or vc presentation for ares leadership final version

“You Amateurs are AMAZING”

OEM ARES AndOregon Vital Connections

Oregon Vital Connections 2012

ARES and the Oregon

Vital Connections

Exercise

What was OR Vital Connections? A federally sponsored communications

interoperability exercise

Promote communications interoperability between Local, Tribal, State, Federal, & DOD emergency responders

Simulated a NIMS response (local, state, federal) to a large scale event

Full ICS structure

What was OR Vital Connections?

• Goals From the Briefing Document:• Radio Communications

1. Reach back communications to home station (All Agencies)2. Perform daily communications with Communication Coordination Team3. Exercise, test, and evaluate the ability to utilize HF, VHF (LO- High), UHF, 800, Trunked communications.

4. Exercise MARS, RACES, ARES networks5. Radio Bridge and Patches

a. Exercise, Test, Evaluate the ability to patch across multiband frequencies (agency to agency)b. Troubleshoot interference or cross-connection problemsc. Test and Validate ACU 1000 to ACU 1000 ROIP

OR VC 2012Exercise Goals Continued

• Training1. ICS 205 Overview (COML identification, responsibilities)2. DOD/JISCC/Mobile Comm/State and Local Comm Capabilities

• ICS1. Establish/Create Incident Action Plan2. Identify COML, complete ICS 205, 205a3. Adjust ICS 205 to integrate additional resources4. Develop ICS 205 addendum to depict Change in Event 5. Identify Participant Agency personnel, complete ICS 204

• Information Sharing1. Test and evaluate capability to connect to Common Information Sharing Site (HSIN, DCO, JABBER, USNORTHCOM OPS PORTAL)2. DOD/NG/Local forces to connect to OR State Common Information Site (CIS)3. ORNG shares operational info with subordinates, adjacent, and higher command4. Evaluate data flow through channels5. Send email via WINLINK HF

What was OR Vital Connections?

April 12, 2023 5

UNCLASSIFIED

Our Participation was Significant

ARES participation was specifically requested by Northern Command and Oregon Military Department

This is a recognition of our proven role in EMCOMM in Oregon

Who Participated in OR VC

Who Participated in OR VC

Willamette Area only Multnomah IC only

Who Participated in OR VC

Coast guard Aviation and Mobile Communications Unit

Who Participated in OR VC

US Air Force had one Comm Unit similar to JISCC

Who Partiipated in OR VC?

Army MARS (OMD JOC)

OEM ARES

Marion County ARES

How was OR VC Structured?

Three day exercise held in Salem on the grounds of the old Fairview Hospital

How was OR VC Structured?

•Three Incident Commands simulating Portland, Salem, and Eugene under a Unified Command

•Full ICS Unified Command Structure

•Unified Command Briefings daily

•IC briefings Daily

How was OR VC Structured

Amateur Radio

What did ARES do?

Team of 8 members of OEM ARES and 4 Members of Marion County ARES

What did ARES do?

We were HIGHLY visible, in our ARRL Standard ARES vests and jackets

Everywhere they looked, they saw us.

What did ARES do?

Available from www.hamthreads.com Meets all ARRL ARES standards For MOU purposes – a state standard? All units with the same

look?

Standard Vest listed on Website Western Oregon – Charles River 9732 (not shown on website.Colder climates - use jacket shown on website

What did ARES do?

Three ARES stations – one in each IC area

What did ARES do?

OEM Drop Boxes, including IC706, IC 2820, Winklink, portable NVIS antennas with vhf/uhf antenna.

What did ARES do?

Three County EOC’s sending and receiving traffic to and from the exercise site -West Lane, Benton and Crook

OEM Comm Center manned and sending traffic to and from exercise site.

What Were Our Results?

Sent/Received over 100 pieces of traffic in ICS format, mostly via winlink

To and from OEM and the Counties

To our knowledge, no one else did anything like this, even with all their fancy equipment.

What Were Our Results?

Sent ICS message to General Bush, Commanding General in charge of OR VC via winlink

What Were Our Results?

Sent winlink traffic to Admiral in charge of Northern Command from one of the exercise coordinators

What Were Our Results?

From: Mark Jensen <wa6mvt@yahoo.com>To: gruberfrankr@comcast.netSent: Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:34:40 -0000 (UTC)Subject: Re: Vital Connections"

Frank,Thanks so much for the note. It was great to get to know you out in the 'fields of honor' of Oregon. 

The WINLINK Message your ARES mates sent to our Admiral was well received by him. He made special mention of it during our morning brief today. All the best & 73/ 

Mark

What Were Our Results?

Singled out for praise at noon briefing – Multnomah Area

“You amateurs are AMAZING. I can’t say enough about what you can do.

[to the others in attendance] “If you don’t know what these guys can do, make sure and visit them. You can’t miss them” [a reference to our highly visible garb]

What Were Our Results?

Again, singled out for praise at all exercise end-of-the-day briefing, in front of all participants.

What Were Our Results?

Thursday Morning test of communications from site to FEMA Region 10 Headquarters in Bothel, WA

ONLY amateur radio was able to communicate with them (via MARS freqs)

None of the many other units could be heard. We relayed for them.

What Were Our Results?

At the end of the exercise, we were asked to make a 10 minute presentation about our capabilities, educating all other participating agencies.

Lessons Learned

The OEM Drop Boxes worked very well

Need our own generators (we now have them)

Need more VHF antennas (we now have them)

Lessons Learned

Need to modify equipment in drop boxes for MARS capability.

Need to refine HF antenna install procedures

Need Part 90 certified equipment capable of NIFOG interop frequencies (e.g. Wouxun UV-6 or UV-3)

Lessons Learned

A consistent, professional, uniform appearance is important when working with agencies that are uniform oriented, especially in any NIMS response.

Our whole unit now has ARRL standard ARES vests and hats, and many have jackets

Bottom Line for ARES

We were highly visible

We proved ourselves to be highly capable

We showed ourselves to be highly flexible

Bottom Line for ARES

We were very well received by all other agencies, especially at the end of the exercise.

Amateur in name only – professional in all other aspects.

A real PR success for ARES both on a local and national basis.

Bottom Line for ARES

YouAmateurs

AreAmazing!