News
Sunday April 10th
Our 2016 Communications Academy theme is:
"Are We Ready – for The Big One? "
08:30 Registration Begins
09:00 Welcome and Introductory Remarks
09:30 Keynote -
17) Keynote Speaker: ARES: Thinking Outside the Box
As Amateur Radio and ARRL move into a second century, it is clear that ARES® (Amateur Radio Emergency Service®) must adapt to meet current and future needs of our communities, served agencies, and partners. Building off of lessons learned we can approach a 21st century ARES program by looking at what we can do internationally, nationally, locally and as individuals to make sure Amateur Radio and ARES continues to be relevant and meets the needs of those we serve.
Presenter: Mike Corey, KI1U, ARRL Emergency Preparedness Manager
Mike Corey, KI1U, joined the ARRL HQ staff in April 2010 as Emergency Preparedness Manager. Prior to joining League staff he worked in law enforcement in Indiana and Mississippi. He has also served as an emergency management volunteer, disaster response volunteer, reserve police officer, law enforcement academy and public safety instructor, and on emergency operations center staff.
Mike, along with Vic Morris, AH6WX, is the author of the ARRL publication Storm Spotting and Amateur Radio.
Mike has been licensed since 1988 and holds an Amateur Extra class license. Besides ARES and SKYWARN Mike’s interests in Amateur Radio are diverse; DXing, contesting, CW, satellites, digital modes, and being on the business end of the pile up are a few of his favorite activities.
He is a life member of the ARRL, alumni member of Indiana University Amateur Radio Club, member of the University of Mississippi Amateur Radio Club, Yankee Clipper Contest Club, and the Kokomo Amateur Radio Club. He is also a member of the Association of Public Safety Communication Officials, International Association of Emergency Managers, Radio Club of America, and American Meteorological Society.
Sunday 10:45
18) ICS and You: Making the Incident Command System work for Emergency Communications
You passed your ham radio test, you got the gear, and you can talk on the radio like a pro. Now it’s time to help in emergencies! But wait, somebody says you have to take more tests and learn more stuff, all about the Incident Command System. Who made up that rule? Why do you have to know something about ICS? Attend this fun and interactive session and learn how ham radio fits into ICS and why all disaster works need to be part of the system!
Sarah Miller K7SKM, is a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) who is currently an independent emergency management trainer and consultant. She most recently served more than 9 years as the Emergency Manager for the City of Auburn, Washington. Her 25+ years of public service includes 12 years as a public safety dispatcher and 9 years as a search and rescue volunteer. Sarah has been an adjunct instructor of Emergency Management at Jacksonville State University since 2002. She currently works with a number of FEMA training partners to deliver courses across the country on topics including social media, whole community, situational awareness, ICS, and CERT, as well as teaching in the National Basic and Advanced Emergency Management Academies. Sarah is active in the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), currently serving as Vice-Chair of Region 10, Vice-Chair of the Emerging Technology Caucus, and as a member of both the USA Training and Education Committee and the Global Communications Work Group. She holds a Master of Public Administration degree in Emergency Management, is a graduate of the National Emergency Management Advanced Academy, and is currently working towards a PhD in Public Policy and Administration. A native of Oregon, Sarah has lived in Washington State since 1997 with her husband and a random assortment of cats. You can find her on Twitter as @scba.
19) RMS Express EmComm Workshop – This is a practical workshop to discuss how EmComm Teams may be use RMS Express for handling emergency traffic via network and peer-to-peer, direct and via digipeaters. This will include setup, configuration and use of the forms library, message routing, storage, printing, and management practices. Additionally, there will be a discussion of the RMS Express road map e.g. the direction the group is moving with developing and implementing non-hardware solutions for high speed reliable messaging.
Instructors: Scott Currie NS7C, Tom Cloonan NL7FQ, and Bill Thomassen N6NBN
20) Amateur Radio involvement in public warning systems
Local Emergency Communications Committees are in need of people who can work with Emergency Management Offices as well as the Electronic Systems used to distribute emergency/life-saving messages to the public. Clay Freinwald, K7CR will explain what's involved and answer your questions.
Clay Freinwald, K7CR, has been involved with various facets of Amateur Radio in this area for over 40 years as well as having been employed by the Broadcast Industry for over 50 years. For the past 20 years he has chaired the SECC working with Washington State Emergency Management and the Emergency Alert System
21) Is that all there is ? (Moved from #23 @ 13:30 )
This presentation is a discussion on additional opportunities for Amateur Radio personnel in ECCs/EOCs, and other local response situations. Disasters or major events present numerous challenges and needs by local agencies. Support is needed by EOC/ECC’s in numerous staff positions and in general by EM agencies to respond to and recover from these events.
Some examples may be:
ü Message centers
ü Research in planning sections
ü Field observ ers
ü Documentation or display duties
ü Alternate location staffing
These are just a few examples. This class will explore other areas and recommendations and ideas by participants. The facilitator will also work to entice an open discussion to help participants develop ideas and opportunities for their organizations or group.
