ARES will help with Toys for Tots
Vigo County ARES will help with the Toys for Tots Program at the Wabash Valley Fair Grounds.
Ares will help with the sorting of the toys and will be working with EMA, Red Cross, CERT groups to get everything ready for the event.
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) -
The annual Toys for Tots campaign is in full swing in the Wabash Valley.
News 10 has teamed up with the U.S. Marine Corps once again to help with the toy drive.
Drop off locations are all across the Wabash Valley including at Wal-Mart, Toys “R” Us and local restaurants.
Along with newly bought toys, the Marine Corps are also accepting monetary donations. The money is put into an account and the Marines will purchase toys with it.
The goal this year is to give toys to 3,000 kids. So far they are on track, but with more cash than toys.
"It's a good feeling for us in the Marine Corps to give back to our community. And just help kids. It's what it's about around the holiday season is to give back to your community. So it's a great program all across the nation," U.S. Marine Corps, Major Rick Harney said.
Folks who have not signed up to receive a donated toy, can sign up November 22nd and 29th.
The toys give away will be at the Vigo County fairgrounds December 16th, 17th, and 18th.
Well we all had a great time working on the Toys for Tots Christmas Giveaway.. Had a great time and worked for a great cause. I want to thank all the volunteers that came out and helped. N9JLR
ARES Works with SAR teems and EMA on a 2 day training event.
Vigo County ARES helped with a 2 day SAR training class in Shakamak State Park in Clay County.
This was held on the 24th and 25th.
We had SAR teems from Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana participating along with Vigo County SAR Teem.
Our job was to help implement a communications plan and to dispatch and track the teems.
To do this we used VHF, UHF, 800 MHz, and FRS radio systems.
We ran on simplex and also used a tracking system for some of the K-9’s.
We set up antennas from scratch and ran some of the event on battery power just to get an idea of what we might be up against in the real thing.
In running this event we had to make some changes due to terrain and even had to send out some relay units. This was a great thing as it was a real world type of training that showed what we could expect from a real event.
Tracking multiple teems required a lot of teem work and we developed a system that worked well for the event. We logged every teem and all communications in a spreadsheet and we also used a system called Salamander. This allowed us to scan the ID’s of every person going out into the field so we could be sure to account for them when they arrived back and to make sure we knew at all times where they were.
We had great participation from the area and had ARES members from Clay, Sullivan, Vigo and the EC from Tippecanoe County come down and help.
We not only showed them what we could do they showed us some of the basics of SAR and we helped in some of the ground operations as well.
Cross training is a must if we are to grow and be respected in our counties.
In the end we got nothing but praise from all SAR units and our EMA director told us they couldn’t have done it without us.
We also had the visiting SAR units take lots of pictures of our setup to take back and hopefully use in there area.
Some things I came away with were..
ICS now makes a lot more sense to me as I have been in charge of an event and now understand what and why we do some of the things we have been taught to do.
Logistics is everything for this kind of event and you have to be ready to make changes, you can’t just say we are going to do this event this way because you just don’t know what is going to happen so you need to be prepared to make changes on the fly.
Tracking groups of people can be difficult in the best case but tracking SAR units is hard on the best day so be prepared and have a plan in place to make it work for you as you are responsible for not only the people but making sure the K-9’s are accounted for and good recordkeeping is a must.
Your EMA director will need this for reimbursement and having this done on a spreadsheet worked well.
In the end we all I think had a great time and learned a lot.
The best thing was we showed other what amateur radio can do and now have been invited to be a part of the SAR teem to there communications.
We are going to try to put together a district 7 communications teem to train with the SAR units to be able to respond with them for the communications and tracking operations.
I’m very proud of our ARES people that came out and helped make this a successful event. The people that came out showed dedication and proved again that when we are needed we will be there.
This was held on the 24th and 25th.
We had SAR teems from Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana participating along with Vigo County SAR Teem.
Our job was to help implement a communications plan and to dispatch and track the teems.
To do this we used VHF, UHF, 800 MHz, and FRS radio systems.
We ran on simplex and also used a tracking system for some of the K-9’s.
We set up antennas from scratch and ran some of the event on battery power just to get an idea of what we might be up against in the real thing.
In running this event we had to make some changes due to terrain and even had to send out some relay units. This was a great thing as it was a real world type of training that showed what we could expect from a real event.
Tracking multiple teems required a lot of teem work and we developed a system that worked well for the event. We logged every teem and all communications in a spreadsheet and we also used a system called Salamander. This allowed us to scan the ID’s of every person going out into the field so we could be sure to account for them when they arrived back and to make sure we knew at all times where they were.
We had great participation from the area and had ARES members from Clay, Sullivan, Vigo and the EC from Tippecanoe County come down and help.
We not only showed them what we could do they showed us some of the basics of SAR and we helped in some of the ground operations as well.
Cross training is a must if we are to grow and be respected in our counties.
In the end we got nothing but praise from all SAR units and our EMA director told us they couldn’t have done it without us.
We also had the visiting SAR units take lots of pictures of our setup to take back and hopefully use in there area.
Some things I came away with were..
ICS now makes a lot more sense to me as I have been in charge of an event and now understand what and why we do some of the things we have been taught to do.
Logistics is everything for this kind of event and you have to be ready to make changes, you can’t just say we are going to do this event this way because you just don’t know what is going to happen so you need to be prepared to make changes on the fly.
Tracking groups of people can be difficult in the best case but tracking SAR units is hard on the best day so be prepared and have a plan in place to make it work for you as you are responsible for not only the people but making sure the K-9’s are accounted for and good recordkeeping is a must.
