2016 Training Archive

Emergency Partner Credentialing System (EPCS)
Subtropical Storm Alex
Severe Weather Symposium 4 March 16
FEMA Partner Coordination of Disaster Response & Recovery
Disaster Ready Open Badges
NFPA 1600 – 2016 Edition
Red Cross Home Fire Preparedness Campaign
Humanitarian Academy of Harvard
NWS Weather Ready
Event Planning
NWS Training Portal
Storm Academy
Real ID
FEMA MEPP
Houston Flood Recovery
AREDN
HAZMAT Operations Course
ARES Manuals on the ARRL Website
Hamvention 2016
SHARES
RadResponder
EDEN
Religious and Cultural Literacy and Competency in Disaster
NSSE
OHDEN
SATERN
CUSEC
Planning for actual vs perceived risk
UAS in Disaster Management Course
FEMA MGT-405 course
Cybersecurity Training
Ham radio on YouTube
Red Cross Volunteers Needed
EMAO
NVOAD
UAS Remote Pilot Certificate
NCCPS
Updated FEMA EMI Courses
Disaster Ready Training Site
RDPC
COMMEX 16-4
USA.gov
Check your equipment!
FEMA EMI on Social Media
Red Cross DST

1. Emergency Partner Credentialing System (EPCS)

On Tuesday, December 29^th the Ohio Department of Public Safety announced that its Homeland Security Division would begin offering secure credentials to the private sector member organizations of the Ohio Public Private Partnership (OP3). This Emergency Partner Credentialing System (EPCS), which is free to these member organizations, began on Friday, January 1, 2016.

At present there are two credential types: Emergency-Specific Credentials, for use during a single emergency incident, and Multi-Emergency Credentials, for those who might be expected to respond often, such as utility workers. EPCS credentials may be printed out or loaded to smart phones.

It must be noted here that local officials may still limit access to incidents due to safety concerns, but this program should eventually make it easier for the law enforcement community to separate response workers from sightseers.

The current OP3 membership list includes the American Radio Relay League, the American Red Cross, six District 3 colleges and universities and most major utilities, so don’t be too surprised if EPCS credentials start popping up soon. For further details, go to https://homelandsecurity.ohio.gov/ to view the press release, two related newspaper articles and the OP3 web pages.

2. Subtropical Storm Alex

Most of us know that the Atlantic hurricane season begins each June 1st, and concludes at the end of November. Sometimes a tropical cyclone may sneak in a few weeks early in May, or a few weeks late in December.

Well, someone forgot to tell all of this to Subtropical Storm Alex, the first cyclone of 2016, which formed today and was announced this afternoon by the National Hurricane Center. This eastern Atlantic storm is not expected to strike any landmass, but is a very rare event indeed. It is only the fourth January storm to form since 1851. To track Alex, go to http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ .

Alex will not affect Ohio District 3, but it illustrates the need to pay attention to the weather forecasters and not assume that unusual winter weather patterns will never strike us.

3. Severe Weather Symposium 4 March 16

In addition to the scheduled Skywarn weather spotter training sessions frequently mentioned on this net, Ohio is fortunate to have an annual severe weather symposium. The Meteorology Club at The Ohio State University will present their 20^th Annual Severe Weather Symposium at the US Bank Conference Theater, The Ohio Union, 1739 North High Street, Columbus, Ohio.

The symposium is free of charge, and takes place this year on Friday, March 4^th from 9 AM to 5 PM. Parking is available at the adjoining Ohio Union South Garage for $11.75 per day, and attendees should also be prepared for lunch in the Union or at one of the restaurants across the street.

Scheduled speakers this year include three National Weather Service employees, an OSU professor, the Delaware County emergency manager and two broadcast meteorologists, including Mike Bettes from The Weather Channel.

Advanced registration is recommended at: u.osu.edu/metclub/symposium . As you register you will be offered the opportunity to donate to the club. Please consider doing so.

4. FEMA Partner Coordination of Disaster Response & Recovery

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Emergency Management Institute is currently recruiting students for two four-day offerings of Partner Coordination of Disaster Response & Recovery, course number E0824. The course is intended to improve coordination among the various local, state, tribal, federal, volunteer and private partners responding to or recovering from a disaster. In brief, it teaches participants how to play nice with others.

The instruction sessions take place at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, Maryland on April 25th through 28th or on August 29th through September 1st, 2016. Classes, instructional materials and lodging are provided at no cost, but all students are required to purchase meal tickets for the duration of their stay. Travel may or may not be provided, depending on the type of agency or organization that agrees to send you.

