[SARC] Fwd: The ARES E-Letter for July 15, 2009

Wed Jul 15 07:05:38 CDT 2009

73,

Bob
KI4RWL

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ARRL Web site <memberlist at www.arrl.org>
Date: Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 11:50 PM
Subject: The ARES E-Letter for July 15, 2009
To: ki4rwl at gmail.com

   If you are having trouble reading this message, you can see the original
at:
http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/ares-el/?issue=2009-07-15

[image: The ARES E-Letter] July 15, 2009
Editor: Rick Palm, K1CE <k1ce at arrl.net>
 *ARES E-Letter* Archive <http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/ares-el/>
ARES Home <http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/pscm/sec1-ch1.html>
ARRL Home Page <http://www.arrl.org/>
[image: Ad] <http://www.arrl.org/nladclick.php?n=ae&i=2009-07-15&t=t>

  The View from Flagler County

Here in Flagler county, Florida, as we head into the crux of hurricane
season, we have no EC. We are looking for a new one.

What makes a good EC? Perhaps heretical, but the official ARRL
qualifications <http://../FandES/field/org/ec.html> and job description do
not go far enough in determining who will be an effective EC. Granted, all
of the elements of the list are important, but more critical is the
character of the individual and his or her true understanding of what
motivates people and how they can be led by example and good people skills.
With a grasp of what the EC's role is, and indeed what the ARES role is in
supporting agencies like the EOC and Red Cross, it's the intangibles that
make or break an EC, not the tangibles.

And, paramount to all of this is the single, most-important tenet: We serve
the agencies. They do not serve us. That's why we call them "served
agencies." We are there to be an asset to them, not a liability. We are
there to make their jobs of providing professional emergency and disaster
management to the public easier if we can. We are there to try to provide a
seamless, almost transparent communications service. We do not force
ourselves on them. Agency officials must know our limitations and
capabilities, and we most know our own limitations and their expectations.
The EC has a realistic self-appraisal.

We are not in the EOC to tell emergency managers how to do their jobs. Nor
are we there to demand things like - and this is no joke - flashing
emergency lights and sirens for the roofs of our vehicles. We are not there
to demand that we be deployed as we see fit. We are not there to bring our
internal disputes and petty one-upsmanship to them to deal with or sort out.
A good EC understands this.

A good EC also is a uniter, not a divider. Inter-association rivalries are
as old as Amateur Radio itself, are almost inevitable, and are part and
parcel of human and organizational behavior. A good EC understands this as
well, but is able to transcend superficial boundaries to enfranchise all
radio amateurs in the county for ARES, regardless of affiliation. Because
when it hits the fan, we are all in it together. A good EC gets everybody
together first, before the fur flies.

A good EC is a careful listener, weighing all input, discussing it with the
parties that will be affected by a decision, then making it and issuing an
explanation for the reasons why it was made. Not everybody will agree with
the decision, but they will know that it was based on care and deliberation,
with all opinions considered.

A good EC is intelligent, well-educated, experienced and has a professional,
friendly demeanor. The EC presents himself or herself in a professional
manner; e.g., wearing a pair of khaki pants and ironed polo shirt. The EC
should be physically fit. He or she is cool, calm and collected under fire,
and never a hothead, whiner, argumentative, nor demanding. He or she leads
by example, and consequently earns the respect of all parties. A good EC is
not simply the one who has the most "toys" in town.

A good EC respects the chain of command from the DEC, to the SEC and finally
to the SM. A good EC may respectfully disagree with his senior officials,
but gets behind their decisions and meets their requests, once they are
made. A good EC understands the need for tolerance, understanding and
acceptance of other points of view.

There are more, but it seems to me that the above characteristics should be
among the first to be considered as we search for a good candidate for the
EC position, the most critical position in the entire ARRL Field
Organization, in my opinion. The EC is where the rubber meets the road in
the ARES program, and we need one that has a good deep tread. - K1CE

In This Issue:

