Kitchener-Waterloo Amateur Radio Club...

AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE
The Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) is a voluntary organization of licensed radio amateurs who have registered their capabilities and equipment for providing emergency communications as a public service to the community.

The purpose of ARES is to furnish communications in the event of natural disaster when regular communications fail or are inadequate. Sponsored by RAC, the ARES functions at the local level to meet local communications needs.

The ARES has a long history of public service going back to its formal inception in 1935. Since that time the ARES has responded countless times to communications emergencies. Experience has proven that radio amateurs respond more capably in time of emergency when practice has been conducted in an organized group. There is no substitute for experience gained before the need arises.

The ARES in each locality operates under the direction of the Emergency Coordinator (EC), whose function is to direct the activities of the ARES to maintain a state of readiness. To register in the ARES, fill out then send or give this detachable Registration Form directly to your EC, or to RAC HQ for forwarding to your EC. Membership in RAC is desirable but not required for registration. Registration does not require possession of any special equipment. All amateurs can be of assistance to the ARES. There is room in ARES for every amateur regardless of class of license, equipment owned, or personal circumstances. Please consider joining us in providing this essential Amateur Radio Service?

The Kitchener Waterloo Amateur Radio Club is now affiliated with the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) organization and is in the process of training it's members to provide Emergency Communications service in time of local or regional disasters.

The Emergency Coordinator for Kitchener-Waterloo is Larry Gorman VE3LGN. If you are interested in becoming a member of our local ARES group contact Larry at ares@kwarc.org.

The KWARC ARES group recently took part in Exercise Download. Click here to read the review.

This ARES Home Page should be book marked as it will keep KWARC members abreast of local and regional ARES activities and exercises.

For more information on the KWARC ARES program please contact our A.R.E.S. Emergency Coordinator Larry Gorman VE3LGN at ares@kwarc.org

The March club meeting will be an opportunity for everyone in attendance to practice emergency message handling. This is an exercise that we need to undertake regularly so as to be familiar with message handling procedures. It is also an opportunity to get out your Handi and give it a workout.

We will work in small teams taking turns sending, transcribing, delivering, and responding to a variety of simulated situations that are somewhat typical of an emergency that might occur in our Region. The exercise should only take about an hour. Everyone will have an opportunity to participate. This will be followed by refreshments and an overview of the event.

Now is the time to relocate your handheld 2 metre radio and to check the state of the batteries. If you can't bring a handheld, don't worry, we should manage. This is a low key event, and should be quite interesting, as the team members sort out their rotating tasks. Wing 404 on Dutton Drive Waterloo (Off Weber) 7:30 on Monday 7 March. We hope to see you there.

The exercise has been moved up from the original April calendar date. Below is the simulation scenario that we will be dealing with.

KWARC ARES has just been contacted and requested to provide primary communications for a situation that occurred just moments ago.

The first train of the recently completed RT system was making its inaugural run when braking problems occurred as it approached the Conestoga mall terminal. The train unexpectedly accelerated the south wall of the and proceeded to plough through parked cars and mall. A number of persons were seriously injured and many others are in a state of shock. The whole area has been cordoned off by Regional Police. The damage also took down the auxiliary power of the nearby cell phone tower.

The Regional Coordinator of Emergency Planning has asked if KWARC can provide radio operators for communications between various Social Service groups, the evacuation centres, as well as the Command centre.

ARES in Action October 2009

Ontario Wide Simulate Emergency Training exercise

The annual province wide emergency training exercise (SET) took place on Saturday 3 October. Dave V3PMT our designated ARES contact, linked VE3RBM to the Vancouver reflector early in the day. Both he and Bob VE3XNB made check ins and monitored activities throughout the day.

This net, which operates every year on the first Saturday of October, provides a valuable opportunity to test province wide Amateur Radio capabilities. We should always be prepared to assist in a large scale emergency.

Dave commented that all check ins were welcomed and no frustrating pile ups occurred.

Hopefully next year we will get more of our KWARC members to call in at some time during the day long event.

This event was sponsored by Radio Amateurs Canada, our national voice for Amateur Radio. <www.rac.ca>.

SSEPAC

Ben VE3ST, Dave VE3PMT and I attended the Regional Social Services Emergency Planning Advisory Committee quarterly meeting as reps of the KWARC ARES team. The meeting was held Thursday 15 October at the Salvation Army Citadel in Cambridge.

HINI and flu pandemic were again key topics on the agenda. The Regional Medical Health office gave an update on local planning. The Region has prepared as much as is possible, and does not foresee a need for any special preparation at this time.

Larry commented on our club SET exercise held this past spring and emphasized the importance of preparing concise messages containing clear instructions. He also pointed out that messaging in a noisy situation presented a challenge to both the sender and the receiver.

CANWARN-Summer program ends.

The KWARC CANWARN weather monitoring program ended October 29. While we maintained a full net management schedule, only a few Severe Weather nets were set up. The summer weather was rather indifferent this year-at least locally. Thanks go to Robin VE3OAV, BenVE3ST, Bob VE3XNB, Bonnie VA3BLM, and Nick VE3NNW for participating over the 5 month period.

We activated 3 nets over the summer, the last one during the Durham County and Markham F3 Tornado. Our Region experienced no significant severe weather.

Larry VE3LGN

Emergency Services Coordinator

Ben VE3ST and I recently visited Kitchener City hall to complete the Amateur Radio emergency radio station installation. We have been consultating with city officials since this past spring. After checking out other municipal Amateur equipment set ups Ben put together a package suitable to operate an emergency station from city hall.

KWARC ARES is now an active part of the City of Kitchener's emergency planning program. At a follow up meeting in September, while Ben worked on the roof to complete the antenna connections, I programmed the new Yaesu 8800 dual band radio (@#$*&!!)

(If you buy a new rig that has the option of software programming through your computer, you will never regret the extra expenditure) While the city will own this equipment, KWARC Emergency Services has been asked to supply radio operators when needed.

This ARES rig at Kitchener city hall now has easy access to all of our VHF and UHF repeaters, as well as some in the more distant surrounding community repeaters, as well as selected CAll frequencies.

SInce our last visit the building electrician had completed a major job of routing the feedline down to our communications room, and readying it for hook up. Ben was impressed with the very strong signal strength report coming back from VE3RCK.

The city emergency planning staff will be staging a simulation exercise in early Decemberr to test out their Emergency Operations Centre. We have been invited to participate.