The document discusses the history and reintegration of ARES and NTS, two organizations within the ARRL field organization. ARES was originally established in 1935 for emergency communications but split from NTS in the 1990s. NTS organized traffic relay networks in 1949. The document argues that reintegrating ARES and NTS would benefit citizens through improved disaster communication, ARRL by restoring cooperation, and volunteers through meaningful assignments. It provides an overview of both organizations currently and proposes steps to link them through training, appointments, and technology like Winlink 2000 and Pactor networks.

1. ARES & NTS REINTEGRATED

2. ARRL and Public Service
 ARRL founded for radiogram relays: 1914
 ARRL Emergency Corps established 1935
 Renamed Amateur Radio Emergency Corps in 1951
 Made part of ARPSC in 1963
 Renamed Amateur Radio Emergency Service in 1978
 NTS organized in 1949
 Regularized ad hoc traffic relay with state-of-the-art network design
 RACES recognized in 1952
 Designed with substantial input from ARRL
 Based on WWII’s Amateur Radio operations under martial law (WERS)
 Never implemented – never was another Congressional declaration of war or a
presidential declaration of disaster
 Amateur Radio Public Service Corps ca.1963
2
Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated 2/21/2017

3. The Field Organization
 ARES and NTS were designed to complement each other and did so
nearly half a century
 Phil-Mont Radio Club’s recently recovered, “Amateur Radio: Every Single Minute”
documents their response to 1955’s Hurricane Diane disaster in the North East U.S.
 Storm led to creation of the EPA Emergency Phone Net which later joined the NTS
 ARES and NTS split up sometime in the 1990s
 Accelerated by 9/11 dynamics
 Reintegration of the ARRL Field Organization benefits everyone
 Citizenry: much needed disaster communication
 ARRL: restored cooperation between factions
 ARES: public relations and recruiting opportunities
 Volunteers: meaningful assignments and training
 NTS: regains traditional purpose of citizen to citizen communications
3
Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated 2/21/2017

4. ARES – A Changing Mission
 ARESCOM (2003) effectively split NTS from ARES
 Adoption of Winlink2000 orphaned NTS as Tech licensees no longer aspired to HF
for access to Section nets
 ARESCOM (2005) modernization recommendations
 Use Winlink2000 to provide radio-email to served agencies
 Serve the general public through cooperation with NTS as long-haul backbone
 Post-9/11 government communication is increasingly specialized
 Vast technology spending for digital and broadband capabilities
 DHS/NIMS leaves little room for volunteers, incl. ARES
 ACS concept further muddies waters
 General public remains underserved
 Government prioritizes response and relief efforts as “top-down”
 Citizens left to fend for themselves (See EmergencyManagement.com handout)
4
Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated 2/21/2017

5. Current Status of NTS
 NTS is fully operational
 System covers 83 Sections in U.S.A. and Canada
 EPAEPTN: 170 QNI and 40 QTC per typical month
 Eastern Area NTS, Feb 2013
 2,450 messages relayed manually
 9,477 messages relayed digitally
 Transcontinental Corps, Feb 2013
 1,219 messages relayed manually
 NTS is a system not a specific technology
 Operators and station in all States and ARRL sections
 Hierarchical and Cyclic up to 4 cycles/day
 Traditional manual nets continue to operate on CW and SSB
 NTS Digital is an automated HF Pactor network
5
Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated 2/21/2017

6.  Hampered by lack of delivery stations
 ARES pull-back severely damaged local participation
 Technician Class licensees cannot participate in HF nets
 Delivery tends to be via toll calls or postcards
 NTS capabilities are underutilized
 Efficient coast-to-coast message delivery
 Within minutes via NTSD relay
 Same day/next day for traditional circuits
 Traditional operations are scalable
 Can add up to three additional cycles
 Delivery times improve exponentially with added cycles
 NTSD stations operate 24/7 and have significant capacity
 O.R.S. are highly trained with good skills and robust stations
Current Status of NTS
6
Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated 2/21/2017

7.  Written communiques are event documentation
 Form part of the permanent historical record of an event
 Provides for message verification and authentication
 Important part of the event management process
 Header information is useful and necessary
 Aids in message routing and delivery
 Confirms accurate transmission and display
 Allows efficient and speedy response
 Provides audit trail for entire “chain of custody”
 Written memos are superior to ad hoc and improvised notes
 Thoughtfully considered and deliberately constructed
 Editable for clarity and content – fewer mistakes
 Makes efficient use of resources through
 Concise, accurate wording
 no extraneous chatter (“noise”)
Formal documentation
7
Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated 2/21/2017

8. RADIOGRAMS?8
Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated 2/21/2017
Priority
Addressee
Origin
Time Filed
Text
Number
Header Data
Check

9. E-MAIL!
9
Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated 2/21/2017
Priority
Addressee
Origin
Time Filed
Text
Check (embedded in file system as “CHKSUM”)

10. E-mail Header Data – “Handling Instructions”
10
Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated 2/21/2017
Return-Path: joeames@sas.upenn.edu
Received: from imta17.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net (Fri, 8 Nov 2013 17:38:37 +0000
(UTC)
Received: from gx1.sas.upenn.edu ([128.91.234.50] (Fri, 08 Nov 2013 17:38:36 +0000
Received: from qmta08.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net (Fri, 8 Nov 2013 12:38:34 -0500
Received: from omta08.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net ([76.96.62.12])
Received: from AsusServer ([76.99.37.108]) Fri, 08 Nov 2013 17:38:29 +0000
Reply-To: <joeames@sas.upenn.edu>
From: "Joseph Ames MBA, MS" <joeames@sas.upenn.edu>
To: <joeames@sas.upenn.edu>
Subject: Email Header Demonstration
Date: Fri, 8 Nov 2013 12:38:31 -0500
Organization: Organizational Dynamics
Message-ID: 05be01cedca9$57b3d4b0$071b7e10$@upenn.edu
HXE
HXD
Number

