EMC382-3 OES ACS FIELD UNITS 

State OES, California, has developed Auxiliary Communications
Service (ACS) Field Teams to assist in the deployment of OES
assets. These include itıs trailer-mounted transportable earth
stations and Mobile Communications Units (Comm Vans).

The genesis for the field teams occurred in the early l990's when
a volunteer obtained and donated a used TV crew truck to State
OES. He and several other volunteers prepared it for microwave
and telephone. One memorable use of that Comm Van was the Oakland
Fire Storm which burned out the phone lines. The field team put
the Comm Van on the hills, made a line-of-sight microwave link to
the Oakland-Bay Bridge Toll Plaza. There the received microwave
signal was connected to the telephone system. That provided access
to telephone lines at the Command Post for the Incident Commander.

That team became known as RF Team #1, and its members included
Richard Epting, Lance Rettick, Steve Cembura and Jeff Ruhl.

The success of the RF Team, as indicated by the Oakland Fire
Storm usage, along with numerous other situations, persuaded OES
to acquire and equip three new units largely modeled after that
first donated unit. In the mid-to-late 1990's these joined that
original unit, along with another specialty unit created by that
original field team.

These five units are collectively identified as three ICS Type I
Communications Units and two Specialty Units, one for Microwave
and the other as a Repeater Unit. More about them in the other
bulletins.

The earth stations program was created in the mid '90's when
the state funded the Operational Area Satellite Information
System (OASIS) program. That placed a fixed earth station at
each of the 58 counties and other key sites. In the process OES 
acquired four trailer-mounted earth stations as part of its 
field-deployable emergency communications resources. 

These satellite trailers have been of great value to remote fire
Incident Command Centers in the rugged foothills and mountains of
the state, as well as myriad other applications and events. The
telephones that result provide the most user-friendly form of
communications to fire, law and similar agencies.

Today, State OES ACS personnel provide several field teams which
support these OES assets, yet there is need for others willing
to undertake the requisite training. 

A recent example was the Williams Fire in Southern California
where an OASIS unit was deployed, along with a Communications
Van. Some of the photo's of that event can be viewed at the
following URL 
http://home.earthlink.net/~k6ccc/Photo/WilliamsFire.html
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For the licensed FCC Amateur Radio Operators that make up most
EMCOMM Units, the idea of supplying telephone service may seen
'off key' or contrary to what they want to do. Yet, as a matter
of fact, units like the State OES ACS field teams are made up
predominantly of FCC Amateur License holders - probably 90-95%.
And this is typical of RACES units which serve governments that
also have field transportable units.

Perhaps one has to experience the results of providing effective
communications, albeit telephone over the satellite link or
microwave, before one really grasps the significance of, and
reward, of doing just that.

Is it too difficult to grasp that the real purpose of any EMCOMM
Unit is to provide the most useful emergency communications, no
matter what form that takes?  And so long as a user-friendly form
(telephone) exists and is faster than radio, they why should we
show bias to radio? We cannot do that and serve to the best of
our abilities. Hence there are those within such units, as these
at State OES, who willingly serve and place their exceptional
skills at the disposal of their sponsoring government.

Typically the personnel in an OES ACS unit come from those in the
FCC licensed Amateur Radio community with a strong interest in 
Emergency Communications; however such a license is not required.
In fact, historically, during the past 5 years for example, the
actual use of Amateur Radio frequencies by those serving these
units has been rare. Yet, there are outstanding instances when
the Amateur Radio equipment of a volunteer (his handheld radio,
or HT for instance) and FCC Amateur Frequencies were critical.
The most obvious was when a field crew was being ferried from
one point to yet another in a military helicopter that crashed
on a ledge on the side of a mountain. It was the HT of a FCC
licensed Amateur Operator on the team that got the call through
for help.

In the case of the California OES units, today's success is due
to a situation that started with rapport between a paid staffer
and a volunteer who both understood the need, had the personal
flexibility to work together, the dream or idea, and made it
happen.

For approximately five years there was just that one team
centered out of the San Francisco Bay area, which is where the
people worked and lived. During that period the involvement of
the team was sometimes a mixture of volunteerism and emergency
hire, depending on time and circumstances. Numerous emergency
hire situations were able to assist Law Enforcement agencies in
the state with security and control, such as at conventions and
major disaster response; like earthquakes.

It was the combination of the four mobile earth stations and
three new Communications Vans that led to today's expanded ACS
field team involvement. Yet, there can be room for more if
skilled, interested, physically fit registrants meet the OES ACS
program requirements and standards. Backgrounds needed include
telephone, microwave and radio or similar forms of communications
experience. Field deployment situations are hazardous, therefore
fire safety and fire behavior courses are mandatory, as are
other training requirements, along with the ability to work as
a team. 
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