INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE
On behalf of Brigadier General John Heltzel, you are cordially invited to participate in a statewide pandemic influenza exercise that will be held August 3-7, 2009. The communications portion of the exercise will begin each day at 8:00 A.M. and run until approximately 8:00 P.M. Monday through Thursday and will end at 2:00 P.M. on Friday.
This exercise is somewhat unique in that it will allow you the opportunity to participate in a statewide exercise without ever having to leave your community. As a matter of fact, we are hoping that you will work with other partners in your local community to determine your level of preparedness for just such an event. It is our hope that amateur radio operators along with government agencies and officials, schools, emergency response agencies, emergency management officials and businesses will join together as we prepare for the inevitable – another pandemic influenza. There is no limit to the number of operators that can participate and operators may participate at any time during the week long exercise within the time frames shown above.
One of our communications goals for the week is to use pre-identified 2 meter and 80 meter amateur radio frequencies to facilitate contact with all 120 counties in the Commonwealth. To some degree it will be like operating a week long net control. The amateur radio station in the Commonwealth EOC will be used to pass traffic and log check-ins during the week. The more operators we have check in, the better.
Daily messages will be broadcast from the State EOC at approximately 8:00 A.M. that will outline activities for the day.
During the exercise a variety of injects or scenarios will be phoned, emailed, or transmitted by other means to participants from an exercise control center. Injects will provide opportunities for local participants to evaluate their ability to maintain operations and respond to the effects of injects on their local community. It is our hope that participants in your community will activate a variety of communication systems that will enable the exercise control center and other exercise officials to communicate across the state.
We have specifically asked participants to consider using amateur radio as a source of communications to test communication systems that may be used for the purpose of maintaining local communications capabilities. Injects will flow to participants throughout the exercise even if the participant is only available to participate in the exercise for a few hours on a single day. Injects should be used when the local community deems itself active in the exercise. You could potentially be asked to assist with transmitting traffic for local exercise participants as well as our request that you check in with the State EOC.
Local clubs or ARES organizations may wish to participate as a group. There really is no limit to the ways or extent at which you may participate in the drill. Meet and decide what parts of your communications plan needs to be tested. Exercising gives us all the opportunity to identify weaknesses before the emergency occurs.
Once your involvement in the exercise is complete, we encourage you to provide us with some feedback regarding your participation. There is an established format we would like you to use. If you email me at
charles.m.oneal@us.army.mil I will be able to email you a copy of the form we will be using. You may then complete the form and send your comments electronically to:
paula.groves@us.army.mil.
As previously noted, our amateur radio system will be manned and operational from 8:00 A.M. until 8:00 P.M. Monday through Thursday and 8:00 A.M. until 2:00 P.M. on Friday. We will be utilizing the EOC call sign for all operations, which is KY4EOC, and will be monitoring the following 2 meter frequencies.
146.700 – CTCSS 79.7 – Brooks, Kentucky
146.715 – CTCSS 100.0 – Berea, Kentucky
We will also be monitoring the following HF frequencies.
Daytime
o 40 meters – Primary – 7228.0 LSB
o 40 meters – Secondary – 7198.0 LSB
Nightime
o 80 meters – Primary – 3972.5 LSB
o 80 meters – Secondary - 3960.0 LSB
We will also be passing traffic from various sites via the following 70 cm repeater:
444.050 – CTCSS in Williamsburg - 100.0; in Shelbyville - 95.1
The Brooks repeater is also available via Echolink – Node # 124812. Should we lose Echolink access through the Brooks machine, we will revert to the 444.125 machine in Lexington, Node # 319220
Stations checking in with the EOC will be asked, at a minimum, to provide the following information at a minimum:
Call sign;
First name;
County of operation; and
Signal report.
In addition, stations may be asked to perform certain tasks or to handle traffic to or from their area of operation. Operators should have blank Radiograms (these forms are available at
http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/forms/RADIOGRM.pdf) or ICS Form 213s (available at
ICS 213 General Message Form) ready for use, should traffic need to be passed.
Should you have further questions regarding the exercise, please feel free to contact your Local Emergency Management Director or your Regional Response Manager with the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management. You may also contact one of our Duty Officers, Patrick Compton, KF4FMZ, via email at
Patrick.Compton2@us.army.mil, We hope that you will consider joining us for this exercise.
Sincerely,
/s/
Charles M. O’Neal, B.A., NREMT-P, KE4AIE
Assistant Director
Kentucky Division of Emergency Management
KEM Flu Pandemic Drill This Week
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