Presentation on participation in Oregon Vital Connections by OEM ARES

1. OEM ARES
And
Oregon Vital Connections

3.  A federally sponsored communications
interoperability exercise
 Promote communications interoperability
between Local, Tribal, State, Federal, & DOD
emergency responders
 Simulated a NIMS response (local, state, federal)
to a large scale event
 Full ICS structure

4. • Goals From the Briefing Document:
• Radio Communications
1. Reach back communications to home station (All Agencies)
2. Perform daily communications with Communication Coordination Team
3. Exercise, test, and evaluate the ability to utilize HF, VHF (LO- High), UHF, 800, Trunked communications.
4. Exercise MARS, RACES, ARES networks
5. Radio Bridge and Patches
a. Exercise, Test, Evaluate the ability to patch across multiband frequencies (agency to agency)
b. Troubleshoot interference or cross-connection problems
c. Test and Validate ACU 1000 to ACU 1000 ROIP

5. UNCLASSIFIED
OR VC 2012
Exercise Goals Continued
• Training
1. ICS 205 Overview (COML identification, responsibilities)
2. DOD/JISCC/Mobile Comm/State and Local Comm Capabilities
• ICS
1. Establish/Create Incident Action Plan
2. Identify COML, complete ICS 205, 205a
3. Adjust ICS 205 to integrate additional resources
4. Develop ICS 205 addendum to depict Change in Event
5. Identify Participant Agency personnel, complete ICS 204
• Information Sharing
1. Test and evaluate capability to connect to Common Information Sharing Site (HSIN,
DCO, JABBER, USNORTHCOM OPS PORTAL)
2. DOD/NG/Local forces to connect to OR State Common Information Site (CIS)
3. ORNG shares operational info with subordinates, adjacent, and higher command
4. Evaluate data flow through channels
5. Send email via WINLINK HF
22 August 2012 5

6.  ARES participation was specifically requested
by Northern Command and Oregon Military
Department
 This is a recognition of our proven role in
EMCOMM in Oregon

8. Willamette Area only Multnomah IC only

9. Coast guard Aviation and Mobile
Communications Unit

10. US Air Force had one Comm Unit
similar to JISCC

11.  Army MARS (OMD JOC)
 OEM ARES
 Marion County ARES

12.  Three day exercise held in Salem on the
grounds of the old Fairview Hospital

13. •Three Incident Commands simulating
Portland, Salem, and Eugene under a Unified
Command
•Full ICS Unified Command Structure
•Unified Command Briefings daily
•IC briefings Daily

14. Amateur Radio

15.  Team of 8 members of OEM ARES and 4
Members of Marion County ARES

16.  We were HIGHLY visible, in our ARRL Standard
ARES vests and jackets
 Everywhere they looked, they saw us.

17.  Available from www.hamthreads.com
 Meets all ARRL ARES standards
 For MOU purposes – a state standard? All units with the same
look?
Western Oregon – Charles River 9732 (not shown on
Standard Vest listed on Website website.
Colder climates - use jacket shown on website

18.  Three ARES stations – one in each IC area

19.  OEM Drop Boxes, including IC706, IC 2820, Winklink,
portable NVIS antennas with vhf/uhf antenna.

20.  Three County EOC’s sending and receiving traffic to and
from the exercise site -West Lane, Benton and Crook
 OEM Comm Center manned and sending traffic to and
from exercise site.

21.  Sent/Received over 100 pieces of traffic in ICS
format, mostly via winlink
 To and from OEM and the Counties
 To our knowledge, no one else did anything
like this, even with all their fancy equipment.

22.  Sent ICS message to General Bush,
Commanding General in charge of OR VC via
winlink

23. Sent winlink traffic to Admiral in charge of Northern Command from one of the
exercise coordinators

24. From: Mark Jensen <wa6mvt@yahoo.com>
To: gruberfrankr@comcast.net
Sent: Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:34:40 -0000 (UTC)
Subject: Re: Vital Connections"
Frank,
Thanks so much for the note. It was great to get to know you out in the 'fields of
honor' of Oregon.
The WINLINK Message your ARES mates sent to our Admiral was well received
by him. He made special mention of it during our morning brief today.
All the best & 73/
Mark

25.  Singled out for praise at noon briefing –
Multnomah Area
“You amateurs are AMAZING. I
can’t say enough about what
you can do.
[to the others in attendance] “If
you don’t know what these guys
can do, make sure and visit
them. You can’t miss them” [a
reference to our highly visible
garb]

26.  Again, singled out for praise at all exercise end-
of-the-day briefing, in front of all participants.

27.  Thursday Morning test of communications
from site to FEMA Region 10 Headquarters in
Bothel, WA
 ONLY amateur radio was able to
communicate with them (via MARS freqs)
 None of the many other units could be heard.
We relayed for them.

28.  At the end of the exercise, we were asked to
make a 10 minute presentation about our
capabilities, educating all other participating
agencies.

29.  The OEM Drop Boxes worked very well
 Need our own generators (we now have
them)
 Need more VHF antennas (we now have
them)

30.  Need to modify equipment in drop boxes for MARS capability.
 Need to refine HF antenna install procedures
 Need Part 90 certified equipment capable of NIFOG interop
frequencies (e.g. Wouxun UV-6 or UV-3)

31.  A consistent, professional, uniform
appearance is important when working with
agencies that are uniform oriented, especially
in any NIMS response.
 Our whole unit now has ARRL standard ARES
vests and hats, and many have jackets

32.  We were highly visible
 We proved ourselves to be highly capable
 We showed ourselves to be highly flexible

33.  We were very well received by all other
agencies, especially at the end of the
exercise.
 Amateur in name only – professional in all
other aspects.
 A real PR success for ARES both on a local
and national basis.