RACES / ARES Nets So Far This Year

• 04/04/11 RACES Net Control 0345 to 0630
• 04/10/11 RACES Net activation
• 04/14/11 RACES Net activation – Net Control for a bit: 2150 to 2320
• 04/19/11 RACES activation – Net Control 1630 to 1915
• 04/23/11 RACES activation – Back-up & Net Control 1803 – 0004
• 04/24/11 RACES activation – Net Control & Back-Up 1924 – 0019
• 04/25/11 3 RACES activations – Net Control & Back-Up 0324–0513; 1153–1209; 1510 – 1557
• 05/01/11 3 RACES activations – Net Control, etc. #1 0305 – 0435; #2 ARES: 0858-0957; #3 1725 – 1835
• 05/10/11 RACES activation 1327 – 1418
• 05/19/11 RACES Net Control Back-Up 1426 – 1703; ARES Net Control 1704 – 1730
• 05/22/11 ACES activation Net Control & Back-Up 1912 – 2107
• 05/24/11 At Arlington EOC as EOC Net Control for 3 lines of severe thunderstorms, hail, tornadoes 1615 to 2315

I'm pretty sure this number already exceeds the total number of RACES activations in all of 2009 and 2010.

Be Smart, Not Tough, About Tornadoes

Professional stormchaser Jenna Blum's OpEd in the Boston Globe commenting on the recent Springfield, MA tornado and others. Jenna gave an interesting and entertaining accoun of how she became a stormchaser at TESSA in March. She's also the author of NY Times bestseller, "Those Who Save Us," and "The Stormchasers." Her website is: www.jennablum.com. I would love to be able to join her in a chase!

FEMA Head Describes Amateur Radio as "Our Last Line of Defense."

FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate described the Amateur Radio operator as “the ultimate backup, the originators of what we call social media.”  Because of the resiliences of our wired and wireless infrastructure and public safety and public safety communications systems, FEMA has tended to dismiss the role of Amateur Radio but‘When Everything Else Fails.’ Amateur Radio oftentimes is our last line of defense.” But he also states that they do, have and will fail. "I think a strong Amateur Radio community [needs to be] plugged into these plans. Yes, most of the time they’re going be bored, because a lot of the time, there’s not a lot they’re going to be doing that other people aren’t doing with Twitter and Facebook and everything else. But when you need Amateur Radio, you really need them.”

Original AARL article