Currently, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office leases airtime on the 700/800 MHz RACOM network, while the Polk County Fire Department (made of rural departments that are dispatched by PCSO) resides on conventional VHF frequencies that are then patched to the RACOM network.

The “Assistance to Firefighters” FEMA grant would allow the county to purchase roughly 116 mobile radios, along with 217 handhelds. A decision on the grant is expected by late May. Polk County would have one year to formalize the purchase and that would allow the county to select a new radio system.

Without the text of the grant application, it is unclear whether Polk County Fire would directly join the RACOM network or create a new standalone interoperable system, although reports surfaced earlier this year of a request for proposals (RFP) for a new, leased countywide P25 fire radio system. Westcom and Des Moines will have the option to join the project.

Ankeny Fire was selected to file the proposal, as Polk County was not allowed to apply for the FEMA grant. If the grant is approved, Ankeny, Polk City, Elkhart, Saylor and Delaware townships, Altoona, Bondurant, Granger, Grimes, Johnston, Mitchellville, Pleasant Hill, Runnells and Windsor Heights would benefit from the grant.

This, of course, meant that there would be new blood coming into those various leadership positions. I am pleased to announce that I was elected through a close write-in vote to serve as the next president of Mid-Iowa Skywarn, which is effective immediately. I am grateful to be elected to this position, and I do indeed have some big shoes to fill and expectations to exceed. I learned this evening that Jim and I have very similar reasons for joining Skywarn, which I will likely write about later down the road. I plan on hitting the ground running, and I have plans to act on. Tom N0VPR was also elected to the role of secretary/treasurer — Tom has been working with Skywarn and ARES for quite a while as well, and we have worked with each other as president/vice president for the local club.

The Mid-Iowa Skywarn Association is the organization that mans the amateur radio station in the Des Moines National Weather Service office, using call sign K0DMX. It takes storm reports from all corners of the NWS Des Moines’ 51-county warning area through an extensive VHF/UHF linked repeater network. We’re lucky to have a great relationship with the Des Moines meteorologist-in-charge and warning coordinator.

After the brief meeting, we moved on to our annual two-hour spotter training class presented by the NWS. It was a great presentation, I thought. It included some new pictures and videos. It was certainly a good crowd, probably more than last year. If maybe a half-dozen more people showed up, we would have run out of seats. A lot of new faces I haven’t seen around — either they are hams that don’t usually come to our “normal” club meetings or this was their first time attending a storm spotter course.

Tom set out some amateur radio information brochures and fliers, along with business cards that listed information about the DMRAA and its meetings. After the presentation, non-hams were mingling with the hams asking how to get involved in amateur radio, and most of those business cards were gone, so I’d say the training session also sparked some interest in amateur radio. It turned out pretty well.

You can follow the changes that users are reporting in the RadioReference thread here. The thread is being updated as new changes are found around Iowa.

If you’re unfamiliar with the rebanding process and the reasoning behind it, be sure to check out the RadioReference wiki entry on rebanding.

But that’s just what happened during the recent blizzard: they handled 3,725 calls for help, the Des Moines Register reports. That’s more than double the average of 766 calls a day.

While the only time I ever hear dispatchers from the Iowa State Patrol is when they’re communicating with the executive protection branch at the Iowa capitol. But I’m sure it made for some great listening on LEA and car-to-car, along the same lines of Highway Helper and the DOT snow plow crews. I’m sure they had many colorful ways of describing those unskilled drivers that didn’t heed the “travel not advised” warnings…

Those same systems will probably make for some good listening this week, as holiday travelers will be fighting rain, freezing rain, sleet, and possibly a foot or snow on top of all that. Let’s hope people have wised up this go-round.

Towers, who beat four other candidates that were on the ballot, won with 57 percent of voters, according to unofficial tallies. He currently serves as a city councilman in the town of 336 residents and has previously served as the mayor of Sheldahl.

Click here to read more from the Des Moines Register.