To request attendance at one of these trainings, complete FEMA Form 119-25-1 at http://www.training.fema.gov/apply/ , and add your signature and that of your supervisor at the agency you intend to represent. Forward this form according to the instructions for Training Opportunity No.1225 at http://www.training.fema.gov/emi.aspx at least six weeks prior to the start of the course you plan to attend. And if this course is not your cup of tea, the training center offers hundreds of others throughout the year.

5. Disaster Ready Open Badges

In the past I’ve mentioned DisasterReady, an organization designed to train humanitarian responders for field duty. Recently they reorganized their website, and sent me an email suggesting that I look it over. Having done so, I suggest that you might consider doing so as well.

In addition to the individual courses that have always offered, DisasterReady now has learning paths – logical sequences of courses preparing the user for specific jobs in the field. To learn more about this, look on the website for references to Open Badges and to Open Badge Passports.

Of course, most of you “… don’t need no stinking badges!” (with apologies to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre for butchering their quote), but you may wish to look the site over anyway. It is: https://www.disasterready.org/ .

6. NFPA 1600 – 2016 Edition

It’s been a few years since we talked about the National Fire Protection Association, or NFPA. One of the major activities of the NFPA is the production and updating of national standards for many aspects of firefighting and emergency response. The standard for tonight is the 2016 Edition of NFPA 1600 – the Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity/Continuity of Operations Programs.

This standard began in 1995 as the Recommended Practice for Disaster Management. It was primarily intended for use by government emergency management activities. Over the years its mission and title expanded to include business disaster recovery and other activities. In addition to NFPA, Association of Contingency Planners (ACP), Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRII), International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) and U.S. Department of Homeland Security seals of approval all appear on the cover of this 2016 Edition.

Interested users may obtain a free PDF copy of NFPA 1600, 2016 Edition by registering on their website and placing an order just as if you were purchasing an item from them. You may not share your copy with others without written permission from NFPA. Go to http://catalog.nfpa.org/ and click My Profile to create one. Then go to: http://catalog.nfpa.org/Standard-on-DisasterEmergency-Management-and-Business-ContinuityContinuity-of-Operations-Programs-2016-Edition-P1438.aspx to order your copy.

By the way, there is a similar international standard, ISO 22320, Societal security – Emergency management – Requirements for incident response, 2012. We will not be reviewing this document because it is obscenely expensive to obtain at roughly $5 per page! And as we all know – I’m cheap!

7. Red Cross Home Fire Preparedness Campaign

Some of you may already know that the American Red Cross, including the chapters covering ARES District 3, is currently engaged in a Home Fire Preparedness Campaign. The goal is to reduce the number of fire deaths and injuries nationwide by 25% over the next five years. Meeting this ambitious goal will require some help.

If the smoke alarms in your home are over ten years old, the first thing you should do to assist this campaign is to replace those outdated detectors. The Red Cross is prepared to assist by installing replacements in your home as needed. There is no charge for this service, although the installers will ask you to take some time to make a plan to respond appropriately if a fire should break out in the home.

To be placed on an installation list, call your American Red Cross office in Dayton (937-222-6711 for Montgomery, Greene or Preble Counties) or Troy (937-332-1414 for all remaining ARES District 3 counties) during business hours. The office should record your request and staff will contact you later to set up an appointment at your home. This offer does not extend to residents of apartment complexes with a wired smoke detector system.

These installation teams could use a few more hands, so if you have some weekends or evenings free contact your Red Cross office to inquire about joining the Red Cross staffs, fire departments and other volunteers to take a bit of training and install a few detectors in your neck of the woods.

8. Humanitarian Academy of Harvard

Harvard University currently has an endowment approaching $38 billion dollars. That’s billion as in bravo! I have no idea where most of this money comes from or goes to, but I have found a small piece of it that may interest potential disaster responders, including ARES members.

The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative has formed an educational arm known as the Humanitarian Academy of Harvard. This academy draws on the faculties of many of Harvard’s other specialty schools. It is providing a free e-learning course offering its students a comprehensive introduction to the international humanitarian coordination system.

If a completely free Harvard course on disaster response interests you, go to http://www.buildingabetterresponse.org/ , press the Create a new account button on the right side of the home page, and a few minutes later you should receive an email link to your e-learning course. I’ve already taken two free response courses from Yale, so I’m looking forward to adding this Harvard course to my resume!

9. NWS Weather Ready

The National Weather Service (NWS) would like all of us to visit their new Weather Ready Nation’s Spring Safety webpage to consider weather awareness materials related to the onset of spring. While the information on Rip Currents and Tsunamis may not be of value locally, most of the materials on this site do pertain to ARES District 3.

The site is at the following internet location: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/com/weatherreadynation/spring_safety.html . While on this home page, click the Ambassadors button on the top right to learn how an organization that you belong to may become more involved as an NWS Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador.

