NE-FL D-STAR System

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Archive for category Flagler ARES Admin

Flagler ARES Meeting – Thursday 3-Nov at EOC

Oct 30

Posted by mikelee in ARES Events, ARES Meetings - by County, ARES Training, Flagler ARES Admin | No Comments

Flagler EC Bill Schwartz (WS1C) will be hosting the Flagler County Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) meeting at the Flagler EOC on Thursday 3-November at 19:00. All area welcome and encouraged to join. You need NOT be a member of the ARRL, nor a member of any other local club or organization to attend.

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If you need direction, please contact Bill or others on any of the local repeaters.

Flagler ARES Net – Wednesday at 7:30 and 8:00pm

Oct 25

Posted by mikelee in ARES Meetings - by County, ARES Training, D-Star Users, Flagler ARES Admin, NET Operations | 1 Comment

19:30 on 146.715   then again at 20:00 on DSTAR (KA4RES in Palm Coast). Bill Schwarz is the Net Control for the Net.

Operation Communicate Freedom – Planning Update

Jun 25

Posted by mikelee in ARES Events, ARES Training, D-Star Users, Flagler ARES Admin, NET Operations | No Comments

Our Logistics Master (Doug – N4FPS) just finished the planning documents for the Operation Communicate Freedom Exercise to be held on June 30, 2011.

A total of 35 operators will be participating – a very good turn-out for such a short-notice event.

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Following are the two documents that our participants will need, namely the ICS-205 (Incident Communications Plan) and the ICS-211 or Deployment Roster and Check-in Sheet).

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Many non-ARES operators may not be familiar with the ICS documents, but they are REQUIRED (not optional) when we are supporting governmental agencies in ANY capacity, per the requirements of FEMA as well as the State. Amateur operators are required to have completed ICS-100/700, with many agencies requiring 200/800 in order to be considered “deployable”, since FEMA will only recognize volunteers and staff with these minimum qualifications.

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While there is a lot of passionate discussion on both sides of the ICS issue – the fact is that Amateur radio efforts in DIRECT support of City, County, or State agencies is generally NOT permitted without complying with ICS requirements and operating within the overall ICS command structure. When deployed, all of our operators report to the Incident Commander.

Following are the ICS-205 and ICS-211 (equivalent). This information, while not confidential, is only to be used to further the objectives of the exercise. Any who wish to use the forms for team education are welcome to do so.

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Incident Communications Plan, ICS Form 205

INCIDENT RADIO COMMUNICATIONS PLAN 

NFL AMATEUR RADIO ONLY

  1. 1. Incident Name –Operation Communicate Freedom
  2. 2. Date/Time Prepared
 June 23, 2011 – 1100 Hrs 3. Operational Period Date/Time – June 30, 2011 -  0900 – 1615hrs
4. Basic Radio Channel Utilization
System/Cache Channel Function Frequency/Tone Assignment Remarks
HF 1 Primary HF Frequency to all Counties 3.950 MHz 

+- for QRN, QRM

 Main Exercise HF Frequency
All EOC’s and Mobile Response Teams		 Tactical Call Camp Blanding – Operator AI4YC
HF 2 Backup HF Frequency to all Counties 7.247 MHz 

+- for QRN, QRM

  

Backup Exercise HF Frequency

All EOC’s and Mobile Response Teams

 Tactical Call Camp Blanding – Operator AI4YC
VHF 3 Primary VHF  Link to Identified County EOC’s and Mobile Response Teams 146.925 MHz 

Tone 156.7

 Primary Camp Blanding Contact to: Clay, Nassau, Duval, Putnam Tactical Call Camp Blanding – Operator WB6RTH
VHF 4 Primary VHF  Link to Identified County EOC’s and Mobile Response Teams 146.820 MHz 

Tone 123.0

 Primary Camp Blanding Contact to: Alachua, Union, Bradford Tactical Call Camp Blanding – Operator WB6RTH
D-STAR VHF 5 Primary VHF D-STAR Voice –Local Repeaters Linked to Reflector 34C 

