Folks,

Black Swan 2018 is set for 4-10 October. The announcements are a bit light on details because the organizers want this to feel more like a real event than a drill. If you plan to participate, please read the attached documents and set up your plan.

If you do NOT plan to participate…read the docs anyway. You should be conducting regular drills/tests, and if you don’t already, this is a good place to start.

73, N0GUD

BLACK SWAN 18 CONOPS (Local Template)

BLACK SWAN 18 ExPlan (Local Template)

BLACK SWAN 18 Prep Checklist

BLACK SWAN 18 CONOP

It is with great sadness that I report that District 6 EC Steve Jones, WA6GFD, was found dead in his home on Friday, 1 May 2015. He was a dedicated ARES volunteer, a good man, and a good friend. He will most assuredly be missed.

I will add details concerning any memorial funds once that information is available.

2nd UPDATE:

By request, have changed Jones to 147.555.

UPDATE:

I found the problem…neglected a necessary input parameter. The list below should address all comments so far.

Good thing I’m hard to embarrass.

Folks, I’ve managed to come up with a stable solution. I reworked the code and the setup slightly based on Joe’s comment on the previous effort. (Joe, my apologies for taking so long to get that comment approved. There was a TON of comments, and yours was the only one that wasn’t spam of some sort…it got lost in the queue.) Joe’s point was that there are counties in our neighboring sections that might conflict with what we’re doing.

As it happens, that is not a problem — no conflicts with the first run! But it’s a good point. If this becomes an issue in your county, let me know.

At any rate, here is what I did for the second run:

• Adjusted the algorithm to balance the assignments across available frequencies. This gives us a larger spread and better use of the frequency space.
• I accidentally lied on the previous bullet…I was not able to force it to balance, but I was able to randomize the list of available frequencies in a way that it works out that way almost all of the time. Sometimes, you just have to kluge it into submission….
• I reserved four frequencies to use for District-wide mutual aid. We had the room, and it didn’t seem like such a bad idea.
• I was able to load up counties with more than one frequency planned by altering the map, as discussed previously. I worked out that doing so makes Iowa even less two-dimensional than altering District 6 did, so if I do this a lot, I’m likely to break something at some point.
• I had to run it three times to ensure I didn’t hit my “forbidden frequencies” for Linn County. Our DSTAR machine lives on two of them (because local AM station WMT is on 600 kHz, and it just KILLS single-site repeaters unless we have non-standard offsets), there’s a packet cluster on one, and another is just too popular to be useful for ARES. I have yet to work out how to enforce that in the code. At any rate, if your assignment conflicts with some local usage, please let me know. It’s fixable.