Just a reminder, the 20^th Annual Severe Weather Symposium of the Ohio State University Meteorology Club comes up this Friday, March 4^th from 9 AM to 5 PM. The symposium is free, but the OSU parking garage will run about $12 and you will need some sort of lunch. For more information, click the link on the top of the NWS Wilmington, Ohio homepage at www.weather.gov/iln .

10. Event Planning

On Monday morning I gave a one hour American Red Cross Pillowcase Project talk on house fires and tornado preparedness at a Clark County elementary school. Then I returned to Springfield to help manage an organized Pi Day walk to various Pi-related schools, sororities and fraternities in Springfield.

Our 6.2832 mile walk (that’s 2 Pi) started at 1 PM, and District 3’s first tornado outbreak of 2016 began about a half hour later. We had dozens of people on the course an hour later when the tornado warning for Clark County was issued. We don’t let anyone begin a walk during a tornado warning, but what to do about walkers already out? The participants all had emergency contact information to reach the walk headquarters, but we had no way to contact the walkers out on the route. And Springfield has no tornado warning sirens. This has been the way these organized walks have operated for forty years.

Should my walking club change our practices? Perhaps we don’t need to now. There are many smart phone apps to warn of impending weather dangers, although not everyone carries a smart phone yet. This is a question facing anyone who runs any organized outdoor event, and the larger the event the more important event planning becomes.

11 NWS Training Portal

We once again find ourselves in the middle of Ohio’s Severe Weather Awareness Week. We hope that as an Ohio District 3 ARES member you were able to check in to one of this morning’s many area SkyWarn nets.

Since severe weather is this week’s theme, let’s look at the National Weather Service Training Portal site at www.nws.noaa.gov/training/ . While much of this training material is for NWS employees and other weather professionals, there are a few pages that might be of interest to ARES members.

On the left hand side of this page, near the center, is the heading Partners and Volunteers. Many ARES members fall under one or more of the categories shown here, such as Educators, Emergency Managers and/or Weather Spotters. If interested, click on the link or links that might apply to your situation.

12. Storm Academy

Most of the programs I give here are quite serious in nature. However, today I have something a little different. Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc., the parent company of two local television stations, is sponsoring the FOX/ABC Storm Academy on Saturday, April 2^nd between 11 AM and 2 PM.

This program will be held outdoors at Austin Landing, and attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs, a blanket or both, as no seating will be provided there. If the weather doesn’t cooperate, the event will move to the Bike Hub.

Meteorologists Jeff Booth, Chris Mulchay and Mike Joyce will teach informal classes on various aspects of weather, including storm chasing and simple weather experiments. The event is free, and open to all ages.

For further information, including directions and parking, go to the following website: http://austinlanding.com/ .

13. Real ID

A States Rights issue has recently reared its ugly head at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, Maryland, at the Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston, Alabama and at many other Federal sites. Four states, plus one U.S. territory, have missed the Federal Real ID Act deadline for upgrading the security of their driving licenses and/or state identification cards.

NETC and CDP attendees from Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Washington and American Samoa must arrive with a valid passport or other Federal ID, as their state IDs can no longer be accepted as a valid form of identification for entry onto many Federal reservations. There is an alternate procedure for gaining admittance, but it requires the visitor to submit paperwork at least three weeks in advance, and the resulting background check is only good for 180 days.

Fortunately, Ohio and all of its neighboring states are in compliance, but there might be ARES members out there who are carrying one of the licenses mentioned. The Real ID Act is supposed to apply to entry to most Federally controlled areas, including office buildings. And in less than two years noncompliance will even block the user from boarding a commercial aircraft.

Being unable to fly commercial may inconvenience the residents of those four states, but it will be a huge deal in American Samoa, where there are no Interstates or trains!

14. FEMA MEPP

On Friday morning Shelby County emergency responders will be conducting a hazardous materials and train derailment exercise. First responders have been in training with CSX railroad instructors for much of the week, and it should make for an interesting four hours.

Planning such a large full-scale event requires both disaster experience and formal exercise design training. One of the accepted ways to do this is the Master Exercise Practitioner Program, or MEPP. FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute schedules three or four MEPP courses per year at its Emmitsburg, Maryland facility. This year’s application period runs from May 1^st to July 1^st, with courses beginning in October, November, December and February.

The MEPP course of instruction consists of three four-day classes held several months apart. They must be taken in order. Tuition, materials, lodging and transportation are generally free, but students are required to purchase meal tickets for each four day session.

For more information on the MEPP, including application information and forms, go to https://training.fema.gov/mepp/ . For questions, contact our District 3 Emergency Coordinator, who just happens to be a Master Exercise Practitioner, or MEP!

15. Houston Flood Recovery

Most of you have heard something about the ongoing record flooding taking place in portions of the Houston, Texas area. They are now reaching the point where assistance from outside the state is being requested. And it is possible that some net participants may have the time and energy to get involved.

