Chief, Army MARS Net Notes, -- 30 JAN 2009

 

Good evening, Army MARS members and guests from Navy-Marine Corps and Air Force MARS, and fellow amateurs receiving this message. I'm sorry I could not hold the net tonight, but what follows is the information I would have shared with you tonight.

We've all been hearing about change, change and more change over the last few days, not to mention months and past two years. However, there is no way I can avoid bringing up more of the same (yes, more change) this evening.

For one thing, there's the Army MARS support response during the 20 JAN 09 Inaugural ceremonies and that was all about the change at the White House. For another, there are the new directions we've been drafting in the Army MARS "Road Ahead" program. There are also significant revisions just handed down for the National Incident Management System, or NIMS, which guides all federal response to emergencies including ours.

 

Two weekends ago yesterday, I received the first draft of the Road Ahead document written by the Tiger Team of seven very experienced members (Bob Mims, AAA1RD Tiger Team Leader; Mike Barrett, AAA9TS; Paul Drothler, AAV4DJ; Pudge Forrester, AAA9GL; Pat Lane, AAA9EC; Dave Martin, AAA6TX; and Bill Sexton, AAA9PC). My intention was to publish it this weekend. But along came a wealth of timely as well as highly useful information generated by MARS activity during the Inauguration. I am going to spend a few more days reviewing the Road Ahead and devote this weekend's comments to current operations.

Let me make one preliminary comment on the Road Ahead. Based on very quick analysis I'd say the Road Ahead and the new edition of NIMS are coming out very much on the same frequency.

For instance, the December 2008 NIMS revision moves Preparedness to first place on the FEMA list of priorities, replacing Command and Management. It promotes Communications to no. 2 (it was no. 4). That's a very meaningful shift of emphasis.

Taking the new goals a step further, Training ranks high up in the NIMS prescription for Preparedness, right After Plans and Procedures, Interoperability ranks number one under Communications.

Preparedness and Training, Communications and Interoperability: That's our road ahead too. Stay tuned for the details.

I have these 5 items for the net.

1—MARS and the Presidential Inauguration

2—NIMS Revised

3—Interoperability 101 (cont.): Army Reserve partnership

4—MARS goes on-line in World Radio

5—An important parting thought on jointness.

Standing by for the Inauguration

It may have been largely invisible, but an awesome effort went into Army MARS preparation for the Inauguration support operation. The effort wasn't wasted, either, just because the ceremonies went off without problems. Not by a long shot it wasn't wasted. The preparedness operation launched by Region 3 produced lessons applicable to all of us.

Leaders and members, please take notice: Washington D.C. may have a monopoly on presidential inaugurations. It does not have a monopoly with respect to protecting large concentrations of population that one day could become the target for terrorists. Region 1 has Boston and the ports and research assets surrounding it. Region 2 has the New York metropolitan area. Region 4 has Cape Canaveral and Jacksonville and Tampa with large strategic military installations. Region 9 has Los Angeles and Silicon Valley and the Bay area. I don't need to go on, do I?

There's only one difference between Region 3's activation on Jan. 20 and the mass population planning incumbent on the rest of us. The difference is that region 3 director Tim Zutaut AAA3RD had advance notice. That's a luxury the next big-target activation may not enjoy. It's with that in mind that I'm going to devote most of these comments to the Inauguration response.

Sharing the credit: I'll begin with a bow to region 3 director Zutaut, his emergency operations officer Larry Walker AAM3RE, and Maryland state director Jim Sears AAA3MD. The clarity of Alert Notifications, Operations Orders, and AARs reflected planning and performance of the first order. Region 4's director Jim Hamilton AAA4RD and his assistant director-East, Reggie Faust AAM4RDE deserve kudos for getting right in step with Region 3. I know all these leaders benefited from the insights and efforts of their staff and other members. You know who you are and I address my appreciation to you as well.

I especially liked Reggie Faust's instruction to the state directors in his sub­region: "This is a perfect opportunity to check propagation, NCS performance or any technique. It is also a perfect opportunity for all of Region 4 to work as a unit and get acquainted. Let's see how many stations we can get on the air!"

