Force of Two: In Depth stories from 2 Puerto Rico volunteers on HamRadioNow

In case you missed it there is a parallel thread at Ham Talk Live! Episode 89 - Puerto Rico Disaster Communications with Val, NV9L

 

Most people in Puerto Rico know speak a little English. There was always someone close to translate if there was a major language gap. I worked at a hospital for my last part. Everyone spoke English. Medical words are Latin based and we use the same words in both countries. If you can ask for a bathroom and water in spanish you should be fine.

 

Look, the ARRL exist strictly for the ARRL. They are no different than any political group. Berate them, and they will try to discredit you. I am not no, nor have I ever been impressed with the ARRL.

Take the Amateur radio parity act that actually passed through the House of Reps a year of so ago. The ARRL takes credit. I, for a fact, know who got it done and how, and it was not the ARRL. No, the ARRL just paid it lip service and games.

As long as they get invited to the Cocktail Parties, they do not really care. If they care, why are they not crawling up the rear end of the FCC demanding enforcement actions? How long do you think it would actually take to get some of the morons off the air?

Nope, ARRL really does not care. What a joke. You would think an organization like ARRL, who professes the "go to" group would have insured a smooth, seamless operation with FEMA, Red Cross, (who are great) and other agencies. Nope, here are our 22 guys and some stuff good luck, seems more like what happened.

 

Yup, and that was an accident waiting to happen. Because that minority was a major part of the problem, as explained by Jeremy. Without that minority NS0S and folks like him could have done so much more good work. Isn't that what they were sent over there in the first place?

NS0S didn't mention any calls, and I'm not going to either. Much like that famous microphone manufacturer that was "featured" in just about every QST issue all year long a few years ago, the ARRL have now found another a few millionaires to do the PR for them. Works for the League's sales figures; but not in disasters.

 

Probably for the same reason RACES requires their members to be US Citizens. Aka: sheer stupidity.

 

Wait, what? Since when? Oh, I get it: "nominal" is the key word. As in "nominally your SUV will be fine. But in 1.247 percent of the cases it will kill you for no reason".

As someone who's been an ARRL member for the past 30'ish years I have no problem telling you that that is far from the truth. Although it used to be the case.

Things changed when people became able to buy their own President seat. Credentials and qualifications? Bah, you don't need those! Just show us the money...

Look at the financial reports published every year. Somebody donating upwards of $20k a year to the ARRL dictates the interests, not the membership.

 

Nah.

 

Perhaps we can say "poor performers" rather than bad actors.

I am interested in screening steps to eliminate or reduce these occurrences. There also has to be accountability; failure to perform gets you sent home.

 

This discussion keeps pussyfooting around what exactly did the bad apples do wrong.
Too much speculations is going on and that does not help to "do better" next time.

Also we keep forgetting who requested the amateur radio help and how prepared ARC was to actually utilize amateur radio as a communication tool.
I have a hard time believing that OM or YL would go to disaster area just to screw around.

On the other hand I have not seen people standing around with their hands in their pockets during recent Harvey festivities. Maybe these guys realized that "communication" was the last thing in need to take care off.
Something ARC realized 21 days later.

73 Shirley

 

We can break down what to do better into three categories

• What can ARRL do better?
• What can ARC do better?
• What can individual volunteers do better?

Remember that the ARRL had never attempted anything like this before, the ARC never requested anything like this before, and the scale of disaster was greater than anyone had ever encountered before.

In my observation and study the ARC found itself with a communications team without a plan to deploy it. The team self deployed and the good hams became Red Cross volunteers with a communications capability. The interviews I have conducted reveal many non-comm duties being performed. As Red Cross assets this should be expected.

I volunteered to support a marathon this past weekend on foot and in a vehicle. My duties involved 10 percent push-to-talk and 90 percent being a good volunteer.

 

• What can ARRL do better?
• What can ARC do better?

Only ARRL and ARC can really answer that.

 

I'm certainly not an expert on the machinations of all the different organizations and their politics. I didn't know any of the hams that went down there on ARC's mission until I met some of them and they all seemed like great folks.

