Jeremy Taylor, RI Section Emergency Coordinator, built on the RI Section Simulated Emergency Tests (conducted in October 2023) to challenge RI-ARES member Winlink skills in support of the Eastern Massachusetts SET conducted last Saturday, November 11, 2023 from 10-Noon. He wrote:
“As we gave gotten pretty good at collecting airport weather information and sending it, I have a challenge for those who would like to accept it. … You have several options to report the traffic. Our primary method of reporting will be via WINLINK as that is what we are practicing this month. You can report via WINLINK to EMA SEC Rob Macedo KD1CY and cc RI SEC Jeremy Taylor K1JST. VHF or HF WINLINK are preferred, but telnet is also an option. You may collect
Alternatively, You can attempt to join one of their voice nets…”
RI Section Manager, Nancy Austin, KC1NEK, passed her ATIS (airport weather) reports via a 60m voice net. New hams may not realize how easy it is to operate on 60m simply by dialing up from their 80m antenna set-up to 5.3305 USB (Channel 1).
The RI ARES HF net, held on the 3rd Tuesday at 7:30pm, might consider offering a 60m voice net.
The Consortium is a free class done monthly by Jim Johnson, K1GND and Bob Beaudet W1YRC. It’s also a great opportunity to meet other ham, find information and get recommendations of all things Ham related!
The Consortium has been operating for over 19 years, and everyone is welcomed.
November’s topic was The Importance of Grounding. The location is the Sportsmen’s Club at 250 High St., Manville. 7PM. The Consortium meets monthly on the first Monday of the month (unless that is a holiday).
The 2024 schedule of topics to be covered include:
Jan 8, 2024 – All About Vertical Antennas
Feburary 5, 2024 – All About Horizontal Antennas
March 4, 2024 – All About Half Wave End Fed Antennas And Transformers
April 1 – All About SSB Settings , Protocol And QSLing
May 6 -Getting Ready For Field Day
More details at http://www.w1ddd.org/consortium.html .
Jim, K1GND and Bob W1YRC support the Consortium.
This is a separate program from BVARC, supported by a few members who thought it was a good idea.
See you at the Consortium…..
Mike Cullen K1NPT organized a wonderful Special Event last weekend using the K2BSA/1 callsign. He writes:
This is BSA Troop 3 Newport’s annual pilgrimage to historic Yawgoog Scout Reservation, 1800 acres of forest in Rockville, Rhode Island (Washington County). The Camp is currently celebrating its 106th season.
Scouts dig a deep pit, line it with hot coals, and then cook 2-3 turkeys for several hours. Families and guests enjoyed an early Thanksgiving meal on Saturday night, November 11th.
Stations were invited to receive a picture of our activities that we sent via Winlink using VARA FM.
Mike Cullen, K1NPT organized the Special Event Call Sign K2BSA/1 for the RI Narragansett Council Scouts 2023 “Turkey-in-the-Dirt” family cookout.
Sheldon, K1KOS (BCRA) writes: The Bristol County Repeater Association (BCRA) is hosting a Foxhunt this upcoming Saturday November 18, 2023 from 10am-1pm. Check-in starts at 9:45 am on the BCRA repeater, 145.150 MHz PL 123. The organizer is Skip Denault [email protected]
There will be TWO foxes within a 5-mile radius of 25 Church St., Swansea MA. Each operating with a 5 watt signal, each will transmit 1 minute of tone followed by Morse Code ID and 4 minutes of silence.
FOX1 will activate at 10:00 a.m. on 146.565 MHz FM and will be manned by K1KOS, Sheldon, in a Green Jeep Gladiator, plate K1KOS
FOX2 will activate at 10:02:30 a.m. on 146.430 MHz FM and will be manned by K1NDU, Tom, in a Red Chevy Blazer, plate FF4332
Communications with “Fox Control” can all be done over the BCRA repeater, including
checking in when you have found the fox. You may also speak with us in the Fox
vehicle using physical distancing if you wish. Chat and help on the repeater also.
When you have found the fox, your time and order of arrival will be recorded, and a
personalized certificate will be emailed to each participant.
