CAnybody who was at the last CVARC meeting will know that our deliberations about a possible move of meeting venue have been advanced somewhat by our inability to gain access to the meeting room for the March meeting. Starting in April, we will be meeting an the THIRD THURSDAY of the month instead of the second, and the venue will be the EAST VALLEY SHERIFF'S STATION at 2101 E. Olsen Road, Thousand Oaks. For those of you who have not been there, it is just to the east of the Olsen Road exit off the 23 freeway, at the first set of lights. Access to the Community Room where we will meet is just to the left of the main entrance doors, off the patio. The time, as usual, will be 7:30pm with early birds congregating from 7:00pm onward.

If you speak to other club members, please make sure that they know about the move of venue and day.

73 de AE6NX

Mike Bass will be discussing APRS tracking and how we plan to use it at Cruisin the Conejo. The 100-mile bicycle ride represents difficulties for both the rider and the ham operator. APRS can provide a way for net control to know exactly where the support vehicles are. When an incident report comes it, the closest vehicle can be dispatched. This can reduce response time for an injured rider. This topic ties in nicely with the tracker construction project held tonight.

Mike was first licensed in 1989 as N7WLC as a no-code technician. But the lure of HF and DX led to learning Morse Code and advancing through Tech Plus, General and Extra class licenses. He has worked 60 countries and all 50 states. Mike has been involved in digital modes, from packet to PSK31. His first satellite contact was to the Space Shuttle (N5QWL) using an HT. But his favorite modes are the digital modes on HF. "The soundcard has really opened up a whole new world in HF." In addition to ham radio, Mike is also an avid bicyclist. He has completed several 100-mile rides and a bicycle tour of Southern Utah.

Pictured here are Steve, AE6NX and Stephen AE6WF proudly displaying their new custom T-Shirts at a recent CVARC meeting. The design was specially commissioned for Amateurs who have returned to the hobby after a long hiatus. You are doubtless aware of the "Twelve Step" program which has been successfully used to cure Radio Amateurs of their affliction. Steve and Stephen are graduates of the less well-known, but very successful, "Two Step" program whereby hams return to the hobby.

The 28th annual Conejo Valley Crop Walk was held in Thousand Oaks on Sunday March 12, 2006. The walk, sponsored by area churches, raises money each year to help alleviate basic hunger throughout the world. 25% of the money raised is retained within the community to assist Conejo Valley Meals on Wheels, Westlake Village Meals on Wheels, MANNA - Conejo Food Bank, Catholic Charities, and Lutheran Social Services in meeting local hunger needs.

Each year ARES/RACES provides radio communications between the Start/Finish Line, at Nygreen Hall on the California Lutheran University (CLU) campus, and the Rest Stops along the 6.2 mile route. ARES/RACES also provides two radio equipped vehicles that patrol the route to assist walkers in need and help assure their safety.

Training For A Mass Evacuation

One of the lessons learned from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita last summer was how quickly a mass evacuation can turn into a horrible, even deadly, nightmare. Another lesson was how quick the news media is to brutally criticize government agencies for a botched evacuation. In Ventura County we do not want to find ourselves in the same disastrous evacuation scenario that New Orleans and south east Texas endured.

A mass evacuation out of the Oxnard plane would be necessary following a rupture in one of the dams feeding the Santa Clara river or following a tsunami. A mass evacuation after a terrorist attack or earthquake could occur anywhere in the county. ARES/RACES communications support would likely be requested during an evacuation, particularly on secondary routes that law enforcement may not have the manpower to cover.

The CROP Walks that we support each year provide an excellent opportunity to plan and actually train for mass evacuations. Yes, a CROP Walk is just a leisurely Sunday afternoon walk around the block. However, if you look closely, most of the communications and organizational problems involved in any real evacuation are also present in a CROP Walk.

Net Control

Net Control is one of the most important functions performed by ARES/RACES whenever emergency radio communications is needed. The purpose of Net Control is to maintain calm orderly communications during a disaster, ensuring that all message traffic is handled promptly with emergency traffic taking priority. Net Control is also the fastest way for radio operators in the field to call for help for the simple reason that Net Control is "always listening".

Net Control for the CROP Walk was located at Nygreen Hall on the CLU campus. Nygreen Hall also served as the Start/Finish Line and the Event Operations Center (EOC) for the CROP Walk. All coordination activities for the CROP Walk were handled out of Nygreen Hall.

CROP Walk Net Control Desk

Rest Stops and Mobile Units

Rest Stops are a critical element in mass evacuations. Rest Stops provide those involved in the evacuation with food, water, rest room facilities, medical, and other human services. Gas stations are important rest stops for vehicle evacuations. This aspect of the Katrina and Rita evacuations was a total failure since gas stations quickly ran out of gas leaving many motorists stranded beside the road and in grave danger as the hurricanes came roaring through.

For the CROP Walk, two Rest Stops were set up at approximately 1/3 and 2/3 the way around the route. The two Rest Stops had bottled water and rest room facilities available for the participants. However, there were no first aid provisions, such as band aids for foot blisters, available at the Rest Stops. The Rest Stops also needed paper cups for those that wanted water but not and entire bottle of water. These are areas of improvement for next year.

