2019

December 2019

HOLIDAY LUNCHEON AND ANNUAL MEETING

Please plan to join us for a special Holiday meeting of the Medical Services and ACS Teams, to recognize the valuable contributions of our volunteers.

WHEN: Saturday – December 14th 11:00 am until 1:30 PM

WHERE: Discovery Park Environmental Learning Center, 3801 Discovery Park Blvd Seattle 98199 (first left after entering the park)

WHAT: Annual Meeting and Holiday celebration – Recognition of our teams’ accomplishments this past year.

Guest Speaker: Saad Bashir, Chief Technology Officer, City of Seattle

Our leader, Barb Graff is retiring, this will be her last ACS/MST annual meeting as OEM Director. Please join us in wishing Barb a grand farewell and thanking her for her leadership and support.

We hope you can join us for this fun and educational event – we will be providing lunch. We are looking forward to seeing you there.

November 2019

ACS Meeting – Join us Saturday, November 9th for the ACS monthly meeting and training. Coffee at 8:30 AM, meeting begins at 9:00 AM, Location: North Seattle College, Education Building Room ED2843A (map) Campus Map with Building Locations

We will hear updates on projects and activities. Then Scott Dakers the WA State DEM RACES/Auxiliary Radio Communications Manager will talk with us about the states plans for Emcomm exercises and his plans for improving communications between the State and local jurisdictions. Then Ian Gallagher will brief us on his experience operating emergency communications in support of the Burning Man festival and share lessons learned that maybe applicable to our mission. We look forward to seeing you there.

General Licensing Class – Class conducted by the West Seattle Amateur Radio Club in cooperation with Seattle ACS begins Saturday November 9th at South Seattle College at 9 am in Olympic Hall Room 202, 6000 16th Ave SW, Seattle 98106 (map). Register at https://tinyurl.com/wsarc-class-general-2019

Seattle Marathon – The Seattle Marathon is scheduled for Sunday December 1st, many ACS members provide support for this event. A few more Hams are needed to support this event.

October 2019

October meeting and Training

Join us Saturday October 12th for the ACS monthly meeting and training. Coffee at 8:30 AM, meeting begins at 9:00 AM in Room 101 Olympic Hall on the Campus of South Seattle College. We will hear updates on projects and activities, review the report from the October 5th exercise, as well as receive training on personal preparedness and winter driving. Look forward to seeing you there.

September 2019

ACS Meeting & Training

We will hold our monthly ACS meeting and training Saturday, September 21st, at South Seattle College, Olympic Hall, Room 101.

  • 8:00 am – voluntary – Rapid Tag system training for anyone interested.

  • 8:30 am – normal “doors open” and coffee.

  • 9:00 am – Meeting starts

  • 12:00 pm – Meeting ends.

The meeting will cover all the activities we have done over the summer months, including public service events, technical work and site improvements, some important announcements about upcoming events, and more. Please attend as we gear up for our fall/winter/spring meeting and training series.

Rapid Tag is the system we now use to log people in and out of missions and exercises. We started using it to sign people in and out of our meetings also. This is an easy to use system that provides excellent tracking and documentation benefits for emergency workers. It is the system we use to scan the QR code on the front of your new badges.

New Member Orientation

ACS will conduct a new member orientation on Saturday September 21st from 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm at the Seattle Emergency Operations Center (EOC), which is located at 105 5th Ave S., Seattle. This is the corner of 5th Ave S., and S. Washington Street. The EOC is adjacent to Fire Station 10, which occupies the entire block on Washington between 4th Ave and 5th Ave. The EOC entrance in on 5th Ave, just north of Washington Street.

EOC Training Series

There are two classes that all EOC responders are required to take. ACS members who respond to the EOC are expected to take these classes. All other ACS members (those who will not normally respond to the EOC) are welcome and encouraged to take these classes. The two classes are EOC Fundamentals and EOC in Practice.

The Office of Emergency Management (OEM) is offering these classes during normal business hours as indicated in the attached flyer, and will also offer the classes on Sunday October 6th from 9 am to Noon (EOC Fundamentals) and from 1 pm to 3:30 pm (EOC in Practice). ACS members may attend either the weekday classes or the October 6th classes. All classes will be held at the Seattle EOC, 105 5th Ave S., Seattle.

For more information see the September 12th email from Carl Leon or contact him directly on how to register.

June 2019

Field Day 2019

In partnership between WSARC, PSRG and ACS, Field Day was once again held in the large field at the South Seattle College in West Seattle. This year, other groups including; King County Search and Rescue, King Public Health Reserve Corps, Medical Services Team, Red Cross and the Community Emergency Preparedness HUBs participated adding several community education activities into the mix alongside the radio operations. These included seminars on urban survival skills, demonstrations of “go-bags,” and information sessions about building hyper-local community disaster preparedness capabilities.

The event began on Friday June 21 and concluded on Sunday afternoon; a total of 165 people participated. Operations continued over-night simulating emergency conditions; all electrical power for radio operations was provided by an on-site solar generator.

I’ll update point totals as I get them, but early numbers suggest that we got at least 1000 points on contacts alone. That said, there were some initial impressions that commitment from additional operators would be of great benefit in future Field Days.

As these events like this go, some things went really well and some things offered opportunities to improve for the future. If you missed this Field Day, we hope you can make it next year to help us make it even better!

ACS & HUBS Field Exercise – On Saturday June 1st, 39 volunteers from OEM’s Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) worked collaboratively with community volunteers from 14 Emergency Preparedness HUBs to test capabilities for responding to a major earthquake. A primary focus was establishing back-up communications networks within the communities and with the City for exchanging damage assessment and resource request information.

The drill simulated conditions the day after a magnitude 6.7 earthquake along the Seattle Fault has caused extensive infrastructure damage. The damage from such a quake would likely include a failure of grid power and cellular service, making communications and emergency services a challenge. Because the Hubs are key gathering points for neighborhoods, communications between the Hubs, ACS, and the city’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) are critical. Much of the exercise involved moving simulated messages around the city using field deployed, off-grid communications. See photos of the exercise activities at the HUBs, Sectors and EOC. ACS will conduct an on-line after-action review on Saturday June 8 at 10 AM check your email for details