Division Chief Dominic V. Marzano is a member of the Kent (WA) Regional Fire Authority (RFA) and is a 38 year veteran of the fire service. Division Chief Marzano has served in the positions of Firefighter, Lieutenant, Battalion Chief and Assistant Chief. Chief Marzano is currently assigned as the Division Chief of Emergency Management.
Chief Marzano has accomplished extensive work, at the state and federal level, in emergency management including; disaster planning, EOC/ECC development and instruction, Incident Command System (ICS) instruction, family protection planning, terrorism awareness, fire department operations at catastrophic events. Chief Marzano is a contract instructor at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmetsburg, MD and has had training in advanced disaster rescue techniques, practices and response management. This includes State of Washington DEM and FEMA Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Train-the-Trainer Instructor and Master Exercise Practitioner (MEP).
Chief Marzano was a Task Force Leader with the Washington State FEMA Urban Search & Rescue Team - WATF-1 for 16 years and has participated in and deployed to numerous national events including; the Northridge Earthquake, Southern California Wildfires, DeBruce Grain Elevator in Hayesville, Kansas, the night operations incident commander for WA-TF1 at the World Trade Center attack response and Brach Director for the FEMA US&R response to Hurricane Katrina.
22) Beginner’s Track #4: But I'm Afraid to Talk into That Microphone!
We have all had mike fright and it can strike beginners and experts alike. This session will help you overcome mike fright by explaining amateur radio etiquette - knowing the procedures will help you build confidence to get on the air.
Alan Jones, KD7KUS, is a chemist by education and training, earning a B.S. and M.A. from Stanford University and a Ph.D. from Boston University. He has been a ham since 2000 and holds a general class license. He is self-employed, serving Washington hospitals as a hazardous materials and waste management consultant. He is a member of the Western Washington Medical Services Team and the Redmond ARES Team.
Sunday 13:30
23) (Moved to #21 @ 10:45)
With a mix of personal accounts, radio logs and multimedia, see how the events of the earthquakes in Nepal in 2015 unfolded, learn the challenges of the operators and the rescuers and how they overcame the odds to help their fellow citizens in dire need, and apply the knowledge to what we know here and how we can be prepared for our event here in the Northwest.
Tom Thweatt KE7NEJ has always been fascinated with radio at a very young age, never recalled not being around some kind of radio as a kid, received a commercial radio license at age 13, finally took the amateur test in 2007 and never looked back. He enjoys and participates in Amateur activities in the community and promotes emergency communications and the importance of being prepared in an emergency. Tom is also interested in digital communications and QRP and the skill it takes to work low power on HF. He maintains his commercial radio connections by working at a radio station on the weekends.
25) CQ CQ, QSL: Managing Stress in Disasters
Each of us handles stress in different ways, and disasters are particularly stressful for everyone. This session introduces you to Psychological First Aid, an approach that provides you with basic techniques to recognize and respond to signs of stress in yourself and those around you. Using the principles of PFA, you will be better able to cope and effectively assist anyone you come in contact with, including victims, family members, colleagues, and the agencies you serve.
Doug Dicharry, MD K7CNS is a psychiatrist with over 30 years’ experience. The Puget Sound windstorm of 2006 motivated him to get his amateur radio license, and he has become involved in several areas of disaster preparedness. Doug is a volunteer physician with the Seattle-King County Public Health Reserve Corps and has served as a board member of the Western Washington Medical Services Team.
26) Sprint Emergency Response Team – COLTS, COWS, TIGERS and Oh My!This presentation will cover mobile communications infrastructure that cellular carriers utilize until the network can be restored. I will also discuss how Sprint’s Emergency Response Team partners with public sector & enterprise clients in need of short-term communication solutions that ensure reliable, scalable and robust communications for short term events.
Casey Muilenburg has been with Sprint since 2005 in several roles. He has managed Enterprise and Federal accounts and is currently the West Region Manager for Sprint’s Emergency Response Team. Casey’s team has deployed over 6200 times to different natural and man-made events. They have also supported many national special events and private sector events to insure reliable communications. His team has supported the State of Washington during the last two fire seasons, San Juan communications outage and the 2014 Alaska Shield exercise. He is also a combat veteran with over 16 years of military experience.
27) Beginner’s Track #5: This is Fun – What’s Next?
Now that you've had real on the air experience, we dig deeper into the reason many have chosen to get into amateur radio - emergency communications. This session will explain the basics of EmComm, how emergency nets are run, and the difference between everyday communications and emergency communications. You'll learn how to get involved in EmComm through a local ARES or RACES team, how we serve the various agencies that depend on us, and the basic skills needed for emergency communications. Did you know that public service events are good training for EmComm - they are sometimes called "planned disasters"? Finally, you will practice passing simulated EmComm message traffic in the "CommAcademy Emergency Net". Of course, THIS IS A DRILL!