Jen Easterly, Director of CISA, speaking at the launch of the new Institute for Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies (6 November 2023, Providence RI)
The Keynote Speaker was Jen Easterly, Director of CISA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Other speakers included Gov. Dan McKee, U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, Congressman Seth Magaziner, House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley, Postsecondary Education Commissioner Shannon Gilkey, and RIC President Jack Warner.
As Governor McKee and Director Easterly observed, this cyber career pathway is uniquely housed in the Business School and should prove transformational in providing Rhode Islanders the highly-paid, skilled workforce needed to face the challenges ahead.
Everyone talks about the pressing problem of the cyber talent pipeline. In my strong and unchanged opinion, the Amateur Radio community has work to do to better explain how we are already contributing.
From our proven hands-on and free experiential learning community model open to every age. Our ability to communicate around the world with no internet or commercial power. Our commitment to Public Service. Our deep bench of technical experts willing to jump in and contribute to problems around spectrum, sensors, satellites, emergency communication, situational awareness, software/hardware, drones, electronics old and emerging, … the list goes on and on.
And yet at the gathering this morning, everyone I did a post-pandemic catch-up with was interested in my pivot to ham radio – but really had limited understanding of what amateur radio is, why it might be relevant in 2023, and how the ham community has already been a welcoming, mentoring high-tech career pathway pipeline for over a century. Cybersecurity is about more than IT. Radio literacy matters. This is a huge opportunity for amateur radio to paint a different portrait of itself.
As the Institute for Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies takes off, with the support of so many influential stakeholders across Rhode Island dedicated to its success, I encourage every RI radio amateur to continue being that positive ambassador in their own networks. Take the time to explain, again, what it is we do, why it matters, and what about this resonates with their audience? Rhode Island’s motivated radio amateurs are team players ready to participate. Let’s tune up and talk.
On November 4, 2023 the nearby Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) opened its underground Bunker to the public to commemorate 60 years since its dedication in 1963, a year after the Cuban Missile nuclear war Crisis. Saturday’s Open House included a pop-up exhibit of Civil Defense artifacts from that time. Informative videos throughout helpfully oriented you to the past and present functionality of the Bunker.
Much has changed in 60 years, but the need for reliable communication has not.
The event was a great opportunity to listen and share ideas about the relevance and value of amateur radio operators and ARES to Served Agencies in 2023 at this time of change.
Chris Grazioso (KB1UTL) – the Director of UAS Operations, Drone Operations Program, Mass DOT, Aeronautics Division put it this way: In his 30+ year career as a Public Safety professional, almost everyAfter Action Report cites a concern about a breakdown in communications, someplace in the report. In his experience, being a ham has helped him be a better trained operator, able to adjust and keep vital communication channels going one way or the other, when others couldn’t.
(Right) Chris Grazioso, KB1UTL – Director of UAS Operations, Drone Operations Program
The dynamic new Director of MEMA, Dawn Brantley (right) was licensed c.2008 when working in Emergency Management in radio-friendly Alaska. Not currently an active ham, it was a welcome conversation to talk about the ease of getting licensed in 2023 using the online, self-study platform, HamStudy.org. Her security detail, Emily, was definitely interested in learning more.
The Rhode Island Section looks forward to continued conversations with our New England neighbors. Especially now with Jeremy Taylor, K1JST, our new RI Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC) in place and a new team coming together to reshape RI ARES. Let’s share lessons learned. Pitch the message why amateur radio literacy adds value. And put together the training path that will get us from here to there – whether six months, six years, or a full 60 years on to 2083. We start here, today.
Welcome to your October 2023 RI Section Newsletter
Announcing two RI Section Cabinet appointments
Rhode Island Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC)
Jeremy Taylor, K1JST was appointed Rhode Island Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC) on October 25, 2023. Most recently Jeremy did an outstanding job leading RI’s official Section Emergency Test (SET) exercise, done in collaboration with MARS. Jeremy’s inspired momentum rebuilding RI ARES continues in November with a Winlink training scheduled for Wednesday November 1st at 7:30pm via Zoom; training on getting started with SSTV digital image messaging is planned for December. Links are available on the RIARES.org website calendar. All are welcome to join.
