ShakeOut 2009

At 10:15 a.m. on October 15, 2009, millions of Californians will participate in the largest earthquake drill ever!

The purpose of the ShakeOut is to practice how to protect ourselves during earthquakes, and to get prepared at work, school, and home.

HB RACES will be participating by conducting our annual school communication drill that morning. During the hours of 0900 to 1100 we’ll establish a communications net and dispatch communicators to district offices and public and private schools in our city.  Our communicators check-in with school administrators as they would if standard communication methods were overloaded or failed. Reminding district and school administrators of this vital backup communication link is a perfect complement to the ShakeOut drill. Our communication plan would provide official status to and from the Huntington Beach Emergency Operations Center and the schools in our city.

Tune in to our primary repeater Thursday morning and if you are a HB RACES communicator check-in to the net with your location and you’ll be given a location to report to. Drive safely and show our community how HB RACES can provide professional communications support in a time of need.

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In recognition of national fire prevention week, Huntington Beach’s Class 1 Fire Department hosted an open house at Gothard Station on Saturday, October 11th. Due to the tight city budget, the event was organized at the last minute once the ‘go ahead’ was obtained and limited to a single fire station. Apologies to those that weren’t aware of the event in time to participate.  The community was invited to meet local firefighters, tour the Gothard fire station, learn fire safety tips, see fire engines & trucks and observe fire fighting demonstrations. HB RACES and CERT were available to discuss community programs and showcase the aerial ATV capability we provide to the city. Using the PD Aero unit to transmit live video and the FD Hazmat unit to receive and record the live images HB RACES took visitors on a video ride-a-long as the helicopter took off from the adjacent PD hanger and orbited the Gothard station. Kids had fun making radio calls on our ham radio gear (while supervised) and seeing Sparky the fire safety mascot.

Some of our ham visitors included Seal Beach RACES assistant radio officer Mike Maronta, KC6YNQ as well as Tim & Marilyn Sawyer (KH6FL & WD6AWP) and Steve Albert (KE6OCE). Thanks to Brevyn Mettler (KI6FRG) , Steven Graboff(W6GOS), Manny Vizinho (KG6IQL) and Peter Barbour (N6RAS) who spent the afternoon visiting with the community and our firefighters.

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The HB RACES Fire Dispatch Drill puts in place a backup communication network that is designed to replace normal fire dispatch communications for Huntington Beach Fire Department should they fail. It is essential to practice this communications plan to both evaluate and refine its capability and reestablish working relationships with fire personnel. Drills are essential for an effective and smooth transition to backup communication methods as well as maintaining confidence in HB RACES capabilities and communication effectiveness. This drill was previously conducted both in 2004 and 2005 and revealed dispatch delays in normal fire dispatch communications. Those delays were eliminated by changes in dispatch procedures and were not observed during the 2009 drill.

The 2009 Fire Dispatch Drill conducted last Sunday showed HB RACES is only as strong as the weakest link in the communication chain. During this drill some of our basic communications training was forgotten by many stations both in the field and at the net control stations. The impact of this failure caused confusion on the primary net, slowed down the relay of dispatch messages to the field and tarnished the fine reputation HB RACES has for effective communications for the city in time of need.
As the Chief Radio Officer of HB RACES I was disappointed by both my personal performance during the drill and management of our group’s effectiveness on the 2 meter net. This net was monitored during the drill by city fire personnel and many of our neighboring RACES organizations. We have much work to do as a group to recover from this recent deficiency. I encourage every RACES communicator to attend our HB RACES May 11th Membership Meeting for a formal debrief on the drill and the beginning of critical supplemental training workshops to immediately address the weaknesses observed.

In preparation for the communication training workshops please listen to several of the audio files embedded in this post for examples of the professional dispatch communications that take place every day in Huntington Beach. The primary goal of our backup dispatch communications network is to duplicate these communications on our 2 meter net. Our future success starts with a good understanding of what we’re trying to accomplish. The dispatches and tactical channel radio traffic are perfect examples of how brief and concise messages can be and still convey the right amount of information between individuals. Our supplemental training begins right now with LISTENING.

v038b v038c v038 v037 v036 v035 v034 v032 v031 v028 v027 v026 v025 v023 v022 v021b v021a v020 v019 v018 v017 v016 v014 v013 v012 v010 v009 v008 v007 v006 v005 v004 v003

Pick a Dispatch mp3 file from above and listen.

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Most of you know that I’m a big Apple fan boy. So when I see something about Apple that’s even remotely related to RACES you know I have to post about it. This article on Apple’s Web Site talks about Orange County Sheriff Department using Macs to produce training podcasts.  There is mention of a few other uses of Macs at OCSD. Be sure to check out the associated photo gallery.

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Merry Christmas

to

Huntington Beach RACES

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Peter Barbour, N6RAS preparing D25

HB RACES Chief Radio Officer Peter Barbour, N6RAS will be operating a special event APRS beacon this week.  I will be participating in the 100th annual Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade in my boat D25. Look for the tactical call sign ‘D25′ on the national APRS frequency 144.390 MHz or via Internet servers like FindU. The station will be operational December 17th to the 21st during the parade which starts at 6:30pm in Newport Harbor. Visit D25 to learn more about my annual holiday tradition and how ham radio fits into my safety on the water.

Peter’s Special Event Station got mentioned in the LA Times. The article titled A little dinghy dreams big in Newport Harbor tells the story of D25, a beloved Christmas boat parade perennial, and how he’s shooting for the grand prize. For five days every December, a humble dinghy rules Newport Harbor.  Written by Susannah Rosenblatt on December 16 2008, 11:15 PM PST.

It is another award winning year for D25 as today (Saturday, December 20th) I just got a phone call informing me that D25 won Best Humor & Originality - First Place in the awards competition. Yeah!

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