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.
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:
https://forms.gle/rnEGgsEWhqvYhJfdA
EXECUTION
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:
Please join the RI ARES 2m repeater nets on Tuesdays Oct 3rd and 17th at 7:30pm on the NB1RI repeater network, ie Exeter 146.985 (-0.6 MHz) PL 67 Hz
Please join a scheduled RI ARES Zoom meeting to discuss this other 2023 ARES training opportunities further.
RI ARES General Meeting, Wednesday October 4, 2023, 19:30 Local
ZOOM Meeting Link: https://ewg.zoom.us/j/81260554381?pwd=NGlyVFQ1d1ZaQmdEZnVUSGplU1EyQT09
For the Practice Exercise, participants will report their information via this Google Form: https://forms.gle/rnEGgsEWhqvYhJfdA
(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.
3 Comments on “Join the RI ARES MARS Airport Weather Exercise starting this weekend”
Comments are closed.