If I can have a drum roll, here are the results. Let me know if you have questions, or post them here:
{‘ADAIR’: 146.46,
‘ADAMS’: 147.54,
‘ALLAMAKEE’: 147.435,
‘APPANOOSE’: 146.43,
‘AUDUBON’: 147.555,
‘BENTON’: 146.4,
‘BLACKHAWK’: 147.45,
‘BOONE’: 146.55,
‘BREMER’: 147.555,
‘BUCHANAN’: 146.58,
‘BUENAVISTA’: 147.435,
‘BUTLER’: 146.475,
‘CALHOUN’: 147.57,
‘CARROLL’: 147.54,
‘CASS’: 147.48,
‘CEDAR’: 147.45,
‘CERROGORDO’: 147.57,
‘CHEROKEE’: 146.49,
‘CHICKASAW’: 147.57,
‘CLARKE’: 147.54,
‘CLAY’: 146.475,
‘CLAYTON’: 146.55,
‘CLINTON’: 146.46,
‘CRAWFORD’: 146.475,
‘DALLAS’: 147.48,
‘DAVIS’: 146.535,
‘DECATUR’: 146.49,
‘DELAWARE’: 147.465,
‘DESMOINES’: 147.435,
‘DICKINSON’: 146.46,
‘DUBUQUE’: 146.475,
‘EMMET’: 147.555,
‘FAYETTE’: 147.51,
‘FLOYD’: 146.49,
‘FRANKLIN’: 146.565,
‘FREMONT’: 147.465,
‘GREENE’: 147.525,
‘GRUNDY’: 147.48,
‘GUTHRIE’: 146.445,
‘HAMILTON’: 147.51,
‘HANCOCK’: 146.58,
‘HARDIN’: 147.45,
‘HARRISON’: 147.435,
‘HENRY’: 146.55,
‘HOWARD’: 146.565,
‘HUMBOLDT’: 147.525,
‘IDA’: 146.445,
‘IOWA’: 147.525,
‘JACKSON’: 146.43,
‘JASPER’: 147.555,
‘JEFFERSON’: 146.535,
‘JOHNSON’: 147.495,
‘JONES’: 147.555,
‘KEOKUK’: 147.54,
‘KOSSUTH’: 146.415,
‘LEE’: 147.54,
‘LINN’: 146.505,
‘LINN2’: 147.48,
‘LOUISA’: 147.45,
‘LUCAS’: 146.445,
‘LYON’: 147.48,
‘MADISON’: 147.495,
‘MAHASKA’: 146.415,
‘MARION’: 147.51,
‘MARSHALL’: 146.505,
‘MILLS’: 147.435,
‘MITCHELL’: 147.51,
‘MONONA’: 146.565,
‘MONROE’: 147.45,
‘MONTGOMERY’: 147.525,
‘MUSCATINE’: 147.51,
‘OBRIEN’: 147.57,
‘OSCEOLA’: 147.51,
‘PAGE’: 146.46,
‘PALOALTO’: 146.535,
‘PLYMOUTH’: 146.415,
‘POCAHONTAS’: 146.49,
‘POLK’: 146.49,
‘POLK2’: 146.43,
‘POLK3’: 147.42,
‘POLK4’: 146.46,
‘POTTAWATTAMIE’: 146.43,
‘POWESHIEK’: 146.46,
‘RINGGOLD’: 146.46,
‘SAC’: 147.555,
‘SCOTT’: 146.475,
‘SHELBY’: 146.565,
‘SIOUX’: 147.555,
‘STORY’: 146.43,
‘TAMA’: 146.58,
‘TAYLOR’: 147.48,
‘UNION’: 147.435,
‘VANBUREN’: 146.49,
‘WAPELLO’: 147.555,
‘WARREN’: 146.565,
‘WASHINGTON’: 146.415,
‘WAYNE’: 146.505,
‘WEBSTER’: 147.435,
‘WINNEBAGO’: 147.51,
‘WINNESHIEK’: 146.46,
‘WOODBURY’: 146.535,
‘WORTH’: 146.415,
‘WRIGHT’: 146.475}

The members of the U.S. House of Representatives have headed home for the holidays, marking the end of the 113th Congress on that side of Capitol Hill. When the 114th Congress convenes in January a new legislative cycle will begin. We expect the Amateur Radio Parity Act to be reintroduced in the House with a new number; H.R.4969 will no longer apply.

On behalf of the ARRL Board and staff I want to thank you, and through you the field organization volunteers and members in your Section, for your help in gathering legislative support for H.R. 4969. We had hoped to gain 30 co-sponsors for the bill and ultimately ended up with 69, plus the sponsor. The overwhelming majority of these 70 supporters are returning in January, which gives us a good base on which to grow additional support.

Once we know the new number of the bill we will once again be asking for your help in recruiting co-sponsors. The objective is to continue the momentum, gathering enough support to move the bill through the Energy & Commerce Committee. We have received expressions of interest from the Senate side and are hoping to have the bill introduced there as well.

Thanks for all you do on behalf of Amateur Radio. Best wishes for the holidays.

73,
Dave Sumner, K1ZZ
Chief Executive Officer

See the declaration and story on our Facebook page HERE.