 

 KA4RES, KJ4RYI, KJ4RYF, KJ4RYG, Dongles, DVAPS 

REFLECTOR 34C

 Primary Camp Blanding Contact to:
Flagler and St. Johns Back-up for all other counties.		 Tactical Call Camp Blanding – Operator WB6RTH
VHF 6 Back-up VHF Repeater Link 145.210 

No Tone

 St. Johns County Repeater Tactical Call Camp Blanding – Operator WB6RTH
VHF 7 Back-up VHF Repeater Link 147.225 

Tone 156.7

 Keystone Heights Repeater Tactical Call Camp Blanding – Operator WB6RTH
D-Rats 

 

 8 All FL-CROWN.DYNDNS.ORG 

Network Only

 St. Johns Relay will Monitor and Relay to Camp Blanding Note this is the D-RATS reflector address for Crown District ARES
WL2K 9 All N4FPS@winllink.org St. Johns Relay will Monitor and Relay to Camp Blanding all WL2K Traffic Winlink for Exercise Communicate Freedom
APRS 10 All 144.39 MHz position and text messaging St. Johns Relay will Monitor and Relay to Camp Blanding all APRS Traffic APRS for Exercise Communicate Freedom
5. Prepared by (Communications Unit) 

D. Carter – N4FPS,

ARES Logistics
OCM
Ics-205

=================================== ==============

Operation Communicate Freedom ARES Deployment Roster (ICS-211 Equivalent)
County or Location Amateur Operator Name Callsign Deployment Location Name
Camp Blanding Mike Lee WB6RTH EmComm 1 Command Vehicle
Camp Blanding Ron Mettler WB4GHU Sim Cell
Camp Blanding Jeffrey Schwartz AI4YC Camp Blanding / HF Operations
Alachua Jeff Capehart W4UFL Alachua EOC
Alachua Allan West WA4JD Alachua EOC
Alachua Judith Jones KI4QBZ Virtual Shelter #1 /Home
Alachua Peter MacKerron WA1WTF Virtual Shelter #2/ Home
Duval Martin Dockery KI4NIA Mobile Response
Duval Bob Elder W7WWK Mobile Response
Putnam Roger Woods WA4COL EOC
Putnam Randy Blasczyk KF4JUP EOC
Putnam Peter Van Duynhoven KD7ACX Viirtual Shelter #1 / Home
Putnam Richard Colavito WA4RAC Virtual Shelter #2 / Home
Flagler Phil McElrath K5BBC Flagler EOC
Flagler Rick Ruther KC2HFL: Virtual Shelter #1 / Home
Flagler Bill Schwartz WS1C Mobile Response
Flagler Steve Finger KB4DNQ Virtual Shelter #2 / Home
Bradford Paul Christensen W4IOK EOC Simulated Location
Union County Joel Whitten KJ4HRF EOC Simulated Location
Union County Henry “Skipper” Price KI4KYS EOC Simulated Location
Clay Adrian Gray KJ4BOT Thrasher Horne Special Needs Shelter
Clay Mark Fields N4QLC EOC
Clay David Elmore N4OOE Orange Park Medical Center
Clay Peter Duzant K4PAD Oakleaf High School (simulation)
Clay Leo Nadeau N4MRJ Orange Park High School (simulation)
Clay Mike Hendershot KJ4FEQ Relay Station
Clay James Mackinnon KB2EZN Lake Asbury Junior High School (simulation)
Nassau Brian Kopp KC5LPA Nassau County EOC
Nassau Eric Anderson W4FSA Nassau County EOC
Nassau Dwayne Morris KQ4XF Home (Simulated Hilliard Middle-Senior School Shelter)
Nassau Ronald Flournoy KC4MYV Home (Simulated Yulee Middle School Shelter)
Nassau Tom Mullen KJ4WVK Home (Simulated Callahan Intermediate School Shelter)
Nassau Tony Musselman W9AFM Home (Simulated West Nassau High School Shelter)
St. Johns Doug Carter N4FPS EOC / Relay Station

 

 

 

Operation Communicate Freedom – June 30

Jun 19

Posted by mikelee in Analog Repeaters, ARES Events, ARES Training, D-RATS Data, D-Star Repeaters, D-Star Users, Flagler ARES Admin, Flagler EOC, Go Kits, HF Antennas and Operation, NET Operations, Volusia ARES Admin | No Comments

Details have been slow to come, but here’s what we know..