A 41-year old Rhode Island native, Jeremy Taylor, K1JST brings 20 years of experience as a Technology and Management professional in a wide range of roles in Education, Broadcast, Public Safety, and Retail industries. He enjoys building and maintaining repeaters and other amateur radio infrastructure, and many will know Jeremy K1JST from his work supporting the state-wide NB1RI repeater network. Jeremy is Treasurer and Control Operator for the Narragansett Bay Amateur Radio Club (NB1RI), Managing Director of the RI AREC Foundation, Secretary for the NE Spectrum Management Council, and serves on the boards of several other local non-profits. Jeremy enjoys mentoring new hams and founded a radio club at Exeter-West Greenwich Regional School District. He is a member of several local radio clubs, and first licensed in 2017.
Jeremy looks forward to meeting old and new hams ready to jump in and help collectively rebuild RI ARES as a reinvigorated state-wide team network of well-trained radio amateurs prepared to deliver on our Public Service mission.
Jeremy Taylor, K1JST – Rhode Island’s new Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC)
Rhode Island Section ARRL Affiliated Club Coordinator (ACC)
John Brewer, N1SXB was appointed Rhode Island Section Affiliated Club Coordinator (ACC) on October 18, 2023. A recently retired IT executive who has moved back to Rhode Island, John N1SXB is a current or former member of each of the state’s three largest radio clubs. An active ham, John has stepped up to be the ACC, as well as our Section representative reaching out to welcome and orient new hams to the various ways they might get involved, find mentors, and join the club or clubs that fit their interests. John will also be a liaison between the local clubs and the statewide skills training opportunities supported by RI ARES. We are a small state, and fostering this kind of information sharing and collaboration will help our entire RI amateur radio ecosystem.
John Brewer, N1SXB – Rhode Island’s new ARRL Affiliated Club Coordinator (ACC)
Congrats to last month’s 2 new FCC licensed Rhode Island Radio Amateurs and 1 new FCC Extra License.
(September 5 – October 5, 2023 report of 2 new RI hams and 1 license upgrade.)
Kevin McCarthy, KC1TLP – Pawtucket > New Technician
Robert Yates, KC1TJR – Cumberland > New Technician
Let’s welcome these 2 new RI hams and help them get active on the air in 2023-2024.
Robert Hart, KC1NAB – Cranston > Upgrade to Extra
Congrats to Robert, KC1NAB for earning your new Extra license!
RECAP: In the seven months, April 7 – October 5, 2023 >
31 new FCC licensed RI Radio Amateurs
30 FCC License Upgrades
Don’t forget the new ARRL First Contact Certificate you can download here:
License Exam Prep via HamStudy.org. License prep has never been easier than with this transformational learning platform offering self-paced study and practice tests. Available on demand, for free.
NEW RI POTA parks c. November 11th
Watch for the pile-ups this November 2023 when about six or seven new Rhode Island POTA parks are officially added to the list of POTA parks available to hunt and activate. (There are currently 53 POTA parks across RI, so the new total of RI POTA parks will be around 60.)
In October 2023, POTA HQ lifted its hiatus on adding new US (domestic) parks and invited each state’s POTA Mapping Representative to designate new parks to add.
Jim Garman, KC1QDZ is our POTA Mapping Representative for RI.
As of late October, Jim KC1QDZ is wrapping up the democratic process he used to solicit suggestions from the POTA community on what parks to add. (Subject to the POTA constraints about what was an eligible park.) After gathering the responses into a long list, Jim KC1QDZ worked with a team to test the conditions at each potential location and report back. This helped get the list shortened to about six or seven parks that will be announced around November 11th.
POTA Hunters may have already noticed the recent pile-ups around the new 5-digit POTA parks just opened for activation in some other states. So, heads-up that these brand new RI POTA parks will likely prompt similar interest by mid-November.
Jim Garman, KC1QDZ would like to thank the following activator team that helped in this vetting process: Briann Swann N1BS, Fran Kelly K1NDQ, Scott Toner N1SWT, Willy Maclean W1LY, and Jonathan W. Winokur KY1K.
The new RI POTA sites are spread across our state, so plan a portable op road trip this November before the snow falls.
Jim Garman, KC1QDZ – the POTA Mapping Representative for Rhode island
ALSO: Don’t forget to check out the ARRL’s own new book on POTA for beginners:
Dave Neal, W2DAN – AVID contester and RI’s Representative for YCCC shares this write-up on Contesting Season:
“Well, we have been waiting for the CQ Worldwide DX SSB Contest, October 28, 0000Z to October 29, 2359Z. This is why they call this time of year Contesting Season!
