AmRRON Goes to AmCON 2 for Hurricane Ian

From the American Redoubt Radio Operators Network, Sept. 26, 2022:

AmRRON is at a Readiness Condition Level 2 (AmCON-2), for a regional event.  Hurricane Ian is expected to make landfall on the western Florida coast Wednesday afternoon/evening, September 28th.

Click on the NOAA message/image below to visit the source page.

FLORIDA, GEORGIA, and ALABAMA AmRRON OPERATORS, WE ARE PREPARING TO BE THERE FOR YOU.

The Eastern AmRRON SIGCEN (GA/SC border) will be activated beginning early Wednesday morning, and will be monitoring the AmRRON frequencies, ready to help facilitate traffic, coordinate radio operations, and offer assistance and receive reports from operators in the impacted areas in the days following the hurricane, to include welfare traffic.

This will hopefully help relieve congestion on other related nets, such as the Hurricane Watch Net on 14.300 (for example).

All available AmRRON operators are encouraged to monitor the Persistent Presence Net frequencies through at least Sunday, October 2nd.

WHAT TO EXPECT: 

  • Expect to hear nothing (initially) from the impacted area on Wednesday afternoon and evening.  Operators will be grid down and most HF antennas will not survive the hurricane-force winds.  Additionally, lighting threat mitigation will have radio stations off the air.
  • HF antennas and backup power could take many hours, or even days, to reconfigure and make operational.
  • Any HF radio communications will likely increase in tempo beginning Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and will likely begin to taper off on Sunday onward.
  • Most grid-up coordination will take place on the AmRRON Corps Z-Net Breakout Channel, as that is where the overwhelming majority

OPERATIONS:

FOR STATIONS IN THE IMPACTED AREAS:

  • Let us know you are okay!  Your safety, and that of your family, is first and foremost.  Please report as soon as it is safe and practical, with at least an abbreviated STATREP.
  • As you know, digital modes are the most effective.  Use the mode which gets the most information out the fastest.  If you are running QRP (low power), then JS8Call may be your only way to reach out.  We will keep the frequencies clear to monitor for your traffic.  Please include your county and state, and nearest town/city.
  • Use the @AMRRON group in JS8Call to query Signal Reports (SNR), and determine who is on frequency, and where, and the quality of your path to others.
  • At minimum, please send out an abbreviated STATREP, including your maidenhead grid square, so we can account for our opertors.
  • Voice frequencies will also be monitored, per the AmRRON SOI.  If you have misplaced your SOI, then we will also be monitoring 80m, 40m, and 20m AmRRON Voice frequencies at the top of each hour to give you a better time window.
  • We will send SITREPs (Situation Reports) over HF on the SOI net schedule frequencies so that you can be informed on what might be happening beyond your local VHF/UHF communications, as information is available.
  • If you encounter an emergency, and AmRRON nets are your only source of communications, (we will have operators standing by monitoring persistently), then announce your emergency traffic.  We will coordinate your traffic and route it to the appropriate agencies or entities.

SUPPORTING AmRRON STATIONS OUTSIDE THE IMPACTED ARES: 

  • Most importantly, keep the frequency clear if you do not have traffic to pass.
  • Only stations in the impacted grid-down areas should be beaconing/heartbeating and conducting Signal Report queries (SNR).
  • The AmRRON Corps Z-Net Breakout Channel is the most effective method for coordinating with other AmRRON support stations and getting the most up-to-date information related to the post-hurricane operations.
  • If you receive STATREPs or SITREPs from stations in the affected area, relay to the Eastern SIGCEN or to an NCS station, who will then be able to relay to the SIGCEN (unless you know that an NCS or SIGCEN has also copied the same traffic).
  • NCSs should have a /N after their callsign, and stations working as SIGCEN operations stations will have a /S after their callsigns.

More information and guidance will be added here in the coming hours and days.   Keep checking back.