Message 30175 in ARES.ARRL
From: CX2SA
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 26 10:55:00 Z
Newsgroups: ARES.ARRL
Subject: The ARES E-Letter - 09/2026
Message-ID: <ARES092026>
Path: N2MH4|N3HYM|K1AJD|VE3CGR|CX2SA
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From: CX2SA@CX2SA.SAL.URY.SOAM
To : ARES@ARRL
=================
The ARES E-Letter
=================
Editor: Rick Palm, K1CE - September 16, 2026
In This Issue:
- Life Imitates Art: LAXNORTHEAST Pairs Mentors with New Talent in 2026 HELL
HEAT Exercise
- Notable Events on the Timeline of Amateur Radio Disaster Communications
- Amateur Radio Bridges the Gap During Historic Missouri Flash Flooding
- Comms for the RBC Race for the Kids in Minnesota
- Letters: Veteran National Hurricane Center Station WX4NHC Operator WB4L,
Silent Key
- K1CE for a Final: Harold Kramer, WJ1B, SK
-------------------
2026 Amateur Radio ShakeOut Preparedness Opportunity -- Mark your calendars
for Wednesday, September 23, as the Radio Amateur Training Planning and
Activities Committee (RATPAC) hosts "2026 Amateur Radio ShakeOut -
Preparedness for Everyone!"
Earthquake safety and all-hazards preparedness start with practice. In this
session, discover how ham radio operators around the globe can participate
in the upcoming Great ShakeOut drill using Winlink and digital messaging.
KM6SO, of the Emcomm Training Organization will guide participants through
the importance of all-hazards emergency readiness and provide a step-by-step
walkthrough on how to complete and transmit:
A Winlink USGS "Did You Feel It?" (DYFI) report
The 2026 ShakeOut Preparedness Survey
The 2026 ShakeOut Preparedness Quiz
Whether you operate online or completely offline, learn how your station can
contribute vital data to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) while
honing your EmComm skills. Save the Date: Wednesday, September 23, 2026.
Details and Zoom Info: Visit RATPAC or check the exercise page at
LAXNORTHEAST ARES. --Oliver Dully, K6OLI, LAXNORTHEAST ARES
September is National Preparedness Month - Americans Stand Ready. When
Americans take steps to prepare for disasters and keep their families safe,
every neighborhood and community is more resilient. Throughout National
Preparedness Month this month, FEMA celebrates and encourages American
resourcefulness and civic responsibility.
This year's theme focuses on several distinct ideas that capture how
Americans take pride in their ability to protect themselves and their
families and work together to recover from disasters:
Americans stand ready to uphold our patriotic duty: When individuals are
prepared and self-reliant, we can bolster the work our brave first
responders do to help people on their worst day.?
Americans stand ready to protect our family and friends: We know best how to
keep our loved ones safe when things go wrong.
Americans stand ready to help our communities: Taking a proactive approach
to get your community ready contributes to the nation's resilience.
Life Imitates Art: LAXNORTHEAST Pairs Mentors with New Talent in 2026 HELL
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
HEAT Exercise
-------------
The LAXNORTHEAST (northeast Los Angeles, California ARES) fifth Saturday
emergency communications exercise on August 29, 2026, turned out to be a
literal case of life imitating art. Operators prepared for a scenario
involving a severe regional heat dome and a cascading power grid blackout,
only to find that real-world temperatures were nearly matching the script.
Rather than wilting under the pressure, our ham radio community used the
heat wave to test both station setups and operator endurance in true-to-life
conditions.
Teamwork and Field Mentoring
The standout of the morning was the teamwork displayed across our deployed
field sites. Four newly licensed hams jumped into active emergency
communications for the first time, working hand in hand with experienced
mentors at local medical centers. Teams at Huntington Hospital, Pomona
Valley Hospital Medical Center, and USC Arcadia Hospital successfully
managed active voice coordination on the primary LAX103 voice net while
simultaneously keeping digital data channels flowing.
Balancing the Digital Load: VARA Chat vs. Winlink
Technologically, the exercise relied on a practical division of labor
between our digital modes to keep the airwaves organized:
VARA Chat acted as the primary workhorse for tactical hospital data on the
2-meter band. It reliably managed point-to-point file transfers and carried
the bulk of our mission-critical medical forms. These files were fed
directly into a central dashboard managed by Jeff Liter, W6JCL, eliminating
manual transcription errors.
Winlink Express was used primarily for standard amateur radio administrative
traffic, such as net check-ins and check-outs. It also served as the
delivery tool for "emergency manager" injects-simulated problem-solving
tasks sent down to field stations to keep operators on their toes throughout
the morning.