I was cheered by the comment of Maryland SD Jim Sears, whose base at the state EOC gave him a view of the whole show: "NCS performance on HF nets was outstanding. Due to the length of the operation the NCS were changed at the top of each hour [and] this worked rather seamlessly."

 

There were some innovations well worth mentioning. Region 3's Zutaut used teleconferencing to coordinate planning. Larry Walker, his emergency operations officer, came up with a concept for the first multi-region net operation of its type that I've become aware of. And it is

Or rather, he borrowed it. I'll call it "standby net," used by the Air Force MARS Transcon HF net which, as the name suggests, spans the continent. A net that size could be a very messy operation without a unique procedure. After a station checks in, it remains silent except to list traffic, accept traffic, or check out. The rule is no comments, no talk about weather, no random radio checks. The net is either silence or business. Net controls change hourly, and upon taking charge conduct a roll call. Otherwise the channel is always clear for an emergency. Your CAM likes this type of net: it is effective, efficient, and easy.

Tying together 4 regions: Region 3 established its emergency net, AAA3RD/E, to cover Army MARS Regions 1 through 4, all of which had been alerted for the inauguration. Regions 2 and 4 conducted their own support nets, with designated liaison stations to link their nets with AAA4RD/E. With a series of weather emergencies on its plate, Region 1 did not activate but did maintain liaison. Among the 67 Region 3 participants were Army MARS stations at the Pentagon, FEMA and Maryland EOC.

"It is a monumental accomplishment when all Army MARS regions 1,2,3 and 4 were present for seven and a half hours," commented Larry Walker, the E00. "The only real difficulty in making contact was from some net controls to [the more distant] Region 4 representatives. This was fixed with perseverance on the part of members using established procedures for relays.

"In general MARS joint voice procedures worked very well. Unusual procedures for matters such as roll calls worked well," he said.

One problem noted was the difficulty some stations had with the designated frequency because of inadequate antennas. The frequency was optimum for wide area coverage by daylight but well away from amateur bands.

Another was high noise levels encountered inside the Maryland EOC. The lesson learned is to scout all likely deployment sites and be prepared to counter the local interference.

Added starters: I'd like to take special note of several activities beyond the usual norm. First, let's acknowledge Jim Sylvester AAA9IP, who last year added CONUS to his prior responsibilities for phone patching OCONUS. For the first time (at least in my relatively short MARS experience) our reviving domestic phone patch network was activated for this sort of high-level mission. AARs indicated weak-but-readable to loud­and-clear conditions, but no connections were requested. "The phone patch stations are organized and they now have a close working relationship," Sylvester's deactivation report declared.

He cited (thanked) four stations for joining the special net as NCS or ANCS: Chatmon Houston AAT3A0, Dave Bly AAR9AH, Jude Flores AAR6NB and Bob Warren AAT9CV. AEM1VCP tried to check in from Germany but telephoned that propagation was nonexistent.

Air Force MARS on the Air: Building on its recent collaborations with Army MARS region 2, our Air Force partners went all out in comms support for the Inauguration. AF MARS regions 1. through 5 activated three nets and provided liaison to both our Regions 3 and 2. The recently-installed national emergency communications manager, Michael Carl AFN2RC, reported 134 stations participated. Of these, 90 joined the Air Force MARS Northeast Region's double-track emcomm net, which runs simultaneously on two frequencies.

"This was the largest activation of Air Force MARS in many years and was executed successfully because of the extremely valuable lessons learned through two years of exercises among the three MARS services," said Jim Edmonds AFE2XC, the Northeast Area exercise coordinator. He added that he's already working with Army MARS region 2 director Bill Fitzsimmons on future joint training.

NIMS Updated

I mentioned the National Incident Management System revision that was published last month. Also published is a revised ICS700, one of the four on-line courses that the Army MARS Road Ahead will ask all members to complete.

The new version, ICS700A, is highly interactive, almost entertaining with its video detours, and it removes any mystery from a lot of emergency response doctrine. It takes about two hours, less if you did the original ICS 700. Some members actually recommend taking 700 first, before ICS 100, 200, and 800A, the others currently required for members with billets.

