Southeastern Massachusetts ARES Drill #4

February 21st, 2004 Exercise

Scenario and Guidelines---Final Update

Scenario and Plans Provided by:

Robert Macedo (KD1CY)

ARES SKYWARN Coordinator for NWS Taunton

Southeastern Massachusetts ARES

District Emergency Coordinator

SEMARA ARES Emergency Coordinator

Table of Contents

Southeastern Massachusetts ARES Drill #4

Scenario and Guidelines---Final Update

Date and Timeframe of Exercise

Purpose and Scenario

Exercise Objectives

Operational Ground Rules

Operational Players......

SEMARA: Southeast Massachusetts Amateur Radio Association (W1AEC)

Bridgewater EOC

Norton EOC

Home Stations

Mobile Stations

Amateur Radio Frequency Plan

Date and Timeframe of Exercise

Saturday February 21st, 2004

Start Time 10 AM

End Time: 1 PM

Duration: 3 Hours

Please allow time for setup and take down of any equipment during this exercise.

Purpose and Scenario

Southeastern Massachusetts ARES teams are required to participate in the February 21st, 2004 exercise. This exercise is on a “major incident” causing a massive power failure that lasts for a 12-24 hour period with severe cold conditions resulting in shelter openings. The drill will test the following aspects of Emergency Communications:

  • Local ARES team coordination and deployment as well as local NTS and tactical message handling.
  • Intra district tactical and formal message handling.
  • Utilization of HF, VHF, UHF, Packet, IRLP and Echolink modes of communication.
  • Utilization of EOC or Simulated EOC’s at various points across the district.

For this exercise, I expect all EC’s or their designee to support this drill and what gets exercised. As always, at the local level, message handling and formation is critical and keeping Hams at the local level busy must occur. Be creative and at the same time be realistic. I have purposely left this drill scenario with little instruction, as I would like to test the EC’s abilities to react to a rapidly short fused and potentially dangerous situation. EC’s are expected to carry this activity out and then send information to the Southeast Mass. ARES DEC as needed so he is aware of what the teams are doing. For this drill, the Southeast Massachusetts ARES DEC will be located at the SEMARA Club House (W1AEC) and he will be on the air on an as needed as he will assist with drill direction for teams in his district and for interdistrict communications as needed and “oversee” the exercise as much as possible.

Exercise Objectives

The objectives of this exercise are as follows:

  • Have all teams have one liaison that monitors their local RACES Repeater in addition to their local operations. (Note: The Norwell Repeater has had significant issues as of Sunday 2/15 for those teams in that RACES district.)
  • Deploy up to 2 away teams per ARES team at the discretion of local EC’s. (Weather Permitting)
  • Establish district wide communication utilizing the following modes:
  • IRLP and/or Echolink nodes.
  • HF
  • Utilizing Various 2 Meter Repeaters that the ARES teams will be utilizing in the area when necessary.
  • Establish contact with other ARES districts and EOC’s via HF (3943 and/or 7245 KHz).
  • Test and evaluate the range of Home stations for relay operations.
  • Having mobile “roving” Amateurs wherever possible.
  • Practice sending many test NTS messages.
  • Practice sending many test tactical messages.
  • Practice sending many test tactical SKYWARN messages to NWS Taunton.
  • Practice sending out of bulletins and statements from NWS Taunton to the various ARES teams.
  • Practice sending traffic between the ARES members within each ARES team.
  • Practice sending traffic between EOC’s within the Southeastern Massachusetts district.
  • Practice sending traffic outside of the Southeast Massachusetts district to neighboring districts.

Operational Ground Rules

The following are some operational ground rules for this exercise:

  • All communications options should be utilized. EC’s may throw in “failures” to test out “failover” of communications wherever possible as long as they are properly communicated up and down the ARES leadership.
  • Many messages of both a tactical and NTS formal nature should be sent within the teams participating, between teams and between districts wherever possible.
  • Frequent usage of the phrase “This is a Drill” should be incorporated with any messages, traffic or announcements relating to the drill.

Operational Players

The following is a list of EOC’s that will be playing in the exercise. This will be updated once more before the exercise date as I hear from EC’s on what EOC’s will be playing in the exercise.

SEMARA: Southeast Massachusetts Amateur Radio Association (W1AEC)

The Southeastern Massachusetts Amateur Radio Association Club House will be active. It will serve as the hub for local ARES operations in South Coastal Massachusetts and serve as a district ARES station for Southeast Massachusetts due its significant radio capability.

Bridgewater EOC

The Bridgewater EOC will be on the air for this drill through the efforts of the MARA ARES team.

Norton EOC

The Norton EOC will be on the air for this drill through the efforts of the Sturdy Memorial ARES Team. There maybe on additional EOC on the air through the Sturdy Memorial ARES team.

Home Stations

We encourage home stations across the Southeast Massachusetts district to monitor and check into nets across the Southeast Massachusetts district for ARES assistance. Some home stations can act as “simulated EOC’s” or net controls where appropriate.

Mobile Stations

Mobile stations are encouraged to participate utilizing all modes at their disposal and can be utilized as roving stations.

Amateur Radio Frequency Plan

The following frequencies will be utilized during the drill in the Southeast
Massachusetts district:
SEMARA ARES Response Team Frequency:
147.000-Dartmouth Repeater

South Coast SKYWARN, Echolink/IRLP Liaison/SEMARA ARES Team Backup:

145.49-Fairhaven Repeater

NOTE:

Due to issues on the Dartmouth Repeater, its possible that the Fairhaven Repeater may become the primary frequency for this exercise.

Fall River (BCRA) ARES/RACES Team Frequency:

145.15-Fall River Repeater PL: 123.0 Hz.

Echolink Node Simplex Backup:

146.595-South Dartmouth, Mass.

Other IRLP Liaisons that will be utilized:

145.39-Scituate Repeater

443.800-South Dartmouth Repeater PL: 88.5

Sturdy Memorial ARES Team Frequency:
147.195-Attleboro Repeater PL: 127.3

MARA (Massasoit Amateur Radio Association) ARES Frequency

147.180-Bridgewater Repeater PL: 67.0
RACES Region II Frequency for SEMARA and Sturdy Memorial Teams:
147.135-Taunton Repeater PL: 67.0

RACES Region II Frequency for MARA Team:

145.25-Norwell Repeater PL: 100.0

Cape Cod ARES Team Frequency:
146.955-Barnstable Repeater PL: 88.5
Regional ARES/RACES Net Primary for this drill:
7245 KHz LSB

Regional ARES/RACES Net Secondary for this drill:
3943 KHz LSB
Southeast Massachusetts ARES District HF Frequency Primary for this drill:

7260 KHz LSB (If 7260 KHz is busy we will move up the band 3 Kc at a time and if its still busy, we will move 3Kc down the band.)

Southeast Massachusetts ARES District HF Frequency Secondary for this drill:

3955 KHz LSB (If we utilize 75 Meters, we will use a similar method as outlined for the 40 Meter primary frequency to move up and down the band.)