First of all, I’d like to strongly encourage anyone listening to make formal arrangements with responsible parties in the Houston area prior to leaving Ohio. Self-deployment into a disaster area is almost never a good idea.

I have a web address for those who might like to volunteer to help in Texas, as well as those who would like to work with established organizations to move needed disaster supplies into the affected area. The point of contact recommended by the mayor of Houston is: http://www.houstonfloodrecovery.org/ . This umbrella organization serves the greater Houston area, not just the City of Houston itself. Too often the large cities receive the bulk of the press coverage and the assistance, while nearby village residents are suffering as much or more.

16. ARDEN

Last year we discussed Broadband-Hamnet and the Miami Valley Mesh Alliance. At that time the MVMA was linking used Linksys and new Ubiquiti wireless routers using modified firmware, which they demonstrated at the 2015 Dayton Hamvention.

Well, things move rapidly in digital communications, and the MVMA now uses modified Ubiquiti routers running firmware created for the Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network, or AREDN. These routers now operate in the 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, 3.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz Amateur Radio bands. Some data channels available are shared with off-the-shelf wireless routers, while other channels are exclusive to Amateur Radio, thanks to the AREDN firmware modifications.

If you would like to learn more about the Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network, their website is http://www.aredn.org/ . To learn more about the Miami Valley Mesh Alliance, contact Bill Curtice at wa8apb@arrl.net or visit their tables at Hamvention 2016.

17. HAZMAT Operations Course

The Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston, Alabama, a Federal Emergency Management Agency training facility, has a new course offering that may interest some ARES members. If you are associated with a fire department, law enforcement agency or emergency management agency, you may want to check out the new Hazardous Materials Operations course, PER-322.

HAZMAT Ops is a five day course, plus two travel days, intended for responders who may be assigned to HAZMAT Operations duties in their community. Course completion certifies that the graduate is trained to National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standard 472 at the Operations Level.

There are a few required prerequisites, such as the frequently mentioned IS-100 and IS-200 courses, as well as AWR-160, another free online training. All travel, lodging, dining and training costs are covered by FEMA, although you should take some money with you for souvenirs and such. The first three offerings, including travel days, are August 21through 27, August 28 through September 3, and September 18 through 24.

To learn more about this and other CDP offerings, go to their secure website: https://cdp.dhs.gov/training/courses/ .

18. ARES Manuals on the ARRL Website

Have you ever visited the ARES web page on the American Radio Relay League website? While some ARRL goods and services are only available to dues paying members, most items on the ARES page are available to all. Two free pdf downloads near the top of the ARES page are of particular interest.

The first is the March 2015 edition of the Amateur Radio Emergency Services Manual. This 94 page handbook discusses ARES, its structure and its relationships with served agencies.

The next is the 2008 edition of the ARES Field Resources Manual. This is 90 pages of information that you might wish to have with you while responding to an actual incident, such as how to prepare a Ready Kit, sometimes referred to as a Go Kit.

Both of these free publications can be printed out and/or downloaded to a computer or tablet. To reach the ARRL’s ARES page, go to: http://www.arrl.org/ares .

19. Hamvention 2016

Well, it’s Hamvention time again. If you are going to Hara Arena this weekend and time permits, here are some places you might want to check out.

Friday’s activities include the one hour SHARES HF EMCOMM Forum at 9:15 AM in Room 3. There are some changes to the mission of the Shared Resources Government HF Emergency Radio System, and the SHARES Program Manager will enlighten the attendees.

On Sunday morning at 9:15 in Room 1 the Amateur Radio Disaster and Emergency Communications Panel will convene. Moderated by the ARRL Emergency Preparedness Manager, this one hour discussion is likely to be lively, although who knows what direction it will take.

Emergency communications vehicles will assemble daily for display outside the flea market. Most units will be manned and open for walk through.

Of course, this list just scratches the surface. Come out this weekend and see just what I’ve forgotten to share.

20. SHARES

Last week I mentioned the SHARES forum scheduled for this past Friday at Hamvention. SHARES is the Department of Homeland Security’s SHAred RESources High Frequency Radio System. Due to recent changes, it now includes federal, state, county, public utility and other select shortwave communications systems.

In times of emergency, SHARES provides the means for stations on one shortwave network, such as the Air Force Military Affiliate Radio System, or MARS, to pass emergency messages to a station from a normally unrelated HF network, like Cincinnati Bell or Verizon.

Amateur operators may not participate in SHARES as hams, but may as preapproved representatives of Army MARS, Air Force MARS, the American National Red Cross, a county emergency management agency or in some similar capacity. Preapproval is necessary because some SHARES information, such as frequency lists, is protected by DHS, and a degree of training is needed prior to operating on SHARES nets. To learn more, visit www.dhs.gov/shares .

