Communications Group Activation
 
Notification
In most cases, activation comes as a result of a call made to a pager and telephone tree alerts. All team leaders and many members are equipped with alpha-numeric pagers. These pagers are used to update members with information concerning team logistics and staging. The tree activation may put team members on stand-by or call for an assembly of the DMAT team members to discuss the logistics and options in an impending deployment.
First Things First
 
As the first order of business after notification a Communications crew member would notify their family and employer of a possible activation. He would then discuss with his family the ramifications of his leaving. If it is a local disaster, they will make sure that their family is safe and taken care of for the duration of the crew members leave. The family needs to be ready to deal with the problems they are going to face. The way to accomplish this is through being prepared before the emergency actually occurs. Plan with your family for the day that you may called to serve others. Talk with them about your involvement and about how the family will adjust to your leave. Your leaving for an unknown period of days to weeks will certainly have an impact upon your family. Children will miss their parent and the spouse will wonder how they will do the chores and responsibilities of two. Perhaps even worse is the questions and concerns about the potential risks. These feelings your family will continue to have until they once more see your face at home.
Planning
 
The next action the communications crew will take is to assemble at the logistics and planning site. This stage is one of the most important in any deployment. Materials and equipment list, shipping manifests, and team member assignments will be planned.

Short term Duties

Following the planning stage, all communications crew members will be assigned the short term logistics duties of assembling all equipment needed. At this same time members assigned to the disaster site operations will make sure that their personal equipment is ready to go. It is the Communications Group responsibility to do the following:
Transportation
  
Next the "first strike" team members assigned to the disaster site operations will assemble for transportation. Transportation may be provided by military air transport if long distances are required. Otherwise transportation may be provided by ground vehicles such as a contract bus. The logistics planning stage at the Office of Emergency Response, DHS, will decide the mode of transportation.  Federal employee status will only come when the team is activated through the NDMS system in a response mode.  This would include assembling, packing and loading equipment for an alert or activation order. Other local and state government arrangements may also be worked out later.

Compound Set-Up

Following the transportation stage, the team will start the on-site operations set-up stage. Here we would set up tents as necessary, establish personal quarters, set up antennas, power up radio system, and make local contacts with local authorities and organizations. At this time we may seek to find out what our amateur radio manpower resources are in the area. However simple set-up sounds, experience has shown that it takes many hours to get a the communications systems fully operational. Antennas will need to be selected for their simplicity of setup, ruggedness and effectiveness. All hook-up cables should be ready-to-go with connectors attached. No soldering, and difficult hook-up procedures should have to be done. Advanced planning and set-up practice is the key to a smooth, effective set-up operation.

Site Open

After the set-up, we are in business with on-site operations. Continued integration with local radio operations is important. As local radio operators are available we will use them to assist us in many radio operations such as shadows and net monitors. Radio Operators may be called upon to perform many duties in addition to that of radio operator, but his primary responsibility is to that service.

Departure

Departure from the on-site operations may come as a group or as a trickle of individuals. Our equipment, such as tents and maybe radios, may not return with us at the time we leave. Listings of equipment left behind will be important if we are to receive reimbursement, should they never be seen again. Departure can often be a problem if the team has been flown in by military transport. The team may have an "A" priority status when coming in, but only a "C" priority status when trying to get out. Transportation other than military may be required for departure unless one is willing to wait a few days extra for a flight to be scheduled.

Debriefing

Upon our return, a debriefing will occur to ascertain the effectiveness, successes and problems of our deployment. With a out doubt members will need a certain amount of rest before going back into routine life.  At this point, NDMS has been paying members for a couple of days to "unwind" after major mass casualty events.  In addition, stress reduction and support sessions may be conducted by specialists.

Deploying Equipment
Keeping things as simple as possible is important to the success of getting the radio operation up and running. Several areas of equipment installation need discussion. Below is identified the key elements of a good DMAT/Communications deploy: A good deploy always starts with good planning! Before a deploy request is ever generated, much selection of equipment and packing equipment should have been done. Many different approaches to packaging equipment may be successful. However, it must be realized that transportation may come in many different forms. For long distances over 1000 miles it is possible that military air transports such as the C-141 and C-130 will be called into use. In such cases palatalization of equipment into bulk skids must be considered. Over shorter distances bus and truck transport may be used through government contracts with carriers. For a local or regional deploy, our only transportation may be our own vehicles. In this case items may be transported more casualty.

Packaging

As a standard starting point, all equipment should be packaged in hard cases with shock insulation. There should be 2 inches of such shock insulation. There may be some equipment that Communications team personnel may carry on their person to assure quick communications ability upon arrival at the disaster site. Even here great care should be used in protecting equipment such as hand-held radios from damage. Small protective case that holds a single radio may be of value. It seems advisable to package all components of basic systems in the same case for ease of set-up. It always helps not having to look through multiple cases for the parts to set as example, an HF station up. Using the HF system as an example... pack the radio, antenna tuner, mic, power supply, spare parts, and perhaps a basic dipole antenna in the same case. Along this same theme, package all handhelds, extra batteries, chargers, belt clips, earphones, and/or external mic, in the same case. Here again, some units may be carried by radio operators to assist in the logistics of transportation and pre setup. It is also an excellent plan to package all components in plastic to help prevent moisture and contaminants from reaching them.


