DISTRICT 24

AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE

AFTER ACTION REPORT

 

1.                  Date of activity

 

June 11, 2005

 

2.                  Description of activity

 

NDMS Exercise

 

3.                  Duration of activity

 

9.5 hours

 

4.                  Serving amateur radio groups participating

 

Various Colorado ARES Districts

 

5.                  Served agencies participating

 

None

               

6.                  Other agencies participating

 

Non served agencies of Sky Ridge Medical and Parker Adventist Hospitals

 

7.                  Describe served agency participation

 

D24 served agency of the Douglas County Sheriff did not participate.

 

8.                  Number of amateurs participating

 

13

 

9.                  List of amateurs participating

 

KA9ODE, Garry Hefty, 8.5 hours

KB0VJY, Mike Martin, 5.0 hours

NQ0R, Randy Reynard,10 hours

            W6AUN, Perry Lundquist, 10 hours

            KB6IGN, Nancy Malm, 4.0 hours

            KF6FK, Richard Malm, 4.0 hours

            N2PDQ, Dirk Malsch, 4.5 hours

                W0BO, James Hertzel, 4.0 hours

            N0IVN, Ron Hranac, 6 hours

            N7ZFN, Larry Matney, 5.5 hours

            K0VKM, Thomas Lane, 8.5 hours

            AB0WV, Frank Watervoort, 8.5 hours

            WD0JIM, Jim Hong, 2 hours

 

10.              Person-hours of amateur service

 

80.5

 

11.              Describe the goals of the activity

 

The goal was to provide voice and packet communications between two hospitals in Douglas County and DIA for the NDMS exercise.

 

12.              Did the event fulfill the goals?

 

Yes.

 

13.              What went well?

 

The operations and participation was at a very professional level.  Equipment setup was completed and tested prior to the event.  No equipment malfunctions occurred.  This was the first contact with hospital emergency management and will lead to future relationships.

 

14.              Areas needing improvement

 

None.

 

15.              Lessons learned

 

Even though no problems were created, radio operators should be familiar with programming of their radios prior to the event.  Both hospitals have different levels of facility access and general strategies for volunteer involvement.  Radio communications need to be tailored to the agency.

 

16.       Additional training needed

 

            None.

 

17.              General comments

 

  1. Operators need to know how to program and operate their own equipment before showing up at incidents.

 

  1. Parker Adventist personnel were ill prepared and apparently not willing to be active participants in the exercise.  Coordination with Parker Adventist needs to be actively pursued and improved.
    1. The facility needs a site survey and plan for a place that communications personnel can use which is appropriate for use.
    2. Coordination and communication with hospital personnel can not rely on “runners” with the communications personnel so remote from the Emergency Managers in the facility.

 

  1. The large number of locations involved in the net would be better served on multiple frequencies with multiple nets.  At times there was so much traffic that it was impossible to break in and this caused delays in delivering traffic.

 

  1. When interference of any kind, or other incidents require use of the designated primary frequency, the net should immediately shift to the alternate frequency per EMComm and ICS SOP. 
    1. Unattended transmitters or improperly operating crossband repeaters locked up the primary frequency for 8-10 minutes early in the day.  Several stations moved to the backup, but NCS did not. 
    2. When an “actual emergency incident” was initiated on the primary frequency, the net should have IMMEDIATELY moved to the alternate until the incident was resolved, instead the exercise AND the incident interfered with each other for almost an hour.

 

  1. Critical information should require “confirming read backs”.  The tail number of a helo was not received properly at SkyRidge, and this resulted in confusion and a potentially hazardous situation. (If another helo had been in route, the pad would have been occupied, or the crew would have done a “rush” departure which has the potential to cause accidents.)   Alphanumeric information that is not a “common spelling” should be read back for confirmation.

 

  1. While it is very convenient to have dual receiver radios for simplicity, having the same radio used for primary net and also local activity can lead to missed calls and messages. 

 

 

 

18.              Ideas for future exercises

 

To be determined.