I was the first of the SHARES members to arrive in San Juan. I'd been plucked from something called the "Surge Capacity Force" where FEMA asked virtually all of the Federal agencies for help. I volunteered. But, my Agency paid my salary while I was deployed. I was issued an official SHARES callsign.

A few comments in no particular order:
- Immediately after the hurricane there was no grid power, no running water anywhere that was drinkable, no cell service, no land lines, nothing. Basically, 3.4 million people went from the 21st century to the 18th in a few hours.
- The ARC was hopelessly outclassed by the magnitude of the destruction Maria inflicted.
- FEMA was hopelessly outclassed by the magnitude of the destruction Maria inflicted. And, this was the 4th disaster they had been responding to in the span of a couple of months.
- It appeared to me that the ARC didn't coordinate with FEMA a-priori or in-situ to determine where the most critical communications needs were. As I heard it, ARC picked the spots they wanted the hams to go to and sent them there. I think that's reasonable since ARC was footing the bill for their travel and, I assume, their lodging (although some folks used FEMA-provided lodging).
- It was abundantly obvious to me that the FEMA ESF-2 function in San Juan had no idea what to use HF communications for or how to employ them. Further, they rather pointedly indicated that their first priority was to "Get Feds talking to other Feds". Let that sink in for a minute. To be fair, they eventually did recognize that folks other than Feds needed to communicate. But, again, their response was ridiculously ineffective in some cases. Handing a hospital a satphone and saying they "have comms" now is silly since (a) you have to be outside to use it - which doctors and nurses wouldn't be (b) you have to be outside to RECEIVE a call - which doctors and nurses wouldn't be and (c) nobody had any idea what phone numbers to call or even what their own phone number was. A hospital that needed oxygen from another hospital across town had no way of calling them even though both "had comms".
- The original mission for the SHARES folks that went down there was to provide critical comms at locations that needed them. It was FEMA's job to determine where those were. But, recognize there were only 10 of us. See the point above for how well you think that might work out.
- Oscar Resto, KP4RF, was a great resource and an extremely bright guy. It's too bad ESF-2 didn't make better use of his talents.
- I used Winlink with the Winmor sw modem while I was down there. I used an RMS gateway from one of the previous posters at least a couple of times while I was down there along with several others. It was a crap shoot which ones I could reach and which ones were actually operating at the time I tried to use them. Thanks to all those folks who had a station running and especially those who pointed their antennas at PR.
- One of the two big "lessons learned" for me was that disasters are come-as-you-are parties. Whether it's food, water, power, or a barrel connector you put off ordering, if you don't have it when the disaster hits, it's unlikely you'll be able to get it when you need it. Prepare accordingly.
- The second big lesson for me what that you never really appreciate how good you have it until you come face-to-face with folks who don't have it so good.

As for some detailed technical info, some nice pictures, and an after-action report from my perspective, you can look at this link: https://www.ar15.com/forums/outdoors/Heading-to-Puerto-Rico-with-my-radio-Wish-me-luck-/22-690608/
It really shows what the reality of running an HF station in a disaster zone with only the stuff you brought with you. Had I been tasked with going up into the mountains and staying there living in a tent, it would have been brutal.

If anybody has any specific questions after reading the info at the link, feel free to post them and I'll try to answer as best I can. I used this disaster as a "teachable moment" for myself. And, boy, did I learn A LOT!

 

No, anyone but those institutions should answer those questions. They already do a great job. They said so.

 

Many of my SHARES team mates had Pactor 3 or 4 modems. They could connect more often than I could, particularly when band conditions or local noise levels were bad. The throughput they got was also much better than Winmor. I can't see spending the big bucks for one myself, but I could see the SHARES program picking up a few for deployments, assuming they plan to do them in the future.

 

To support the response to Hurricane Maria the FCC granted a waiver to speed limits on amateur bands to allow the Pactor IV modems to operate at full capacity. The difference between the speed of Winmor and Pactor is dramatic.