  • Exercise prep/Briefing will be on June 29th (Wednesday) starting in the afternoon at Camp Blanding. Please DO NOT proceed to Camp Blanding, since this is a secure facility and only authorized (credentialed) staff will be allowed entry. We will have a contingent of 3 Amateurs onsite, to include the Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC – Ron Mettler). Information from the on-site briefing will be shared later that afternoon on an established channel or channels so that all will have access to the most current data. In addition, those participating will also receive an email with the most current information.
  • The exercise will primarily be on June 30 (Thursday before the July-4 holiday weekend). Exercise time will run from approximately 09:00 to 15:00, with after-action briefing at about 15:00 and de-mobilization starting at about 16:00. We will need staff at the real, or virtual EOC’s for each of the counties. VHF and HF capability will be required (preferred) – frequencies and communications protocol for the exercise will be distributed mid next week (7-days prior to the exercise).
  • There are 13 counties in the North East Florida region that are supposed to be participating in the drill :
    • Alachua
    • Baker
    • Bradford
    • Clay
    • Duval
    • Flagler
    • Gilchrist
    • Levy
    • Marion
    • Nassau
    • Putnam
    • St. Johns
    • Union
  • Amateur Radio will be an integral part of the exercise
  • The exercise will consist of two major parts :
    • A large scale disaster with numerous casualties in Duval County, and
    • A train derailment somewhere in the 13 county region – probably involving HazMat, NBC (nuclear, biological or chemical) or other considerations
  • We will be asked to pass traffic to as many of the 13 counties as possible, by whatever means possible
  • We will be asked to specifically use VHF and HF, in addition to other means
  • Digital and Analog modes can be used (like WinLink, D-STAR/DRATS, etc)
  • There will likely be traffic that needs to be passed to FL State EOC as well.

No other details are available (yet), but Doug and I will be working on the communications plan and the ICS forms package in the next few days.

Call-Sign : KF4EMV

May 12

Posted by mikelee in Analog Repeaters, D-Star Repeaters, D-Star Users, DSTAR Projects, FEMV, Flagler ARES Admin, Flagler EOC, NET Operations | No Comments

We applied for and received the call-sign of KF4EMV a few months back, but are just now in process of putting it to good use. The specific call sign was requested in support of the FEMV organization – Flagler Emergency Management Volunteers – an organization of security-screened and credentialed volunteers who serve under the direct management of Flagler Emergency Management and with the authority of that governmental organization.

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Much like the DStar repeater call sign KA4RES – these call signs are public acknowledgement of our singular mission – in the case of KA4RES to be Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) focused. In the cast of KF4EMV, the repeaters that bear that call sign will be OWNED, OPERATED and MAINTAINED by FEMV volunteers and provided as a resource of Flagler Emergency Management, for the benefit of ALL AMATEURS in the county, as well as visitors to the area. The mission of KF4EMV repeaters to to provide a dedicated, non-political emergency services resource, but in times of non-emergency they help to strengthen the Amateur Community and promote an awareness to the EOC’s mission thru activities like Training, Weather Nets and Informational Nets. Some groups will be donating their repeater resources to the County – essentially turning over control of their valuable equipment in support of the Emergency Manager’s mission. More on that in future articles.

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Unlike privately owned systems, control of access and content on the repeater systems will NOT be subject to a single individual or so-called Board, but will comply with County guidelines that will be openly distributed. FEMV needs and wants to operate with 100% transparency. In a word, FEMV is not a club, but a group of qualified, security-screened, credentialed volunteers who support the Emergency Manager’s mission of preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery from all events which may occur in the county.