21. RadResponder

I’ve been playing in the emergency management sandbox for 47 years now, but continue to discover new or unfamiliar websites and resources nearly every week. Last month I came across the RadResponder Network, a website managed jointly by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The RadResponder Network concerns all unclassified things radiological. It includes federal, state, local, tribal, industrial, medical and other partners with an interest in the use and/or misuse of radioactive materials. Registration to use the RadResponder Network resources requires an email address from one of the organizations mentioned above. Gmail, Yahoo, Roadrunner and similar email addresses can only be used on a temporary basis.

If you feel that you and your organization (police department, fire department, emergency management agency, hospital, etc.) would benefit from RadResponder Network membership, you may apply at the following website: http://www.radresponder.net/ .

22. EDEN

Much of ARES District 3 is relatively rural, and each District 3 county’s agricultural community is served by an Ohio State University Extension office. So what does that have to do with disasters?

The Extension Disaster Education Network, or EDEN, connects extension service educators throughout the nation to reduce the impact of disasters in the areas they serve.

If you live in one of the more rural areas of ARES District 3, consider visiting the EDEN website at http://eden.lsu.edu/ . Afterward, you may also find a visit to your county OSU Extension office for disaster planning information. Go to http://extension.osu.edu/ for contact information about your county OSU Extension office.

23. Religious and Cultural Literacy and Competency in Disaster

In addition to your ARES affiliation, are you a member of any religious organization that includes a disaster response component? Many religions do respond, although not all members who belong to one of those religious organizations are aware of it.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Emergency Management Institute has produced an online course to educate emergency managers and the general public about this interface between disasters and religions. IS-505, Religious and Cultural Literacy and Competency in Disaster was recently released and is now available.

Anyone with a FEMA Student Identification Number, or SID, can complete this course. SID numbers are free at the following secure web page: https://cdp.dhs.gov/femasid . And IS-505 is available at no charge at: http://training.fema.gov/IS/crslist.asp .

24. NSSE

Have you ever heard of a National Special Security Event, or NSSE? An NSSE is an activity deemed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as being a significant target for terrorism or organized criminal activity. Once something is declared an NSSE, the U.S. Secret Service assumes ultimate responsibility for security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation takes on intelligence functions and the Federal Emergency Management Agency leads any necessary post-event recovery.

NSSEs are rare in Ohio, but the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Cleveland from July 18^th through July 21st has been so designated. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Convention in Cincinnati from July 11^th through July 16^th approaches NSSE status, as does the Presidential Debate in Fairborn scheduled for September 26^th, although I have not yet seen announcements regarding NSSE status for these events.

Amateur Radio operators are being recruited as volunteers for the Republican National Convention. Most positions are with American Red Cross support units in Cuyahoga and Summit Counties. To volunteer, email Cuyahoga County ARES at info@ccares.us. As to the other two events, I will pass volunteer contact information along as I obtain it.

25. OHDEN

Let’s spend a few training sessions talking about emergency nets. Tonight’s choice is the Ohio Digital Emergency Net, or OHDEN. OHDEN is an Ohio Section emergency traffic net using sound card digital modes and Near Vertical Incidence Skywave, or NVIS, antennas to better cover the State of Ohio. The purpose of the net is to link the Ohio emergency operations center to the various county emergency operations centers within Ohio.

The OHDEN currently meets at 7:45 PM EDT Tuesdays on 3585 kiloHertz USB, with 7072 kiloHertz USB as the alternate frequency. That’s right, I said 80 or 40 meters Upper Sideband! The digital modes currently in use are OLIVIA 8/500 and PSK31, with MT63 used for sending bulletins. The standard software program is FLDIGI.

More information about the OHDEN may be found at http://ohden.org/ . FLDIGI and related programs may be downloaded at https://sourceforge.net/directory/communications/hamradio/os:windows/ .

26. SATERN

The Salvation Army has many projects going on simultaneously throughout the United States and the world. One major project is disaster response, and ham radio operators participate through the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network, or SATERN. SATERN operates dozens of daily and weekly training nets, which can gradually or rapidly switch to emergency or catastrophe nets as needed.

The current activation status of SATERN’s nets may be found on their website home page, which is www.satern.org . This status varies from Delta I, or training mode, through Delta V, signifying a response to a catastrophic event. The SATERN net days, times and frequencies can also be found on a link at this home page.

National and international SATERN voice operations take place on 14.265 MHz USB. Many regional SATERN voice nets use 7.265 MHz LSB. SATERN state nets show up on 80 meter frequencies, and some smaller SATERN nets use two meter repeaters, as noted on the link above.

