January 26, 2005
ARES/RACES.
On Saturday, January 22nd, ARES/RACES conducted a simulated state-wide power failure exercise with joint participation by Army MARS and the New Mexico State Defense Force.
Purpose of the exercise:
1. Have ARES/RACES, SDF and MARS stations self activate on pre-determined frequencies, per local EOP, based on the scenario (loss of power state-wide).
2. Pass status messages and other traffic related to the simulated incident, including passing a status message via MARS to FEMA Region 6.
3. Operate on emergency or backup power systems at fixed or mobile locations using repeaters with emergency backup capability or simplex frequencies on VHF and UHF. Operate on backup power systems for fixed or mobile HF stations.
4. Local groups have the option of expanding on the scenario as suits their purposes. The recommendations from our exercise planner, Jay Miller, are just that.
The following is a summary of activities between 0900 and 1100:
SEC, Bill Kauffman, W5YEJ: Operating from fixed station on HF, VHF & UHF using battery power. Transmitted a test message SITREP to FEMA Region 6 with notification of the simulated power failure exercise and advising that ARES/RACES, SDF and MARS nets had been activated. This was coordinated with Don Shelton, K5VCZ of FEMA, prior to the exercise. The message was routed via Las Cruces ARES, Las Cruces MARS and via MARS digital network to Ft Worth, TX, for delivery to the FEMA BBS and Don Shelton. Status reports were received on HF from participating counties advising of their operational capability. A second SITREP was sent to FEMA at the conclusion of the exercise.
Bernalillo County DEC, Mike Eaton, K5MJE: 12 stations participating with 9 on emergency power. Five stations operating on HF and one on packet. Established VHF links with Valencia, Sandoval and Los Alamos counties. Simulated loss of the repeater system and had all stations move to VHF simplex. A total of 8 formal and 4 informal messages were passed.
Chavez County DEC, Alfred Lindsey, W5ALL: 20 Chavez County ARES stations participating plus seven non-Chavez county stations with 16 on emergency power. Two stations were active on HF and others were monitoring. Three stations were operational on packet or other digital modes. Six stations were operating mobile. 12 formal messages were passed with 1 SITREP. Established VHF link into Lincoln County. Other participating locations included San Patricio, Hobbs, Tatum, Dunlap and Carlsbad.
Doña Ana County DEC Steve Friis, WM5Z: 3 stations participating on emergency power. Steve provided the ARES/RACES interface to MARS and handled both SITREP messages to FEMA via this interface. John Beakley, WK5C, was operating HF, VHF and UHF with 3 operators on battery backup with generator capability if required.
Grant County: One station checked in on the HF net on emergency power.
Lincoln County DEC, J.P. Kenmore: 11 stations participating on emergency or simulated (available but not switched to) power. Lincoln County also simulated a weather emergency with request for aid from the office of the Governor. Liaison stations were established for the Medical Center, Alto, Hondo Valley and Ruidoso PD
utilizing local VHF nets. VHF link established with Chavez County using the Capitan (solar powered) repeater. A detailed report was received from Assistant State RACES coordinator, Rick Sohl.
Los Alamos/Rio Arriba County DEC, Charles Rogers, KJ5KU (Los Alamos County DEC Bill Boedeker was not available for this exercise. Rio Arriba DEC operated in his place): Los Alamos station W5PDO (CD-1) operated as the HF Net Control Station with 3 operators on duty. A total of 18 stations state-wide checked into the net on 7236.5 kHz. Shift changes were simulated by tasking other stations to operate as NCS for brief periods during the exercise. Los Alamos had 12 ARES/RACES stations operational on local nets.
Otero County DEC Jim O’Leary N7DRB: No after exercise report received. At least two stations were operational on HF & VHF.
San Juan County DEC John Pascal KA0LCD: 7 Operators on back up power with 2-4 hour capability. Two stations on HF.