   -
   <http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=js&name=js&ver=JkLBIpI_SsQ.en.&am=!mQa9o9zHRAe5he3q8bQmQts65HCYDt4fXTpNFwjg#1227cc594b9971e7_toc01>
   - Double-Duty on Field Day as Severe Weather/Flooding Affects Southern
   New England<http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=js&name=js&ver=JkLBIpI_SsQ.en.&am=!mQa9o9zHRAe5he3q8bQmQts65HCYDt4fXTpNFwjg#1227cc594b9971e7_toc02>
   - Mammoth ARES Operation for MS 150: The Citrus
Tour<http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=js&name=js&ver=JkLBIpI_SsQ.en.&am=!mQa9o9zHRAe5he3q8bQmQts65HCYDt4fXTpNFwjg#1227cc594b9971e7_toc03>
   - Hillsborough County (Florida) Sheriff's Office Holds Hurricane
Exercise<http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=js&name=js&ver=JkLBIpI_SsQ.en.&am=!mQa9o9zHRAe5he3q8bQmQts65HCYDt4fXTpNFwjg#1227cc594b9971e7_toc04>
   - SKYWARN Photos Needed for New ARRL
Book<http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=js&name=js&ver=JkLBIpI_SsQ.en.&am=!mQa9o9zHRAe5he3q8bQmQts65HCYDt4fXTpNFwjg#1227cc594b9971e7_toc05>
   - Mississippi Hurricane Wendi
Exercise<http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=js&name=js&ver=JkLBIpI_SsQ.en.&am=!mQa9o9zHRAe5he3q8bQmQts65HCYDt4fXTpNFwjg#1227cc594b9971e7_toc06>
   - ARES Represented at Alabama Emergency Management
Conference<http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=js&name=js&ver=JkLBIpI_SsQ.en.&am=!mQa9o9zHRAe5he3q8bQmQts65HCYDt4fXTpNFwjg#1227cc594b9971e7_toc07>
   - Letters: Twitter Applications in
EmComm<http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=js&name=js&ver=JkLBIpI_SsQ.en.&am=!mQa9o9zHRAe5he3q8bQmQts65HCYDt4fXTpNFwjg#1227cc594b9971e7_toc08>
   - Letters: Ambient Noise in the
EOC<http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=js&name=js&ver=JkLBIpI_SsQ.en.&am=!mQa9o9zHRAe5he3q8bQmQts65HCYDt4fXTpNFwjg#1227cc594b9971e7_toc09>
   - Grants for Youth in Emergency
Response<http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=js&name=js&ver=JkLBIpI_SsQ.en.&am=!mQa9o9zHRAe5he3q8bQmQts65HCYDt4fXTpNFwjg#1227cc594b9971e7_toc10>
   - Letters: CPR/First Aid for ARES
Responders<http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=js&name=js&ver=JkLBIpI_SsQ.en.&am=!mQa9o9zHRAe5he3q8bQmQts65HCYDt4fXTpNFwjg#1227cc594b9971e7_toc11>
   - Letters: On Emergency Net Control
Protocol<http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=js&name=js&ver=JkLBIpI_SsQ.en.&am=!mQa9o9zHRAe5he3q8bQmQts65HCYDt4fXTpNFwjg#1227cc594b9971e7_toc12>
   - K1CE for a
Final<http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=js&name=js&ver=JkLBIpI_SsQ.en.&am=!mQa9o9zHRAe5he3q8bQmQts65HCYDt4fXTpNFwjg#1227cc594b9971e7_toc13>

Double-Duty on Field Day as Severe Weather/Flooding Affects Southern New
England

Amateurs engaged in Field Day activities in portions of southern New England
had to do double duty as severe thunderstorms and flash flooding occurred on
Friday June 26th and Saturday June 27th. Operations at the NWS Taunton
Amateur Radio Station, WX1BOX <http://www.wx1box.org/>, were brought online
to not only gather reports, but to alert Field Day sites to the threat of
these storms.

Rob Macedo, KD1CY, Eastern Massachusetts SEC and SKYWARN Coordinator for NWS
Taunton, Massachusetts, said "the severe weather season for our region had
been relatively quiet but unfortunately became active right as Field Day
weekend approached. No hams were injured but some were in the direct line of
these severe thunderstorms. As we've communicated in many past years on
Field Day, we asked all outdoor Field Day sites to monitor the weather via
Weather Radio, Internet, media and having an Amateur Radio tuned to their
local SKYWARN frequency and that definitely occurred this weekend."

On Friday June 26th, a powerful severe
thunderstorm<http://www.wx1box.org/files/lsr_6_26_09.txt>slammed
portions of southern Hartford and southern Tolland counties with
golf ball sized hail and significant straight-line wind damage. In addition,
an EF-1 Tornado <http://www.wx1box.org/files/pns_6_26_09.txt> occurred in
Wethersfield, Connecticut from the same parent severe thunderstorm.

