Amateur Radio Resource Typing

Amateur Radio Resource Typing
The Santa Clara County ARES/RACES

Mutual Aid Communicator (MAC) Program
Michael E Fox, N6MEF

May 22, 2011
Copyright (C) 2011 Santa Clara County ARES/RACES. All rights reserved. 1
Agenda
• Introduction and Overview
• Resource Typing
• Implementation Experience
Introduction and Overview
What Is Amateur (“ham”) Radio?
• A non-commercial (i.e. non-paid), licensed service

defined by FCC Title 47, Part 97
– 97.1 Basis and purpose.
• (a) Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur
service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial
communication service, particularly with respect to providing
emergency communications.
• Licensing involves a written test covering radio
technology, operating practices and FCC rules
• Three classes of amateur license: technician,
general, extra class
What are ARES / RACES / ACS?
• ARES: Amateur Radio Emergency Service

– A division of ARRL Field Services
– MOUs with various organizations such as Red Cross
• RACES: Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service

– Official unit under Homeland Security
– Defined in FCC Title 47, Part 97.407
– Officially activated during communications emergencies
• ACS: Auxiliary Communications Services

– Service of State Office of Emergency Services
– Includes RACES, MARS, and other radio comms groups
• Increasingly, organizations are joint ARES/RACES/ACS

– Use the appropriate rules for the incident or activity
What is an Santa Clara County ARES/RACES
Mutual Aid Communicator?
• Amateur radio operator (any license class)
• Willing to be deployed outside his/her own city
– Typical shift is 8 hrs; be prepared for 12 hrs
• Meets basic/minimum requirements
– Administrative
– Training
– Equipment
– Experience
– Performance
– Ongoing Participation
• Nominated by city Chief Radio Officer, approved by county CRO
• Typically deployed as one of several standardized functions
Field Operations
• Deployment may be portable,

mobile or stationary
• Handles formal and informal message traffic
• Example assignments:
– “Eyes and ears”: checkpoints, observation posts, damage
surveys, crowd observation
– CERT: team or command post communicator
– Fixed site communications: Red Cross or other shelters,
schools and school districts, fire stations
– Information assistance: public locations
Net Control
• Usually deploymed to a fixed site,

such as a base, incident command post or agency,
city or county Emergency Operations Center
• Manages check-in/out of net participants
• Tracks health & welfare of net participants
• Manages communications flow of the net
• Maintains traffic logs and records for the net
Packet Operations
• E-mail-like communications
• No reliance on Internet or commercial facilities
– But can gateway between packet radio and Internet e-mail
• Fast, accurate, automatic control
• Ideal for multiple types of communications
– Simple text messages
– Complex lists: addresses, supplies, drug names
– Structured forms, such as: ICS, RIMS, hospital, CERT
– High traffic volume, automatic logging, automatic printing,
dashboard-like status summaries
Communications Shadow
• Equipped for extended (and quiet)

portable or mobile operations
• “Shadows” an incident official or other dignitary
• Maintains open communications for the principal
– With the incident command post
– With other officials or dignitaries
– When on the move
– During meetings and breaks
MAC Program Entrance Requirements
Nomination Requirements:
• Administrative
• Training EC CRO
MIT • Equipment Nomination Acceptance MAC
• Experience
• Performance
• Ongoing Participation
• Candidate is designated “MAC in Training” (MIT) by EC

• Candidate completes nomination requirements
• Emergency Coordinator nominates candidate when ready
• County RACES Chief Radio Officer can accept or decline
• Once accepted, the individual becomes a MAC
Details in the MAC Program Handbook

http://www.scc-ares-races.org/mac
Administrative Requirements
• Must be 18 years of age or older
• Valid Technician class or higher Amateur Radio license
• Valid California Driver’s license or California State-issued ID card
• Reliable transportation
• Read “SCCo ARES/RACES MAC Program Handbook”
• Read “SCCo ARES/RACES Performance Stds and Best Practices”
• Registered with Santa Clara County as a Disaster Service Worker
• Completed/agree to complete Livescan and background check
Standard Equipment
• 2 hr Carry Kit
– Nearby at all times
• In car is o.k. if nearby
– Resource Net Level 1 Ops
• Damage reports
– Resource Net Level 2 Ops
• City net check-ins
• 12 hr Go Kit
– Fully independent ops for 12 hrs
– Return home to retrieve
• Extended Kit (optional)
• Recommended for everyone

http://www.scc-ares-races.org/operations.html – Required for MACs: 2hr & 12hr
Training and Experience
• Minimum training for MAC entry