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All are welcome to join FEMV – simply give the Emergency Operations Center a call and ask for the Volunteer Coordinator – Frank Sanita. Although Frank is a licensed amateur, in this case, he is an official County Employee who heads the volunteer organization, reporting directly to Troy Harper – Chief of Emergency Services.

Palm Coast Site Assessment Complete

May 6

Posted by mikelee in Analog Repeaters, D-Star Users, Flagler ARES Admin, Work Party | No Comments

I just received word from Phil (K5BBC) that he and Steve (KB4DNQ) have just completed the site assessment of the first of planned VHF Analog repeater sites to be located in Palm Coast.

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The guys report that this installation looks to be a “Standard” installation for us – all the same installation standards, procedures and materials that are required for our normal DSTAR installations. Pictures were taken and will be posted soon, after we’ve created and reviewed the installation plan with FEMV management over the next few days.

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As if that wasn’t enough, we are also on the verge of gaining access to yet another site in the Palm Coast Area that has one of the highest combination of elevation and structure heights and that would be ideal for public service events such as the MS-150.  We’re about 65% of the way thru the permit process on this site, but things are looking very promising. This site also maintains commercial-grade, fiber based internet service, so it would make an excellent site for APRS, WinLink and perhaps even DStar. Stay tuned for more info in the coming weeks.

NE Florida Depiction Project – Startup

Apr 6

Posted by mikelee in ARES Training, Flagler ARES Admin, Go Kits, Volusia ARES Admin, Work Party | 2 Comments

A small working group, led by Doug (N4FPS) and myself have started a project to identify and collect data elements that would be necessary or useful in an emergency situation, whether a major weather event or a smaller contained incident.

One of the keys to managing or mitigating the impacts of any event is to know as much as possible about the environment you’re working in. The scope of our Depiction  is the Georgia line to the north, Deland to the south, Putnam County to the west and the coastline to the east.

There will be thousands of elements of data that might get loaded into a Depiction model at any point in time, along with standard information such as USGS National Elevation Data (NED) which is used in flood forecasting, Road Networks for calculating  routes and alternates, NWS for current weather and forecasts, and earthquake data from the USGS.

We will soon be dividing the data collection efforts amongst the working group, so that we give experience to everybody who wants to participate in the method of data collection, as well as the way that we manipulate the data in order to be readable by Depiction (nothing better than learning by DOING).

We will be posting updates to indicate the best found sources of Depiction loadable data, so that all can benefit from our research and be able to duplicate whatever we create, if they wish. The power of Depiction (or any other GIS system, for that matter), is in SHARING a commonly used set of information, in a standardized manner. We’re targeting to be done by the end of April – after which we’ll starting an integration effort with Amateur radio systems such as APRS (live) and WinLink so that we can share a Common Operating Environment, using wireless tools without dependence on the internet.

We’re also planning on holding a Depiction Conference sometime in the near future – open to all  in the North East Florida area (or further, if you want to travel)  in order to educate folks on the capabilities of Depiction, as well as to inform them on how we’ve used Depiction for events and real emergency situations. Half of the day will likely be spent on training the attendees on HOW to use Depiction. Stay tuned for more details.

Elements to Include in Depiction (for each county in the Depiction area) :