Visualizing the Area with Pinpoint APRS
The updated Pinpoint APRS system gave Net Control and radio operators
continuous situational awareness across the Los Angeles basin. Using the
tool's beacon object feature, operators mapped real-time survival resources,
placing local designated cooling centers and generator-powered community
hubs directly onto the live map. Once the operational phases concluded,
operators demonstrated excellent station discipline by cleanly removing
their objects from the map to keep the layout organized and clutter-free.
Traffic Analysis by the Numbers
Our digital logs from the four-hour operational window highlight a steady,
realistic volume of traffic handled by the team:
Total Messages Processed: 87 logged messages.
Winlink Gateway Volume: 62 messages.
VARA Chat Volume: 25 messages.
Dashboard Integration: 48 unique structured JSON forms parsed seamlessly
into the central database.
The top three form types transmitted by operators during the exercise were:
LA County HAvBED Reports (16 messages) - Tracking emergency department
capacity, bed availability, and generator load statuses.
ICS 213 General Messages (14 messages) - Relaying hyper-local weather
observations and neighborhood welfare surveys.
HICS-213 Forms (5 messages) - Routing urgent resource requests for chilled
saline, cooling blankets, and ice baths to regional resource caches.
A Word of Thanks
An exercise like this succeeds because of strong community relationships. We
extend our sincere thanks to our hospital partners-Huntington Hospital,
Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, and USC Arcadia Hospital-for opening
their doors and collaborating with our teams and to the Disaster Amateur
Radio Network (DARN) Repeater team. Finally, congratulations to all
participating radio operators who looked out for one another's safety, stuck
to the hydration rules, and gave our newest hams a fantastic introduction to
emergency operations. --Oliver Dully, K6OLI, LAXNORTHEAST (ARRL Los Angeles
Section, California) ARES
Notable Events on the Timeline of Amateur Radio Disaster Communications
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1906 - Radio amateur Barney Osborne, later W6US, provides emergency traffic
handling during the San Francisco Earthquake and fire, according to family
lore.
1913 - Hams provided emergency communications during Midwest storms and
floods with spark-gap transmitters and crystal receiver sets, as vacuum
tubes wouldn't emerge until after World War I.
1916 - A national traffic relay system was organized to provide relay of
messages cross-country, and 9XE in Illinois originated a message that was
received in California in 55 minutes and on the East Coast an hour after that.
1920s - A motor provided emergency power to the plates of newly invented
vacuum tubes in a station of an "RM" - a "Radio Man" - during a Mississippi
flood.
1925 - Amateur radio provided the only communications (5 watts CW) during
the failed rescue attempt of caver Floyd Collins.
1926 - The cover of the May issue of QST featured a drawing of a railroad
engineer holding an ARRL radiogram with the caption reading "Amateurs Give
Emergency Service for Railroads When Wires Are Down."
1933 - Radio amateurs at W6BYF provided disaster communications for the Long
Beach, California earthquake. Although his house was demolished, famous ham
Don Wallace, W6AM, operated a portable station through his surviving
extensive antenna farm with the help of the Navy in supporting the relief
effort.
1935 - Predecessors to ARES established. ARRL had a vision of them in 1917.
1936 - The catastrophic floods of the northeast (from Maine through to the
Ohio River valley) wrecked the ARRL HQ station in Hartford (along the
Connecticut River), with amateur radio again providing support. Famous VHF
pioneer and ARRL HQ staffer Ed Tilton, W1HDQ, and his wife provided
communications.
1937 - Dr. Joseph Vancheri, W8BWH, was a key relief communications asset,
arranging for aid to refugees from the Johnstown floods.
Late 1930s - Commercial emergency amateur radio gear appeared and was
advertised: an example was the battery-powered 50-S transmitter from Harvey
Radio Laboratories of Brookline, Massachusetts.
1948 - Flooding of Vanport, Washington, after the rupture of a Columbia
River dike prompted an Amateur Radio Emergency Corps (AREC) response under
EC W7DIS, with amateurs using handheld radios (walkie-talkies).
1957 - RACES was involved in providing communications support during the
Malibu-Topanga Canyon (California) fires. Deputy Chief Radio Officer W6QJW
operated under RACES tactical call sign CPT19 and controlled a net on 3995
kHz. The Gonset Communicator was an iconic Cold War/Civil Defense portable
transceiver.
1964 - The Great Alaskan Earthquake hit Anchorage, drawing a massive amateur
response in handling emergency and health-and-welfare traffic. It was the
most powerful earthquake in North American history, and the second most
powerful in recorded history of the world. There was sweeping destruction in
the city and the region. George Hart, W1NJM, wrote about the amateur
response in the July 1964 issue of QST: 314 Alaskan amateurs supported the
disaster relief effort, with 1200 more from around the rest of the country
actively supporting them. "KL7DVY reports he operated 20 hours on two
meters, relaying messages from the Alaska Native Hospital to c.d.
headquarters in Anchorage." See the August 2014 issue of QST, Public Service
column, "Alaska Shield 2014."