– ICS 100, 200, 700
– Introduction to Emergency Comms
– Fundamentals of Emergency Comms
– … or equivalent training/experience
• Other training courses
– Ham crams
– Advanced classes
• Drills
– Quarterly (city and county)
– Advanced
• Public service events
– Parades, races, festivals, 4th of July, etc.
• Available to EVERYONE!
– Required min. participation for MACs
http://www.scc-ares-races.org/activities
Standards of Performance
• What are they?
– An objective set of performance
standards for emergency communicators
• Where did they come from?

– Distilled from county training courses and
best practices
• How are they used?

– Recommended for all
– Required min. standard for MACs
– Objective standard for MAC evals
http://www.scc-ares-races.org/operations.html
Performance Standards Summary
• Professionalism
– Assignment, team member, served agency, independence, training
• Communications Technique
– Verbal comms, radio technique, written comms, call signs,
• Safety
– Personal safety, fatigue, stress, cold, heat, lightning, floods, land/mudslides,
earthquakes, fire
• Methods and Procedures
– County nets, resource net, message passing, maintaining contact, logging and
record keeping, served agency protocols, relieve briefings
• Equipment
– Go kit, maintaining control over radio, HT equipment, mobile equipment,
packet equipment, HF equipment
• Documentation
– Personal documentation, operations documentation; forms
Example from Performance Standards
• From Communications Technique section:

– “Verbal communications is effective, clear and concise
• Maintains a clear speaking voice
• Controls tone of voice, even under stress
• Has a good command of the English language
• Uses plain English, no 10-codes, Q-codes, etc.
• Properly uses/pronounces letters and numbers
• Properly uses phonetics and can recite all ITU standard phonetic letters
• Properly speaks numbers, including multi-digit numbers and decimal points
• ...“
– “Radio technique is effective
• Makes only necessary transmissions
• Leaves pause at beginning of transmission to allow repeater to key up
• Leaves sufficient gaps between transmissions for others to break in
• ...“
Tracking & Completing the Process
• Candidate
– Formulates plan with help of EC
• City Chief Radio Officer
– Designates candidate as MIT
– Coaches and facilitates
• Candidate
– Manages own progress
– Completes “MAC Candidate Record”
– Submits form to CRO
• City Chief Radio Officer
– Nominates candidate to CRO
• County Chief Radio Officer
– Reviews nomination with staff
– Notifies candidate of acceptance
http://www.scc-ares-races.org/mac
MAC Status is a Baseline
• Baseline administrative, training, experience,

equipment and performance criteria
• More advanced capabilities vary by individual
– Some focus on higher proficiency in a particular area
– Some seek to develop a broader skill set
– Experiences at agency/city/county may differ
– Time, energy, experience, maturity, technical, … all differ
• Result: each individual within the pool of MAC

resources has broadly different capabilities
Resource Assignment Challenge
Capabilities Needed?
Resource Request Available Resources