The CQ Worldwide DX Contest is the largest amateur radio contest in the world with over 35,000 participants. The challenge is to make as many contacts with as many DXCC entities and CQ Zones as possible, while competing against the world’s elite contesters. Not into SSB? The CW portion of the contest is next month from November 25 – 26.
3830scores.com is a great place to see how well you did and check out the results of your fellow contesters. Personally I did not get to spend full time in the contest but did spend about 16 hours and worked 864 QSO’s, 82 Zones and 305 Countries working on 10, 15, 20, 40 and 80 meters. This is just my submitted scores, but others did much better. Contesting is a great way to add DX contacts to your log.” Go for it!
“As always, the New England Division of the ARRL will help to bring interested hams together to promote mesh network expansion. The nemesh group (nemesh @ groups.io) meets every other month via zoom and you are invited to join and contribute to the discussion.”
Rob Leiden KI1U writes in a pending Beacon article:
“Last October, we noted that the Maine and Rhode Island sections had received grants to expand their mesh networks. Since then, New Hampshire has also received a grant to expand its mesh network including sites that position the network to grow into Massachusetts. In particular, the partnership between the New England Digital Emergency Communications Network (NEDECN) has proven especially productive, providing both high sites for long haul mesh network backbones as an emergency facility but also providing a link between repeater sites independent of the commercial internet. Rhode Island is also making use of mesh networks to link repeaters located on fire towers to enhance their emergency services utility. Mesh networks can provide radio amateurs with our own “intranet,“ should the commercial internet become unavailable due to natural or man-made disasters. These networks offer served agencies tools that they already depend on using the commercial internet operated by hams that understand how best to use them.
The New England Division has made the growth of mesh networking a priority, both for these reasons and to make productive use of the frequencies to strengthen amateur radio’s position against encroachment by commercial interests.
We note that the progress made thus far is largely due to the efforts of a few dedicated individuals who have obtained grant funding and established partnerships to deploy new network nodes. As the transition from building these networks to operating and maintaining them occurs, we need to answer some questions: …. “
On October 19, 2023 Rob KI1U shared:
The Merrimack Valley Amateur Radio Association has received a grant award of $46,125 from Amateur Radio Digital Communication, a California-based foundation, to expand its current 7-node microwave network in southern New Hampshire. The project includes extending the New Hampshire network into northeastern Massachusetts and southwestern Maine as a bridge between states towards the larger goal of a New England-wide network.
The project is a collaboration with the New England Digital Emergency Communications Network to provide microwave radio backup to DMR repeaters in New Hampshire that rely on the internet for primary connectivity between sites. Collaborating on DMR sites also increases MVARA’s capability to support local emergency management organizations with amateur radio operators and equipment. …
Jay, K1EHZ is available to answer any questions about the expansion plan and is a valuable resource for anyone looking to support further expansion of mesh networking in New England.”
See also the funded RI mesh experimentation by NCRC’s Paul Fredette K1YBE: “RI is experimenting with mesh network technology using backbones as high as 10 GHz.”
RI Microwave Skill Building Opportunities
Don’t miss the ARTEN Microwave Grant’s upcoming build night at the Fab Newport [RI] Maker Space this November 3, 2023 from 5-8pm.
For more information contact Paul Fredette, K1YBE at [email protected]
For more on the ARTEN experimental microwave mesh project see:
Steve Day N3VHI, Rob White KB1ZZU, Sean Baker K1SDB with Paul Fredette K1YBE (right) at the NCRC’s May 15, 2023 Fab Newport Maker Space Microwave hands-on build event.ARTEN (grant-funded) mesh demo at the recent 2023 HamXPO.
RI ARES SET & Situational Awareness
The National Incident Management System (NIMS) framework includes three major components relevant to amateur radio:
Resource Management
Command and Coordination > Incident Command System (ICS)
Communications and Information Management
Situational Awareness – maintained through the flow of information
Hams are getting new attention for their skilled ability to accurately report real time, ground truth situational awareness information when other forms of communication may not be available.