Information on all the courses is available at http://training.fema.gov/crslistasp.

Working with the Army Reserve

In the past couple of nets I have cited examples of state commands building close relationships with the agencies most important to MARS. By that I mean practical examples that others might follow. We traced how Tennessee Army MARS achieved recognition and respect from their state emergency management agency, and how Texas MARS has become an integral insider for National Guard civil emergency response.

In both those instances the key was simple: MARS leaders attended meetings, made formal presentations wherever and whenever they could, and took every opportunity to participate in state-level planning. Texas state director Dave Martin put it this way: "If you are not part of the planning process, then you are not going to be considered part of the response."

This weekend the subject is jointness with Army Reserve units. The Reservists require a different approach because there is no single state headquarters to address. Here's how California made the connection.

There's more than good fortune to it, but good fortune sure helps. The California story begins with MAJ Roman Kamienski, an Army Reservist since 1995. His day job involves communications for a major power company. In the Reserves, he was involved in telecommunications and IT.

He recalled wanting to become a ham "but I was not satisfied with just rag­chewing," as he put it. Kamienski discovered Army MARS on a web site and shortly after getting his tech license, he joined Army MARS. That was in 2003. In 2007, after several years of planning, the Army was ready to conduct annual maneuvers at the brand-new U.S. Army Combat Support Training Center, Ft Hunter Liggett. Several thousand reservists from the western states would participate. However, there was an unforeseen problem: enabling VHF communication over the mountainous terrain of the 165,000-acre maneuver ground.. Major Kamienski got the assignment to solve it, and he asked for help from his Army MARS colleagues. Region 9 Director Mike Itnyre AAA9RD approved the request. Mike and Roman led a team of volunteers on a weeks' work of repairing and installing repeaters and antennas and programming 200 radios.

They did something right because the Army wanted them back again last year, and the same job is pending this coming summer.

As a result, "we've had multiple smaller events such as MARS members acting as technical advisors to Army Reserve units in trouble-shooting existing radio systems or upgrading radio systems," Itnyre said.

No doubt other states must develop their own contacts with Reserve units, but lots of hams are reservists, and California has no monopoly on resourceful members.

Willingness to take on the job, and know-how to do it, this is what made the difference.

 

A New MARS presence on the Web

Over the last several decades, a monthly magazine named WorldRadio has devoted many pages to reporting on MARS. At the end of last year, its publisher and our friend Armand Noble retired at age 75. I noted previously that CO magazine had acquired WorldRadio and was taking it on-line, free of any subscription charge.

The February issue is now available on the web. Continuing a long tradition, it includes Bill Sexton's every-other month MARS column, this month's commenting on the significance of events like the Mumbai terrorist raid. The web magazine is accessible at www.cq-amateur-radio.com and click on the WorldRadio flag in the upper left

corner.

A Parting Thought on Jointness

The pressures surrounding any real emergency operation are bound to generate occasional misunderstanding, confusion and or mistakes in the best of circumstances. If that sort of thing also happens during an exercise, it only means the planners have achieved their goal of creating a realistic scenario. Historians call it "the fog of war."

I am told we had a few moments of fog during the Inauguration activity. Some of it involved transmissions between different MARS branches, and that shouldn't be a surprise. We're relatively new at it.

Given all the variables, 100 per cent conformity with plans and procedures is never going to be achieved—not in our own operations and certainly not when interoperating. We can only do our best.

It's important to remember that if we're struggling to do things the right Army MARS way, the other fellow is probably doing the same with his Oporder and his net plan and SOP. If there's a procedural collision, the right thing to do is to do whatever it takes to get the message delivered. Sometimes switching to an alternate route might be necessary, but reasonable operators should be able to do better than that. The important thing is to forego fault-finding and escalating the minor glitches into big issues. To borrow from NIMS, local emergencies are to be handled locally.

Preparing against operational confusion is like taking inoculations before overseas deployment—it requires more than one shot.

First off, leaders have to make sure everyone with the slightest chance of involvement is fully briefed. That includes personally briefing the other MARS branches