Y2K AT THE RED CROSS - 31 December 1999 to 1 January 2000by Rane Curl (N8REG), Clay Mitchell (W8JNZ), Tim Prosser (KT8K).
The Washtenaw Chapter of the American Red Cross (ARC) prepared for possible New Year's Eve (Y2K) problems by alerting their Disaster Actions Teams. ARROW hams also activated disaster communications systems to support the Red Cross. It was not particularly computer-related Y2K problems that were of concern, but rather possible events resulting from excessive partying or pranks to welcome the year 2000.
Calls for volunteer hams were circulated to those already on the ARROW Emergency Callout list, and at meetings. The following hams volunteered to be on standby for activation in the event they were needed:
Pat Furlong (KC8GDU), Bob Lyons (KI8AB) Tim Prosser (KT8K), Jim Reuter (AA8IJ), Terry Robinson (N6BVZ), and Klaus Wolter (N8NXF).
In addition, Rane Curl (N8REG), Ray Lewis (N8EHM), and Clay Mitchell (W8JNZ), volunteered to spend New Year's Eve at the Red Cross to be available for emergency net monitoring and possible callout of those on standby.
On Wednesday, 29 December, Rane, Tim and Jim Wades (WB8SIW) installed antennas at Red Cross Headquarters. These were a 75m inverted dipole (from WB8SIW - center about 25 feet up in a tree, one end 3 ft high and the other 7 feet high), a 40 to 10 meter trap dipole supported by a 30-foot mast (from KT8K), and two 2-meter antennas, a 3-element Yagi and a 5/8 ground-plane vertical (from N8REG), also on the mast. Cables from all of these were taken into an office in the Red Cross building through a window.
In the Radio room were placed a HF Yaesu FT-757GXII with power supply (from W8JNZ); a HF Kenwood TS-120 with power supply (from ARROW), a 2-meter Kenwood TR-9000 all-mode base unit (from KT8K), and a 2-meter Realistic HTX-202 HT (from W8JNZ). On New Year's Eve an Icom W32A dual-band HT was used on 2-meters (with the 5/8 vertical), because the Kenwood TR-9000 did not support PL tones, and an Icom 2GAT 2-meter HT was employed with a Kantronics KPC-3 TNC and Mac PowerBook 145 for packet communication (with the Yagi - all from N8REG).
Emergency generators, volunteered by N8NXF and KT8K, were on standby to be brought in if they were needed, while a 6.5 AH, 12 V, battery "Power Station" was immediately available in the event of a power failure, at least for 2-meter operation.
The Red Cross held a "Dress Rehearsal" the evening of the 29-th for their Disaster Action Teams, at which resource and plans for activation were discussed. This was attended by Rane, Clay, Bob and Terry.
(The Red Cross had contingency plans to move their operations HQ to the Ann Arbor Fire Station, if power failed and emergency power was not available or would take too long to bring on line. In this case communications would have been moved also, and probably have operated under the County EOC that was stationed at the Fire Station.)
On New Year's Eve people started arriving at the Red Cross Building at about 10 pm, and snacks and drinks were set out. From then on it was a matter of waiting for emergency calls - if any - to come in.
Clay occupied himself with following and responding to Emergency Operations Center (EOC, Lansing) and ARC (Kalamazoo) traffic on 75 meters. He found poor HF conditions, which he attributed to the low antenna height., plus the band was noisy. Running only 75 - 80 watts LSB, he received readable signal reports upon check-in with EOC in Lansing (90 miles). There was QRN and general noise at the S-1 to S-2 level. The EOC net operated on 3932 KHz. Band conditions (QSB) changed over the 10pm - 2 am period of operation with S-3 to S-5 signals then weak ones barely above the noise level. An S-9 W5 station in a QSO with another station came on the Net frequency and refused to move. He said an Alabama Y2K net had told him to move there to avoid interfering with them. He demanded of the EOC that he be informed of any emergency in progress, was the net actually handling emergency traffic, complained that no one owned the frequency, etc. After 5 - 10 minutes, band conditions changed again and he was gone. From our perspective at the Ann Arbor Red Cross, emergency traffic would have been extremely difficult and there would have been many repeats to get an intact message through to EOC.
Rane operated 2-meters, checking into the Washtenaw County EOC net on 145.15 (-), and via the packet station on 145.76 MHz. There was very little traffic, with only intermittent re-checkins with the EOC, and 'all clear' communications received on packet. The band conditions were excellent and 2-meter communication would have been available via the ARROW repeater (146.96(-)) to support Red Cross Disaster Actions Teams, or on simplex and emergency power, if repeater power had failed.
It was felt that an understanding is needed with the County EOC to permit Red Cross operation on the EOC net using a tactical call. The EOC operation requires RACES certification by participating hams (at several outlying EOC locations), but the Red Cross does not have this requirement and, in addition, operators may change frequently.
No emergencies materialized, no problems were reported statewide by EOCs, and thus it was a quiet evening, and the Red Cross and ARROW operations were shut down by 2 a.m. We would like to thank all those that stood ready for callout if a need for emergency communication had arisen. Although nothing "happened", everyone thought it was a good emergency activation exercise, and helpful for a future real need.
On January 2nd N8REG and KT8K disassembled and removed all antennas in about an hour == mission accomplished.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The following are recommendations for future exercises, real or practice:
1. The Red Cross should have a tower with permanently installed antennas, and a radio room with basic equipment. This would have facilitated operations by providing better reception and transmission on all bands worked, with less setup effort from volunteers. In addition, it would provide a station for training volunteer ham operators for the Red Cross.
2. An emergency generator (either provided by ARROW or a permanent Red Cross utility) should be available at the Red Cross headquarters to eliminate delays in both Disaster Action Team and communications operations.
3. The Washtenaw Chapter of the Red Cross needs a Communications Committee with the responsibility of coordinating all necessary communications, including telephone and radio (amateur and Red Cross band), within the framework of the Red Cross Disaster Services Program ARC 3058. The current support consists of just a one-person liaison between ARROW and the Red Cross.
4. An ARROW check-in net should have been activated for those hams on standby. This would have determined in advance the state of readiness of those hams, and who could and could not be reached by radio in the event of a need for their assistance. In addition, it would have provided additional net control training for participants.