2012 Review and a Few Other Notes from your SEC

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1 2012 Review and a Few Other Notes from your SEC Thank you to our Conference Planning Committee lead by Kathy Schramm, KB9UAZ. We had very good attendance October 20 th, 2012, in Wisconsin Rapids. The website has been updated with photos, files and notes on what took place. Check it out! The year was fairly quiet for most of our counties when thinking about activations. Skywarn activity was lighter than recent years. However, Milwaukee and Douglas Counties were quite busy with the Oak Creek tragedy and severe flooding in the Superior/Duluth area. Please check the article in the ARRL ARES E-Letter at: if you missed it back in September. In December of 2012 former Manitowoc County EC Dan Cole, N9NCU, became a SK. He was the leader in Manitowoc County ARES/RACES for over five years. He, working with his team, and Dan Heinrich, W9JFM and the Kewaunee team, guided the amateur radio participation in many Point Beach Nuclear Power Plant exercises from the local end over the past several years. Joe Senulis, N9TWA, stepped down as ASEC for Wisconsin Emergency Management and Tom Pierce, WA9CBR, took over for Joe in March. The title of the position was altered to ASEC for State Agencies as Tom is our liaison to WEM and Health Services. In 2012 we saw the resignation of several District Emergency Coordinators: David Levorson, N9KNY, stepped down as DEC for the Northeast District and Mark Rasmussen, N9MEA, took over for Dave on August 1 st, Jon Gilmore, KB9RHZ, stepped down as DEC for the Southeast District and Larry Noldan, NZ9I, took over for Jon on September 1 st, Peter Sweeney, WD9JIB, stepped down as DEC for the Southwest District on December 31 st, I am hoping to find a new DEC for Southwest this month. In 2012 we saw the resignation of several County Emergency Coordinators and many new appointments: Ken Snyder, WA9LFO, was reappointed in May as EC for Wood County. Larry Puza, WB9BVB, resigned as EC for Washington County. Michael York, AE9MY, took over for Larry in June. Thomas Knospe, KC9NFJ, stepped down as EC for Lincoln County and Keith Stoney, W9QJQ, took over for Thomas in July. Matthew Noll, KC9UPE, took over as EC for Sauk County in July. Thank you to Peter Sweeney, Southeast DEC, for taking on Sauk County during the interim after Drew Smith, KC9LJK, stepped down. Kevin Graham, KC9FWE, stepped down as EC for Green Lake County and Mark Baker, KC9UVP, took over for Kevin in August. Jeffrey Byrns, N9UUP, took over for Southeast DEC Larry Noldan, NZ9I, as EC for Waukesha County in September. Dave Wendt, N9GQ, stepped down as EC for Rock County and Al Homan, KC9QQO, took over for Dave in October. Dan Heinrich, W9JFM, stepped down as EC for Kewaunee County and Doug Warner, N9NX, took over for Dan in October. Mike Yuhas, AB9ON, stepped down as EC for Ozaukee County and Art Davidson, AC9CD, took over for Mike on January 1 st, Tim Pierce, KB9UAJ, stepped down as EC for Dane County and Luke Ziobro, KC9IFF, took over for Tim on January 1 st, Jason Winget, N9XYX, stepped down as EC for Saint Croix County and John Kruk, N9UPC, took over for Jason on January 1 st, John joins his father, Wally Kruk N9VAO, Sawyer County EC, and this may well be the first father and son combination as Wisconsin County ARES/RACES Emergency Coordinators. Tim Pierce and Jason Winget will be continuing as Directors for WeComm. I want to thank David Catalano, N8KQS, for continuing to serve in Brown County as EC. A new EC for Brown County will be appointed later this month. My special thanks to all of these individuals for their past and future service to Wisconsin ARES/RACES. Walworth County EC Daniel Kundert has changed his call to WX9EMS. That call suggests interest in weather and EMS.

