Final
Report
New
Mexico ARES/RACES Simulated Emergency Test
December
10, 2005
New Mexico ARES & RACES conducted a Simulated Emergency Test
on December 10, 2005 from 0800 to 1100 MST.
This was a statewide exercise simulating complete loss of A.C power, telephone
and Internet within the State of New Mexico.
Although this scenario is not likely to occur in the entire state, these
failures could occur simultaneously in parts of the state and could affect
large segments of the population. This
also gives us the opportunity to operate under “worst case” conditions for an
exercise.
Chain reaction events, in a fictitious county, began when a
vehicle transporting 9000 gallons of 87-octane fuel jackknifed down the exit
ramp towards the Truck Stop when the driver dozed off. There is a 345 KV transmission line running
along the west side of the Truck Stop and a telephone company central office
nearby on the north side. With cracked
valves and a leaking tank, fuel entered the basement of the central
office. The resulting fire created a
toxic cloud, which created a path for an electric arc, knocking out power to
80% of the residents of New Mexico.
I. GOALS for December 10, 2005 Exercise:
II. Participants: The
following county ARES/RACES groups participated: Bernalillo, Chavez, Cibola, Doña Ana, Lincoln, Los Alamos,
McKinley, Otero, Rio Arriba, Roosevelt, San Juan, Sandoval and Santa Fe. The total number of participants was: ARES/RACES – 107; Army MARS – 2; Navy MARS
–3. Many of the ARES/RACES members are
also MARS members. The five MARS
members counted separately were directly involved in handling traffic to FEMA.
Army MARS and
Navy MARS were vital participants used to handle traffic to FEMA in Denton,
Texas.
Don Shelton,
K5OK, participated at FEMA Region VI in Denton.
III. Nets:
In addition to
local nets within the counties listed above there were HF SSB and MT-63 nets on
75 and 40M. VHF packet and TELPAC were
also used by several stations to pass traffic or as a back-channel for
coordination purposes.
The HF/SSB net
was opened at 1500Z by WA5WHN on 3939 kHz, then moved to 3943 kHz due to heavy
interference on the primary frequency.
28 stations were logged on this frequency before moving to 7236.5 kHz at
1650Z due to propagation change.
WA5SOX, WA5TYJ and NM5RR assumed NCS duties on 40M with N7FK in Kingman,
AZ, standing by to assist. A total of 8
(test) priority messages were handled on this mode.
The HF/MT-63 net
started out on 3582 kHz then moved to 7103.5 kHz with W5ALL in Roswell as
NCS. Message traffic was handled from
Albuquerque City EOC manager to the State EOC; from Cibola County Emergency
Manager to State EOC; from Doña Ana County EM to State EOC; from Roosevelt
County DEC to State EOC; from
Albuquerque EOC to ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Director, from Lincoln County
IC to State EOC, from State EOC to
Denton, TX.
All in-state was
handled station to station. Traffic to
Denton, TX, was handled by both Army and Navy MARS stations, for delivery to
their counterparts in Texas and final delivery to FEMA. For examples of packet, MT-63 and Telpac
traffic, see attachments 15 & 16 submitted by W5ALL in Roswell and
attachment 18 submitted by WA5WHN (as received at NM5RR). Also see attachment 19 for an example of a
message with a MARS header for transmission to NNN0LAN in TX from NNN0AUB in
Hobbs.
Problems
encountered: Several reports indicated that more
frequencies and nets could be used to avoid traffic congestion (AKA
pile-up). This was an artificial
condition created by having all EOCs and other participating stations meet on
the nets beginning at 0800. During an
actual event there will be differing activation times for EOCs and stations
entering the net and, most likely, not as many stations checking into the nets. An event requiring activation of a large
number of stations will have those stations entering the nets at different
times as operators are called in to duty.
More training is
required on handling traffic on voice nets and, to a certain extent, on the
digital nets. A station sending a voice
message in ICS-213 format needs to let the receiving station know what’s coming
since this is vastly different than a regular ARRL/NTS format. It would probably be beneficial to the
receiving station to have blank ICS-213s on hand for message copying. Use of proper pro words and ICAO phonetics
can also speed up message handling on voice.
Digital traffic requires a station serial number (message number) and
date/time group be assigned to each message.
An expanded, statewide,
packet network could enhance our message handling capabilities within the
State. The current network covers the
middle Rio Grande from Los Alamos to Belen in addition to Roswell. HF remains the primary route for locations
in the northwest, southwest, south and southeast parts of the State.
But, what
went right: HF/MT-63 proves itself as an excellent mode
when handling lengthy message traffic rapidly and accurately. VHF packet and TELPAC share in accurately
handling long messages and are only limited by the packets nodes we have
available and stations that have TELPAC.
Using MARS to interface with FEMA has proven to be an expeditious and
reliable means of getting the traffic in and out of Denton, TX.
W5ALL operated
as HF/MT-63 NCS in a manner that elicited comments from many reporting
stations. He was also operational on
packet and TELPAC. WA5SOX, WA5TYJ and NM5RR
handled the HF/SSB net with assistance from stations in AZ and CO. Aside from the congestion noted earlier,
these nets went well and passed a lot of traffic. Relays from out of state
stations can be valuable during marginal or changing propagation conditions. Propagation was fair to good during the
exercise, especially considering we’re near the low point of the current solar
cycle. N7FK near Kingman, AZ, has
indicated he wants to participate in future exercises and can be well utilized
when propagation is long.
AG5S had his
hands full at the State EOC but, again, this was an artificial situation both
in number of messages and the time period they were handled in. During an actual event we can expect message
traffic to be more evenly time distributed.
Our exercise planner likes to say we need to stress the system and see
what breaks – in this case, I did not see any breakdowns.
Several EOCs had
their Emergency Managers or EOC managers present and participating in the
exercise by injecting message traffic destined for the State OEM/EOC. This certainly improves the working
relationship we have with them and gives us a chance to demonstrate some of our
capability that can be called on in an actual incident (what we can and can’t
do).
Lessons
Learned: Please see comments from WA5WHN at attachment 20. I have also included most of the comments I
received from other stations. In my
opinion, this was the best exercise conducted by ARES/RACES and MARS in New
Mexico. Some locations have identified
deficiencies in their operation and are working on fixing them and working on
updating Emergency Operating Plans for their local organization.
Conclusion:
Great job and a great exercise.
Our primary mission is to pass message traffic from point A to point B
in a manner that’s acceptable to the users.
This was accomplished many times over during the exercise. Bruce Sickles, Albuquerque EOC Manager, says
his grouped has made great progress and he’s proud of them --- those comments
apply equally to the state-wide team.
Thanks for all your hard work and the effort you put into making this
exercise a success. Let’s make the next
one better, yet.
Bill Kauffman,
W5YEJ
State RACES
Officer and NM SEC