual to accept mission alerting pages from AFRCC and local government. The MAO will be responsible to contact and transfer mission control to the duty IC. The MAO will initiate personnel alerting within ORWG using a combination of pager, email and CAP radio. It is intended that new web-based tools will be developed to support this alerting function along with the addition of support for voice and page tone alerting over CAP VHF radio. The MAO will assist the IC with the alerting and identification of available resources until the mission is staffed or a communications director for the mission is assigned and active. The MAO may also assist the IC in creating and delivering mission closing and no further assistance traffic. This process should relieve the ICs of the alerting effort allowing them to concentrate on mission planning and launching the initial mission response. It should also provide additional opportunities for individuals to participate from the home locations.

1LT Chris Gauthier has been tasked to work with other Federal, State and local government agencies with whom CAP may operate with and/or support in order to work out how we can communicate effectively with this agencies during missions and training exercises. In selected cases, CAP radio station assignments may be made for agencies that are willing to provide NTIA compliant radio equipment for their communications centers and/or mobile communications resources. Such systems must be operated by CAP members which limits them to situations where a CAP radio operator can be assigned. On a more common and practical basis, a more suitable arrangement will be for a agreement to be made between the agency and CAP to allow CAP to operate on radio frequency(s) of the agency to facilitate interagency communications. These agreements will be coordinated through the ORWG Frequency Manager, Lt Col Jerry Thompson and approved by the Director. A process and appropriate paperwork will be developed to support this activity. ORWG already uses the Oregon SAR channel (155.805) for interagency communications during SAR incidents with some jurisdictions.

On a periodic basis, the LO solicits “want lists” from the unit commanders. Unit communications officers are encouraged to participate in the development of their unit’s want lists for communications and data processing equipment.

Packet radio was discussed and it was agreed that ORWG should continue supporting packet and repair the outages to bring the system back fully on line. Operations has identified an interest in using packet during ES trainings and missions including the use of airborne digipeaters to support communications and the MMU. Major Rudawitz discussed his desire to intertie packet with email to create a single traffic system. The need for training in the use of the packet system was also discussed and it was agreed that such training should be developed. Major Rudawitz outlined his plan to establish a new email list that would just handle official radio traffic and memoranda which could then feed/receive the packet system. There should be a web interface to the system with restricted access. This web based system would force the proper format for messages and then perform a form to email action to initiate the messages. Members only interested in receiving official traffic could subscribe to this new service (CAPCOM) and drop their subscription to CAPTALK. CAPTALK then handle informal messages and information. Major Rudawitz also has requested that all CAPCOM traffic be archived on the website to facilitate retrieval as desired by members. A concern was raised that having all of the traffic on packet and the Internet would reduce participation in voice nets. It was agreed that we should develop a way to manage the digital dissemination of traffic so that it will come out after voice traffic except for priority traffic.

The interlinking of repeaters and phone patch support were discussed as a means to support Operation’s ICs to run missions around the state. The concept of a telephone intertie to CAP repeaters was discussed and agreed to be a good approach. A prototype system will be investigated for Wing Headquarters to test out the system and concept. Wing HQ can access both Prairie Peak (Eugene) and Council Crest (Portland).

The idea of a Salem repeater on the alternate pair to provide coverage from Portland (south) to Eugene was discussed and accepted as a project to investiage.. This will be investigated by Chris Gauthier and Joe Boyd.

Questions were raised regarding the Northwest ELT group and what their official standing was. Major Rudawitz relayed the results of the investigation of this issue by Captain Asher, Oregon Director of Emergency Services. NW ELT has no official standing as a SAR agency and is to be afforded no additional consideration beyond what would be provided to members of the public. NWELT members are not authorized to communicate on CAP frequencies nor on the Oregon SAR channel. CAP personnel engaged in SAR activities should report the presence of NWELT members to the IC. In the event that NW ELT members are observed violating trespass ordnances or interfering with CAP personnel, the CAP member in command in the field should notify the IC and request law enforcement assistance is appropriate.

The Oregon Wing Commander, Col Enger dropped in on the meeting and provided the attendees with some of his observations and vision for the ORWG. Col Enger reported that he has appointed an O-ride coordinator for ORWG. This prompted a discussion for Communications to take advantage of O-rides to use the flight time for communications testing that requires the airborne platform. This time can also be used to work with cadets on communications skills as well.

A discussion was conducted regarding previous requirements that all communications logs be handwritten. In light of the advancements using computer logs and the MMU, this has been an issue of concern. After some discussion, Major Rudawitz will issue a directive rescinding previous directions regarding handwritten logs. It was advised, and will be included in the new directive, that communications operators and supervisors should take steps to insure that a failure of their computer system will not destroy their logs. This can be accomplished by periodically printing the computerized log and retaining the printed copy as a backup. On missions where the MMU is utilized to manage all mission functions, the MMU database, along with communications log constitute the official record of the mission since the database and communications logs are fully integrated in the MMU.

Captain Gutzka lead a discussion of the various issues and requirements that have been raised by the Operations section for assistance/resolution by communications. These included:

  • Tech specs to have the GPS's installed with an output plug to feed the data for APRS.
  • At least 2 aircraft equipped with external antenna for APRS or SlowScan
  • At least 2 aircraft equipped with APRS by the July Eval.
  • A revamped SlowScan box for the Aircraft & Ground unit that is portable and Bullet proof to broken wires etc.
  • Airborne repeater (1 each)
  • SAREX/EVAL Support
  • Support for exercises and evaluation
  • SAREXs in The Dalles (June 8-10) and Grants Pass (June 30 – Jul 1)
  • Eval in Medford including communications with the Sheriff, use of MMU, Slow Scan, APRS, airborne repeater.

Action Items (Actionees shown in parentheses)

  1. Purchase a CDROM writer for Wing to prepare CDROMs for distribution as needed. (Bill Brown)
  2. Establish a list of Communication section procedures and assign their documentation to actionees. Communications licensing will be the first procedure documented and will be done by Joyce Beaver. (George Doersch)
  3. Combine the current Communications website managed by George Doersch into the wing website managed by Dave Shaughnessy (assigned to Dave Shaughnessy and George Doersch)
  4. Process and special licensing form for the management of interagency communication’s permits (Jerry Thompson and Chris Gauthier)
  5. Information and plan to obtain area code 710 phone number coverage as appropriate. (Jim Howell and Dan Dimick)
  6. Repair and rehab of the ORWG Slow Scan Video system to prepare it for the SAREXs and EVAL. (Joe Boyd)
  7. Creation of CAPCOM for official ORWG radio traffic and memoranda. Must include a web interface (form to email) and an automated arrangement to archive all messages and support their retrieval from the website. (Dave Shaughnessy)
  8. Creation of COMTALK for ORWG communicators. (Dave Shaughnessy)
  9. Create a training program for CAP packet ((George Doersch and Chris Gauthier)
  10. Phone intertie to the CAP repeaters from Wing Headquarters (Chris Gauthier, Joe Boyd)
  11. Salem repeater on the alternate pair to provide coverage from Portland (south) to Eugene. (Chris Gauthier, Joe Boyd)
  12. APRS capability for CAP aircraft (Gutzka, Boyd)
  13. Restrictions on interlinking of CAP repeaters (Rudawitz)