Don Marshall, KE7ARH, is one of the leaders of Eastside Amateur Radio Association (EARS). EARS is an ARES/RACES organization that serves the City of Bellevue Fire Department. In 2008 he was awarded the Presidential Volunteer Service Award by the Bellevue City Council for his work in emergency digital communications. Don built a Heathkit GR-81 with his Dad in 1971 and has been working with computers and software for 35 years.
Sunday 15:00
28) Chelan and Wolverine Complex Forest Fire Communications: Lesson’s reinforced and learned
The first fire was started by lighting on June 29 at the upper reaches of Lake Chelan and would grow to become a series of major fires that would destroy 23 homes, consume over 90,000 acres, and cost well over 16 million dollars to suppress. As the fires grew and covered all sides of Lake Chelan, the radio communication system that was built to support these fires grew in complexity and expanded to eventually cover several different fires, the complete length of the Lake Chelan, and over 2000 square miles of total area. This included the Columbia River east of Chelan to Mansfield, north to include the towns of Pateros and Methow, west several miles from Stehekin to the Cascade Crest, and then South to the Entiat River.
This presentation discusses how the system was deployed, how technical issues were identified and managed, and how inter-agency cooperation is so important during disasters especially in communications. Several key lessons are re-enforced and some other new lessons were learned. This presentation is meant to share these experiences so that it can be applied by other future responders in radio system deployment. It is also meant to encourage others to perhaps make changes to preparation and planning, and finally it is meant to encourage emergency minded amateur radio operators to consider getting qualified for Wildland fire service.
Jason Berman KE7IHC is a lieutenant and fire investigator with Lacey Fire District #3 in Lacey, WA with 15 years of service. He started as a volunteer fire fighter at the age of 16 and also worked with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources as a wild land fire fighter for 5 fire seasons. He has 18 seasons as a “red carded” wildland fire fighter and has been assigned to the Pacific Northwest Incident Management Team #2 (type 1 or national team) as a communications leader and is also qualified as a task force leader.
Jason also is a member of the US Disaster Mortuary Operations Response Team-Weapons of Mass Destruction (DMORT-WMD) team as a communication technician and an investigator in WMD environments. He has deployed to Hurricane Katrina/Rita and Super Storm Sandy. Jason also volunteers as a radio operator at Camp Murray RACES program (W7EMD). His call is KE7IHC and he is general class amateur license holder.
29) Dealing with the Media – Panel Discussion
Dealing with the Media is a practical look at media relations within the Incident Command System during a disaster or emergency. This will be a moderated panel discussion with “both sides of the story,” the media and emergency management. The discussion will be in three parts, first a behind the scenes view of a newsroom, and the inside of an EOC at the higher end of the ICS system. Next will be a discussion of how the two approach the same incident. Lastly, we take questions such as “why do the media get things wrong?” and “Why wasn’t the public outreach done better?”
Moderator: Jon Newstrom’s KL7GT claim to fame is that he has built radio stations (broadcast) on four continents. He has spent over nine years abroad in charge of international media development projects in post conflict areas, and nine years as a working journalist at NPR stations in America. He is currently an Associate Radio Operator and Public Information Officer with the Seattle Auxiliary Communication Service (ACS) he has worked as a radio operator with ACS, and volunteered as a radio operator at the Everett EOC during the Oso Mudslide incident. He currently serves as a PIO with the Seattle Auxiliary Communications Service.
Barnaby Dow works for the King County Office of Emergency Management in External Affairs and CERT.
Ed Ronco is currently working at KPLU as the Host of All Things Considered.
30) Natural Disaster Automations for First Responders
Discuss the need for an automated system that integrates into the radio systems, the mass notification systems, the PA systems, elevators, generators, machinery, etc., to automate alerts and shutdowns prior to the disaster striking, thus freeing up first responders to focus on caring for people rather than systems.
Michael Marzouk, Alert Systems Group
Michael Marzouk has spent 10 years working with 911-First Responders on all Communications infrastructure. He has partnered with all 2-way radio manufacturers, 911-Dispatch providers, Mass Notification companies, and other critical communications infrastructure manufacturers to build a turnkey automation solution to alert and automate infrastructure for first responders BEFORE the natural disaster strikes. The system provides low-latency quadruple redundancy in the event a natural disaster impacts the communications infrastructure.
31) Beginner’s Track #6: I Get It Now! – Where Do I Go From Here?
A discussion of primarily radio and radio-related equipment to consider for moving forward in amateur radio, and especially public service communications. What equipment do you need or want to become an accomplished, productive EmComm operator? (Toys, toys, tools)
Carl Leon, N7KUW, has been an amateur radio operator for over 25 years, and has extensive experience in commercial radio. He supports VHF and UHF radio voice communications for King County Search & Rescue, and is a member of Seattle Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS). Carl has completed the FEMA Communications Unit Leader (COML) course and the Department of Homeland Security Communications Unit Technician (COMT) and Auxiliary Communicators (AUXCOM) courses.
32) open