2 Keep an eye on the Wisconsin ARES/RACES website for severe weather spotter training opportunities around the state. Please accept this as a reminder to all county emergency coordinators, district emergency coordinators and ASEC leaders of your responsibility to maintain current ARRL membership. Finally, a big thank you to our Webmaster Richard Engel, K9RWE, and Newsletter Editor Stephanie Schweitzer, KC9TZW! Your work is appreciated as is the contribution of every member and leader in this organization. It takes a team, be it for the county where it all starts, district where coordination between the counties happens, or the ARRL Section to keep ARES/RACES operating in Wisconsin. Emergency Coordinators and District Emergency Coordinators please submit articles, photos, meeting notices to Richard and Stephanie. Let us know what is happening! I urge you to check the Meet the New Leaders section on the Wisconsin ARES/RACES website to see what newly appointed individuals are saying in their introductions. 73 Written by: Gary Sorensen, W9ULK Section Emergency Coordinator-Wisconsin ARES/RACES Fond du Lac County ARES/RACES in was a good year for ARES/RACES in Fond du Lac County. We have been able to maintain a twenty-five person Team with four AECs. Our working relationship with Fond du Lac County s Emergency Manager was strengthened this year with a series of one-on-one meetings between the EC and EM. The EM hosted one of our ARES meetings in the fall, which included talks by the EM and the Supervisor of the 911 Dispatch Center and a tour of the EOC and the 911 Dispatch Center. We also spent time with the Deputy Chief of Police of the City of Fond du Lac and the new city Fire Chief to strengthen those relationships. Training consisted primarily of providing communications services for public service events: The Ripon Medical Center s Annual Triathlon; The Race the Lake bicycle race around Lake Winnebago (with assistance from ARES Teams in Winnebago, Outagamie and Calumet counties) and a few other smaller events; and, of course, the SET and a multicounty hospital ham radio test exercise. We installed a dual-band 144/440 MHz transceiver in the FDL County 911 Dispatch Center, to complement the existing unit in the separate FDL County EOC and moved the twometer transceiver from the old Red Cross Disaster Response Vehicle to their new replacement vehicle. All the hospital ARES transceivers were reprogrammed with a common frequency set of national simplex and area repeater frequencies; and a kit consisting of the ARRL ARES Field Manual, ARRL Logbook, ARRL Message pads and ICS-213 Message Forms was supplied to each Hospital. We created an ARES Manual which details with photos and text the ham radio equipment located at the FDL County EOC, 911 Dispatch Center, City Incident Command Center, the three Hospitals and the American Red Cross base station and unit in their Disaster Response Vehicle. We secured and installed a Low Band VHF FM transceiver (47.42 MHz) in the Fond du Lac Amateur Radio Club s Mobile Communications Unit (the Yellow Banana. ) This radio will provide a direct link to any similarly equipped American Red Cross base or mobile units during a disaster. FYI: The FDL Club s MCU radio compliment includes a VHF FM transceiver set up for the National Search and Rescue frequency. FDL ARES has authorization to use the NATSAR channel and operates under the State of Wisconsin s license for that service. SKYWARN amateur radio operations are separate from the ARES/RACES Team in Fond du Lac County. Of course, several ARES members are also involved in SKYWARN activities. There were little activation this year (thank goodness) and no serious storms occurred. Article Written by: Stephen Smith, W9GPI WI ARES/RACES, Fond du Lac County, EC Last 3 DECs of the NE District Current DEC: Mark Rasmussen, N9MEA (Far Left), the last DEC, now ADEC, David Levorson, N9KNY (Far Right) and the DEC previous to David Levorson is Pete Johnson, AB9PJ (Center) who is also an ADEC in the NE District.