27. CUSEC

While researching the topic of disaster nets for this current series of programs, I discovered the Central United States Earthquake Net. This net is intended to support the emergency work of the Central United States Earthquake Consortium, or CUSEC, and its research partners whenever needed following any earthquake in the Midwest.

The frequencies reportedly used for this purpose are 3810 kilohertz LSB and 7180 kilohertz LSB, and this regional net comes up as needed.

Anyone interested in learning more about the work of the Central United States Earthquake Consortium can visit their website, http://www.cusec.org/ .

28. Planning for actual vs perceived risk

At a previous training I noted that the first Presidential Debate of 2016 was scheduled for September 26^th at Wright State University’s Nutter Center. Yesterday afternoon Wright State President David Hopkins announced that this debate would no longer take place as scheduled. Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York will now host this event.

The stated reasons for moving the debate were concerns regarding the safety and security of the Wright State students and that only half of the money needed for event security had been raised. While the money issue was quite real, let’s take some time to consider the safety and security issues.

President Hopkins specifically mentioned the Nice, France attack in his comments. But did Nice change the actual safety and security concerns or simply the perceived situation? If you are asked to help plan a major event, try to resist the urge to modify your security planning based on the current week’s news stories.

On a related note, if you are interested in listening to security at the Republican National Convention, go to the internet site http://www.broadcastify.com/ . Click on the Ohio map, then the Cuyahoga County map and look for the Republican National Convention links. I’ve been listening for two days and it’s been an ear opener!

29. UAS in Disaster Management Course

I ran into an interesting new emergency management course offering this week. As usual, I ran into it by accident. This awareness level course is AWR-345 – Unmanned Aircraft Systems in Disaster Management. It is taught by instructors sent out from the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center at the University of Hawaii.

AWR-345 discusses a wide variety of uses of unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS, in the various phases of disasters. The course also covers various types of vehicles, as well as FAA regulations.

First responders and local emergency managers are encouraged to take this 8 hour training. The first offering in this area will be at the Ohio Emergency Management Agency, 2855 West Dublin-Granville Road, Columbus, Ohio on September 15^th. Register on the Ohio EMA website http://www.ema.ohio.gov/Training.aspx .

30. FEMA MGT-405 course

I often travel to Columbus, Ohio or farther for Emergency Management training courses. While most training costs are covered by Federal and/or state grants, I sometimes have to stay overnight at my own expense. But on rare occasions a training opportunity comes to ARES District 3. That will be the case on Saturday, September 24^th.

On that date, FEMA’s Rural Domestic Preparedness Consortium (RDPC) will offer their management level MGT-405 course, Mobilizing Faith-Based Community Organizations in Preparing for Disaster, at Wilberforce University just east of Xenia, Ohio.

This eight hour class is intended to bring faith-based organizations, emergency managers, non-governmental organizations, etc. to the disaster planning table. District ARES members might attend (with permission) representing their religious affiliation, their local emergency management agency or their first responder organization.

Registration closes on September 10^th, but may end earlier if the class fills first. If you are interested is this, or any, RDPC offering, go to http://www.ruraltraining.org/ .

31. Cybersecurity Training

f you, or anyone you know, might want to start a computer career, the newest hot field is cybersecurity. There are currently 350,000 vacancies in that field in the United States alone, with that number expected to rise into the millions by the time current high school seniors graduate from college. These professionals currently average nearly $100,000 per year, and it will be a long time before we can train enough people at this work to soften the market for their skills.

Cybersecurity certification is a bit complicated at this time, with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security currently recognizing eighteen different certification sources. So your first cybersecurity certification is unlikely to be your last. This will absolutely not be the kind of profession where you get a degree and never pick up a textbook again. Like doctors, nurses and paramedics, continuing education will be the norm.

In my multi-year quest to locate every free nerd course in the country, I recently found the Department of Homeland Security’s National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies. On their website is a link to another site offering free cybersecurity training to government employees at all levels and veterans! Go to https://niccs.us-cert.gov/ .

32. Ham radio on YouTube

This afternoon I visited http://www.youtube.com/ and typed several Ham related emergency keywords into the search feature just to discover how many videos were available on these topics.

If you type in ARRL disaster you get about 1,000 video hits. Type in ARRL emergency and the hit list raises to 8,000. Amateur radio disaster brings up 16,000 videos, and amateur radio emergency leaps up to 62,000 hits. Some entries were just minutes long, while others run for hours.

I confess that my knowledge of YouTube is scanty at best, but I see that I’ve been missing something by not being more adventurous. If you haven’t visited YouTube recently, perhaps you should join me there sometime soon.

33. Red Cross Volunteers Needed

On Monday morning I received an email from John Bernard, the Regional Disaster Officer for the Greater Cincinnati-Dayton Region of the American Red Cross. To make a long story short, responses to the flooding in Louisiana and West Virginia, plus the local house fires and other incidents within our region, are placing our Red Cross volunteer base under stress.