1. Evacuation Shelters
2. Fire  / Rescue Stations
3. Law Enforcement Stations
4. Red Cross Offices
5. Salvation Army Offices
6. Bridges
7. Amateur Repeater Locations FM, D-STAR, APRS, WL2K, SEDAN
8. GMRS Repeater Locations
9. County Communications Infrastructure Locations
10. FCC  Database Amateur Radio Operators
11. Amateur Radio Volunteers (East Coast District)
12. Amateur Radio Volunteers (Crown District)
13. Cert Volunteers
14. Other Volunteers
15. Landing Zones
16. Central Office Locations (Phone, Internet, Electric, Water, Gas, etc).
17. Cell Towers
18. DOF Fire Towers
19. DOF Offices
20. FPL Substations and Primary Lines
21. Rail Road Lines
22. Water / Fire Hydrants and Mains
23. Water Towers
24. EOC’s
25. Mobile Home Parks
26. Gas lines / Mains
27. Commercial Radio / TV Stations
28. Hazmat locations
29. Gasoline, Fuel Stations on or near Evacuation Routs
30. Evacuation Zones
31. Evacuation Routs
32. Custom areal and road maps
33. Flood Zones
34. Nursing / Assisted Living Facilities
35. Prisons / Jails
36. Schools / Colleges / Universities
37. Public Lands Shapefiles
38. Public Boat Ramps
39. Hospitals
40. National Weather Service Offices
41. DOT Weigh Stations
42. DOACS Inspection Stations

Depiction Session on Sunday at Flagler EOC

Apr 1

Posted by mikelee in ARES Training, Flagler ARES Admin, Volusia ARES Admin | No Comments

Bottom Line – Learn something new – ALL ARE WELCOME..!!

A group of us will be meeting at the Flagler EOC to discuss Depiction (www.depiction.com) - a program that provides Geo-location  and simulation services that can be of huge benefit to Emergency Managers and Amateur Radio emergency responders alike . Doug (N4FPS), Gary (K4GJM) and I have been researching the possibilities over the last few months – while Doug actually used Depiction to plan our MS-150 event for last October.

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We are gathering geo-elements now that can be used in future scenarios, such as locations of:

  • fire stations,
  • police stations
  • schools
  • shelters
  • helicopter landing zones
  • medical facilities
  • nursing homes
  • hazmat sites
  • power grid sites
  • telecom sites
  • etc..

We  will be creating a baseline Depiction scenario – upon which we can add overlays to include other extensive information. All are welcome to participate and learn about Depiction. We will be using an HD projector and will be using an interactive approach so that ALL can benefit. We expect to start at 14:00 and finish by 17:30, ending with a baseline Depiction that can be used for East Coast and Crown District ARES members.

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Meeting will be at the Flagler EOC in Bunnell – software copies of Depiction will NOT be provided, but you can purchase your own copy for only $200 each.Please be early, since the outside doors are normally LOCKED on the weekends and after hours. Once we begin at about 14:00+, we will not be able to hear people trying to bang on the door.

Please RSVP if you want to attend (along with a cellphone number), so that we can insure that there is enough space and can wait for your arrival. Don’t be surprised if you see the the Flagler Emergency Management Chief in the session as well, since this system gives him capabilities that he doesn’t currently get with his ESRI system.

Daytona DStar and Analog are Down – fix on Friday

Mar 31

Posted by mikelee in D-Star Repeaters, D-Star Users, Flagler ARES Admin, Tropical Cyclones, Volusia ARES Admin | No Comments

Steve (W1SGC) called last night to inform us that the Daytona DStar repeater, as well as the DBARA Analog repeater were both down, as result of the storm system that blew thru the area Wednesday evening. Both repeaters are in the same cabinet, so it’s possible that there was a tripped circuit breaker at the Polyphaser panel, or in the Astron RM-50M power supplies.

A crew is scheduling to go to the hospital Friday morning to assess the situation and make necessary repairs. We’ll keep you informed of the progress.

more tk

Resignation as ARES/DEC – East Coast District

Mar 26

Posted by mikelee in Flagler ARES Admin, Volusia ARES Admin | No Comments

It is with great regret that I must announce my resignation as the District Emergency Coordinator of East Coast District, Florida effective immediately due to health issues related to my performance in this position. While I never expected to serve more than about 12-18 months, my desire was aways to leave the position with my successor already in place and trained for the job. Unfortunately, this will not be the case.

