AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE ® A.R.E.S. :: Central Kansas :: Zone 5Alpha Harvey and Sedgwick Counties.

I would like to introduce myself. My name is James Stafford, AJ5BS. I have been appointed the Emergency Coordinator for Kansas ARES District 5 Section 5 Alpha.

I was born in Illinois in 1950, but was raised most of my life in western Nebraska. My first introduction to Amateur Radio came through a friend that I worked with at the local TV station who had an HF rig in his car, in 1969. We used to light large fluorescent light bulbs in the station parking light by bringing them into close proximity to the antenna as he transmitted. (Now does that sound stupid!) I was originally licensed in Amateur Radio in February 1996 as KC5SVI. In June 2005, I upgraded to General and Extra and in August I applied for my vanity license.

In 2002, I was one of six radio operators instrumental in helping develop an emergency communications group for the Fort Worth Texas Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 2003, I was appointed the director of the group. In 2005, the stake split and our numbers dropped from 84 to 48. When I left the position in October of 2008 to take a job at Wolf Creek Nuclear Power Plant, our numbers were back up to over 70.

During this time I worked with the Fort Worth/Tarrant County RACES organization as the LDS and Civil Air Patrol Liaisons and as the Communication Officer for the South Fort Worth Diamondback Civil Air Patrol Squadron. I was also appointed as an ARES Official Emergency Station and as a Legislative Action Assistant during this time.

So, why have I volunteered to be the Emergency Coordinator for Sedgwick and Harvey counties? I know first hand what it is like to not be able to communicate during a disaster, and what happens when emergency resources can not talk to each other. It is not that the ability is not there, but it has rarely, if ever, been tested. It is my hope that, over the next year or two, we can develop a rapport with each of the counties and the ARRL agencies that have MOUs and introduce Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) into their Emergency Plans along with the RACES organizations. This will mean a commitment on both groups part.

The work ahead cannot be accomplished by myself alone, but will need the abilities and resources of each one of us.

Amateur Radio Emergency Service commonly known as A.R.E.S.® is a dedicated core of communicators providing communications in times of major and unforeseen disasters; without picuniary (financial) compensation. To provide communications services when all OTHER FORMAL MEANS OF COMMUNICATIONs fail.

There is no substitute for actual practice. Your emergency net should practice regularly--much more often than it operates in a real or simulated emergency. Avoid complacency, the feeling that you will know how to operate when the time comes. You won't, unless you do it frequently, with other operators whose style of operating you get to know.

December 2009
When All Else Fails—Amateur Radio, the Original Open-Source Project - Linux Journal
January 2010 Linux Journal - “When all else fails”—in 2003, the Amateur Radio Relay League used this as the motto for Field Day, the annual demonstration of its capabilities to the public. It rapidly became the touch phrase for the Amateur Radio Emergency Service.....

April 10, 2009
Preparing for disaster: Phone outage tests emergency workers -- Silicone Valley Mercury News
Within an hour of learning that phone lines were down Thursday morning in Morgan Hill, severing the 911 system, police officers were dispatched to rouse the members of the city's emergency response team.

March 30, 2009
Storm spotters give forecasts a human touch -- theleafchronicle.com
CLEVELAND, Tenn. - At the center of the technology network that tracks severe weather, there are still human eyes and ears.

Storm spotters are the volunteers who get the alert when emergency weather threatens. They drive out to see what they can see and report back.

February 12, 2009
Oklahoma Hams Warn of Oncoming Tornadoes -- ARRL News
A rare winter tornado struck Oklahoma around dinner time on Tuesday, February 10. According to various news reports, Oklahoma officials credited Amateur Radio operators with spotting the tornadoes and relaying the information to the National Weather Service.

February 1, 2009
'Flooded In Place' Puts Radio Operator Skills to Good Use - Free RepublicWhen more than two feet of snow gave way to rain and heavy flooding earlier this month, Supervisory TSO Donn Gallon of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport put his skills as an amateur radio operator to good use.As Gallon put it, he was “flooded in place” in his home on the Skookumchuck River in southwest Washington for more than two days.

When all else fails...

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