Sandoval County DEC Michael Scales, K5SCA: 16 members participated in the exercise using emergency power or simulated emergency power where not feasible to make an actual switch. County EM Jess Lewis as well as Bernalillo County EM Don Scott were at the Sandoval County EOC during the exercise. Locations included in the exercise were Rio Rancho, Cuba, San Ysidro, Cochiti Lake, Regina and Bernalillo. 1 station operational on HF with VHF links to Bernalillo, Valencia and Los Alamos counties plus the State EOC.
Santa Fe EOC, Assistant State RACES coordinator Alden Oyer, AG5S: The State EOC was operational on HF, VHF and UHF voice. Problems were encountered with the packet system at the EOC. The original plan called for packet operation from the EOC to allow SITREPs from those counties with packet capability. Although various counties were able to establish connectivity to each other they were not able to connect to the packet station in Santa Fe. Sandoval County EM has reported problems encountered with e-mail SITREPS to the State EOC and would like to have packet as a backup to FAX reporting.
Valencia County DEC Joyce Rumschlag, KD5IAI: 11 operators available for exercise, handled 14 messages in NTS format. 1 station on HF. Local VHF net activated plus connectivity to Bernalillo, Sandoval, Los Alamos and Santa Fe counties on VHF.
State Defense Force, Bud Atkinson, 39th Sig Bn: The SDF is rebuilding their HF network to support approximately 50 National Guard locations throughout New Mexico with HF SSB. There are tentative plans to include VHF for some fixed and mobile stations. SDF would also like to provide support of EOCs. Details need to be worked out on how this will mesh with ARES/RACES and the State EOC. The 39th Sig commander experienced a mechanical antenna failure when his mobile station got tangled in low hanging tree branches and was unable to participate during this exercise. Many of the SDF Radio Operators are dual members of MARS and/or ARES/RACES. 5 members participated during this exercise.
Army MARS, Thad Stevens, NM State Army MARS Director: Army MARS has excellent CONUS connectivity using HF SSB and digital modes. Our plan is to use ARES/RACES assets for intra-state communications and MARS (Army, Air Force and Navy-Marine Corps) for inter-state communications to provide connectivity to adjacent states, FEMA and other agencies when required. ARES/RACES will participate in future MARS exercises to enhance the interface between the two. MARS is comprised of Amateur Operators who provide communications to DOD as volunteers using their own equipment. MARS/SDF provided the interface for this exercise to pass message traffic to FEMA Region 6 in Denton, TX. We need to strenghthen the tie between ARES/RACES, SDF and MARS to make the best use of all Amateur communications resources available to us. 3 stations in NM, 1 in Colorado and 1 in Texas participated during this exercise.
Conclusions:
The interoperability of ARES/RACES and MARS or SDF is accomplished using Amateur frequencies common to all of us. MARS and SDF operate on military frequencies not available to non-member Amateur Radio operators. We need to further enhance this capability by participating in each others future exercises.
Packet (digital) communications are valuable where word-for-word messages need to be transmitted from point A to point B. This mode doesn’t get much usage except during actual incidents or exercises. We need to keep the packet network operational with periodic tests of the network or consider utilizing point-to-point packet links where appropriate.
HF/SSB is still the best mode for state-wide communications and is available to ARES/RACES, SDF and MARS members who hold the appropriate class of license and provides instant interoperability between the three. During periods of poor propagation the VHF/UHF links are a good backup in many locations throughout the State.
We could use additional training on message composition and the proper procedures to pass message traffic. This problem is not unique to New Mexico, it appears on nearly every exercise/incident after action report. While some groups prefer local time (i.e., MST), others prefer to use Zulu (UTC) time. I prefer Zulu but suspect the State EOC operates on local time. I’ll follow up on this.
An after action report format needs to be developed, and used, to better account for numbers of stations participating and other information. While complex formats may provide the most information, we need to keep it simple to keep the paper-work at a minimum and not chase off our volunteers.
My thanks to all exercise participants who took time from their Saturday morning to join in this exercise and all the people that made this work. This started out as a mid-NM exercise and grew into a state-wide exercise that we all benefited from. If I’ve left anything out of this summary it was not intentional. Not all stations reported in the requested format so I’ve put this together from a variety of sources.
Bill Kauffman, W5YEJ
ARRL NM SEC
State RACES Coordinator