1979 - Hurricanes Frederic and David wrought destruction on the Gulf Coast
and East Coast, respectively. Amateur radio support of relief efforts was in
evidence in both cases. That brings us up to the modern era and the
emergence of the contemporary emergency management model. In the eighties,
Hurricanes Gilbert (1988) and Hugo (1989), and the spate of four hurricanes
in 2004 affected Florida extensively. Hurricane Andrew (1992) also wreaked
incredible devastation in that state. Hurricanes Katrina (2005) and Sandy
(2012) were game-changers for emergency management thinking and policy.
Amateur radio was extensively involved in all cases. And, of course, amateur
radio was involved in the colossal relief effort in the aftermath of the
9/11 attacks.
[Much of the above was culled from a presentation given at the ARRL
Pacificon convention in San Ramon, California, 2010, by Bart Lee, K6VK, ARRL
State Government Liaison, and ARRL Volunteer Counsel; Historian and
Archivist, California Historical Radio Society, and lecturer, Antique
Wireless Society. For more reading, check out the chapter on "Emergencies"
in Clinton B. DeSoto's classic 1936 tome Two Hundred Meters and Down-The
Story of Amateur Radio. --K1CE]
Table of Contents of the first edition (1936) of "Two Hundred Meters and
Down-The Story of Amateur Radio." See especially the chapter simply titled
"Emergencies." If you're lucky, you can find a first edition on eBay, or
Amazon Prime, like I did.-K1CE [Photo]
Amateur Radio Bridges the Gap During Historic Missouri Flash Flooding
---------------------------------------------------------------------
In the early morning hours of July 10, 2026, a 1-in-1,000-year rainfall
event hit southeastern Missouri. Slow-moving storms stalled over Reynolds
and Iron Counties and dropped 6 to 12+ inches of rain in under 24 hours. The
result was a Flash Flood Emergency across the region, with the Black River
rising to a record 28.7 feet.
Communities such as Lesterville were cut off as roads collapsed. Statewide,
crews conducted more than 350 emergency water rescues, with roughly 90 of
those in Reynolds County alone. The Missouri National Guard flew 202 campers
and counselors out of Camp Taum Sauk using eight UH-60 Black Hawk
helicopters, and responders pulled a group of campers off of a collapsing
roof at the Bearcat Getaway campground. Two rescue boats capsized during the
response; the crews aboard were recovered safely by other responders. With
roads gone and agencies stretched thin, amateur radio stepped into that gap.
96 Hours in the Field
Washington County ARES stood up a severe weather net the night before the
rain hit, tracking rainfall totals and early flooding reports, and passing
that ground-truth data straight to the National Weather Service. Once the
flash flooding started, it turned into a full field deployment. We worked
out of the tailgates of our vehicles for 96 hours straight, through a summer
heat wave, covering four operational functions:
Day-One comms and road clearing: We had radio coverage on the ground as soon
as the flooding hit and worked directly with local chainsaw crews to clear
debris and downed trees so emergency vehicles could get through.
Reunification tracking: We stood up a communication node to track and log
rescued campers, coordinating with the Cajun Navy and TSA to get kids fed
and back with their families.
Liaison work for The Salvation Army, AERS, and Red Cross: We handled comms
so food, water, and relief supplies got where they needed to go, alongside
coordination for the other agencies on scene.
Continuous situational awareness: We ran a net around the clock compiling
damage reports, tracking the Black River's rise, and relaying safety and
logistics info to operators still in the field.
What We Learned
Tailgate operating proved amateur radio can deploy anywhere on short notice,
but 96 hours in an active disaster zone exposed our limits. Sensitive gear
doesn't hold up well in direct sun and extreme heat, and neither do
volunteer operators after four straight days.
We're now pursuing grants and community sponsorships for a dedicated mobile
communications trailer - climate-controlled, multi-position, and built to
keep both the electronics and the operators running when the next one hits.
Comms for the RBC Race for the Kids in Minnesota
------------------------------------------------
One of the key themes from FEMA is interoperability. I somehow missed the
memos on the value in emergencies or events deployment of multiple
incompatible digital voice modes and internet linking. We meet with the race
officials, get our mission and assignments and round up or bring in FM
repeaters.
The RBC Race for the Kids was a new race to us, a charity 10-mile, 5- and
3-mile and kids run tucked under some bridges on a pretty riverfront trail.
We were under the river bluffs from downtown Minneapolis and across from the
University of Minnesota. The rest stops were at parks new to me, certainly.
I got there a bit behind schedule--a bad idea as several of us had to drive
around/move several "road closed" barricades. Despite "official vehicle"
window passes, this can cause problems.