Capabilities Available?
• Requesting resources
– What types of resources are available to request?
– How to request a specific type of resource?
– When a resource arrives, what capabilities does he/she have?
• Assigning resources
– How many resources of type X do we have?
– How do we identify which resources have which capabilities?
• Using individual knowledge doesn’t scale
– No one person can know everyone’s skill level
Resource Typing
What is “Resource Typing”?
• From www.fema.gov:
– Resource typing is categorizing, by capability, the
resources requested, deployed, and used in incidents
• Why bother?
– For ease of ordering and tracking
– Emergency manager is able to effectively and efficiently
request and receive resources through mutual aid
Source: http://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nims/fire_haz_mat.pdf
Resource Typing Applies to Apparatus
Fire Engine (Pumper)
Metric Type I Type II Type III Type IV
Pump Capacity 1,000 GPM 500 GPM 120 GPM 70 GPM
Tank Capacity 400 Gal. 400 Gal. 500 Gal. 750 Gal.
Hose, 2.5 in. 1,200 ft. 1,000 ft.
Hose, 1.5 in. 400 ft. 500 ft. 1,000 ft. 300 ft.
Hose, 1 in. 200 ft. 300 ft. 800 ft. 300 ft.
Personnel 4 3 3 2
Fire Truck – Aerial (Ladder or Platform)

Metric Type I Type II Type III Type IV
Aerial 75 ft. 50 ft.
Elevated Stream 500 GPM same
Ground Ladders 115 ft. same
Personnel 4 same
Source: http://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nims/fire_haz_mat.pdf
Resource Typing Also Applies to Personnel
Example: EOC Operations Section Chief
Metric Type I Type II Type III
Experience, • Supervisory role in Ops • Supervisory role in • Training and/or
Training, Section in 3 or more Ops in 1 federally experience in Ops
Comprehension federally declared declared disaster for non-federally
disaster situations in 3 situation declared disaster
different states • Org & supervise situations
• Organized & subunits – non-Fed • Training in ICS
supervised subunits in declared disaster
fed or non-Fed • Experience and
declared disaster training in ICS
• Extensive experience
and training in ICS
Equipment Laptop w/ wireless Laptop w/ internet; Equipment provided

internet; satellite/cell satellite/cell phone; by requesting State:
phone; standardize standardized forms laptop, comms,
forms standardized forms
Source: http://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nims/incident_mgmt.pdf
Santa Clara County ARES/RACES
MAC Resource Types – Generalized Capabilities
MAC Type Description of Capabilities
• All Type II capabilities, plus
• Any type of assignment – most critical, highest traffic
Type I • Lead operator for large, complex assignments
(Specialist)
• Plan, design, set-up and operate multi-freq, multi-operator
• Primary resource and liaison for planning of information flow
• All Type III capabilities, plus
Type II • More advanced/complicated/higher traffic assignments
(Advanced) • Lead operator role for small to medium
• Higher power, better antenna(s), additional equipment
• All Type IV capabilities, plus
Type III • Dispatched/assigned as individual resource
(Independent)
• Capable of fully independent operation anywhere in county
Type IV • Mutual Aid Communicator
(Baseline) • Baseline training, experience, equipment, skill set
Type V Licensed Amateur Radio Operator
MAC Qualifications at a Glance
HF
Resource Field Comms Net Control Packet Shadow
(future)
Type I Field Comm I Net Control I Packet I Shadow I HF I
Type II Field Comm II Net Control II Packet II Shadow II HF II
Type III Field Comm III Net Control III Packet III Shadow III HF III
Type IV Mutual Aid Communicator
Requirements by Type
Example: Field Communications
Prerequisites • All Type II req’s • All Type III req’s • All MAC req’s
Training • ICS 300 • Field Ops Level 2 • ICS 100, 200, 700
• Cross-band Repeating • Field Ops Level 1
• Comms planning (TBD)
Experience • 8 SPECS/SVECS • 8 SPECS/SVECS • 8 SPECS/SVECS
• 8 city nets • 8 city nets • 8 city nets
• 1 county drill • 1 county drill • 1 county drill
• 1 public service • 1 public service • 1 public service
Equipment • Mobile dual-band w/ • Mobile dual-band • 2-hr carry kit
cross-band repeat (min. 25w) radio • 12-hr go kit
• DC supply; charger • 12 hrs battery power • Performance
• Extended power (>12 hrs) • Base antenna, mast, Standards
coax, etc.
Knowledge • Cross-band repeat setup • Radio operations • Radio operations
• Managing problems • Managing problems • Net usage
• Mike-Mike scale
• Managing problems
Verifying Performance
• What we know from experience