Regardless, I’m proud that the East Coast District has made great strides over the past 15 months, namely:

  • We have forged new and stronger relationships with the Volusia public service community and the EOC, with the installment of new ARES leadership who have the heart to build a constructive, transparent and long-lasting organization with a passion for serving all aspects of the community in Volusia County, with emphasis on the EOC, but also including medical and other faciltiies. The appointment of Steve Craft (W1SGC) into the role of EC-Volusia County was the turning point for that organization’s change. Thanks Steve, for taking the reigns and providing such excellent leadership to date..!!
  • We have done the same in Flagler County – with the re-establishment of a new ARES team which has the heart for service for the community. Our relationship with Troy Harper, the County EOC Chief is stronger than any time in the last 10+ years and he sees us as an asset to be used CONTINUALLY, versus at times of crisis. Unfortunately, the service by Amateurs to the EOC will be exclusively under the banner of FEMV (Flagler Emergency Management Volunteers), a County operated and controlled organization in the short-term (versus ARES), due to difficulties with prior volunteer organizations. It is hoped that ARES will be officially recognized by the County after the next 12-18 months. Robbie Creal (KG4HUF) continues to be the EC for Flagler County.
  • We have built much stronger ties with our counterparts in the Crown District of ARES (St. Johns, Duval, Clay, Nassau and others) thru the efforts of Doug Carter (N4FPS) the DEC of Crown District and his outstanding EC’s.
  • We successfully planned and executed the largest joint communications event in local ARES history, with the MS-150 in October of 2010 – an event which was acknowledged by event coordinators and County EOC managers as the most professionally run communications event in local history. Kudos for ARES Flagler, St. Johns and Volusia..!!
  • We were Co-Creators of the Florida Hurricane Net, which meets on Monday evenings at 21:00 local on REF034A, with the purpose of giving local Florida amateurs a coordination channel for events happening within the State, apart from the “big-picture” monitoring done by others using the SE Weather Net. The Hurricane Net was the brainchild of Bob (N6USP) with significant assistance by Doug (N4FPS) and averages 45+ check-ins per week.
  • During all the ARES reconstruction and the planning and execution of the MS-150, a team of dedicated ARES volunteers successfully completed the planning and implementation of a 4-repeater DStar Network in North East Florida, with locations in Jacksonville, Jacksonville Beach, Palm Coast and Daytona Beach. Although the success of those installations is an accomplishment in itself, by far the largest success is in the building of that core-team who is now able to perform the installation, maintenance and troubleshooting WITHOUT DEPENDING ON A SINGLE INDIVIDUAL (self included). This is redundancy at work..!! My hat is off to these guys – all of whom love to do the work, but probably don’t realize how much of a burden they’ve lifted off my shoulders – to the guys, my heart felt thanks..!!
  • And finally, we’ve instilled a Spirit of Transparency in this area – starting with the DStar developments, but extending into the activities with EOC’s and ARES volunteers. The NEFL-DSTAR.COM/BLOG site has been a great communications vehicle for current and historical information, as well as how-to articles about DStar and Non-DStar activities alike. We expect to continue the blog into the future, as it has been an excellent rallying-point for folks to get current news as well as opportunities to volunteer.

So overall, a good 15 months. There are still CHALLENGES, as always – but I know that each of you are up to the task.  There is much to do, many opportunities and many places that could use each of your talents and skills. Get involved and let’s make a difference together..!!

Our Section Emergency Coordinator, Ron (WB4GHU) is looking for my replacement now, but if you have the desire and PASSION, please contact Ron at WB4GHU@AOL.COM – I’m sure that he would love to hear from each of you. I can attest to the fact that Ron is a GREAT GUY – a great listener and one with a heart for public service. He get’s my vote of confidence and my continued support, but now in a support role. I am very proud to call him my friend.

To each of you reading this email or blog post – my very best wishes. This does not mean that I’m going QRT – rather, think of this as my getting a new ICS-204 (Task Assignment) – still here, just a different role – to support each of you in what ever way possible.

73,

Mike – WB6RTH