Operators in Connecticut were active on the KB1AEV linked repeater system
and the 146.790 MHz Vernon, Connecticut repeater run by the Pioneer Valley
Radio Association. Litchfield County SKYWARN Coordinator Al Pertuni, KA1TCH
and Connecticut State SKYWARN Coordinator Steve Williams, K1SJW, were active
on the Connecticut Linked system for Litchfield County SKYWARN with
Hartford-Tolland County SKYWARN Coordinator Roger Jeanfaivre, K1PAI, and
Alternate Net Control Stan Barnes, W1GHN, active on the Vernon repeater with
the Hartford-Tolland County SKYWARN Net.

"Our SKYWARN crew is always on top of things! I am very proud to have them
as a critical part of Connecticut ARES," said Connecticut SEC Wayne
Gronlund, N1CLV.

Operators passed in several dozen reports of large hail and wind damage to
WX1BOX and reports were utilized to warn downstream counties. In some towns
such as Farmington and Wethersfield, Connecticut, over 100 trees were blown
down with golf ball sized hail reported in Newington, Wethersfield and
Burlington, Connecticut with cars dented in some locations.

The severe thunderstorms impacted ARRL HQ on Main Street in Newington,
Connecticut and the Newington ARL Field Day site. "I was in contact with
Dennis Dura, K2DCD, Manager of Emergency Preparedness and Response at ARRL
HQ to alert him to the storm and to gather any criteria SKYWARN reports from
ARRL HQ," Macedo said.

"We have nickel sized hail, strong winds with numerous large branches and
trees down and we have lost power," Dura reported. Dennis is a trained
SKYWARN Spotter and former SKYWARN Coordinator from the NWS
Philadelphia/Mount Holly office.

Amateur operators from the Newington ARL Field Day site took cover in their
cars and gave reports of hail and large branches and trees down,

Armando Landrian, KB1PRP, sits on top of a newly horizontally polarized tree
in Newington, Connecticut. Yes, that Newington! (photo by Jonathon Hardy,
KB1KIX)

some of which landed on buildings. John Hardy, KB1KIX, Connecticut ARES DEC
for Area 3 <http://ctarea3.net/blog/?p=161> provided pictures from the area.

"We owe a debt of gratitude to these amateurs at the Field Day site who
reported these conditions despite being in danger. They also made the right
decisions in taking cover when the severe thunderstorms approached and
closely monitored their local SKYWARN frequency," Macedo said.

On Saturday June 27th, slow moving severe thunderstorms produced large hail,
wind damage and flash flooding across portions of eastern and central
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, southern New Hampshire and

(photo by Ray Weber, KA1JJM)

northeast Connecticut. Some of the hardest hit areas included Foxboro,
Mansfield and Townsend, Massachusetts along with Brookline, New Hampshire,
the Worcester-Leominster area and the Pomfret to Killingly to Windham,
Mansfield and Willimantic, Connecticut area.

"Approximately four Field Day sites were impacted by thunderstorms with a
couple of locations just missing severe thunderstorm activity. Field Day
sites checked in with us for updates on the situation and provided reports
much like what occurred in Newington on Friday," Macedo said.

In places like Pomfret, and Willimantic, Connecticut and Foxboro and
Townsend, Massachusetts, three-quarter inch hail occurred covering the
ground with pockets of trees down and flash flooding closing streets and
going into buildings. Amateur Radio operators relayed many of these critical
reports. "In many cases, hams performed double duty by participating both in
Field Day and SKYWARN Nets as required," Macedo said. Mammoth ARES Operation
for MS 150: The Citrus Tour

The Central Florida Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society
sponsored the Citrus Tour MS150 on Saturday May 16th and Sunday May 17th with
many ham volunteers being put to the test. The Citrus Tour MS150 tested
their ability to show up, set up, and go in potentially severe weather,
humidity and heat.

The Citrus Tour 2009 started off with bike riders departing from the Bok
Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, and traveling one of three routes -- a 50 mile
leg, a 75 mile leg, and a Century Loop, the 100 mile leg. Coordinating all
activity were three veteran net control operators "TJ" Avalon, NQ1T; Larry
Walker, KI4DNO; and Roy Drury, KI4EON.

Avalon, Walker and Drury worked at the Mobile Command Vehicle that was
provided by the Polk County Emergency Management department. This was the
busiest place to be during the weekend-long event. Paramedics were also on
hand to help with downed riders. Paramedic teams were also dispatched from
the Command Post using one of Polk County's 800 MHz channels.

