The following is a journal-style AAR (After Action Review) by AmRRON Corps operator Golf 8 Romeo (G8R aka ‘Gator’) during Hurricane Florence (and Tropical Storm/Tropical Depression) in September of 2018.This was one of the more rewarding aspects of the AmRRON activation, where we witnessed the network in action as it is supposed to be.
We all leaned a lot of lessons that will make us better as individual operators and as an organization. The tireless actions of Golf 8 Romeo, who’s persistence and servant attitude contributed to aiding and assisting others in his community, was a shining example of what it means to be resilient and selfless in times of hardship. We need more Golf 8 Romeos!
As you’ll also see, this was a team effort involving many great patriots who train regularly as a network to ensure communications and messages continue to flow. We all looked forward to hearing from those in the impacted disaster area, but G8R’s reports were by far the most regular, complete, and prolific of all the operators in the path of this storm. God bless everyone who served! I hope you all enjoy the AAR’s as we all relive the experience with G8R.
73! -JJS
>>Golf 8 Romeo After Action Review Hurricane Florence PDF<<
photo credit:the star
This is a great write up. Lots of good ideas:
1. Put backup antenna in attic incase outside ones fall.
2. Ration Fridge and Freezer use to just powering on for one hour 3x a day to conserve gen fuel. One hour runtime will cool fridge freezer enough.
3. Think about using solar to power radios, fans, and lamps to conserve gen fuel.
4. Satellite TV is not ALL bad, it has its benefits when Internet and local TV are down.
Tango Tango 02
Outstanding AAR. Much appreciated, and it warms my heart to read of the way you helped other folks.
Golf 8 Romeo mentioned the indispensability of FSQ and FT8Call during the hurricane aftermath. Are there any plans to incorporate them into the SOI?
Lastly, has there been any thought to hosting some sort of AmRRON Corps in-person training? I am a General class ham, but I don’t have EMCOM experience. Forms, FLMSG, and STATREPs and the like kind of make my head spin. I’d like to help, and I did my best to monitor T-Rex, but there was no way I was going to jump in and mess things up due to my knowledge deficit.
I think that this would provide a very good opportunity to go over when a station may use ham radio frequencies when not licensed. Based on the ARRL’s interpretation of part 97.403 and 97.405, this operator may have been ( or still can be) at risk for violation. Especially since his testimony is publish on the internet. Just because there is a general emergency declared does NOT mean that you cant be violated for giving your whole family 2m radios and letting them talk. Here is what the ARRL has to say about “anything goes” in the interpretation of the law, from the ARRL ARES manual.
“Many amateurs believe “In an emergency, anything goes.” This is not true. There are specific rules that specify what a station may do in certain emergency circumstances, not whatever someone might consider to be an emergency. These rules are 97.403, “Safety of life and protection of property,” and 97.405, “Station in distress.”
§97.403 Safety of life and protection of property.
No provision of these rules prevents the use by an amateur station of any means of radiocommunication at its disposal to provide essential communication needs in connection with the immediate safety of human life and immediate protection of property when normal communication systems are not available.
§97.405 Station in distress.
(a) No provision of these rules prevents the use by an amateur station in distress of any means at its disposal to attract attention, make known its condition and location, and obtain assistance.
(b) No provision of these rules prevents the use by a station, in the exceptional circumstances described in paragraph (a) of this section, of any means of radiocommunications at its disposal to assist a station in distress.
“Immediate safety of human life and immediate protection of property” means actually happening or about to happen, not just the mere possibility that something could happen; “when normal communication systems are not available” – inaccessible or inoperative; “any means of radiocommunication at its disposal to provide essential communication needs” — essential communication needs directly related to the “immediate” situation, not routine communications that happen to occur during an emergency situation. A station in distress or assisting a station in distress may use “any means at its disposal to attract attention, make known its condition and location, and obtain assistance.” If you think about the meaning of the key terms in these rules, you will see that they are a long way from “anything goes.”
The leeway afforded an amateur by 97.403 and 97.405 applies only to the immediate situation that is specifically life-threatening or property-threatening, not the broader situation in which it occurs. For example, communications to request a med-evac helicopter to a multi-vehicle collision could come
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under 97.403, but not communications to request tow-trucks to clear the roadway after the med-evac flight has departed. “
I FL we packed the freezer with bottles of drinking water. Kept the frig cold and you had a cool drink when the air was not on. We also used the solar powered lights they have to line your drive. Put them out to charge before the storm hits and keep them in a bathroom with the lights on. When the power goes out the driveway lights came on.