11. Delivery Receipt aka HXC:
“Report date and time of delivery to
originating station”
11
Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated 2/21/2017

12. Civil Defense (“RACES”)
Radiogram from 1970s
 Contains same elements as ARRL
Radiogram
 Includes additional space for
longer messages
 Replaced by email systems in
1990s
12
Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated 2/21/2017

13. ICS-213 Interoffice Memo
from 1960s
 Office correspondence
form designed for
typewriters not radio
transmission
 Limited header/audit data
 Not actually required by
NIMS; it’s merely a sample
form made available as an
example format
13
Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated 2/21/2017

14. NTS Value Proposition
 Manpower
 ~800 traffic handlers at any given time
 Trained
 Practiced
 Reliable
 Organization
 Orderly and disciplined structure
 Scalable
 Underutilized
 Equipment
 Fixed station HF operation covers all U.S.A. and Canada
 CW, SSB require minimal assets
 Pactor is robust and reliable
 Ideal for regional, area, and continental relays
14
Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated 2/21/2017

15. Reintegration
 Improved disaster communication for public H&W
 Radiograms would be welcome absent commercial telco
 A tangible, specific service offering to relief organizations
 Radio email or traditional radiograms as required
 Benefit to ARES
 TRAINING: Weekly ARES nets pass real traffic
 OUTREACH: Delivery to local amateurs as basis for recruitment
 PUBLICITY: Public service events become PR opportunities
 MISSION: Gives a useful, valuable responsibility to members
 ADVANCEMENT: Gateway to General Class license and HF operations
 Benefit to NTS
 ACCESSIBILITY: Exposes Technician Class operators to traffic handling
 DELIVERY: Solves last-mile problem
 GROWTH: Increases authentic Radiogram business
15
2/21/2017Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated

16. Organizational Linkages
Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated
16
2/21/2017
ARRL Field
Organization
Structure:

17. NTSD Network
 Digital Relay Station
 Regional MBO Station
 Area Hub Station

18. NTS digital linkage to ARES
2/21/2017Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated
18
Region MBO
(Automated)
Section DRS
(Semi-automated)
County DRS
(Semi-automated)
ARES Nets
(Manual)
HF VHF
Pactor III Pactor I Packet or HSMM
Full-time Ad-hoc Weekly
Spectrum
Technology
Commitment Level
Area Hub
(Automated)

19. Section-level support
 Use section nets for official business once again
 SM was traditionally “Section Communication Manager”
 HF is a best practice for regional comms without infrastructure
 Restore linkages between STM and SEC at section net level
 Field Organization appointments
 O.R.S. is the traditional appointment for liaison stations
 “Digital Relay Station” now recognized by HQ
 Section level at present
 ARES district or even county level is possible
 Training programs for novice traffic handlers
 NTS over-the-air courses via VHF nets (12 weeks)
 Direct participation in Section nets
 Leverage existing ARES training for ICS memo traffic
19
Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated 2/21/2017

20. Steps Forward
 ARES leaders:
 Identify potential HF liaison and Digital Relay ops
 Introduce them to your STM
 Arrange for NTS training for your weekly nets
 Promote NTS nets
 NTS leaders:
 Invite HF ARES candidates to your section nets
 Refer NTSD candidates to your Regional MBO operator
 Promote weekly ARES nets
 Contact Information:
 Joe Ames W3JY, NTS Eastern Area Staff
w3jy@arrl.net
20
Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated 2/21/2017

21. NTSD Technology Overview
 100% RF in lieu of CMS (“Internet Down” scenario)
 Pactor 3 backbone; Pactor 1 or Packet at section level
 Automated “smart” scanning, forwarding and polling
 Many NTSD stations operate full Winlink2000 RMS HF nodes
 NTSD operates on Winlink 3.1 a.k.a. Winlink Classic
 Useful interoperation with Airmail (must select B1F) not Paclink (B1F not supported)
 Contains sort and forward code crucial to automated routing of messages
 BBS, keyboard-to-keyboard, and Bulletin functionality retained
 “Target Station” interface via Airmail
 “Parser” tool converts radio email content to NTSD messages & vice versa
 Leverages Winlink 3.x high capacity import/export batch utility
 May replace Winlink Classic at some point
21
Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated 2/21/2017

22. NTS Traffic Flow
Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated
22
• Manual and Digital nets follow same
hierarchical structure
• Normally two, as many as four
cycles provide 24hr traffic flow
• Point-to-Point easily organized
• Weak link is at local delivery level
due to ARES pull back
2/21/2017

23. WL2K-ARES Traffic Flow
Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated
23
• Winlink 2000 links RF to CMS
Internet backbone
• RF-only capable but not exercised
• Winlink Classic is interoperable but
no longer supported
2/21/2017

24. Shared Traffic Flow
Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated
24
• NTSD Target Station concept
leverages CMS system for message
origination and delivery
• Dramatically increases HF Pactor
resources
• Brings NTS/ORS manpower into the
response effort and relieves
constraints
2/21/2017

25. RF-Only Traffic Flow
Atlantic Division Convention 2013: ARES & NTS Reintegrated
25
• Fully capable emcomm backup in
case of Internet/CMS failure
• Origination ↔ Relay ↔ Delivery
using existing ARES capability
2/21/2017