The coordinator for communications for this year's event was veteran Paul
Toth, NA4AR, from Seminole. In addition to communications, Toth also
developed the courses and was involved in several other aspects of the
event. After 17 Bike MS events in New Jersey, and the last 11 years in
Central Florida, Toth will be retiring from those positions. His efforts
will be missed but not forgotten for the 2010 event next year.

Toth's tactical call was DIRECTOR, with whom Doug Suggitt, the National
BikeMS Director, headquartered out of Houston, Texas, rode, and Polk ARES EC
Laura Pennington, NO4OO, who rode with Tami Caesar, the President of the
Central Florida Chapter of the MS Society. Caesar and Suggitt also were the
MS Society's Critical Incident responders to all accidents and incidents on
the course.

The number of volunteers required to cover an event like this is great. This
year marked a record 40 licensed Amateur Radio operators taking part in the
event. From the Command Post down to tail end Charlie, there was a ham every
stretch of the way. This was the first year that hams were not only in the
Supply vehicles, but also drove them.

Two rider-participants were also hams. First time cyclist and communicator
was Jason Triolo, KD4ACG, also known as BIKE 1. In addition, returning biker
Dana Rodakis, K4LK, BIKE 3, endured the event on the 75 mile course, and was
equipped with a D-Star ICOM 91-AD for his DPRS reporting.

The SAG (Special Assistance Group) consisted of Orange, Osceola, and Polk
County ARES members, as well as members of the Hillsborough County CERT
team. Also present were members of the Tampa Bay and Orange County REACT
Teams. The Command Post monitored the movements of several key SAG and
Supply units and the Director via APRS. Live Weather Radar from the National
Weather Service sites at Ruskin (Tampa) and Melbourne was also monitored
from the Command Post. -- Evans Mitchell, KD4EFM, Polk County ARES AEC [image:
Ad] <http://www.arrl.org/nladclick.php?n=ae&t=i&i=2009-07-15&p=0>
Hillsborough County (Florida) Sheriff's Office Holds Hurricane Exercise

Eighteen members of the Hillsborough County (Florida) Sheriff's Tactical
Amateur Radio Communications (STARC) group participated with key personnel
from the Sheriff's Office on June 9 for a hurricane exercise. STARC was
organized in 1999 to provide ancillary communications among the sheriff's
facilities and other county emergency management agencies in the event of a
disaster or the loss of communications. The forty-plus members are employees
and/or approved volunteers of HCSO, having had a background check completed
and ID cards issued to facilitate access to the secure buildings or incident
scenes when requested. STARC has Amateur Radio equipment in each of the four
District Offices, the Sheriff's Operation Center (911 and Sheriff Dispatch),
the Sheriff's Homeland Security office, both county jails, the radio shop
and both the Mobile Command Center (a tractor trailer unit) and the Incident
Command Center (a motor home unit). Additionally, licensed employees in the
IT and telephone repair departments have radios to keep abreast of the
situations at hand.

During the event, the members passed exercise traffic through Net Control at
the 911 Center and different scenarios were injected to represent repeater
and radio outages, requiring the use of two back-up repeaters or simplex
operations. Other exercise traffic included calls from the public via
Amateur Radio and relocation of one district office to a nearby mall due to
flooding. Also due to a simulated relocation of the 911 Center to an
Emergency Backup Facility, one of the other operators had to pick up as net
control. Amateur Radio and the team received high marks from the District
Commanders and deputies that were involved. Most could not believe how good
Amateur Radio signals were compared to the moderate static experienced with
the satellite phones that they were trying to use as their primary backup.
Click STARC <http://www.w4hso-starc.org/> for more info. -- Budd Johnson,
N4WBJ, STARC Vice President SKYWARN Photos Needed for New ARRL Book

Photos are needed for a new *ARRL Storm Spotter Handbook*. The handbook
covers a wide range of information of use to the Amateur Radio storm
spotter. It covers history of storm spotting, the SKYWARN program, storm
spotter safety, equipment, training, software, types of severe weather, what
to do before/during/after a spotter activation, and an appendix of useful
material. The deadline to have the manuscript in is October 1, 2009.

