Here’s a basic news release you can use for the upcoming SET drill.  Please contact your local or section ARES leaders for details, fill in the blanks, and use it – or better yet, write one specific to your area.

News Release 
YOUR NAME
ADDRESS
CONTACT INFO
Ham Radio Tests Emergency Communications in ___my town/area_

My Town, St  Date  --  America was reminded of the critical role of Amateur Radio in 2005 as ham operators came from all over the country to provide emergency communications when other systems failed during recovery efforts from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  This year the hams’ work continued providing lifesaving services in many floods and wildfires around the country.  Because of the complexity of modern communications, they can be overwhelmed in a disaster.  These lessons are being tested on __date__ as Amateur Radio operators in __place__  conduct their annual Simulated Emergency Test.   

Using emergency powered radios and working with local agencies, the hams will establish radio communications networks which can be used should there be a failure or overload of normal services such as was seen in the days following many types of incidents.  In addition, the ham radio operators provide the ability to communicate between the many government and volunteer agencies which are needed in disasters. 

This year the __town/area__  Amateur Radio operators will be replicating  ____scenario for your SET______________________________________________  .   The hams have the slogan, “When all else fails – Amateur Radio!”   According to __spokesperson__ , “The hams of ___town/area___  take that quite seriously.”

Amateur Radio volunteer operators from across the country respond to the calls for aid when needed.    Despite cell phones and satellites, every year has seen situations in which they have been called upon in critical situations needing expert communications to keep an emergency from turning into a disaster.  They provide their services and equipment freely to their communities.  They are “Amateurs” only in that they are not paid, but their service in a crisis can be priceless.
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What do Amateur Radio operators do during and after disasters? 
Amateur Radio operators set up and operate organized communication networks locally for governmental and emergency officials, as well as non-commercial communication for private citizens affected by the disaster. Amateur Radio operators are most likely to be active after disasters that damage regular lines of communications due to power outages and destruction of telephone lines. 
How do Amateur Radio operators help local officials? 
Many radio amateurs are active as communications volunteers with local public safety organizations. In addition, in some disasters, radio frequencies are not coordinated among relief officials and Amateur Radio operators step in to coordinate communication when radio towers and other elements in the communications infrastructure are damaged. 
What are the major Amateur Radio emergency organizations? 
Amateur Radio operators have informal and formal groups to coordinate communication during emergencies. At the local level, hams may participate in local emergency organizations, or organize local "traffic nets" using VHF (very high frequencies) and UHF (ultra high frequencies). At the state level, hams are often involved with state emergency management operations. In addition, hams operate at the national level through the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) which is coordinated through the American Radio Relay League and its field volunteers, and through the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) which is coordinated through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  In addition, in areas that are prone to severe weather, many hams are involved in Skywarn, operating under the National Weather Service.

Is Amateur Radio recognized as a resource by national relief organizations? 
Many national organizations have formal agreements with the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and other Amateur Radio groups including: 
• Department of Homeland Security - Citizen Corps 
• Federal Emergency Management Agency 
• National Communications System 
• American Red Cross 
• Salvation Army 
• National Weather Service 
• Association of Public Safety Communications Officials

To Learn More: 
The best way to learn about Amateur Radio is talking to hams face-to-face.   To find out how to get started and who to contact in your area, call or write:

The American Radio Relay League, 225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111

Telephone 1-800-32 NEW-HAM                                  www.arrl.org/hamradio.html

With considerable thanks to Mike Watkins, WX4AL, Greg Sarratt, W4OZK, and Jack Evans, KC4PZA, I'd like to outline our suggested plan for SET 2008.

DATE/TIME: The Alabama Simulated Emergency Test will take place on Saturday, October 4th from 9:00AM Central Time until Noon. Some counties have already indicated that they have conflicts for that date. Any individual county or EMCOMM group may chose to hold their exercise on an alternative date before December 15^th. Please inform Section Leadership of your exercise date so that we can arrange to be on the air to support your efforts. 

SCENARIO: This year's Simulated Emergency Test will focus on the most common threat experienced in Alabama, that of severe weather. This allows for maximum participation not only by ARES units, but also other EMCOMM groups such as Skywarn. Each County EC is tasked with constructing a scenario for their area, simulating severe weather. 

 As during actual events, these reports should be relayed via Storm Spotters to the appropriate served agencies, or to amateurs who are "role playing" as the served agency. Updates and damage report should be relayed to the Section Emergency Coordinator.

 Local EC's should include a number of "injects" into their scenarios to test the ability of their group to respond to unexpected events. For example, the EC could simulate the loss of a local repeater, or widespread power failures in the area. These injects should be limited to realistic possibilities during severe weather.  

Each county EC should designate a liaison to the State ARES net on 3965khz, and if at all possible, another liaison to the State Digital Net on 3570khz using either PSK-31 or RTTY modes.

 Net control stations should be active on local repeaters, taking check-ins, and aiding in passing traffic. To the extent possible, reporting severe weather should directly simulate the "real world" model. 

