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STARC, Inc

Saint Albans Amateur Radio Club, Inc
PO Box 211
St. Albans, VT 05478

STARC repeaters

Operation Deep Freeze 2007

Amateur Radio operators, including ARES and RACES groups, have been invited to participate in a joint exercise with the Military Affiliate Radio System (MARS) on Saturday, February 10, 2007, from about 9 AM to 1 or 2 PM EST.

I have been in touch with Exercise Coordinator Jim Edmonds, WA1KPG/AFA1CM, about upcoming plans for the “Operation Deep Freeze ’07” exercise along with Western New York Section Manager Scott Bauer, W2LC, and Western New York Section Emergency Coordinator Joe Tedesco, KC2DKP.

There is good news in that Amateur Radio operators will be able to participate in the cross-band communications with MARS stations during the exercise period (Saturday, February 10). The spirit of FCC Rule 97.111 (a) (4) will be in effect for this exercise:

The quoted rule under “Authorized Transmissions” says: “Transmissions necessary to exchange messages with a station in a service not regulated by the FCC, but authorized by the FCC to communicate with amateur stations. An amateur station may exchange messages with a participating United States military station during an Armed Forces Day Communications Test.”

The range of participation in Operation Deep Freeze, I understand, include New England, the mid-Atlantic states and the Midwest states (in the Great Lakes region).

The ARES and other Amateur Radio participating stations are planning to use the New York Phone Net frequency of 3925 kHz, and a 40 meter frequency of 7237 kHz for this exercise.

I, at ARRL Headquarters, plan to be the point of contact for Section Leaders and ARES Leaders that are planning to participate in Deep Freeze 07. I would like to gather any names and call signs of anyone that would like to participate in the exercise. Please have them contact me, or you may contact me at sewald@arrl.org. I will pass them along to the exercise coordinators in Western New York.

Please pass this word along to your ARRL Emergency Coordinators, District Emergency Coordinators and/or any others that may wish to participate.

I have attached a PowerPoint presentation that provides details of “Operation Deep Freeze” along with a Word document that reports on the concept of operations of the exercise.

Exercise Coordinator Jim Edmonds reports the following reminder:

“Please remind the ARES operators that the purpose of the link to the MARS net is to provide damage/impact assessment reports to the federal government. I had a question from an ARES EC downstate asking about the nature of the traffic to be passed to the MARS Nets.

“In an actual emergency, we understand that the ARES Nets would be activated for their traditional roles of passing H & W traffic as well as for those operators who are supporting Non-Governmental Organizations such as the Red Cross to provide communications support regarding personnel, supplies, etc.

“The information that MARS will be looking for is that which can be included in an Essential Element of Information Report to the Department of Defense. For example, a request for additional cots at a Red Cross Shelter would not be sent to the DoD however notification that a serious infectious disease has broken out in Red Cross Shelters would be an Essential Element of Information that is appropriate to relay to the DoD.”

Jim also said the exercise will include the US Coast Guard:

“I just received a call today from US Coast Guard CAMSLANT Chesapeake informing me that they will participate in Deep Freeze '07 both in our Primary Exercise Net and on the special exercise SHARES Net that will be activated!

“We would like the exercise to be interesting for everyone so could you ask the ARES stations in the coastal areas to generate some Spot Reports involving simulated dangers to navigation, harbor operations and security, pollution, coastal Search & Rescue, etc.

“Those Spot Reports are to be relayed to the MARS Net and from there will be routed to the SHARES Net where a Coast Guard station will be ready to receive traffic.

“This adds a significant new dimension to Deep Freeze '07!

See Operation Deep Freeze Concept