One of the challenges is getting original photographs to include in the
book. The author Mike Corey, W5MPC, is seeking photos of spotters in action,
severe weather as it happens or damage from severe weather, and Amateur
Radio set-ups from NWS offices. Corey is also looking to hear from spotters
with first hand accounts of severe weather such as sighted and reported
tornadoes, hail, damaging wind, flooding, etc. And finally he is interested
in hearing from SKYWARN groups that use newer technologies such as D-STAR,
APRS, or Echolink. Any help is greatly appreciated. Contact Mike Corey,
W5MPC <W5MPC at arrl.net>, Oxford, Mississippi Mississippi Hurricane Wendi
Exercise

The ARRL Mississippi Section conducted its annual Simulated Emergency Test
(SET) in coordination with the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency
(MEMA) Hurricane Wendi Exercise on May 12. The scenario: Category IV Wendi
moved ashore in Jackson County on Monday evening, May 11, at 8 PM. The
exercise began 12 hours after landfall at 8 AM on Tuesday, May 12 with the
focus of the exercise being on coordinating movement of resources into the
impacted area after landfall.

ARES stations at EOCs and other served agencies were asked to send a formal
message to KM5EMA (at MEMA HQ) stating that their ARES group was aware of
the hurricane landfall, that ARES was in contact with local emergency
response officials regarding possible assistance, and that the local VHF
emergency net was or was not activated for this exercise. KM5EMA operators
reported that messages were received from the following counties: DeSoto,
Forest, George, Greene, Harrison, Itawamba, Jackson, Lamar, Lauderdale,
Lawrence, Stone, and Warren counties.

Two hospitals were active: Forrest General in Hattiesburg (WX5Y), and Rush
in Meridian, as well as the Petal High School (N5YH). Numerous ARES reports
were filed. In addition, KM5EMA was linked through the Collins repeater to
many of the repeaters in south Mississippi, including the Gulf Coast.

Activity from MEMA was coordinated by Michael McKay, N5DU, and supported by
the Mississippi ARES Emergency Net on 3862 kHz. This net passed traffic to
KM5EMA as well as traffic among EOCs. Considering that this exercise was
conducted by MEMA on a Tuesday workday, the participation was great. [image:
Ad] <http://www.arrl.org/nladclick.php?n=ae&t=i&i=2009-07-15&p=1>
ARES Represented at Alabama Emergency Management Conference

Alabama ARES leadership participated in the Annual Alabama Association of
Emergency Management Conference at Mobile last month. An ARES booth afforded
exposure with many emergency management personnel from around the state.
Alabama Section Manager Jay Isbell, KA4KUN, and Southeastern Division
Director Greg Sarratt, W4OZK met with many FEMA, EMA Directors and personnel
from around the state discussing ARES importance in emergency
communications. The exhibit hall was loaded with emergency, disaster and
served agency firms and the conference sessions were informative. "These
types of conferences are a must attend event for ARES leadership. If we
don't know our customers needs, how can were assist them during disasters?"
-- Jay Isbell, KA4KUN, Alabama Section Manager Letters: Twitter Applications
in EmComm

With Twitter becoming more mainstream everyday, it becomes obvious that
people will use and adapt it to what they do day in and day out. I work with
the ALERT <http://www.alert-alabama.org/blog> group, an Amateur Radio group
that works directly with the National Weather Service in Birmingham,
Alabama, to pass spotter reports to forecasters. We are always looking for
ways to help gather reports for NWS.

With the help of James Spann <http://twitter.com/spann> the use of the
hastag #alwx was born. Hash Tag terms are used in Twitter to denote ways to
search for topics of interest. In this case #alwx stands for Alabama
weather. Many spotters across the state (and other states) have adopted this
style of tag. Other states would use their abbreviation ending in "wx,"
e.g., Mississippi -- #mswx, or Georgia -- #gawx.

To facilitate this, here are some tips: Go to the
Twitter<http://twitter.com/>Web page and type in search terms in the
box. Once entered you get the
option to save that search. Seesmic Desktop
<http://desktop.seesmic.com/>has a way to save searches much like the
twitter home page utilizing the bar
at the top, then you will get a new column that you can click on.
TweetDeck<http://tweetdeck.com/>also has a way to add a search column
to the application.

Find a client you can use mobile:
PockeTwit<http://code.google.com/p/pocketwit/>is a Windows mobile
client that has saved searches as a feature. At the time
of this writing I'm not aware of any other mobile clients that have
integrated search.