From the ARRL Iowa Section:

Polk County amateur radio operators — commonly
known as “hams” — were presented with the Iowa Governor’s Volunteer
Award by Iowa Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds today in a ceremony at Southeast
Polk High School. As part of the amateur radio hobby, operators give
back to their community by providing communications support to these
events and agencies at no cost as part of the Polk County Amateur Radio
Emergency Service (ARES). Amateur radio operators purchase, build, and
maintain equipment and infrastructure on their own to support the
mission of Polk County ARES in addition to receiving professional
training and participating in exercises on their own time as unpaid
volunteers.

Polk County ARES was nominated for the award by Polk County Emergency
Management Agency. The two organizations have a long-standing
relationship, working together to train and prepare to assist in the
event of a disaster of if main communications systems fail, such as
public safety two-way radio systems, cellular or landline phone
systems, or 9-1-1 public safety answering points.

“We are appreciative of the relationship we have with Polk County EMA,
and honored that they value our partnership to the extent that they
nominated us for this award,” Polk County ARES Coordinator Scott
Kirstein said. “These volunteers are truly an exceptional group and I
am proud to be associated with them.”

The Governor’s Volunteer Awards program was created in 1982.
Nominations can be made by Iowa non-profit, charitable, and government
organizations to honor local volunteers with a prestigious state-level
recognition award. The criteria for organizations and individuals
receiving the award includes demonstrating an exceptional commitment to
volunteerism by helping with a special project or ongoing activities;
demonstrating exemplary leadership, creativity, cooperation and hard
work in their service to others; or making an outstanding contribution
to state or community through volunteer service.

Mike Hartley K0IVY has recently accepted the appointment as Assistant
Section Emergency Coordinator to coordinate the Section-wide MOU with
the Iowa Hospital Association and spearhead a Section-wide Hospital
net. Recent storm damage in Oskaloosa has shown the value of Ham
Radio communications. Contact Mike with your input and ideas.

The Georgia Health News reported recently on the role of Amateur Radio in emergency services. It’s a very nice article, and shows how hospitals all over the country are learning about our capabilities and value.

Click here to read! (Pops to new window/tab.)

[from Story County EMA, with permission]

It Takes A Community: I-35 Closure Response

While most of Story County slept, the hard work of Ames, Iowa State University, Story County Emergency Management, the Ames Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, and Story County Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) came together to take care of travelers stranded by the early morning closure of Interstate 35. Starting as early as October of last year these organizations started working to prepare for this event by practicing activation of a plan to ensure travelers and truck drivers had a place to go if I-35 was closed down.

When the weather forecast indicated the potential for an I-35 shutdown, the Allyson Walter of the Ames Convention and Visitor’s Bureau polled the hotels to see how many rooms would be available should we need to house travelers. Corey Mellies of Ames Public Works prepositioned electronic signs to direct travelers from Highway 30 to safe areas within Ames if the road was closed.

When Story County Emergency Management was notified that I-35 was going to close, they worked with Ames Public Works to activate electronic message signs guiding travelers to the Dayton St exit where they could find a hotel room or allow truckers continue on to Iowa State University who were prepared to allow them to stay in the parking lots near Hilton Coliseum. At 1 am in the morning, Clint Miller of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) was activated to contact travelers using CB radios to notify them of the closure and help guide them to locations where they could stay until the gates were opened on I-35.

The response to the I-35 closure represents what emergency management calls a ‘Whole Community’ response which involves public, private, and volunteer organizations coming together to prepare and respond to emergencies. The time and effort spent by these organizations planning and preparing for this event allowed Story County to rapidly react to the closure of I-35 and ensure travelers passing through our state were safe and well taken care of. Disasters can strike at any time and it is only through efforts to plan, train, and exercise that communities and volunteer organizations, like the I-35 closure group, can be ready to quickly step in and help their community and neighbors. Story County Emergency Management Coordinator, Keith Morgan, ask that everyone consider volunteering with a disaster response organization to help make our communities better prepared.