Tulare County Amateur Radio Emergency Service

Hi everyone! It is time to renew your ARES membership. With the changes that have taken place over the last several years in respect to volunteering, it is necessary to annually renew your ARES membership. There are several reasons for this.

First and foremost is that we try to maintain a list of active members. While interest in Amateur Radio as a whole may not change, our time and availability during the year may. While we may find time to check into the nets and go to a monthly meeting, the time outside of  that may change due to family, work or other issues.

Many of the agencies and organizations [SAs] for whom we provide communications are beginning to require some sort of formalized training. To facilitate this, we need to have accurate and up-to-date information about our resources and capabilities. The 146.880 MHz repeater is a good example of this. Over the past years and even this last year there have been many changes. So accurate records of these changes are necessary.

Many of those SAs that need our communications ability [resource] during an emergency require some basic training. Much of this training is based off of the Incident Command System [ICS] which was developed as part of mitigation from events that occurred here in California in the 1970′s. Without boring everyone with 40 years of history, suffice it to say that improvements have led us to this point. As with many aspects of our free market economy, money is at the driving force of the use of ICS.

Disasters require funds to provide mitigate their effects. If there was a tornado that touched down in your neighborhood, would you and your neighbors be able to afford the costs of repairing the damage? Probably not. So in steps the local government [LG] using their resources and maybe a couple of non-profit organizations [VOADs]. Since the agencies and organizations want to receive compensation from the “disaster” part of the budget, they must use the principles of ICS.

One of those principles is that everyone involved in responding to the incident has completed training in various ICS courses. These courses are designed to assist in learning the concepts necessary to succeed in the goal driven response.

Four of the courses that will be necessary to go on the active list for those interested in communicating with our SAs are ICS 100a, 200a, 700a and 800b. The courses vary in their length, however, I have been able to complete each one in an afternoon.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, through the Emergency Management Institute [EMI] offers these courses at not charge online. Participants need only to register online with an email address on EMI’s website. The web address is training.fema.gov. Once at the site, simply follow the links to the training that you are interested in and view the course. At the end of the course you need to take a short online test. You need to submit your test answers to EMI for grading and upon successful completion, you’ll be sent a certificate link via email. Once you’ve earned the certificate, submit a copy for our records and you’ll be set. At this time, you only have to complete the course once.

We are looking to have several hams up and trained by July 1, 2010. Good luck, and if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask.

Hal KC5LUB

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This last week, the American Radio Relay League posted it’s long awaited revised website. While still in the process of posting the material, the website has take on a modern look and feel. One observation about the improvements is that there are a lot of links.

The website, open to both members and non-members gives the surfer a chance to see the modern side of amateur radio. San Joaquin Valley Section Manager Dan Pruitt, AE6SX, was pleased to see the improvements. “They’re still working out the bugs. [The site] will give both those involved in the hobby and those that might be interested an overview of what we’re all about. There is something for everyone.”

The site has been long awaited. In development for over a year, the original opening date was due in January of this year. The start date was pushed back to the end of March, and finally debuted early last week. One can understand the delays when looking at the complexity of the linking system.

The site has a Facebook type look and feel to it. As such, there are member data sections whereby league members can go and choose what information is available to both viewers. There is an extensive amount of information that can be shared if the member should choose to allow it.

ARES Emergency Coordinator, Hal Clover, KC5LUB, suggests that members go through and check the information that is posted for accuracy. “Some of the information recently updated moved with the site, and some did not. So, it is in the best interest of the individual ham to check out what is posted. The site will be a great asset in recruiting both hams and served agencies/organizations.” Many courses will be available to those visiting the site, with certification to those that register for the course.