John has requested that each current Red Cross regional volunteer ask at least one person to consider becoming an American Red Cross volunteer.

Volunteers can limit their activities to just one of the two Red Cross chapters in Ohio ARES District 3, or serve anywhere within the Greater Cincinnati-Dayton Region. With a bit of experience, you may join thousands of others working such big national assignments as the previously mentioned floods, forest fires out west, hurricanes making landfall within the United States or other disasters. There are even a few locals who have gone on international assignments to Canada, the Philippines, etc. If travel is a problem, it is now possible to work as a virtual Red Cross caseworker from anywhere with a telephone and the internet.

To learn more, contact John at his American Red Cross email address: john.bernard@redcross.org . Or go to http://www.redcross.org/ and begin the online application process to join the Northern Miami Valley Ohio Chapter (if you’re in Champaign, Clark, Darke, Logan, Miami or Shelby county) or the Dayton Area Chapter (if you’re in Greene, Montgomery or Preble county).

34. EMAO

The Emergency Management Association of Ohio is a Columbus-based non-profit representing emergency management professionals within the state. It partners with the Ohio Emergency Management Agency to advocate for improved emergency management, civil defense and homeland security efforts within Ohio. The association holds conferences several times per year to exchange ideas and obtain training.

Most members of the association are county EMA directors or deputy directors, but there are now provisions for other emergency management professionals in Ohio to join. Some examples of these potential Affiliate Members might include hospital emergency managers, military emergency managers, college emergency managers and public health employees.

If you feel that you qualify as a paid emergency management professional within Ohio, you may go to the following website for application forms, annual dues information and other details about the association: http://www.emaohio.org/ .

35. NVOAD

The National Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD) website at http://www.nvoad.org/ has pages and pages of useful information for ARES members. One that struck me as useful is a small brochure in the Resource Center/Donations Management section jointly prepared by NVOAD and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Entitled When Disaster Strikes, this folder provides sound advice for donating your goods and/or your services to a disaster response. Although the suggestions mentioned in this publication date from 2007, they are as valuable now as they ever were. The gist of the message is: Cash donations to a legit response organization are usually best, used clothes donations are often the worst, and, when possible, potential volunteers should affiliate with a recognized response organization prior to arriving to volunteer at a disaster site.

36. UAS Remote Pilot Certificate

While preparing for tomorrow’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems in Disaster Management class at the Ohio Emergency Operations Center in Columbus, I was thinking about how good a fit that job might be for hams involved in emergency response. I recently discovered that the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, has released new rules governing commercial use of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems, or sUAS.

As of August 29^th it became possible to pass a knowledge test to qualify for an FAA Remote Pilot Certificate with a Small UAS rating. In addition to passing a 60 question exam, you must also complete an FAA Airman Certification application form and be approved by the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA. The certificate is good for two years, and requires another exam in order to renew it. There is a different qualification procedure for those who already hold an FAA pilot certificate.

Why would a ham wish to obtain a sUAS Remote Pilot Certificate? Well, unmanned aerial surveys of areas impacted by emergencies have proven quite valuable. You may have noticed the use of unmanned vehicles by the media following recent tornadoes in District 3. The fact is that for a while at least there will be a shortage of FAA licensed remote pilots as commercial uses skyrocket.

This is an opportunity to enter a relatively new field just as it begins to take off, if you’ll pardon the expression. Maybe a ham will be one of the first to deliver disaster supplies via an unmanned vehicle! For more information, go to www.faa.gov/uas .

37. NCCPS

Ohio District 3 ARES Program for Wednesday, September 21, 2016

After three years of presenting these programs I still run across unfamiliar emergency response websites. Sometimes I have a better excuse than others for missing the site. My excuse for not knowing about The National Center for Campus Public Safety, or NCCPS, is that it only dates from 2013. The NCCPS was established to support safer and stronger campus communities.

The NCCPS site may be important to us because Ohio District 3 has well over a dozen higher education campuses, not including branch offices. Safety and security on those campuses is a higher priority each year. And don’t forget that in 1974 both Central State and Wilberforce Universities were nearly destroyed by the same tornado that struck Xenia.

Assets of the NCCPS website include an online library of relevant publications and a calendar of events listing tons of useful training opportunities. The NCCPS Institute also offers training opportunities, although their classes are currently oriented toward sexual assault response.

To learn more about the NCCPS, visit their site at http://www.nccpsafety.org/ .

38. Updated FEMA EMI Courses

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Emergency Management Institute has just updated five short online independent study courses on the topic of Geospatial Information. I think of Geospatial Information as disaster assessment on steroids.

