This section is dedicated to sharing tips, tricks and ideas about how to make the ARES job easier and make our services more valuable to the rest of the Emergency Management community.
It's not about convincing people that hams are a valuable asset, it's about quietly showing them that they can't get the job done well without us.
Emergency call-outs.
Picture this, you're the EC, a big storm is rolling in and you need spotters ASAP. To complicate matters, it's the middle of February and no one is anticipating tornadoes. What do you do now?
This is How WE do it...
CallingPost.com is a great tool for contacting large numbers of people quickly. CallingPost allows you to manage groups of various memberships and enter their telephone contact information. When "The big one" happens, you make one phone call to CallingPost, leave your instructions, and they take care of the rest. Within seconds, ALL of the people on your list get a phone call delivering the message you left for them. Now your only problem is writing down their call signs when they all try to check in at once.
This tool is ideal for other uses too! Baseball team practice changes, Church service cancellation due to weather. Think outside the box.
K9BYT
Back-up frequencies
Everyone in your club knows the settings for your main repeater. Aw, snap! The tornado that just came through took out the antenna! What's the simplex frequency you're supposed to use? What about that other repeater on 440? Shoot! What's the PL tone for it? What do you do now?
This is How WE do it...
Any local office supply place or *Mart store has pre-perforated business card paper available at a small cost. Any computer with a word processing software is capable of printing the basics. Create a small table displaying a "channel number" (I know, this isn't CD radio, I'll get back to that...) Include a short description, the frequency, the offset and any PL tones. Print the grid on the business cards and distribute them to your members. If your people find themselves without the main repeater, they can go down the list of "channels" in order until they find someone. In the event you are receiving illegal interference, you can advise your people to switch to "channel 4" and begin your transmitter search. (You can refer to it as "frequency 4" if it makes you feel better.)
K9BYT