3 Douglas County ARES/RACES in 2012 Northwest District ARES/RACES in Ø12 was a good year for our operations up here in Northwestern Wisconsin. We had several mid-month work nights where we trained on our equipment in the EOC radio shack and also made improvements to our mobile communications trailer. We supported several public service events in the Duluth/Superior area. Among these were the Superiorman Triathlon, Superior Trail 1ØØ/5Ø/25 mile races, Yoyaguer Trail Ultramarathon, Northshore Inline Marathon, Wild Duluth race, and Grandma's Marathon. We participated in a Northeastern Minnesota Hospital Drill as a support function. This gave us an excellent opportunity to interact with our fellow response groups in Minnesota as well as exercise our equipment and response capabilities. We did exercise our mobile communications trailer at several of the public service events as well as Field Day and the National Weather Service Duluth Water Safety Expo. Our group was also very involved with Skywarn through the National Weather Service office in Duluth. Several of our group members are involved with the Arrowhead Skywarn Response Team that mans the amateur radio desk at NWS Duluth Office when severe weather is forecast in their warning area. This includes Douglas, Bayfield, Ashland, Burnett, Washburn, Sawyer, and Price counties in Wisconsin. I attended the 2012 Wisconsin ARES/RACES Conference, assisted with the Birkebeinar Ski race communications, assisted in two searches, and visited all of the counties in my District. In the Northwest District, all but one county (of those staffed by EC s) participated in the SET In 2012 I did the following training: COML Threat Liaison Officer Auxiliary Emergency Communications The year was mostly uneventful we are always looking for more ARES/RACES members in the Northwest District. Submitted by: Chris Keezer, KC9NVV WI ARES/RACES, Northwest District, DEC Fox Cities Marathon 2012 In September, Outagamie County ARES assisted with the annual Fox Cites Marathon. The marathon includes 5,000 runners, so it was quite a large event. With the assistance of Winnebago County ARES and the Fox Cities Amateur Radio Club we had 14 operators stationed at mile markers and water points throughout the course, as well as liaison stations in the police command center and the announcer s area. On June 20 we self-activated in support of counties of Northeastern Minnesota as well as Douglas County during the severe flooding that occurred. From our EOC in Superior we made contact with Cook and Lake Counties in Minnesota and provided them with an air ambulance and scheduling link. We had local amateurs collect data on flooded areas and closed roads and helped several people navigate through the area. We kept operating until commercial communications were fixed. Our story was in an article in QST magazine. Wisconsin ARES/RACES' Busy Summer We saw our numbers grow a bit as new people have come on board to support our efforts. We look forward to an equally productive 2Ø13 and hope to grow and be of service to Wisconsin and our fellow response groups in Minnesota. Article Written By: Dave Miller, W0NOW WI ARES/RACES, Douglas County, EC We tracked the 1 st, 2 nd, and 3 rd place runners for male and females in the race at ten points throughout the marathon and relayed it to the announcer s station to be posted on the leaderboard. With the stations throughout the course we could easily monitor for safety concerns and for injuries to alert the appropriate leadership or medical staff if needed. The marathon is a non-profit event supporting various local charities. With the help of everyone this was a GREAT event! Article Written by: Andy Cox, KC9TAE WI ARES/RACES Outagamie County, AEC PIO

4 Waupaca County in 2012 Winnebago County ARES/RACES in 2012 Fortunately we were only activated for a few weather events this year. In February, we participated in an East Central ARES District hospital emergency communications drill simulating a widespread medical epidemic covering multiple counties. This net tied local hospitals together throughout the District. In April, Waupaca County hosted severe weather spotter training. Waupaca County hosts at least one severe weather training nearly every year. In May, we set up our comm trailer at the Iola winter sports area and provided support comm for a mountain bike race. We had members located throughout the course and at the main building to support the Wisconsin Off Road Series "Iola Bump & Jump." This is an annual event. In June several members deployed using the comm trailer to participate in the ARRL Field Day event. We placed 5 th nationwide in our category. This was our second year participating and we plan to do this annually. Winnebago county had a few interesting deployments this past year from flooding to destructive hailstorms/winds and multiple public events. We served as communications support for The Oshkosh half marathon, Oshkosh area Triathlon, Race the Lake cycling race, Fox Cities Marathon and numerous Skywarn