Partnering with the community to provide additional situational awareness underpins the National Weather System’s Skywarn program. It is central to FEMA’s new Community Lifelines. On October 19, 2023 at 10:19am, over 57 million people worldwide participated in the Great Earthquake Shakeout Drill; and this year’s drill included new ways for hams to contribute via Winlink in this global situational awareness exercise.
This August, Tom Kinehan, the US Army Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) Region One Director, reached out to New England ARRL Section leaders to see if any Section might be interested in working together with MARS on an Airport Weather situational awareness SET, or Simulated Emergency Test, scheduled for October. MARS recognizes that experienced, motivated radio amateurs could be a “force multiplier” passing structured traffic. Let’s see what’s possible in post-pandemic 2023.
Under Jeremy Taylor’s leadership as then Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator, RI ARES stepped up to the challenge. Within days of discussing this with the new and pre-occupied Section Manager and getting the green light, K1JST had completed the necessary administrative documentation and met with key stakeholders. Early communication was sent out here:
Jeremy K1JST then planned and led the RI ARES team and anyone interested in a practice exercise over the weekend of October 7-8, 2023. He followed up promptly to implement changes based on some of the challenges reported. Some lessons learned were posted here:
The final SET net closed Sunday at 10pm. The first October 2023 RI-ARES & MARS SET was a resounding success.
50 net check-ins
35 reports for 8 unique airports
2 airports out of state in CT and Worcester, supporting regional situational awareness
Team building success
Among RI hams across the state.
New and old connections fostered
RI ARES – MARS relationships renewed or begun. Many thanks to Tom Kinehan N1CPE, Matt Hackman KB1FUP and John E. Miller N1UMJ.
Opportunity to assess RI ARES’ baseline capabilities as of October 2023 to provide situational awareness to a served agency – and how to set a path forward.
Outreach and communication will take time. RI ARES is a statewide organization where hams can connect on the mission, get a certain kind of training, and bring this all back to help support their local community.
Counties are not an ideal organizational unit for RI ARES.
The final SET participation by RI County looks like this (not counting MARS members):
Kent County: 39%
Newport County: 28%
Providence County: 17%
Washington County: 17%
Bristol County: 0%
Jeremy Taylor, K1JST – our new RI SEC – has proposed other RI ARES organizational structures, and welcomes your suggestions.
How can we come together to support a state-wide, relevant RI ARES training program that will deliver value to our communities in 2023, no matter where in RI we live? No matter how many different radio clubs or radio interests we also care about?
What would you prioritize?
Please join the conversation. Step up and get involved. Take action and help us all succeed.
Rhode Island’s amateur radio community makes a difference. And we can do more.
From FEMA IS-0700.b – An Introduction to the National Incident Management System (NIMS). Nationwide, ARES members are introduced to situational awareness, ICS and other fundamentals in the course sequence: FEMA IS-100, 200, 700, 800. These courses are available for free, on-line, on-demand. See, for example: https://training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=is-700.b&lang=en
The October ARES Simulated Emergency Test (SET) is a longstanding ARRL opportunity for Sections to come together and evaluate how hams can contribute value to statewide preparedness efforts. Are we organized, reliable, disciplined? A supportive and inclusive team able to problem solve in real time, and collaborate with a sincere interest to provide a public service? Is this a team served agencies can trust to turn to?
Each July QST issue has, for decades, highlighted each Section ARES and other teams that have come together to participate in the annual October SET challenge. It is one measure of a Section’s preparedness maturity to be able to follow up in this way and self-report their own progress year over year. RI ARES has not been in a place to report results for at least a decade. But the good news is that is changing in October 2023.
The RI ARES official SET started this Saturday October 21 and will run until Sunday at 10pm. We held two nets so far this weekend, with this summary of Saturday reports to date:
15 check-ins
8 airport weather traffic reports for 4 RI airports
accurately passed to at least 2 MARS members
via 80m and 2m voice, and so open to all license classes,
including a new Technician ham licensed less than 2 months. (wow!)
The Sunday SET nets will begin October 22nd at Noon, with the last one at 10pm.
Want to join the momentum? Please see RIARES.org and the Incident Action Plan put together by A-SEC, Jeremy Taylor, K1JST.
