blog.pwcares.orgNot Just The Radio - Prince William County ARES

Not Just The Radio Search Primary Menu About PWCARES Checkout Log In Member Directory My Account My Profile Order Confirmation Order Failed Reset Password Sign Up Search for: After Action , Discussion , Emergency Preparedness January Meeting Recap 2024/01/28 David Lane On Saturday, January 20, 2024, PWCARES held their regular January Training meeting. These are the highlights. Upcoming Events Marine Corps Marathon Office Saturday, March 23: MCM 17.75 Run in Prince William Forest Park. Sign up link was sen by email with the password for the site. Sunday, May 19: MCM Historic Half in Fredericksburg, VA. Details will come out by email mid-March Saturday, August 24: MCM Quantico 12K at MCB Quantico. Sign up details will come out by email Sunday, October 27: Marine Corps Marathon. Sign up details will come out by email Saturday, November 23: MCM Turkey Trot at MCB Quantico. Sign up details will come out by email Willing Warriors Saturday, July 6 (est): Vettes for Vets. Sign up details will come out by email Saturday, September 7 (est): Warrior Ride. Sign up details will come out by email Other Events Saturday/Sunday June 22 & 23: Field Day Action Plan If you have not reviewed the Action plan lately, please, do so. Pay particular attention to Section 5 and Section 6. Training There are no major changes to our training plan. If you have not already taken the basic ICS courses (IS-700, IS-800, IS-100, IS-200) please do so. These courses do not expire, so if you already took them, there is no need to retake them. There will be some new courses coming soon. Blinky Yellow Lights A major update to the Virginia code that impacts us. We can now use flashing amber lights under limited conditions while exercising and working events. Specifically: Vehicles used or operated by federally licensed amateur radio operators (i) while participating in emergency communications or drills on behalf of federal, state, or local authorities or (ii) while providing communications services to localities for public service events authorized by the Department of Transportation where the event is being conducted; We will be using amber lights for all our events where they make sense. If you wish to purchase your own, there are a number of options. For MCM events, people that wish to borrow a light can do so. Workshop The workshop discussed what you would need to bring to a long deployment. We came up with this criteria: A deployment where you will be away from home in excess of 24 hours A deployment where you will have to be self-reliant for more than 72 hours And played with this scenario: It is April Spring flooding in SW Virginia Teams are being bussed from the EOC to a camp outside Roanoak Each position will have a radio, power, antenna, table, and chair provided Each operator will work an eight hour shift, with at least one of them being over night There will be some sort of food & beverage service along with some sort of sanitary facility at the camp Three hours before departure, we get the following update: We are in the first wave Showers are expected over the next 24-48 hours Temperatures over the next five days are middle 40s to low 50s. Some of the points we covered included: Shelters – are we providing them, are the camp? Do we need to make coordinate with each other on what we bring? Certainly coordinating would be valuable. Also we might need some sort of shelter at our operating position Lights – we may need lights at our operating position and some way to refresh them (batteries, charging, etc.) Food – we should not assume we are getting more than PB&J sandwiches for food. So what are food options we can take with us? Sanitary facilities – Could be slit trench. Could be running water. We don’t know. What would we need to have in our bags? These were only some of the things we covered. There are several other things to consider. Web Links Humanitarin Rations (MRE) Heater Meals (MRE) Backpacker’s Pantry (Freeze Dried Food) Heather’s Choice (Freeze Dried Food) Datrex Emergency Rations (Emergency Rations) Bamboo coins” (Cloths) MRE Toilet Paper (TP) Light Weight Lights (Lights) String Lights (Lights) 2024 how-to Training PWCARES Vettes for Vets and National Night Out 2022/08/03 David Lane PWCARES was out and about over the last couple of days. On Saturday, July 30, we helped out our friends at Willing Warriors with the Vettes for Vets event. Lots of Corvettes as far as the eye could see. On Tuesday, David represented PWCARES at the National Night Out event at Manassas Park, Signal Hill. Fifty vendors, along with members of the first responder community and lots of local people, dropped by to say hello. Here are a few pictures. KM4CCG Answers Questions KG4GIY Sets Up the Demo Station Bring In the Vettes A Field of Corvettes PWCARES at NNO 2022 NNO WW Events Field Day 2022 2022/05/21 David Lane Field day 2022 is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday June 25 and 26. It officially starts at 1800 UTC, 2PM Eastern Time. PWCARES generally sets something up for Field Day and this year is no exception. We are going to run an ad hoc set up. John, KK4TCE, and myself will be there. If you would like to join us, please drop the EC a note so we can coordinate gear and supplies. The League has a Field Day website and you are encouraged to visit and read the rules so we all know what is what. Also we use the N3FPJ software for logging, so you might want to download it before the day and play with it a bit to become familiar with it. See you at Field Day! 2022 FieldDay Amateur Radio Emergency Service , Events Summer Calendar Update 2022/05/09 David Lane Some upcoming events for your calendar: MCM Historic Half Marathon : Sunday, May 22, 2022 (0600 start). A few more are needed. Please sign up at Volunteer Local and drop an email to RVARCEvents so they know. Action plan is on their website . Hurricane Season : Wednesday, June 1, 2022 – Wednesday, November 30, 2022. OSS/CIA Overnight Run : Saturday, June 11, 2022, through AM Sunday, June 12, 2022. The race begins at 1900 and runs through 0700. Rob Williams is coordinating. If you are interested, let me know and I will drop him the note. MCM Crossroads 15K and Belleau Wood 8K : Saturday, June 25, 2022 (0600ish) start. Please sign up at Volunteer Local if you are interested. Field Day : Saturday & Sunday June 25 & 26, 2022: More in a moment WWI Dale City Parade : Monday, 4 July, 2022. I can put you in touch with Rob Williams who is leading the event. Willing Warriors Vettes for Vets : Saturday, July 9, 2022: We need two people for this. You need to be mobile (and waterproof) for this event (we’ve had some lovely downpours during the event). Please drop me a note if you are interested. MCM Quantico 12K : Saturday, August 20, 2022 (0600ish start). Sign up coming soon. Now for some notes: Training : Saturday, May 21, 2022: Due to a cranky client I cannot attend training. I would encourage everyone to check their gear, and get ready for hurricane season. If you want to practice Winlink, my node is up in receive mode. If you would like to get together on the lawn at the EOC, please let me know and I will make it happen, but there will be no formal training this month (sorry). Field Day : Field Day is a bit more than a month away. Is there any interest in doing an ARES set up this year? If so, who is going to lead it and if you want it at the County facilities, please let me know so I can get it set up. That is the updates as I know them. If there are other events you know about that need our support, please drop the EC a note. 2022 FieldDay hurricane season WW Training April Communications Exercise 2022/03/29 David Lane 2 Comments I moved our regular March Training to April, as most of you know. I did not want to miss out on an opportunity to do some traffic practice. Discussing this with some of our surrounding friends, this has grown a bit beyond just a standard PWCARES training. Here is the general outline. We will have an in-field operation at...