COMPETITION: For the first time, we will have two categories of competition. The first will be an ARES County/District competition. Each county and district will compete against the others to see who comes out on top. District scoring will be determined by how each of the counties in their district compares with the others.

 New to SET this year is the EMCOMM Group competition. This will allow emergency communications groups such as Skywarn, ALERT, Southern Baptist Disaster Group, and others to compete only against other groups, rather than being limited to participation as part of a county wide ARES program. Our hope is that many such groups will choose to use this exercise as a chance to really flex their muscles.

 Individual volunteers may participate in both county/district and EMCOMM groups. Most hams are members of both their local ARES structure, but may also be Skywarn members, so you're free to participate with any group that you belong to.

  Winners will be honored with a write up on the state ARES Web Site (please e-mail photos!), certificates, and perhaps even some goodies. To enter, you must e-mail your results to the SEC within 10 days. A score sheet template is attached. Please send your scores to: alsec@arrl-al.org

SCORING:  All scoring decisions will be passed on reports received by the SEC via  liaison to the 3965khz Net and the 3570khz Digital Net, regarding local SET details and mission status.

The section net will record the information and post it on the SEC "Blog" for continual updates in real time. You can find this site at:

http://al-ares.blogspot.com/

This will simulate a sudden multi-emergency, multi-response mode with updates run similarly to the EM2000 software used by EMAs. Those who communicate with the Section Net will get EMCOMM points and every county will be ranked according to whether they executed a local or district SET (50 points), communicated SET report/status with the section net (20 points)  = 70 points (a minimal passing score)
and then additionally:

- Passed an NTS message to Section via Tactical Voice (5 points)
- Passed an NTS message to Section via any RF Digital Mode station to
station. These modes include PSK-31, RTTY, Winlink2K, or APRS Message. D-Star Slow speed messaging is also acceptable this year using the D-RATS software.  (25 points)
- Local SET Net Control Operated from the local EMA or served agency site. (10 points)

- Passing an NTS Message to Section via any RF Digital Mode from the local EMA or served agency site. (25 Points)

 - Passed a simulated ARESMAT request to the DEC or if unavailable,

another EC in the same district by direct 2m/70cm contact (5 points)

EMCOMM Groups qualify by requesting assistance from other parts of their groups, or by having secondary "Callouts" to their membership. Just include details in your hotwash.

- 1 point for every hour of SET net operation up to 3 hours  (3 points)

-1 Point for each station checking into a local VHF/UHF Net. Stations checking in with emergency backup power (defined as portable generators, large deep cycle or gel cel batteries, etc.) receive an additional point for each of those stations. Battery powered radios such as HTs or mobiles do not meet this requirement.

- Local EC actively involved DURING SET operations  (3 points)

EMCOMM Groups qualify by having their highest ranking leader actively involved.

- Held an After Action Review (Hotwash) and submitted an AAR report via email to
the SEC with 10 days of the SET (5 points)

- Submit a brief summary of your groups name, location, and score to the Section Traffic Manager via formal NTS message within 10 days of the SET (10 Points)

- 5 Points for each member of your ARES or EMCOMM Group who has completed ICS/NIMS Training. (ICS-100, 200, NIMS 700/800)

- 5 Points for each member of your ARES or EMCOMM Group who has completed ARRL ARECC Level 1, 2, or 3 Training.

- Having a newspaper article, TV reporter, or other press coverage of your event published within one week of the SET event. (10 Points)

- Having a representative of your local EMA, First Responders, Served Agency, elected officials, etc. visit during SET operation (5 Points)

Email Submissions to: alsec@arrl-al.org

As you can see, scoring is heavily weighted in the favor of those groups who pass traffic digitally. We're also giving big points to those who have taken the steps to equip their EMA or served agency sites with the ability to originate traffic digitally. This is as simple as installing a soundcard interface to an existing HF rig, and sending us a PSK-31 message. These messages can also be received via e-mail, as long as the message was transmitted via digital data RF at some point. For instance, Winlink2K, and APRS messages that originated on RF, and then are forwarded via a gateway would qualify. D-Star Slow Speed data using the D-RATS software package is also acceptable.  

We're also placing an emphasis on passing NTS traffic during the event. Your group can pick up 10 easy points by simply submitting a score summary to the Section Traffic Manager in the form of an NTS message after the event. This can be done using your local VHF traffic net, or the HF nets on 3965khz.

Our scoring in Alabama does not match the scoring standard used by the ARRL. The SEC will take all received scoring sheets submitted and convert them to the league standard for submission. We hope to encourage progress towards our goals by having this unique scoring system. 

I promise recognition and praise to the winners, and hope that this event will be fun for all.

73,


Les Rayburn, N1LF
ARES AL Section Emergency Coordinator
NCS-SHARES NCS-047
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121 Mayfair Park
Maylene, AL 35114
(205) 253-4867

"A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences." 
Proverbs 22:3