Re: Saturday Nov 14th Drill
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Bruce
Hi Bob and DST group:
First - I stand corrected on the so
called "Winlink shutdown" (I am glad to learn there IS redundancy
in the system). This is twice that I have picked up information
from the SEC-ARES group that was wrong. The other was in sending
pictures over Winlink during the drill! We all must learn to NOT
believe every thing we - see - read - and hear! Verify it! That
also goes for disaster management, when many rumors are flying
about!!
Now on to Winlink use and training. Bob
- KG6RGI wrote: "The idea of Winlink
is to get it directly to the intended end user." That is SO
TRUE!" So just WHO is the END USER?? That will depend on the
circumstances and conditions created by the disaster event.
Primarily Red Cross is called in to mitigate the effects of a
disaster on disaster victims. For effective and timely relief
for Red Cross clients, communications is VITAL! As a DST TEAM
our mission is to set up an operative and reliable
communications infrastructure, of computers, printers and
networks, and radio communications systems, not only in the San
Diego, but in other areas Red Cross may be deployed! This takes
TRAINING! In the local geographic area, where Red Cross is
setting up to serve clients, if the disaster has destroyed ALL
communications infrastructure, then the END USER becomes workers
and staff in all vital Red Cross ICS functions!! There is a term
used in disaster management called "The Last Mile." During the
Katrina disaster the "Last Mile" was more like 50 Miles, in
which NO normal communications systems were left operative!!
ONLY reliable Point-To-Point communications, will allow Red
Cross to serve its clients with the services they need. Radio
communications would need to be established at locations like:
Shelters, Service centers, the CDOC, Temporary Evacuation points
(TEP), Staging areas, The County EOC, to name a few. The
distances are short and easily covered by VHF Winlink - VARA-FM
Peer To Peer (P2P) or repeater communications, to send and
receive filled out Red Cross Forms. There have been many
discussions about how to handle, and have the forms filled out.
Filling these forms out by hand will NOT work and is prone to
errors! The most efficient and accurate means I see, is for DST
Team members to be equipped with tablet computers. If a "End
User" needs to send a message form, such as an ICS213, 6409,
then the DST worker would "open" that "form" up on the tablet,
and have the Red Cross staff worker fill it out. Then this
message with the attached form could quickly and reliably sent
on a Winlink VARA P2P connection! DO YOU NOW see the VALUE for
the Red Cross DST Communications Teams to TRAIN and develop
skills on VARA-FM on Winlink P2P, and repeater station
relay??!!! NOTE: there is a VARA "Broadcast - chat" function,
where an announcement or status report can be received by all
the P2P stations on the net frequency, that I plan to learn
through TRAINING!
For
disaster message traffic to and from a disaster area, going
to/from National or Divisional, for mutual aid support,
obviously would be handled on HF PACTOR or VARA 4.0. - using
the same Winlink skill set learned in TRAINING!
73 Bruce
WA6DNT@... WA6DNT@...
On 11/12/2020 3:34 PM, Bob Birch wrote:
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