– Training attendance is a poor predictor of performance
– Event participation is a poor predictor of performance
• So, how do the professionals verify performance?
– Performance reviews
– Peer reviews
– Objective standards and documentation
SCCo ARES/RACES MAC Performance Evaluation
Example: Field Communications
Quality County Performance County Performance County Performance
Standards & Best Standards & Best Standards & Best
Practices Practices Practices
Activity Plan, design and set-up • Traffic Rate • Traffic Rate
field information flow and • Medium to high • Low to medium
communications support • Traffic Types • Traffic Types
for an approved country • Multiple ICS-213 • Min 2 ICS-213
drill, event or incident • Multiple informal • Min 2 informal
• Multi-frequency
• F1 – full ops
• F2 – light duty
Logs and • ICS 201 Incident Briefing • ICS-205 Comm Plan • ICS-211 Sign-In/Out
Records • ICS 202 Incident Obj’s • ICS-211, 214, 309 • ICS-214 Activity Log
• ICS 205, 211, 214, 309 • ICS-309 Comm Log
• Performance evaluations are during regularly scheduled events

• In other words, we practice like we would perform at an incident
Peer Review Performed by MAC Evaluators
• Patterned after Amateur Radio “VE” process
• MAC Evaluator requirements
– Eligibility
• Amateur Radio operator license; never suspended or revoked
• Active status MAC; never suspended or revoked
• Hold at least one Type II qualification
– Detailed MAC Program Knowledge
• Performance Standards, MAC Handbook, Evaluator Handbook
– Evaluator Training
– Mentored Evaluation
– Approval
• Evaluator numbers scale up with program size
Earning a Qualification is Straight Forward
• Candidate completes requirements for the skill level

– Prerequisites, training, participation
• Candidate undergoes a standardized evaluation
– Conducted during drills, approved public service events, …
– Candidate simply operates their assignment normally
– Evaluator observes performance vs. county Performance Standards
– No “gimmes” and no “gotchas”
– If passed, qualification is recorded in county database
– If not, attend more training, get more experience, try again
N Qualified
Skill Level Pass Y

Requirements Evaluation?
View and Track Status, Print Credentials
• View color coded qualification

status summary
• Drill down to individual
details in each qualification
• Print qualification credentials
• City/agency:
– Simplified reports
– Rosters include qualifications
– List of MACs by Qual Area
• County:
– DSW/Qual dispatch report
– List of MACs by Qual Area
http://www.scc-ares-races.org/activities
Improved Resource Assignment
Resource Request
Request by Type Assignment by Type
HF
Resource Field Comms Net Control Packet Shadow
(future)
Type I Field Comm I Net Control I Packet I Shadow I HF I
Type II Field Comm II Net Control II Packet II Shadow II HF II
Type III Field Comm III Net Control III Packet III Shadow III HF III
Type IV Mutual Aid Communicator

Implementation Experience
Theory vs. Practice
• Other amateur radio resource typing efforts were

investigated – why reinvent the wheel?
• Common threads
– Rely on having a license, attending certain courses, and
having certain equipment
• We know from experience that none of these are good predictors of
performance
– Qualifications too broad to be meaningful
• Didn’t solve the problem of what resource type to order
– Little to no documented implementation
• Existence of a web page does not indicate implementation or
acceptance
Implementation History
Date Activity
13-Aug-2009 New program presented to EC Council – Level 1 defined
19-Sep-2009 MAC Drill with West Valley Cert – first informal evaluations
20-Sep-2009 MAC Program Handbook v1.0 posted – Level 2 finalized

MAC Program Kick-off - after SPECS (21st) and SVECS (22nd)
Various Drills and Public Service Events with MAC Evaluations
6-Aug-2010 MAC Program Handbook v1.1 posted – Level 3 finalized
Various Drills and Public Service Events with MAC Evaluations
Soon MAC Program Handbook v2.0

• Rename initial “levels” to proper ICS “types”
• Continuing participation requirements
Results – as of October 2010
• 160+ registered in program

