General – Dane and Iowa County ARES and RACES

AuxFOG, NIFOG, WIFOG

What?

Nearly every level of Public Service at which we could be deployed has a FOG or Field Operations Guide. Even if you are not in the middle of an incident they have a wealth of information on operating and equipment and procedures. It is Free so its worth every penny.

On Android or IPhone go to your app store and search for “Public Safety Library” (at least that is what it is called on my Android).

Once it is installed the three FOGs you will want to install first will be

Wisconsin Interoperable Communications Field Operations Guide (WIFOG)
National Interoperability Field Operations Guide (NIFOG)
Auxiliary Communications Field Operations Guide (AuxFOG)

Once you have them installed go ahead and browse. You’ll find some interesting stuff in there. And let us know what you think.

Setting Up Outside Show and Tell

Thanks to all who came to Badger Prairie Park on Aug 31 for a show and tell on setting up outside. We all learned something from each one of the setups. I was asked if I could provide a breakdown of some of what we learned. It wasn’t recorded and I wasn’t taking notes and although I don’t usually open posts for commenting I will on this one so I can rely on people who were there to comment below on any interesting take aways they had from the evening.

3 responses to “Setting Up Outside Show and Tell”

KC9UNZ

September 2, 2023

Here’s my take aways:
Put a Hard Hat in my go kit.
Make a list of stuff to take with me… I can’t set aside stuff just for deployment so I found I forgot obvious stuff for our evening I need to create a go kit list
Deployment manuals can be found by installing the Public Safety Library app on Iphone or android. (More on this later)
Bring a camp chair
WEM Go-Kits can be requested through the county EOC.
Everyone should create a Winlink Account. There are two parts to Winlink. You can create an account and install the software and use WinLink WITHOUT a radio. Create an account and get familiar with the software. Once you get that down, then wrestle with doing RF winlink (because wrestle you will!)

Reply
Thomas Pugh W9TDP

September 2, 2023

Look for Public Safety Library in either the Apple App Store or the Android App Store. From the Library, I have downloaded, ‘Wisconsin Interoperable Communications Field Operations Guide’, ‘National Interoperability Field Operations Guide’, and ‘Auxillary Communications Field Operations Guide’. aka WI eFOG, eNIFOG, and eAUXFOG. Open each one while you have WiFi access; the files will download and you will have them when you need them in the field.

Reply
Joe N9TWA

September 4, 2023

I have a hard hat. Never throught to bring it. I have steel toe boots too which might come in handy. I do have a large amount of equipment to bring, but it often gets trimmed to meet the needs of my role. A list of what to bring for different assignments would be good. I forgot to mention that I also have a pair of FRS radios. Store batteries in a baggie with the light/radio etc., with all of it in a second baggie. This will protect the equipment if the batteries leak.
Might come in handy when working with non-hams.

Reply

Badger Challenge (UW Cancer Research)

Event Timing: Sunday, September 24, 2022
Event Address: 6000 American Parkway, Madison

The Badger Challenge (formerly The Ride) consists of a cycling event (100mi, 100k, 50k, 25k, 5k) and a Run/Walk event (13.1mi and 5k).

The Badger Challenge would not be possible without its numerous caring and dedicated volunteers! This year, it takes place on Sunday, September 24, 2022 at the same location, 6000 American Parkway, Madison (American Family Insurance).

We are looking for volunteers for staffing communications support for traffic direction and parking for the event, Course Sweeper Vehicles, Bike mobile for patrolling the Run/Walk event, Rider transport, net control/dispatch. We will try to accommodate your availability as much as possible.

To volunteer please browse to this address: https://forms.gle/Bcx5CdeZBPBcZPhY9

August 2023 In-Person at Badger Pairie Park

Join us on the last Thursday of the month, August 31, at 7:00, at Badger Prairie Park County Park in Verona for a show and tell. When we asked what people wanted to see during the year one of the requests included ideas and examples of setting up outside and operating. If you have a way that you set up outside bring it along and we’ll set up a few stations outside on Thursday Evening. I’m not exactly sure where in the park we’ll be so come on down and drive along the main road through the park until you see what looks like a bunch of hams!

Please note, there will be no zoom connection available for this meeting.

Results From January 2023 meeting

Dane ARES folk met in a hybrid meeting on January 26 at Space Place and Zoom. The major agenda from the meeting was to find out what members felt should be important about our work this year. We split into groups and discussed and then came back together to share results.

We also requested that each Ham that is interested in public service through ARES/RACES for 2023 send a message to KC9UNZ indicating so. This is a messaging activity as well. You can send your message, preferably using an ICS213 form one of 3 ways.

Winlink – to KC9UNZ
Voice Message during one of our Wednesday Net Meetings
Fill out an ICS 213 and hand it to Jeff at one of our in-person meetings

You can find links to forms below. For further instructions please take a look at the link to the notes from the meeting.

Attached here are the notes from the meeting.

Here is an example of a Confirmation Winlink Message

Here is a link to the official ICS213 form.

Dane/Iowa ARES/RACES January Meeting

We’ll be meeting on Jan 26 at 7:30. It will be a hybrid meeting, in person at Space Place with a Zoom option if you can’t or don’t feel comfortable joining us. More info to come. If you have not received your email invitation which includes the Zoom connection information please send a note including your call sign to KC9UNZ@arrl.net

Next In-person meeting of ARES RACES – October 27, 2022 – 7:30 PM – Updated

We will meet this week at the office of Wisconsin Emergency Managment at 2400 Wright Street, Madison, WI 53704. I met with Paul, W9CBJ on March 5, 2020 to prepare for us all to go up and tour the facility but, you all remember what happened immediatly after that. We are going to try again. Paul will be sending me information about parking and entry into the facility. We’ll be parking across the street and walking through the gate but I’ll give you more information in a follow up email. This will essentially be an in-person only event BUT I will see what I can do about a remote connection on my phone. If you are on the email list you should have already received this announcement. If not please sign up here: http://eepurl.com/gTS4Rf. I’ll send out details in a follow up email.

Getting in to WEM!

Two things to update.

How we’ll meet and get in to WEM and
Zoom details if you are unable to join us.

First: Paul, W9CBJ will meet us at the gate. We wil park across street to east of SEOC (yellow building #901) and he will meet us at walk in gate on east side of fence line and we’ll walk in. We will meet at 7:30. Since Paul will be walking us in please try to be on time.

Second: If you are unable to join us in person I will try to do a Zoom meeting once we get started. You should be able to sign on to zoom before me and I’ll start the meeting on my phone once we get started. The Zoom connection information was attached to the email I sent out this morning. If you did not receive it please send me a note with your Call SIgn at kc9unz@arrl.net and I’ll email it along.

Category Archives: General