Emergency Radio Work

Floods in March 2010 renew the importance of checking on conditions that might require amateur radio emergency response. Below is a list of websites and listserv groups where information will usually be posted as conditions develop that might require ARES and RACES responses.

Western Mass ARES web site: Western Mass. ARES
Yahoo user groups for Mass and Western Mass MEMA, ARES, RACES, & Skywarn Yahoo Group for MEMA etc.
Western Mass ARES: Yahoo Group for WM ARES
RLX emergency Group Yahoo Group - RLX Emergency Group:

NOTE: For information on the website, just click on the title and view. To receive messages from Yahoo Groups, you first have to join Yahoo Groups. You can then decide to view messages using your web browser, at times when you want to get information, OR you can choose to have messages sent to your e-mail in-box.

The western Mass. Section of the ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) invites hams who wish to be considered for possible deployment in a radio emergency to register with a new internet based data base. This database will allow Section leaders to quickly find hams with the skills needed, and located nearest to the areas where emergency deployment is requested.

As with any volunteer emergency group, you are not committed to respond to any particular call. Registration simply means a willingness to be called and asked to help. The registration form has numerous questions about an individual's training and equipment. Answering these questions is voluntary. You may even answer the questions but mark the answer with a DONT LIST check. This means that only the section leadership will have access to those answers.

To register yourself for possible future emergency radio work, go to the Western Mass. web page at: ARRL Western Massachusetts Section Website

On the upper left corner of the page is a menu which includes the item "WMA ARES Registration". Click on this to go to the Registration and Record System. If you are not yet registered, click on the "New Application" item on the menu at the top. Once you have registered, you can come back to this page to update the information in your data page by clicking on "Member Login". You will set your own password the first time you register, and will need to remember it to make changes subsequently.

For more detailed information, you may want to view the Membership Manual : WMA ARES Member Registration System Member Manual

Three local women are being honored for their service to the community. One of them, Belle Dyer, KB1NOG, has been an active member of the Franklin County Amateur Radio Club for the last three years. She will be among a hundred women from around the state to be honored in a ceremony and reception at the Boston Statehouse on May 13.

According to an article appearing on the front page of the Greenfield Recorder, April 7, 2009:
"Belle" Dyer, a registered nurse, "touched many lives while employed in the private sector," according to the Colrain Board of Selectmen, who nominated her for the award; but she has also volunteered for many community agencies as well.

Dyer served on the town's Board of Health for a dozen years, and, as a certified instructor, provided free, yearly training in CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and first aid to the town's fire and police departments.

Dyer has been an emergency medical technician with the Colrain Volunteer Ambulance Association for 20 years. "Her sense of compassion and genuine concern has been a great asset to those individuals (who required) her services, " the selectmen wrote. As a state EMT examiner, she has also mentored those striving to pass EMT exams.

Dyer, 73, is also a member of Franklin County's Emergency Medical Services Committee, Western Massachusetts Critical Incident Stress Management Team, Community Emergency Response Team and Medical Reserve Corps. She is also a ham radio operator.

"Belle's value to the community at large will no doubt be felt after she no longer provided these services, " the board said in their nomination. "Simply put, there will be an empty place at our community table."

Also mentioned in the same Recorder article were Rosie Heidkamp of Wendell and Doris Olson of Orange

On December 12, 2008, an ice storm hit cities and towns in western Massachusetts, Southern New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. Over a dozen members of the Franklin County Radio Club and ARES helped provide communications to shelters in Heath, Gardner, and Warwick. Story

The March 2009 issue of CQ magazine has a Public Service story with more details of amateur radio service during this storm.

Providing communications in an emergency is more than the willingness to drop routine activities to go out in bad weather to work in sometimes difficult or even dangerous conditions. It also requires preparation and training. ARES net sessions on the KB1KSS and other repeaters provide regular practice using emergency net procedure and the chance to check equipment. See the Net Schedule for nets conducted in the area.

In the fall of 2008, members of FCARC participated with other hams in two drills offering the chance to work with public service employees in Conway and Sunderland. The drill scenario was the door to door distribution of a simulated emergency medication. Hams provided the back up communications for the vehicles used by the distribution teams. Story

Throughout the year the club also provides back-up operators for a number of road races and other public events.

Experienced members of the FCARC help advise newer members on the best choice of equipmentl for portable use, and assistance, where needed, in training for the use of the equipment.

In the last two years, several of us have set up packet radio stations in response to encouragement from the ARRL for all emergency teams to create the connections to the WINLINK system.

Other Resources

• American Radio Relay League ARES E-Letter.
• World Radio Relay League
• Worcester Emergency Communications Team
• Western Massachusetts Section of ARRL
• Eastern Massachusetts ARES
• Hawaii- Emergency Communications
• N1HY's ARES and RACES page
• Hospital Disaster Support Communications System Orange County, CA Tucson Amateur Packet Radio