Large Incidents
Important
- Having access to a radio network does NOT mean that you should not evacuate if you are or feel you are in danger. If you have been told to evacuate then please do so. (If you “know better”, then you are not who I am talking to here.)
- Please do not put your life or the lives of others, including our emergency responders, at risk in order to fill any role.
- Any situation can change, and we all need to be prepared to adapt.
During a large incident, especially wherever it becomes important to meter the flow of traffic because other forms of communication are unavailable, it will be critical to establish an NCS. This is something we need to consider in phases or “augmentations”.
Terms:
- NCS – Net Control Station
- ICP – Incident Command Post
- ACS – County Of Sonoma Auxiliary Communications Service
- EOC – County of Sonoma Emergency Operations Command
- Simplex – Radio to Radio Communications
Different Incident Phases
Phase 1 – Early Incident (Anyone as NCS, no Ham Operator)
In this phase, if it occurs at all, there may not be a connection to the outside world, or it may be slow/degraded.
Whomever among us is first available, and is in a SAFE position to do so, should establish themselves as NCS (Net Control Station). Ultimately we need to have an NCS (or NCS team) who is a ham operator or is located at an ICP (Incident Command Post) established by the County of Sonoma ACS. We should seek to stay in this phase for as little time as possible.
Relays may also be needed, and again anyone in a SAFE position to do so can assist.
It is possible that a ham operator could fill this role, but if someone else is available it would be best to have that person fill the role of NCS so the ham can focus on upstream communication, thereby moving into Phase 2.
There is an entire procedure here that should be followed, including the keeping of records. At some point soon, if someone else doesn’t do it first, I will produce a document detailing this.
Phase 2 – Ad-Hoc ICP (Anyone as NCS with Amateur Radio Support)
Depending on the situation this phase may be either optimum or degraded. Any situation can be fluid, and require adapting to the moment.
At minimum Phase 2 is where we want to be.
If possible to do SAFELY several community members could organize together to provide NCS and a bridge to the outside world using ham radio. Preferably these people would be in the same location and full control of the net passed to that group, but this can also be a modification of Phase 1 where one or more ham operators take messages from an existing NCS and seek to deliver them.
The GMRS NCS would continue to collect information, and then as the ham operator becomes available to take a new message provide it.
Phase 3 – ACS Established ICP (Any blend of, or complete takeover from, the above)
It is very important to understand that right now not all of the mechanisms described here yet exist. There are however those of us working on making sure they do exist as soon as it is possible to do so.
The goal must be to establish the most effective path for information passing. In a given situation that could be as described in Phase 2, or it could be as follows.
Once the County of Sonoma ACS has established an ICP for the area, and IF they have resources needed, net control should be passed to that ICP at their request.
There is a potential that more than one ICP may be established in different areas that have access to one or more GMRS repeaters. They will work out which ICP is best prepared for the task, and how the net will be operated. Depending on the location of the ICP one or more relays may be needed.
If needed or most efficient an ICP could pass control of the net directly to the County EOC (Emergency Operations Command) at their request. All of this would be determined by the nature of the emergency, availability of resources, volume of traffic, and determination of the most reasonable path considering the total situation.