A few years back, there was a big push to use DMR for events. We signed out
some repeaters and on race day, we had five operators and five different
brands and models of radios. The code plugs were incompatible. We needed to
use two local repeaters, a portable trailer-mounted repeater and possibly
simplex. At the time there was a cBridge and Brandmeister battle going on
and the guy in charge of the area code plugs moved away. One proposed
solution was for one of the hams to issue cache radios that were correctly
programmed. Hams like to use their ham equipment if possible. To top it off,
we had channel congestion from unrelated Internet linked nets going on
during the event.
We returned the DMR gear and are back to FM. Even basic tone programming can
be a problem - but we sorted it out. Rule #1 in events - we never, ever have
"radio problems." We use a now familiar cadence: A few pre meetings, street
addresses for assignments, ICS 205 (the comms available worksheet) and ICS
206 (medical) forms. Probably an incident briefing form would be good: We
want to know who the Incident Command is, and what law enforcement partners
we are with.
Our repeater (an old Yaesu DR-1XFR) worked like a champ. We were right under
it, and had the Fusion and linking shut off. It was still listed in one of
the directories (long story) as "9600 packet" so nobody bothered us. It was
our gear, so we did not need to beg from any trustees.
Our team of seven enjoyed the cool weather, as did the more than 1000
stations/operators for the net. I used a new-to-me $24 Baofeng UV-9RPLUS,
which suffers from RF RX overload but usually not in a park. I was assigned
with Peter Corbett, KD8GBL. I also had a used Yaesu FT-70D which was donated
and I handed it over to Peter who did not own a Fusion radio. It had an
oddball DC jack but that was enabled with an $8 Amazon adapter.
Our station had a first aid kit, but no assigned medic; I brought my Park
Patrol pack. We accidently forgot to put up the "Medical" signs once we
discovered we were it, as we prefer to be stealthy backup medical only. I
might change my mind if I spend the $1000 on Emergency Medical Responder
school.
After a pleasant morning we held a hotwash: the ICS 205 form got out late
but did the job.The amazing Minneapolis Park Police event lead stopped by
and we shook hands; he knew several of our crew already. We are onto the
next race - the Rice Creek Half -- where we may need to trailer in some
towers and repeater capacity. --Erik Westgard, NY9D, Assistant Section
Emergency Coordinator for Events, ARRL Minnesota Section
Letters: Veteran National Hurricane Center Station WX4NHC Operator WB4L,
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Silent Key
----------
It is with great sadness that I inform the amateur community of the passing
of one of our most dedicated WX4NHC operators, Alan Wolfe, WB4L. [WX4NHC is
the amateur station that is situated next to the main forecasting room at
the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami.]
Alan had been a WX4NHC operator for over 25 years; his wife Susie, WX2L,
joined Alan about 22 years ago to create a great team. They both would come
into NHC and operate WX4NHC during many hurricanes. When I could not find an
operator for a shift, they were always ready and willing to jump in and
operate.
Alan brought his great skills from years of DXing and public service. His
warmth and humor always made me smile. Alan will be missed by all who knew
him and all who worked beside him at WX4NHC during hurricanes. --Julio
Ripoll, WD4R, Miami, Florida
K1CE for a Final: Harold Kramer, WJ1B, SK
-----------------------------------------
I was deeply saddened to learn that former ARRL Chief Operating Officer
(COO) Harold Kramer, WJ1B, of Cheshire, Connecticut, passed away on Monday,
August 31, 2026, at age 78. The ARRL ARES Letter, now in its twenty-first
year of publication, was the brainchild of Harold. At the Orlando HamCation
in 2005, we had lunch together at a picnic table and he asked me if I would
serve as editor of a new newsletter for the ARES community-I quickly agreed.
But much more importantly, he was an excellent officer of the ARRL-and even
more importantly, a truly nice guy with a great sense of humor and laugh.
--Rick Palm, K1CE
---------------
ARES Field Resources Manual [PDF]
ARES Standardized Training Plan Task Book [Fillable PDF]
ARES Standardized Training Plan Task Book [Word]
ARES Plan
ARES Group Registration
Emergency Communications Training
who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment with
their local ARES leadership, for communications duty in the public service
when disaster strikes. Every licensed amateur, regardless of membership in
ARRL or any other local or national organization is eligible to apply for
membership in ARES. Training may be required or desired to participate fully
in ARES. Please inquire at the local level for specific information. Because
ARES is an amateur radio program, only licensed radio amateurs are eligible
for membership. The possession of emergency-powered equipment is desirable,
but is not a requirement for membership.
How to Get Involved in ARES: Fill out the ARES Registration form and submit
it to your local Emergency Coordinator.
------------------------
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