From: Alan K2ARN ADEC  NYC District ARES

(From Keynote Speech by Mike Corey, KI1U – ARRL Emergency Preparedness Mgr., HRU 2015)

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

ARES Manual is being rewritten – should be out in the Spring

EC Manual is being updated and will have companion media material

NTS Manual will be a separate from ARES Manual

ARES messages will be based on the ICS 213 format probably with modification to show routing.This is so that ARES messages will be in sync. with format used by FEMA and other responder groups.

In 2014 ARRL entered into an agreement with FEMA. EC-001 may be modified based on input from FEMA. There is a possibility that the course cost will reduced. This course is a base-level course useful for working with other Agencies and response teams.

Report Forms – the current reporting system to ARRL (District/Section Reports) has not been working. Only about 20% of Sections are reporting. The information is not in a format that makes it easy to use and is labor intensive. Headquarters is working on new reporting methodology so that information will be in a format that can be electronically entered into a database over the internet.

The statistics are of great concern in working to protect bands and in working with the government. All Sections are encouraged to submit reports – this will be a priority project.

The Centennial Year was huge in many ways including the number of QSOs handled by W1AW and W100AW stations that were present in all the states over the year. 3.5 million QSOs were handled – staff is still digging out from under the volume of QSOs that need to be recorded. The events did underscore the need for training Hams on how to deal with pileups. We are encouraged to get on the air – good skills training and a way to meet old friends. The events brought a large number of Hams back into the hobby who had not been on the air for years.

Mike talked about ARES emergency response working toward “helping the public communicate as they normally do” (my paraphrase). That is, to move to providing cell phone recharging stations, setting up wi-fi and mesh nets, temporary cell towers and the like in local communities. This would be in addition to setting up communications with other responders. Mike sited an example of a store owner near a disaster area having wi-fi, an internet connection, recharging facilities and food available to the public. This was much appreciated and useful to people in the area and much more familiar to the public and efficient than Hams using radiograms that take quite a long time to get through.