For more on the Practice Exercise held two weeks ago , please see:
23 radio amateurs contributed 26 results during last weekend’s RI ARES MARS Airport Weather Practice Exercise. Thank you!
It was open to all anytime from 10am Saturday to 10pm Sunday October 7-8, 2023. As noted, 23 hams joined in. Two of these reported hearing nothing and one of the 26 submissions was a landline verification report. These are not shown in the data summary charts below.
Given this generous 36-hour window of time in which to submit results from home, 23 hams participated. Is this a large turnout, or less than expected? Too early to say. For comparison, the 2m RI ARES VHF Simplex net last night lasted about 45 minutes and had 15 check-ins from across 4 of the 5 RI counties. The month before, the RI ARES Simplex net had 20 check-ins across all 5 counties. Just FYI as we seek to understand baseline interest and commitment – and work to build aligned skill-development opportunities and continued outreach.
Top Challenge: AM Aviation Band (108-137MHz) awareness & solutions for your FM radio, scanner, or SDR
The Practice Exercise asked hams to listen on their radios and report what, if anything, they heard when tuned to 5 specific frequencies between 120-135 MHz, on the AM Aviation Airband.
Listed below are two of the FM radios used by this weekend’s practice exercise participants. These familiar ham radios do include the ability to receive on the aviation band.
5w Yaesu FT-60R (c. $190) w Diamond wide receive SRHF40A
50w Icom 5100 base
Add to the mix: reviewing how to program a new frequency, the benefits of a wideband receive antenna, and making time and effort to participate within the timeframe.
Location still matters: Nancy, KC1NEK used the Yaesu HT to clearly hear 4-5 airport weather stations over the last week from Middletown, RI. But then heard nothing when testing from the grounds of the New England Wireless & Steam Museum in East Greenwich.
This Practice Exercise was also an opportunity to learn about FM modulation/demodulation and slope detection. (Thank you, Steve, WA1GVM from Coventry!) Some people got creative with police scanners and planned SDR solutions. Yes, it was a good practice exercise. Stay tuned!
Join us tonight, Wednesday October 11, 2023 at 7:30pm on Zoom to share your experiences and tips. (For the Zoom link and more events, please see the RIARES.org calendar.)
What changes, if any, do you plan to put in place before the actual Simulated Emergency Test planned for Oct 21-22?
County [ham entries]
TF Green
Newport
N. Central
Block Island
Westerly
Bristol* [0]
Kent [5]
5
1
1
Newport [9]
5
9
3
3
1
Providence* [2]
2
1
Washington [6]
1
1
2
4
Outside RI [1]
1
*Requesting ambassadors especially for Bristol and Providence Counties. ARES looks to the team-building leadership role of the DEC and ECs to build this prepared capacity. This is a great opportunity to encourage, mentor, and learn while supporting a state-wide shared mission.
All interested RI licensed radio amateurs are welcome to join RI ARES Members for a MARS situational awareness practice exercise this weekend. We will be discussing this further on the RI ARES 1st & 3rd Tuesday night repeater NB1RI network nets, and in a Zoom meeting. (Details below.) This marks the beginning of RI ARES training exercises and monthly Zoom meetings scheduled for the rest of 2023. We welcome your participation.
Introduction
The following is the Simulated Emergency Test (SET) for the Rhode Island Section for the calendar year 2023.
We appreciate the leadership and support provided by Chuck Chandler, WS1L, the Western Massachusetts (WMA) Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC) and Tom Kinahan, N1CPE, US Army MARS Region One Director as your new RI Section and ARES leadership put together a SET/Practice Exercise in time for ARRL’s SET.
We will run:
1) a Practice Exercise open to all interested RI licensed radio amateurs
from Saturday, October 7, 2023 beginning at 10:00 local (14:00 UTC), through Sunday, October 8, 2023 at 22:00 local (10/9/23 02:00 UTC).
2) the RI ARES Simulated Emergency Test will be held two weeks later:
from Saturday, October 21, 2023 beginning at 10:00 local (14:00 UTC), through Sunday, October 22, 2023 at 22:00 local (10/23/23 02:00 UTC).
Separate Instructions will be sent for the Simulated Emergency Test.
