The ARES Training Crew provides useful information on training material and scenarios that can be used by any ARES group, nationwide, but in particular intended for ARES groups within Michigan. Feel free to use these materials freely within your organization for the intended purpose. We appreciate your feedback, especially if you provide improved material back to us.

In times of Disaster or Emergency, particularly when there is a Communications Emergency, the ARPSC can step in and provide an alternate means of getting the important messages through. Amateur Radio and the ARPSC, using their already existing RF-only infrastructure or Repeaters, home stations, mobiles, and handheld radios, provide two-way Tactical and/or Operational voice communications on behalf of a Served Agency such as police/fire/Red Cross/CERT. When commercial systems fail or become overloaded, Amateur Radio can rapidly adjust to changing needs and provide an alternate network. In many cases we can provide low-speed Data (text and/or TCP/IP protocols) to move data across town or across the state. ARPSC also interfaces with the National Traffic System (NTS) to move Radiograms (much like a Telegram) to anywhere in North America, and even overseas.

Amateur Radio (and the ARPSC) step in during disasters such as hurricanes (Katrina), earthquakes (Haiti), and tsunamis (Japan), and oftentimes provide the only means of communications when commercial and public service communications systems have been knocked out. Amateur Radio provides a method where disaster victims can get a Health and Welfare message out to their loved ones that they are Okay. See ARPSC EMCOMM for more information.

Washtenaw ARPSC uses the following Repeaters for much of their operations. Additionally, various VHF/UHF Simplex, Packet, and HF frequencies are also used as applicable to the mission at hand.

Skywarn is a program managed by the National Weather Service (NWS). Its mission is to collect ground truth reports from trained spotters during local severe weather events such as tornado warnings. The reports are collected via Amateur Radio networks and funneled to the MICON radio network, which is also run by Amateur Radio operators. MICON connects 17 counties across Southeastern Michigan directly into the White Lake NWS facility where forcasters use this additional data when issuing and verifying severe weather watches and warnings, improving the forecasting and warning processes. These spotters are trained by personnel from the local NWS offices each Spring in advance of the coming severe weather season.

The Skywarn program here in Washtenaw county is supervised and run by personel in the EOC (Emergency Operations Center) of the Emergency Management Department (EMD) of the county Sheriff's office. EMD is then responsible for the sounding of Tornado Warning Sirens throughout the county. Many ARES volunteers are part of this large collection of trained Weather Spotters consisting of Amateur Radio operators, police, fire, professionals and general citizens.

For Washtenaw county Skywarn, tune to the 145.15 MHz repeater during severe weather events.

NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) is a nationwide network of radio stations broadcasting National Weather Service (NWS) warnings, watches, forcasts and other hazard information 24 hours a day. For the 17 counties in Southeastern Michigan, these weather products originate from the NWS facility in White Lake, Michigan, near Pontiac. More information is available at the NOAA Weather Radio web site which includes coverage maps and receiver information. There is also a NOAA Streaming Audio page that includes live broadcasts and audio archives.

NOAA Weather Radio transmitters that cover the Washtenaw county area are:

NWR Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) is a digitally encoded message that contains the type of message, counties affected, and message expiration time. The link includes how SAME works, how to program your radio, and codes for areas nationwide. The SAME code for Washtenaw county is: 026161