Mobile units are needed to patrol the evacuation route looking for stragglers, those that are too weak to continue, emergency situations, and to transport supplies to the Rest Stops. Mobile units could be aircraft as well as land vehicles. We had two radio equipped cars that patrolled the CROP Walk route until the last stragglers crossed the finish line.

Mathematicians Needed

Knowing how many people are evacuating, how far they are spread out, where the central mass of people is located, how fast the central mass is moving, and its estimated time of arrival at the Rest Stops is all important information needed to safely and successfully complete an evacuation. The CROP Walk was complicated by a short cut that by-passed Rest Stop 1 for those that were not up to walking the entire route. We positioned two of our radio operators at the "Split" to count the number of people taking the short cut and the number continuing on the full course.

Thex math team assigned to performing the above calculations was located at the EOC and went by the tactical call of "Trackers". Approximately every 10 minutes Net Control granted the math team permission to contact radio operators at the Split and at the two Rest Stops to obtain a count of people passing each location. The count information supplied was the number of people passing each location since the previous report. This incremental data, as opposed to a total count, was needed so that the math team could perform their calculations and see the rise and fall in the number of people as the central mass passed each location.

The results of the math team's calculations were forwarded to the event organizers so that they knew at all times were the central mass of walkers was located, how fast it was moving, and how far back the stragglers were. The same information was also transmitted out to the two Rest Stops so that they knew when the central mass of walkers would arrive and could thus prepare for the arrival.

Graph used by the math team to calculate the location, speed, and arrival times of the walkers

Logistics

Maintaining adequate supplies at Rest Stops to service people as they arrive is critical to conducting a smooth orderly evacuation. In contrast, the lack of supplies quickly leads to anger, panic, and chaos as occurred during last summer's hurricanes when gas stations ran out of gas.

During the CROP Walk, Rest Stop 1 determined that it was going to run out of water based on water consumption during the early part of the walk and the number of participants, the location of the central mass, and its anticipated arrival time at Rest Stop 1 as reported by the math team. Rest Stop 1 called for additional water which was delivered by one of mobile units prior to arrival of the central mass. Rest Stop 2 came to the same conclusion and also asked for additional water which was delivered in a timely manner. As a result, both Rest Stops had adequate water supplies throughout the duration of the walk.

Totals

376 people participated in this year's CROP Walk. Of those, 118 took the short cut and 258 walked the entire route. The average speed of the walkers was 3.9 miles per hour. The walk began at 1:07 PM and the last stragglers finished the walk at about 3:30 PM. Eight stragglers were tracked by the mobile units from Rest Stop 2 to the finish line. The stragglers consisted of 3 young girls, one walking in her socks because she got blisters on her feet from her shoes, 3 elderly people, and 2 young adults in their 20s. The 2 young adults were the last two walkers, they had stopped at McDonalds for a bite to eat. Each group of stragglers were asked if they wanted a ride back to the finish line. The group of 3 young girls finally accepted the offer when a light rain began to fall. The others made it across the finish line on their own power.

Conclusion

We ended up providing the CROP Walk Organizers with the best service that we have ever provided by preparing for and treating the CROP Walk as a mass evacuation. The exercise also provided our ARES/RACES members with a far more interesting event, and handling far more traffic, than in past CROP Walks since we actually had a "real mission".

Maybe "hello" is not as well remembered as "Mr. Watson, come here!" but "Hello" is revered as the first word spoken using radio waves as the means of transmitting the human voice.

To commemorate 100 years of voice transmission, the ARRL is rolling out a campaign targeted to the general public with the theme "Hello." The objective is to provide members of the public with some of the history, culture and tradition of Amateur Radio in a user-friendly format. In informtive website, www.hello-radio.org has been created and in addition to a lot of interesting information, it includes a "club locator" to help an interested person get in touch with a local radio club, just by inserting their zip code.

All hams are urged to visit the site to become familiar with the campaign and to be prepared to answer any questions members of the public may have about our fascinating hobby.

Ventura County Area 2 R.A.C.E.S. members are encouraged to check in every Tuesday night at 7:00 pm on the Area 2 Check-in Net. Specific ARES/RACES times and frequencies are as follows:

Net Control operations for the weekly ARES/RACES Area 2 check-in is run from the ARES/RACES communications center at East County Cheriff Station on Olsen Road each Tuesday at 7:00 PM. Visitors are welcome and have the opportunity to operate the station equipment. Contact Jerry Goldman KC6SO ( 805) 241-9187 if you plan to attend. RACES members, should remember that their RACES card is issued for only two years. When your card is due to expire call Jackie ( 805) 646-2551 at the Office of Emergency Services in Ventura to renew your card. For questions concerning ARES/RACES call Area 2 Emergency Coordinator Ken Larson KJ6RZ ( 805) 495-9435 or go to the ARES/RACES secion of the CVARC website at http://www.cvarc.org.

The Conejo Valley Amateur Radio Club is an ARRL affiliated Special Service Club. Meetings are held on the second Thursday of each month, unless otherwise noted. Meeting location is at the Elks Lodge, 158 Conejo School Rd., Thousand Oaks, CA. Meetings start at 7:30 pm. with a pre-meeting social and technical assistance session, for those who are interested at 7:15 pm. Meetings are open to the public, and members are encouraged to bring their friends.