deployments, including one during EAA in Oshkosh. Winnebago County also gave us an early Christmas present by updating some of the radios in the EOC and Mobile command Unit with dual watch radios, which expands our capabilities to include UHF frequencies and 220 MHz operation from those locations; we were previously limited to VHF only. The radios also have APRS capability with GPS built-in. Article by: Kyle Schafer, KC9SDK WI ARES/RACES Winnebago County EC In July, for 4 consecutive days, we were set up alongside the Iola Fire/Rescue and Waupaca County Mobile Command Post at the Iola Old Car Show and Swap Meet to provide weather information and real-time monitoring for event goers, organizers, and Waupaca County Emergency Management. This is an annual event. Also in July, several members provided mutual aid support to Outagamie County for the Wisconsin Farm Technology Days event comm support. In August, we set up the comm trailer in South Park, Waupaca for the Waupaca Area Triathlon. We had members located throughout the race courses, vehicle mobile, bicycle mobile, and in South Park providing support communications for event officials. This is an annual event. Members from Across the State Prepare for the State ARES/RACES Conference in Wisconsin Rapids. In October, we participated in the ARRL state-wide Simulated Emergency Test (SET). We identified several potential issues and developed strategies to overcome them. Throughout the year, our monthly meetings included training in weather, emergency management and communications sometimes hosting instructors from other counties and other agencies. This is only the highlights of the past year and members were involved in several other activities. We are excited and looking forward to an active Article Written by: Charles Clark, W9SBU WI ARES/RACES, Waupaca County, AEC In Photo: Peter Sweeney,WD9JIB WI ARES/RACES, South West District, DEC

5 Professional Use of Social Media Sites Thanks to the world of social networking and in particular, the launching of Facebook, the landscape of human relationships as it relates to how individuals connect, interact and communicate has been revolutionized. This social revolution is worldwide and cuts across varied demographics including age, culture and gender, thus opening the door for new avenues of human (or non-human as considered by some) interaction. Social networking has become an aspect of so many lives with 901 million active users on Facebook as of March 2012, according to the Associated Press. Beyond Facebook, social media entities such as LinkedIn, Friendster, Twitter and MySpace contribute to the significant number of users. The ARES/RACES world is not immune to the impact of social networking and must not ignore it. As appointed officials have an obligation to understand the ethical dilemmas social media poses, particularly how an official should interact with volunteers, fellow operators and various served agency personnel. We have a responsibility to gain perspective regarding the impact of how these new human interactions influence individuals served, as well as the implications that emerge for practitioners as they engage in helping relationships. Social media also presents ARES members with new ethical and professional challenges. If you use Facebook personally or professionally, you need to decide how you will separate your personal and professional identities in a forum that rapidly distributes info on the Web. Sound decisions about your online profile can let you and your served institutions prosper from the benefits that accrue to savvy Facebook users - while avoiding potential embarrassments and liability. Before you create a profile or "post" your next "status update" on your "wall," you should: Understand potential boundary violations. Know how to activate your security and privacy settings. Remember that you represent not only yourself but your profession. Here are a few examples of how social media can complicate and even compromise long standing relationships: In 2011, a Miss America contestant was blackmailed using photos from her old Facebook page to try to get her dethroned from her title of Miss New Jersey. Amy Polumbo deleted her Facebook page before the state pageant, but that didn't stop an anonymous sender called "Committee to Save Miss America." Polumbo did not give up her crown, and the photos were not as bad as they were made out to be, but it teaches a lesson about how open to be on social networking sites. In the fall of 2010, a young soccer referee with a Facebook account posted a picture of the crew taken prior to a game at a Division I site. The picture, like many in most Facebook accounts, was extremely innocent. The caption read, "This is a great venue for the game of soccer," as this field was recently renovated with beautiful grass, seating for over 1,000 spectators, a great press box and overall, a "great venue for the game of soccer." As luck would have it, that referee was slated to work the conference tournament at the end