The Elmira Radio Club’s Emergency Plan for Woolwich Township
Objectives:
To fully integrate the Elmira Amateur Radio Club’s (ERC) capabilities into the Woolwich Township’s Emergency plan.
Current Capabilities:
ERC’s communication capabilities reach Township wide using hand held and mobile radios (depending on location and equipment used).
The current membership in club is 45, and of that, 12 have indicated their willingness to actively participate. The balance would be available for additional support when required.
The Elmira Radio Club owns and operates 4 radio repeaters, 2 are located on the Elmira by-pass, the second is located at the Elmira Fire Hall and the third is located in Alma. This extends our repeater communications coverage area to just south of Orangeville in the north, westward to Listowel, eastward to well beyond Guelph, and south to well beyond Cambridge. Low lying and hilly areas may have marginal or no coverage.
The repeater at the Fire Hall has emergency power, our other repeater at this time do not have back up power and will not be operational during a power failure. The repeaters also can facilitate voice over the Internet using IRLP protocol. This enables the repeater to communicate (via internet) with similarly equipped repeaters throughout the world.
Our membership includes operators from Fergus, Elora, Elmira, Kitchener/Waterloo, Cambridge, and point’s farther out.
All members are equipped with portable mobile radio’s that are capable of using the repeater to communicate from and to all of the aforementioned locations. In the advent of a power failure, point-to-point communications are possible with a more limited broadcast coverage area. The current mode of communications is FM voice. Many of our members are also equipped with fixed stations with worldwide capabilities.
The Club also has a Standby Repeater available for quick deployment if the Primary system goes down.
The Club Radios can also function as cross band repeaters if it becomes necessary to provide radio communications to very low areas or poor coverage areas.
Training:
The Primary Club contact and designate will be John Scheeringa who will act as liaison between the Radio Club and the Township.
Training has been and will continue to be provided to our first line designates as well as the membership for proper handling of messages both written and verbal modelled after the ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services) messaging system and Township practices where applicable.
We would wish to participate in the Township’s emergency exercises if and when applicable.
Names of designates and their information can be available if required to the Township, perhaps the Township may require emergency I.D. Cards we can discuss this further.
Three Phase plan
Phase One
Objective:
The installation of permanent antenna systems and 12 Volt power supplies. The first of which should be at the Emergency Command Centre Elmira and a second on the Evacuation Centre (Woolwich Memorial Centre) ERC will provide radio, power supply and documentation necessary. The Club will also recommend the antenna system and cabling required to ensure that all radio equipment will function correctly.
Background:
Our portable systems are either hand-held low power units or car powered mobile high-powered units. Both are capable of communicating through the repeater or on a point-to-point (simplex) basis. In all cases, the most reliable communications would be via the use of fixed roof or tower mounted antennas and this should be considered for all designated emergency sites. This will ensure that reliable coverage is maintained throughout the Township during a power outage with minimum set- up time.
Township RF survey (Actual Radio Coverage)
A township wide test to verify actual radio coverage will be undertaken by ERC. The results of this test will be made available to the Emergency Coordinator. This will be done in the near future.
A map showing this coverage would be marked accordingly. This would verify reliable repeater communications to all designated sites, point-to-point communications (simplex) for both UHF and VHF communications. This will include Mobile and Hand held radios with UHF and VHF capabilities.
The Club has inventoried the Members equipment and abilities and the designate first line responders.
Note: Amateur radio equipment can only be operated under the supervision of federally licensed amateur radio operators
Phase Two
Objective:
Improve the repeater system by adding a battery backup and generator system for uninterrupted operation during power outages.
We plan to update some of our repeaters with back up power supplies as funds become available.
Background:
Currently, we operate our (Elmira By-pass) repeater from the AC mains (Hydro). During a power failure, the repeater becomes inoperative. A more reliable solution is to add battery back-up and generator capability for extended repeater operation during emergencies.
Note that the repeater at the Elmira Fire Hall IS on back up power.
Many of the Township buildings have emergency power, so this will allow us to operate from most any building, assuming we have access to an antenna.
Phase Three
Objective
With implementation of text messaging via “Winlink” and the ERC radio network, We are able to provide faster and more reliable and secure (no monitoring by media) messaging. This eliminates the verbal part of messaging.
Background:
We have obtained Winlink and the appropriate software and hardware interface for Radio to PC and printer to operate this digital email system.
As funding becomes available, the Club would determine what future equipment and facilities would be needed and obtained.
Incorporate the ability to seamlessly interface with Regional Emergency facilities in the event of a larger event.
This emergency plan is a working document and thus will change and be upgraded as resources become available.