Rhode Island’s five Airport Surface Weather Observation Stations (ASOS/AWOS)
SITUATION
Repeated patterns of wet weather have been experienced throughout New England, leaving soils saturated and incapable of absorbing additional rainfall. Several instances of flooding have already led to road washouts impacting the transportation sector.
The first arctic cold front of the season approaches with a large pressure differential producing a sudden onset of high winds. With root systems already weakened in soft soil, large numbers of trees are felled throughout the region. Multiple roads become impassable. Wire and cable damage has led to degradation of the Public Switched Telephone, internet and cellular networks. Calls placed without GETS/WPS are taking up to one hour to complete. Limited internet access is available in some areas, with other areas suffering extended outages. High demand has made VoIP communications impossible.
Resource requests for high priority items are ready to transport via air to local airports but with no ability to receive local weather conditions at those airports ARES has been tasked with reporting local airport weather information.
MISSION
RI Radio Amateurs interested in participating will attempt to receive local airport weather broadcasts in the VHF-AM Aviation Band from 119-136 MHz. A list of local airport weather frequencies will be provided. Any weather reports received will be transcribed for later reporting.
For the Practice Exercise, participants will report their information via a Google Form located at:
A Simulated Emergency Test is a structured excercise. RI Radio Amateurs will attempt to receive local airport weather broadcasts in the VHF-AM Aviation Band from 119-136 MHz. A list of local airport weather frequencies in scope will be provided. Participants may elect to establish a temporary station at an advantageous position in order to improve their chances of receiving one or more airports.
For the Practice Exercise, participants who are able to receive these reports will transcribe the weather reports so that they may be reported to US Army MARS via the Google Form.
Participants who are unable to receive airport weather reports are requested to report that fact, along with their location, in order to alert authorities to any airports that may not be operational, or may have degraded weather reporting capabilities. Participating in this exercise also helps to build baseline awareness about who can hear what Rhode Island airport weather stations under good conditions. For the Practice Exercise, this should all be reported via the Google Form.
Two weeks later, the Simulated Emergency Test will involve passing this airport weather traffic over the air via one or more radio nets, or via WinLink.
ADMINISTRATIVE & LOGISTICS
This SET will require the following ICS forms:
ICS-202 Incident Objectives (summarizing this operations plan)
ICS-217 Communications Availability Worksheet (listing the five Rhode Island airport weather channels in scope)
ICS-213 General Message (printable Information Gathering Template)
The Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator will notify ARES members of this exercise in advance and solicit their participation. Any licensed amateur who expresses an interest is encouraged to take part.
An after-action review will be conducted soon after the conclusion of the Practice Exercise. Lessons learned will be implemented for the SET planned for two weeks later, October 21-22, 2023.
COMMAND & SIGNAL
The Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator has submitted this SET + Practice Exercise Operations Order to the Section Manager for their approval. Once approved, it will be disseminated to RI ARES members and those who have expressed interest in RI ARES for whom we have email addresses on file. It will also be announced on the RI ARES Repeater Net and posted to the RI section website: https:ri-arrl.org
The actual SET is anticipated to run for a 36-hour period from 1000 local on Saturday 21 October 2023 until 2200 local on Sunday 22 October 2023. This will allow participants to have sufficient time to monitor airport weather broadcasts and to report them. Participants may submit their Google Form at any time during the exercise period.
Participating in the Basic Practice Exercise is an important first step designed to be accessible for any interested radio amateur. All are welcome to give this a try.
Additional challenges and MARS crossband exercises are possible. The ARES Standardized Training Plan Task Book for Level 2 presumes annual participation in a Simulated Emergency Test, such as RI ARES is offering this October 2023. Please join in!
NOTES
You are invited to review additional documents at:
(The form will be available for practice before hand, but only data reported during the exercise will be utilized.)
Congratulations to Jeremy Taylor, K1JST for stepping up to put much of this together on short notice. Many thanks for contributing additional capacity to take on the new role as your volunteer RI Division Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator.
All interested RI licensed radio amateurs are welcome to join RI ARES Members for a MARS situational awareness practice exercise this weekend. We will be discussing this further on the RI ARES 1st & 3rd Tuesday night repeater NB1RI network nets, and in a Zoom meeting. (Details below.) This marks the beginning of 