of the season at the very same site he had posted the crew picture on his page. One of the coaches whose team had made it to the tournament, through the network of "friends" was sent the picture with the caption about the "great venue" and contacted the conference assigner and administrators stating that this "young referee" should not work the tournament as he was "biased" for the team whose site he had posted on his Facebook account. The conference administrators agreed and the referee was removed as one of the crewmembers for the conference tournament. Moral of the story - be careful what you post as it has ways of coming back to "haunt you. Another incident involved another young referee who was removed from working a conference final as his name was posted on a player's account without the referee's knowledge. That player who was a starter for institution "X" stated on his Facebook page that his team had made it to the finals and the game was to be played back at his "home" state where the referee had officiated the player's games when he was in high school. The posting Simply stated, he "hoped the referee he had in high school was doing the final game as he was a very good referee and kept games from getting out of control and protected all players." The posting made its way to the opposing coach whose team had made it to the championship. Again the assigner was contacted and asked to remove the referee off the final as the coach felt it would be unfair since the player had the referee in high school games and the referee "might" be biased in calling the title game! Another example of a referee getting caught in a situation "not of his doing," but having a detrimental impact on the game of soccer! What then is the implication for ARES/RACES and its members and officers? You may have a social media page, but be careful what you post as it can have negative impacts on the relationships with served agencies not only in your own area but all areas across the state, The emergency management community does communicate amongst themselves and what is said in another county or district can have consequences on relationships in your own area. Be mindful of how posts that could be interpreted to be in poor taste or those of political or controversial nature could negatively impact both fragile/strained relationships and long standing relationships with associated served agencies alike. When you accept appointment to a leadership position your actions not only reflect on you personally but also the organizations you are affiliated with. So please pause before you post and reflect on your words as they may be seen from the perspective of an Emergency Manager, Sheriff, Police or Fire Chief or Hospital President. Adapted and used by permission from an article by Kim Vieira, Hamilton, Ohio, who is a NISOA National Referee and assigns for eight Midwestern conferences. Article by: Kyle Schafer, KC9SDK WI ARES/RACES Winnebago County EC

6 WI ARES/RACES Nets: Sunday: 8:00 AM WI ARES/RACES khz 9:00 AM Kewanee Co PL :30 PM Waushara Co PL :00 PM Fond Du Lac PL :00 PM Grant Co PL CA 7:00 PM Green Co PL :00 PM Oneida Co PL :00 PM Sauk Co PL :00 PM Winnebago Co PL :30 PM Lincoln Co PL :30 PM Calumet Co PL :30 PM Marquette Co PL :00 PM Outagamie Co PL :15 PM Waupaca Co PL :30 PM Tri Co. ARES (Marinette Co, Oconto Co, and Menominee Co. MI) PL Richland Co. Special Net Times 7:00PM (Daylight Savings Time Ends) 9:00 PM (During Daylight Savings Time) PL Monday: 7:00 PM St. Croix Co PL :30 PM Dodge Co PL :00 PM Shawano Co PL :00 PM Marathon Co PL :00 PM Walworth Co PL :00 PM Milwaukee Co PL :00 PM Polk Co PL :00 PM Waukesha Co PL Tuesday: State Winlink Net 7:00 PM Manitowac Co PL :00 PM Rock Co PL :00 PM Wood Co PL :00 PM Barron Co PL :00 PM Portage Co PL :00 PM Watertown SIMPLEX Wednesday: 7:00 PM Ashland Co PL CA 7:00 PM Bayfield Co PL CA 7:00 PM Kenosha Co SIMPLEX 8:00 PM Dane Co PL :00 PM Jefferson Co PL :00 PM Racine Co PL CA 8:30 PM Clark Co PL :45 PM Jackson Co PL :00 PM Price Co PL :00 PM Sawyer Co PL :00 PM Washburn Co PL (1 st Wed. of Month) 7:00 PM Juneau Co PL CA Thursday: 6:30 PM Florence Co PL CA 7:00 PM Adams Co PL :00 PM Columbia Co PL :00 PM Ozaukee Co PL :00 PM Sheboygan Co PL :15 PM Washington PL :00 PM Vernon Co PL (1 st Thursday of Month) 7:00 PM Dunn Co PL For any corrections or to have your ARES/RACES net added to the list, please contact Stephanie KC9TZW at the information below. NEWSLETTER DEADLINE: The newsletter is published the first week of every other month. Articles, ideas, photos, and events should be submitted no later than the last day of the month, unless in the event of an emergency or major drill. We welcome articles, ideas, photos, events, and stories from every ARES/RACES member throughout the State of WI. Please submit all newsletter articles, photos, stories, ideas, and events to: Stephanie Schweitzer, KC9TZW WI ARES/RACES NE District ADEC-PIO 135 Flora Way Clintonville, WI (715) (home) (cell)

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