The Big Map on the wall showing positions of Lead and Half-Marathon Lead motorcycles

I helped out on Sunday at the Des Moines Marathon as my second ARES event. I felt this was an exciting opportunity since the event organizers clearly truly appreciate the help. This is the most operator-intensive Polk County ARES event, from what I’m told. The marathon traverses through a pretty good chunk of the city, going from the statehouse to past 42nd Street, down to Gray’s Lake and back up to the statehouse. Obviously, it’s a lot of ground to cover for radio operators that can’t be done on simplex.

It appeared that race organizers rented about a dozen radios and used Electronic Engineering’s Des Moines 800 MHz trunked system. I’m not sure who the radios were distributed to, but those radios alone don’t compare to the needs that Polk County ARES fulfills. ARES staffs each medical tent, checkpoints, water distribution sag wagons, plus shadows event organizers. Clearly, there is a need for ARES manpower and the race director was visibly grateful for it. I’d be willing to bet that upwards of 40-50 operators were utilized at the event.

A mix of 140/220/440 repeaters were used. The location of net control (in the swanky Splash restaurant) near net control made it difficult to get into the 146.61 repeater, so the DMRAA’s VHF club repeater on Park Avenue and a portable UHF repeater at Methodist Medical Center were relied on heavily. A downtown 220 repeater were also used between a few operators. The 146.82 repeater at the capitol complex was down, so it was a kink in the plans but net control and operators adapted.

The crown jewel of net control was the APRS setup. Polk ARES was asked to track certain motorcycles this year, after a couple of years of not doing it, so the race committee saw there was a definite need for that service. Mike, AE0MW put APRS trackers on the lead motorcycle, half-marathon lead motorcycle, and the trail motorcycle towards the end of the day. It was a pretty slick system (and read more about it here). Mike took the PDF of the course map and overlaid it on the map in UI-View. The map was then projected onto a wall in net control, and everyone oohed and ahhed at it, the race director included. It proved to be very useful.

There was an area in Water Works Park where the runners would drop down into the Raccoon River valley and couldn’t hit the temporary 144.34 digipeater on top of Methodist, and so we went 20 or so minutes without a location report until they came back out of the valley. This could have been solved by utilizing a mobile digipeater (D700/D710) in the southwest corner of the course, but coverage overall was pretty solid.

We were pretty lucky to have cool weather in the morning and slightly warmer weather in the afternoon so there were very few injuries — a few skinned knees — but mostly just exhausted runners. A lot of runners were also transported via sag wagons and water stations needed to be restocked and without PCARES operators it would have been difficult to coordinate.

Already, PCARES organizers are looking at what can be done differently and improved upon for next year. Tracking more units and the utilization of D-STAR have already been mentioned in brainstorming. We’ve got a whole year to prepare now!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 10, 2009

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Kevin Sanders, DMRAA Public Information Coordinator, (515) 770-7332
kevin at k0dsm.com

DES MOINES, Iowa — Area emergency management officials will be on hand at the next Des Moines Radio Amateurs’ Association (DMRAA) meeting on Tuesday, September 29 to discuss preparedness for the expected comeback of the H1N1 influenza virus.

Polk County Emergency Management Coordinator A.J. Mumm and Mercy Hospital Emergency Management Coordinator Brenda McGraw (KD0EDJ) will address the threat, explain EMA’s role during a public health emergency and provide tips on how to protect yourself and others from the flu. The role of emergency amateur radio operation during a health emergency will also be explained. The 50-minute presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the public.

“The information to be presented is both relevant and timely given the scope and severity that is possible from the H1N1 strain,” DMRAA President Tom Reis said. “Our amateur radio services could prove vital and our understanding of the threat vital as well.”

The meeting will be hosted by the DMRAA on Tuesday, September 22 at 7 p.m. in the Waveland Hall of the Plymouth Congregational Church on the corner of 42nd and Ingersoll in Des Moines (map). The meeting is free and open to the public.

ABOUT THE DES MOINES RADIO AMATEURS’ ASSOCIATION
The Des Moines Radio Amateurs’ Association, a non-profit organization and one of the oldest amateur radio clubs in the midwest, was established to conduct its programs and activities to advance the general interest and welfare of amateur radio in the community. The club regularly hosts programs, activities and exercises and maintains radio communication systems to benefit the community. For more information on the DMRAA, visit the club website at http://www.dmraa.com/.