I hope this gives your readers a starting point. I look forward to seeing
your weather reports around the Twittersphere. Give me a shout on Twitter:
@KV4S <http://twitter.com/KV4S> -- Russell Thomas, KV4S, Alabama Letters:
Ambient Noise in the EOC

In the June 17 issue of the ARES E-Letter, a valid comment/letter was
written concerning the high noise level in a small space, with multiple
operators and radios on the air at the same time. Unfortunately, our county
(St. Louis, Missouri) EOC is in the same boat. However, a number of local
police departments have mandated that every radio brought into their EOC or
911 center must come in with a headset. No exceptions: No headset, no entry!

A single-sided headset allows the operator to hear both the radio traffic
and any EOC staff verbal "traffic" that requires action. A footswitch is a
nice touch, but is not practical as it requires modifications to most
factory supplied cables for the typical mobile/base type of rig. That "ain't
gonna happen" in an emergency.

Keep up the good work with the E-Letter! I read it word-for-word. Okay, I
read most of it. You're right, I just look at the pretty pictures. -- Roger
Volk, K0GOB, Missouri SM (retired) [image:
Ad]<http://www.arrl.org/nladclick.php?n=ae&t=i&i=2009-07-15&p=2>
Grants for Youth in Emergency Response

Do Something.org <http://www.dosomething.org/grants/disaster> has Disaster
Grants available to youth working in disaster preparedness or emergency
response. The grants are $500 and will be given out each week this year. You
can find more information here <http://www.dosomething.org/grants/disaster>.
-- Ward Silver, N0AX Letters: CPR/First Aid for ARES Responders

I have been an ARES/RACES member for a number of years and have also served
as Washington ARMY MARS state emergency director. My question is, why isn't
there a requirement that all ARES members have a current card showing that
they have had CPR and Basic First Aid? I for one do not want to be
dispatched with another member that has not met these requirements. If and
when I have the Big One out there I sure want someone to be able to thump
and pump.

I think it is ridiculous that the ARES program does not require this. Every
ARES member should be required to have current CPR/First Aid credentials. --
Vic Henry, N7KRE, Camano Island, Washington Letters: On Emergency Net
Control Protocol

During the Hurricane Katrina deployment, I was here in New Orleans at a
pumping station. I remember when things got quiet I started to get active
handling requests for equipment, fuel and H&W traffic. It was late afternoon
and I needed to pass some H&W traffic, so I turned on 20 meters and tried to
get on one of the major nets. But the NCS was spending 20 minutes telling
everyone how important it was to keep the net frequency clear for traffic
out of the affected area. I couldn't get in to pass my traffic! I finally
just transmitted over him and requested that if anybody could hear me to
move off and call me. I finally managed to pass my traffic. The lesson
learned: Keeping the net frequency clear also applies to the net control! --
Tom Miller, AC5TM, New Orleans, Louisiana, past Louisiana SEC K1CE for a
Final

This past month, I took a direct lightning hit to a tree just outside of my
ham shack. Despite an excellent grounding system, lightning arrestors, and
power surge suppressors, I lost my pricey ICOM IC-756 PROIII HF rig, an ICOM
2-meter FM rig, and my beloved old Collins KWM2 transceiver. Losing that old
Collins was like losing an old best friend. The lesson is: Unplug everything
when lightning is threatening!

______

Here are some quickie Web sites you should have bookmarked in your browser:

ARRL's Emergency-Radio <http://www.emergency-radio.org/> Web site, a special
Web site describing the opportunities and services that Amateur Radio
provides for agencies, families and victims in crises.

Send your emergency action reports to:
emergency at arrl.org<http://www%2Eemergency@arrl.org/>.

*Major HF Nets:*

Amateur Radio Station, WX4NHC, at the National Hurricane
Center<http://www.wx4nhc.org/>

Hurricane Watch Net <http://www.hwn.org/>

SKYWARN <http://www.weather.gov/skywarn/>

Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Net (SATERN) <http://satern.org/>

The Waterway Net <http://www.waterwayradio.net/>

VoIP SKYWARN/Hurricane Net <http://www.voipwx.net/>

*Major National-Level Served Agencies*:

National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster <http://www.nvoad.org/>

Red Cross <http://www.redcross.org/>

National Weather Service <http://www.nws.noaa.gov/>

Citizen Corps <http://www.citizencorps.gov/>

Salvation Army <http://www.salvationarmy.org/>

REACT <http://www.reactintl.org/>

See you next month! 73, Rick K1CE

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