Your EMA director will need this for reimbursement and having this done on a spreadsheet worked well.
In the end we all I think had a great time and learned a lot.
The best thing was we showed other what amateur radio can do and now have been invited to be a part of the SAR teem to there communications.
We are going to try to put together a district 7 communications teem to train with the SAR units to be able to respond with them for the communications and tracking operations.
I’m very proud of our ARES people that came out and helped make this a successful event. The people that came out showed dedication and proved again that when we are needed we will be there.
1/20/2012
On Friday evening radio changed over to ice and things started to get a little harry in the county.
It all started about 7:30pm as reports started coming in about roads getting slick and then accidents started to happen. Not one or two they were everywhere and no one was getting to them fast. I70 was shut down for a time as was St road 59 and St road 40. Cars and trucks were sliding off the roadways and it was just getting impossible to drive.
Vigo County ARES was working with Illiana Skywarn tracking the weather event and relaying this information the our EMA director who is also a ham KC9UCD. She asked us for updates and got on the phone with the county commissioners and the sheriff who decided to declare a Level 1 Travel Advisory, that means all persons have to stay off the roadways except for emergencies and emergency personal.
This was to stay in effect until the am and it would then be evaluated again.
ARES and Skywarn stayed on the radio and in contact with National Weather Service until after Midnight keeping them informed on what was going on in the county and allowing them to better understand the events here in Vigo County. Also by having our EMA director on the radio she could get a better understanding of what was being reported and I think it helped to get the Level 1 declared.
Under conditions like this there is no doubt that it was the right thing to do and maybe this could have saved a life by keeping someone from going out in such extreme conditions.
I would like to thank all that helped with this event for making Vigo County safe.
Doug Mullens
N9JLR
EC Vigo County
On Friday evening radio changed over to ice and things started to get a little harry in the county.
It all started about 7:30pm as reports started coming in about roads getting slick and then accidents started to happen. Not one or two they were everywhere and no one was getting to them fast. I70 was shut down for a time as was St road 59 and St road 40. Cars and trucks were sliding off the roadways and it was just getting impossible to drive.
Vigo County ARES was working with Illiana Skywarn tracking the weather event and relaying this information the our EMA director who is also a ham KC9UCD. She asked us for updates and got on the phone with the county commissioners and the sheriff who decided to declare a Level 1 Travel Advisory, that means all persons have to stay off the roadways except for emergencies and emergency personal.
This was to stay in effect until the am and it would then be evaluated again.
ARES and Skywarn stayed on the radio and in contact with National Weather Service until after Midnight keeping them informed on what was going on in the county and allowing them to better understand the events here in Vigo County. Also by having our EMA director on the radio she could get a better understanding of what was being reported and I think it helped to get the Level 1 declared.
Under conditions like this there is no doubt that it was the right thing to do and maybe this could have saved a life by keeping someone from going out in such extreme conditions.
I would like to thank all that helped with this event for making Vigo County safe.
Doug Mullens
N9JLR
EC Vigo County
Vigo County ARES works Scheid Diesel Extravaganza with Local and Task Force 7
August 30 2011 By: N9JLR EC Vigo County ARES
Vigo County ARES with some help from Clay and Sullivan Counties helped with the Scheid Diesel Extravaganza on August 26th - 28th at the Vigo County Fair grounds.
This is a large event that attracts over 10,000 people for the 3 day event.
ARES was put to the test working communications for incoming visitors and making sure they were getting in the right place to park. We also we there to help keep an eye on folks and use radios to advise our locial agencies if we saw anything that might lead to problems.
We set up command in the local EMA communications trailer and worked with out 911 center dispatchers that were there handling all traffic for the police and EMS. ARES was right at home working with the dispatchers and we worked hand and hand with them sharing information as needed.
Something new for us was working with the local CERT team and helping them to get used to working with large crowds of people.
ARES worked shifts of 4:00pm to 12:00 on Friday and Saturday night and had about 10 members working those shifts.
One thing about working this type of event is that you get real experience dealing with the public and the training could not be better in the event of a real disaster.
Knowing What to expect and how to deal with large crowds of people most certainly will come in handy in the event of an emergency.
Also getting served agencies used to working with us is never a bad thing.
In the end we not only got some good experience, we now have an invite to put in a complete radio system in the 911 dispatch center that will be installed in the radio console on a full time basis.
We also got to work with the CERT folks and it was good for us to train together as we will be working with them more and more in the future.
Working with the local served agencies like this only gives ARES more respect and shows what we can do for the community.
I'm proud of the people that have worked hard to help make ARES in Vigo County respected in our county.
ARES will be supporting communications at the Vigo Co. Fair.
ARES has been requested to help support Vigo County EMA for this year's Vigo County Fair. The Dates will be 7/10 thru 7/16 from 5pm to ??. All who are interested in supporting this event please contact Nick (N9WG) via E-mail: [email protected]
ARES put on standby for possibility deploying to Joplin Mo.
May, 27 2011 ARES on standby to go to Joplin MO. for SAR support.
Vigo County ARES was call and asked to be on standby for possible deployment to Joplin for communications support for Task Force 7 SAR Team. ARES has trained with the SAR teem and we have been working on an APRS system to better track the SAR operation. Although this system has not yet been implemented ARES was asked to help with communications for the operation.
ARES had to put together a small group and be ready to go upon receiving a call from IDHS.
Deployment would be for 4 days, 2 working and 2 transportation.
As it turns out we did not get the call but we were ready to go and do what we could to help.
It is a nice feeling to know your teem is respected enough to be called upon to help in another state when the time arises.