OPERATION SET UP and GUIDLINES

1. 2010 Statewide Medical and Health Exercise: This is the official name of the exercise. Additional information can be found at http://www.californiamedicalhealthexercise.com.

2. Have a copy of the latest ARES confidential frequency list available and refer to our frequencies and repeaters by ARES channel numbers.

3. Have the appropriate frequencies already programmed into your radios. Bring radio manuals with you in the event you have forgotten how to put in a new frequency with the encode tones.

4. Download from the ARES website the ARES deployment forms to include the Event Log, Message Log, and ARES “Ham Radio Communications” sign. Use the Event Log to record key items of information which will usually begin with the time you arrive on station, the names of your team members, and the time of your first contact with Net Control. Print the ARES sign in color if possible and post it at various places at your operating site.

5. Have copies of blank Radiogram Message forms, IC-213/ HICS 213 Message Forms, and Hospital Status Assessment Forms.

6. Preface every formal message and announce periodically during the event: “This is a drill”, “This is an exercise”, or “This is a test message.” If something should occur during the exercise that is an actual emergency, announce “This is not a drill. This is a real world emergency” and then advise all stations to stand-by so you can pass your traffic.

7. Be familiar with the basic structure of the Incident Command System (ICS) and Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) that you learned from the FEMA courses (ICS 100). For example, the communications unit is under the Service Branch in the Logistics Section.

8. Have a copy of the ARES Field Resources Manual, which has the phonetic alphabet. Use plain language and avoid ham jargon. Do not exchange jokes and pleasantries. No “please” or “thank you”.

9. At your operating site, consider using "situation boards" which are simply pieces of white butcher block type paper, dry erase boards, or blank sheets of 8x11 inch paper with information written in by black marker. These situation boards would be taped to the walls of your area to be visible to all where you can write down important information such as tactical/ham call signs, names of key hospital personnel, frequencies, important telephone numbers etc. Their purpose is to aid you in your operation by being able to glance up and find what you need instead of shuffling through papers at your radio table.

10. Instead of relying solely on an HT for communication at your site to other sites via repeaters, use a more powerful mobile rig with an AC supply or battery to an outside antenna. We have to be able to operate if the repeaters are down which would mean using simplex. An HT at one hospital trying to talk to another HT at a different hospital on simplex is not going to make it. HTs are best used to communicate internally on-site such as when one team member is inside the hospital and needs to talk with the other ham operators of the team.

11. Have a back-up rig available if your primary radio malfunctions.

12. Always keep in mind SAFETY in whatever you do. If you are using a generator for power, have a fire extinguisher nearby. If one person is climbing a ladder to put up an antenna, another person should be holding the ladder. If you are backing up your vehicle in a tight space, have a spotter. If you are working outside at night, wear a reflective vest.

13. Dress appropriately to give a professional appearance. Even though we are volunteers and "amateurs",we do not want to wear dirty and oldclothing or outlandish baseball caps whichdetract from our ARES public service mission.

14. Have general informationavailable you can provide to hospital personnel who might be interested in amateur radio such as a handout, copy of a magazine article, or websites where one can get information such as www.areslax.org or www.arrl.org

15. Consider using headphones or ear pieces to cut down on radio chatter and noise.

16. Besides your tactical callsign at your hospital site, use only one amateur callsign of one of your team participants, usually the team leader, for identification and FCC compliance.

17. A minimum of three ham operators at a site is the ideal. One operator should be at the hospital command post (CP) to have face-to-face contact with hospital personnel while two others should be working the radios. The team leader should have made an on-site inspection at the hospital before the exercise to ascertain where the radio equipment and antennas will be set up, where the parking is for the ham volunteers, where other hospital facilities (such as restrooms and cafeteria) are located for the ham volunteers to use, and what extra items such as tables and chairs you will need to bring if not located inside your own room in the hospital. It is not recommended that the radio operators be in the hospital CP room as the noise and congestion would be too much. If the ham radio operations are located further away from the CP such as out in the parking lot, it is especially important that one ham be inside the hospital or make frequent visits to the CP since “out of sight, out of mind.”

18. Determine early on during the exercise who yourhospital liaison will be since you may not necessarily be always talking to the Disaster Coordinator or Supervisor whom the team leader had first met. That person will have numerous other duties and may want to delegate a different person to be your liaison. Ascertain how you will communicate with your liaison at the CP from your operating position: face-to face; via telephone; messenger/runner; orif the hospital has their own handheld radios, whether they can give one to you. Ascertain how you will handle message delivery to and receipt from the CP, i.e. will they accept verbal tactical messages or do they wanted it in written form.The hospital CP may have their own log for recording the receipt of messages. Be prepared to explain how aRadiogram message formatmight be used for formal messages. Offer to attend any of the briefings in the CP to include offering to give a concise and short presentation of who you are and why you are there.

19. Consider operation on HF with a NVIS or wire antenna. OES from Sacramento usually has a net during the exercise on 40 meters (7.230 MHz.) Primary ARES HF net frequencies are 3.860 MHz., 7.295 MHz. with an alternate of 7.285, and 28.495 MHz. These frequencies are often given to other ARES groups participating in other counties to test our ability to establish communication with them.


20. There may be other entities near your location using hams and running their own nets such as DCS or ACS. If you have an extra radio and capability to contact them without leaving your primary ARES net frequency, consider advising them who you are and how to contact you, either via a net or simplex frequency you are monitoring. For example, a ham might be stationed at a nearby Red Cross evacuation shelter. It would be advantageous to set up a way to communicate with each other and advise your hospital CP that you are in contact with the shelter.

21. Bring a camera to photograph your team,the radio operating position, and antenna installation for future reference and posting on the ARES website photo gallery.

22. Consider attending any exercisecritique the hospital staff might have.

23. Clean up your operating space before leaving. Return to the hospital any equipment you borrowed.

24. Make notes on how your operation went with input from all team members and your Event Log to discuss later at an ARES debrief and critique.

(WA9STI Nov. 2010)