– Qualifications are optional and we expect some to not be interested
• 74% of active participants have or are pursuing qualifications
– 34% hold at least one qualification; many hold more than one
– 40% have at least one partial qualification
– 26% are active but have no qualification activity
• Qualifications now used for county event assignments
– Net Control class now teaches how assignment by type is done
– ADECs get weekly dispatch report for their go kits
• DSW status, MAC qualifications, other participation
– County staff assignments for drills, events managed by type
All accomplished at regularly scheduled drills, events, meetings.
“What we already do, where and when we already do it.”
More Info in the MAC Program Handbook
Table of Contents:
• Performance Standards
• How to Become a MAC
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Resource Assignment & Typing
• Advanced Qualifications
• Evaluations
• Recognition
• Advanced Qualification Definitions
• MAC Response Teams
• ICS and NIMS
• Records Management
• Program Management http://www.scc-ares-races.org/mac
Next Steps
• Rename the resource types

– It was initially unclear how many types were needed
– Started with level 1 (lowest); added levels 2 and 3 (highest)
– “Upside down” from standard ICS type numbering
– We will renumber the current levels to types:
• Level 3 Type I; Level 2  Type II; Level 1  Type III
• New training course on event planning
– Based on ICS planning process
– Add to Type 1 requirements
• Define HF resource type(s)
Thanks for your interest today
Michael E. Fox – N6MEF

n6mef@arrl.net
MAC Program Info: http://www.scc-ares-races.org/mac

Amateur Radio Resource Typing

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Amateur Radio Resource Typing

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Amateur Radio Resource Typing

The Santa Clara County ARES/RACES

Michael E Fox, N6MEF

• Introduction and Overview

• A non-commercial (i.e. non-paid), licensed service

• ARES: Amateur Radio Emergency Service

• RACES: Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service

• ACS: Auxiliary Communications Services

• Increasingly, organizations are joint ARES/RACES/ACS

• Deployment may be portable,

• Usually deploymed to a fixed site,

• Equipped for extended (and quiet)

• Candidate is designated “MAC in Training” (MIT) by EC

Details in the MAC Program Handbook

• Must be 18 years of age or older

• Valid Technician class or higher Amateur Radio license

• Valid California Driver’s license or California State-issued ID card

• Read “SCCo ARES/RACES MAC Program Handbook”

• Read “SCCo ARES/RACES Performance Stds and Best Practices”

• Registered with Santa Clara County as a Disaster Service Worker

• Completed/agree to complete Livescan and background check

• Extended Kit (optional)

• Recommended for everyone

• Minimum training for MAC entry

• Where did they come from?

• How are they used?

• From Communications Technique section:

• Baseline administrative, training, experience,

• Result: each individual within the pool of MAC

Resource Request Available Resources

Fire Truck – Aerial (Ladder or Platform)

Equipment Laptop w/ wireless Laptop w/ internet; Equipment provided

Type I Field Comm I Net Control I Packet I Shadow I HF I

Type II Field Comm II Net Control II Packet II Shadow II HF II

Type IV Mutual Aid Communicator

Type V Licensed Amateur Radio Operator

• What we know from experience

• Performance evaluations are during regularly scheduled events

• Candidate completes requirements for the skill level

Skill Level Pass Y

• View color coded qualification

Request by Type Assignment by Type

Type I Field Comm I Net Control I Packet I Shadow I HF I

Type II Field Comm II Net Control II Packet II Shadow II HF II

Type IV Mutual Aid Communicator

Type V Licensed Amateur Radio Operator

• Other amateur radio resource typing efforts were

13-Aug-2009 New program presented to EC Council – Level 1 defined

20-Sep-2009 MAC Program Handbook v1.0 posted – Level 2 finalized

Various Drills and Public Service Events with MAC Evaluations

6-Aug-2010 MAC Program Handbook v1.1 posted – Level 3 finalized

Various Drills and Public Service Events with MAC Evaluations

Soon MAC Program Handbook v2.0

• 160+ registered in program

• Rename the resource types

Michael E. Fox – N6MEF

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