2012 NC SET

Session 2, November 10, 2012

Here is the last, final comments preceding Saturday's NC SET-2

The overall intent is to get our folks conversant-with and comfortable-with operating within the Winlink system environment. Basically, it's email via HF radio.

So, here are the final suggestions:

Do it right. Send your traffic via RF and NOT Telnet. For this exercise, all messages will be vetted. The SHA-1 hash is a part of the mechanism.

We suggest that you include a "real" email address as a cc: to your message. The validation process for this stage of our SET is detailed and we will not acknowledge or respond quickly. We may need a day or more to sort-out the traffic. When you receive your "cc:" message you will know that your transmission was successful.  NOTE: do not "cc:" to your Winlink address as a recursive message is not allowed.

To date, this has been a rewarding process. Lots of folks have applied the time to learn the mechanism and are now ready to add this tool to their list of capabilities. This is a significant achievement.

Winlink is used by a huge number of State and Federal Agencies and is included in the NCEM Strategic Communications Plan. You need to have a presence and capability, here.

73,

Tom Brown N4TAB

NC RACES Officer

NC ARES SEC

NC AUXCOMM Coordinator

2012 NC SET - Second Session

Saturday, November 10, 2012

0900 = 1200 HRS

This is the first of three (3) information releases regarding the 2012 NC SET, Second Session.

First Information Release - Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Building upon the successful October 13^th Session wherein the basic capability to operate in the Winlink System was achieved, this November 10^th session will add a real-world component. For this session, we will send tactical messages as well as a provided formal ICS-213 message that will simulate traffic from a Served Agency. For each of the 15 Geographic Areas in NC ARES, there will be a unique message and a unique Winlink address for traffic from that Area.

Example: Any messages sent from any station in Henderson County will send to the AREA 15 Winlink address listed below. Similarly, those messages must include (at least) the content of the Area 15 message that will be provided in the Second Information Release on Wednesday, November 7, 2012

As a first step, note the email addresses that will be the target of each Area's messages:

SET-2012.  Winlink, email via HF radio, serves a central role in radio business conducted by ARES/RACES/AUXCOMM operators in support of NCEM and many counties. Winlink supports simple and complex messaging and supports the use of attachments, just as does the regular email system. Winlink has been installed at NCEM facilities since 2008 and also at a number of County facilities. Many individual operators have learned to include, use and utilize Winlink in their operations. Winlink can be utilized by almost any HF-capable operator. If you're using PSK31 or similar soundcard-based protocols, Winlink is an easy step. The Winlink organization has authored and provides at no cost, a couple of client (user) programs - RMS Express and Paclink -  that can be downloaded from ftp://autoupdate.winlink.org/User Programs/ (RMS_Express_Setup_1-2-5-0.zip and Paclink_setup_4-3-3-0.zip). A good how-to about Winlink is available here: http://www.dtreg.com/Getting_Started_with_Winlink_and_WINMOR.pdf .

As announced at least a half-dozen times on successive Mondays over a 2 month period on the Tar Heel Emergency Net, NC ARES will conduct the 2012 SET in 2 or more phases and on 2 or more Saturdays. This year, we are focusing on Winlink and its role in NC and Regional EMCOMM activities.

First Event - October 13, 2012, 0900 HRS DST. This will be a tune-up event intended to have operators learn/prepare to use the Winlink radio-to-email system. Each County will identify one or more operators that have Winlink HF capability using Pactor or Winmor (soundcard) protocols and using either RMS Express, Paclink or Airmail clients. Simple tactical messages will be sent via local means (VHF/UHF, cellphone, PSTN)  to the County WL2K station who will put that traffic into Winlink email messages and send those messages to a specified email address.

Second Event - November 10, 2012, 0900 HRS EST.  This event will focus on using Winlink to send formal traffic in ICS-213 format from Counties to specified email addresses. Individual messages may originate from numerous operators who will route them to the designated Winlink-equipped stations. The Winlink-equipped stations will forward the messages to specified email addresses using Winlink HF. We will also provide a specific message and a small attachment to each County and those must be sent as part of the exercise.

Frequencies for local traffic can be VHF/UHF, repeater or simplex, FRS, cellphone, etc. Frequencies for Winlink will be those as proposed by the Winlink user client (RMS Express, for example). If your organization has MARS operators available, they can use MARS Winlink frequencies. Similarly, Counties that have MARS Agency licenses can use the MARS Winlink frequencies.

Depending on the success of the two Events mentioned, we may elect to conduct a third Event in December, 2012.

OTHER ARES INFORMATION. The NC AUXCOMM database lists more than 500 NC NIMS/ICS-compliant operators.  This is a really great achievement!  Thanks to all that have recognized the requirement and taken the small bit of time to complete the courses. I do find it interesting that a number of jurisdictions, in their monthly reports, show 20-30+ members and only 1 or 2 in the database. It's interesting in that only those who have completed the NIMS/ICS courses can really do much, other than operate in public-service events. What happens if an Incident occurs in your county and you need several days of 24 hour operations? Where will your operators come from?

Also, for those who may not have noticed, the AUXCOMM.US site now also hosts separate databases for South Carolina and Colorado. Three other large states are currently evaluating the use of our database structure for their own operations.

Western Branch ARES/AUXCOMM meeting in Morganton on Saturday, October 27, 2012. Last year, we had record attendence and covered a lot of subject matter. We have a good program planned for this year, as well.

Thanks and 73,  Tom N4TAB, NC SEC.