Those Ad Hoc North Carolina Hurricane Helene Nets - HamRadioNow

what happen to the ARRL ecom, seems like it's all in print and no action.

 

You're correct. Seniority and time in the hobby are secondary when it comes to ingenuity and having the physical / mental energy to do what needs to be done.

 

Nationally its lost. Where I've seen ARES be good, it was because of local or regional leadership and participants.

 

In Europe and in particular in Italy, Radio Amateurs are an integral part of the Civil Protection in emergencies after the tragedy of the Vajont dam (9 October 1963) together with all the police and health forces. For some years, a ship of the Navy has also entered the monthly exercises.
the Italian Radio Amateurs Association has an office in all Italian prefectures that can be used only for exercises and emergencies.

 

^This!!!!

 

In my limited experience, ARES organizations and their relationship to county Emergency Management vary quite a bit. For example, Charlotte Co. FL has a very strong relationship with their ARES. Just north in Sarasota Co. the opposite is true and their ARES works closely with the red cross and has no operability in the county EOC. WCF and SWF have had plenty of storm activity going back to Hurricane Charlie to develop standard practices and capabilities. Something NC, TN, GA, and SC have not had until Helene.

I'm happy to hear that patriotic operators have stepped into the void!

73

 

Just my opinion, but it's based on a career in public safety communication, as well as 50 years of amateur radio experience, much of which dedicated to trying to get involved in organized efforts to support public safety and emergency communications needs.

It's my opinion that too much emphasis today is on ICS protocols, convoluted entanglement in bureaucratic administrative overindulgence in instance in the use of ICS forms and incident command training. Don't get me wrong. I understand the need for organizing a response using ICS for a multiple agency/jurisdictional response. But it seems to me that all of this slows down actual communications that are helpful to the victims, as opposed to supporting the bureaucracies involved.

All this quagmire of meet here, stage there, use ICS-213RR to request some bottled water doesn't impress a lot of good operators. So they therefore don't get involved in ARES/RACES/AUXCOM etc. I've listened to some of the "official" nets, and about all I hear are a lot of people reporting weather conditions that are irrelevant to assistance that victims need. Just out of curiosity I spent a good deal of time looking through the online Winlink message viewer for real response related messages, and I didn't find any. All message sent via RMS stations as well as P2P message to and from stations that have internet connectivity are automatically uploaded.

Just about all of the quick, meaningful assistance that I have seen in these recent responses has come as much from ad hoc citizenry, not just in the immediate area affected, but from surrounding states as well. From local churches as well as concerned citizens, sometimes from hundreds of miles away who loaded up their cars and trailers with food, water, diapers, baby formula, generators, you name it. And a lot of the useful ham radio response has come from individuals with the means to step up immediately and provide communications support for victims totally cut off from the outside world and help notify family elsewhere of their situation, not to mention help direct the "unofficial" locals on 4 wheelers or horseback, with chainsaws, backhoes, medical supplies or whatever is needed, hours if not days ahead of "official" responders.

 

I have monitored the KW4EMF Repeater on Echolink on my I phone.
IMHO Amid the initial chaos many Hams jumped in with a ' Can Do ' attitude and have been a great help in their Community. That Mt Mitchell Repeater at 6,684 ft ASL must have a hell of a footprint there.
All most of us can do and have done is donate to the worthy charities and wish all in that beautiful State a rapid recovery.
"E Malama Ike North Carolina " ie Take Care of North Carolina. That go's for all the affected States too.
KH6/G3SEA

 

Completely agree! As soon as they say "served agency" they lose me and many others.

73

 

K4AAQ made the best statement I've heard during this whole discussion when he said "No plan survives contact with the enemy." Adapt and overcome is the best plan.

 

More eloquently stated by Mike Tyson as, "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."

 

YES
The Mt Mitchell repeater is on the highest point in the USA EAST of the Mississippi River.

 

Before throwing the lynching rope over the branch, it might be good to determine if they or their families, or their stations were among the destroyed homes, cars, dams, roads, bridges etc.

 

The ARES and RACES groups I have been part of all have rule #1, DO NOT self activate until you are contacted to do so. In this case, I don't think anyone did much of anything because they didn't know how to communicate with the area leadership people. Or, local emergency management did not/could not contact leadership to activate. Well, there are circumstances where the imminent danger of life and property takes priority over "rules". This was done by other hams in the area and pretty much instantly, it was working. So, set up at home or a location near to law enforcement or fire and make them away of your presence. Get on the air and start building a network of stations within and near the area of need. Much easier to do if you've done it before and even easier than that when you know where and who you need to be in touch with.

 

Vicki Carnes, AD3I, deserves Ham Of The Year Award for her Yeoman's Work heading up Net Control on the Mt. Mitchell Disaster Relief Effort.

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