I mentioned some of these courses when they first came out. If you didn’t take them then you might consider doing so soon. The EMI website is www.training.fema.gov/is/ . And if you haven’t yet obtained your free FEMA Student Identification Number, now required to complete any FEMA class, you may do so from this training page.

39. Disaster Ready Training Site

When it became clear that Hurricane Matthew was going to be a major problem, the folks at the DisasterReady web site put together a collection of pages directed to those who would like to help prepare for and recover from such disasters. Some of the biggies who have contributed training to this site include the American Red Cross, UNICEF and Save the Children.

If you are interested in looking into any of these offerings, register at https://disasterready.csod.com to gain access to their resource catalog.

40. RDPC

The Rural Domestic Preparedness Consortium, or RDPC is a collection of colleges and universities that contract with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to bring free emergency management training into small cities and towns.

They have scheduled a one day class entitled Mobilizing Faith-Based Community Organizations in Preparing for Disaster several times in and near District 3, but it gets canceled each time due to a shortage of interest. RDPC tries to get twenty students enrolled in order to justify sending instructors and materials flying across the country.

Their latest attempt to offer this class is in Kenton, Ohio on Thursday, October 27^th. If you would like to enroll, it may still be possible to do so by calling 1-877-855-7372. You must first obtain a FEMA Student Identification Number at cdp.dhs.gov/FEMASID to register for any FEMA class. And to learn about other RDPC course offerings, visit www.ruraltraining.org .

41. COMMEX 16-4

From October 30^th through November 1^st, the Army and Air Force Military Auxiliary Radio Services, or MARS, will participate in the quarterly Department of Defense Contingency Communications Exercise, or COMMEX 16-4.

MARS is asking as many amateurs as possible to monitor 5330.5 kilohertz on Monday. October 31^st (Sunday local) between 0300 and 0400 UTC. High powered military transmitters will be tested during this period and MARS is requesting reception reports from monitors. QSL information is scheduled to be part of these transmissions.

In addition to these broadcasts, MARS operators will attempt to contact amateur operators on the five 60 meter channels available to hams. In addition, they will also be contacting hams on VHF and UHF amateur repeaters as well as via HF bands using NVIS antennas.

Additional information is available at www.arrl.org. From the home page, select ‘NEWS’ and click pages until you find the MARS logo.

42. USA.gov

Do you remember the Consumer Information Catalog, published since 1971 by the U.S. General Services Administration? Free copies were often available at public libraries, and the catalog listed free and/or inexpensive government publications. Well, their Final Edition was the Winter-Spring 2016, and ordering from it was discontinued on September 15^th.

However, the publications formerly available there can be downloaded or ordered at http://USA.gov/explore . I typed the word disaster into a search engine on that site that generated twenty documents on that topic. Typing emergency generated an overlapping, but different set of twenty, and adding the word communications to either search resulted in different document sets.

So give usa.gov a try sometime.

43. Check your equipment!

Last Saturday I participated in a charity 5k walk/run in Xenia, Ohio. Half a dozen hams came out in relatively cold weather to act as safety monitors for the runners and walkers. While not scheduled to work this event, I brought my handheld with me to monitor their repeater while I walked.

For many years now District 3 ARES Net staffers have repeated recommendations for all ARES members to maintain and regularly check their equipment. On the morning of the event I noticed that I had failed to charge my battery and had only an hour left to do so.

Well, to make a long story short I started to check into the event net and my partially charged one year old battery was almost immediately too weak to transmit. It died entirely before the event even began at noon. Red faced, I asked another ham to report my loss of signal to net control and completed the event as just another walker.

I guess there must be something to the old saying that those who can’t do – teach!

44. FEMA EMI on Social Media

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Emergency Management Institute has launched new social media accounts this fall on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. ARES members may not follow all of these services, but many follow one or two of them. For example, I’m active on Facebook and check out LinkedIn from time to time. But I’ve never had a Twitter account.

EMI posts information on available FEMA jobs, openings in EMI classes, graduation ceremonies for major FEMA programs and other news using these media. Go to the following web page to link to these social media accounts: https://training.fema.gov/emi.aspx .

45 Red Cross DST

The technicians who manage electronics for the American Red Cross on disaster assignments are known as Disaster Services Technology, or DST. Being a ham is a good first step toward joining the DST staff, but you have to know quite a bit more to be useful on a disaster assignment.

The present training sequence for DST members is a series of half a dozen 2 hour online workshops, followed by a three day classroom Hands on Equipment training session somewhere within your Red Cross division.

The DST Overview Workshop will be offered online next Wednesday from 9 to 11 PM, just after this net. You must register in advance on the new Red Cross Edge training site, which requires an active American Red Cross Volunteer Connection account. Contact your nearest Red Cross office to get started as a DST volunteer.

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