Communications equipment as packed by the NDMS OEP.

Selection of Equipment

Each deploy will produce different sets of equipment needs. As an example, communications would not need 20 meter HF to contact the home base if they are only deployed locally. Thus a pre deploy operation would select only the equipment that can be reasonably used on the deploy. A variety of antenna systems should be taken into unknown set-up situations. It could be that there are no end points for dipole set-up. Thus either end point masts must be taken, vertical antennas used or single mast shortened ridged dipoles used. For VHF and UHF, dual band vertical antennas with duplexer units are the logical choice as they reduce the number of masts needed.

Location

Once the team has arrived, the selection of the radio operations center should be considered. If the team is deployed in tents, a quick survey of the area should indicate end points for dipoles etc. This information needs to be integrated with DMAT compound layout plans so that the RTO tent is primarily close to the command tent or secondarily located with any transportation contingent in order to facilitate communications with incoming and outgoing medical traffic. (Net control should operate out of the command tent in most cases so that a command center scribe can assist and the command center can take immediate control of the network for priority communications.) If the team is located in solid structures similar consideration would be employed in selection of room location and antenna layout. It may be more difficult to route cables out of buildings which may make room location more critical.

Installation

Once the location of the Radio Center is established, its time to unpack. Depending upon the available manpower, multiple work crews can be established. Each system should have at least two crew members. It will often take two or more for setting up antennas. Setting the masts and antennas should take first priority as it will take a lot of space and time to lay out cables. Should bad weather or night occur, installation of antennas, masts and cables will be made more difficult. Trying to jockey cable one way or the other may be difficult after it is in place so know where your antenna and radio equipment feed points are before laying the cable. Once you have your antennas in place you can install your equipment. You may not have utility or generator power working at this point. Back-up batteries for short HF contacts with home base will be handy. During team set-up it is nice to have contact with Dayton "home base" to tell them we arrived safely and to request additional items be sent, etc. If generators are to be set up it may take some time for lines to be established to all DMAT areas. It may be unlikely that power will come up until all areas are ready for power up. Try not to unpack everything at once. There will be enough confusion without a lot of items laying about. If the number of communications members are short, attack one system at a time.

Intercom Needs
All disaster vary in their needs for communications. There are several groups that we may need ongoing contact with during field operations. The following is a summary of some of the most notable of these: Please note that DMAT teams are not authorized to carry or use any radio equipment other than that supplied by NDMS.

On a primary basis we need personnel to communicate with the following: On a secondary basis we may need additional communications in the following areas from time to time: It is obvious by the sheer numbers of potential points of communications need, that the DMAT communications may need the assistance of other radio operators. In any disaster it is only the Amateur Radio community that provides sufficient numbers of quality radio operators to man the multitude of locations needed. It also has a very large number of usable frequency. These multiple frequencies allow for tiered levels of communications networks to operate.

Demands on the Member

Physical

The physical demands of a deployment will be great. Fatigue due to the long hours is one of the main concerns. However, other concerns such as lack of proper food and water supplies, lack of proper waste disposal, and the lack of personal hygiene facilities can and will effect the physical well being of the DMAT team member. After the first 3 days of personal food runs out we will depend upon other agencies to supply rations. Water in particular may be in short supply and its quality of concern. Ailments from intestinal cramps to hepatitis can be contracted in these situations. Care in the selection and processing of all food and water supplies is of great importance.

Mental

Keeping the attention on the job at hand will be difficult at times. With so much going on and with so little sleep the mind soon becomes over overwhelmed. Keeping up with the information flow from the radio systems can drain the mental powers to a point where efficiency drops. It is important that information be past accurately, so it is also important that proper sleep time and off time be scheduled for all members.

Emotional Demands

Operating from a disaster site brings mixed emotions. As the adrenaline starts to flow, following that telephone call that brings the group together, a sense of importance and of being needed. Then as the moment sinks in, thoughts of family, trials ahead, and the unknown start a little twinge in the stomach. A little fear comes. Its the same for the first time member as with one who has been activated before. The first timer has a little apprehension about what he does not know, while the experienced member has a little fear about what he knows he is getting into.

As a member you will find these natural feelings will fade as you dive into the work of planning and activating practiced plans.

Then as the days pass, feelings turn to a sense of empathy and concern for the victims. The scene is not pretty and the pain of the disasters victims starts to become your own. And yet an overriding desire to do more drive you on to relieve the pain of others. They don't come in the DMAT doors a few at a time, they come in droves, hundreds every day, needing care, medicines, food, water, and a place to sleep. Medical care they get, but the balance of their need go wanting. You only have enough food and water for your self, and that a three day supply.

Burn-Out

As you get mentally and physically drained you push harder. You feel you must help the victims, and you have, but now it is the responsibility of you and your fellow members to recognize the signs that you must get rest. You may have the urge to continue, but trust your co-members. They can tell when your performance is dropping off.

Its hard to sleep, as images of the days events drift through your now foggy brain. You may go out like a light and stay out, or drift in and out as noises stir you. In the islands the heat of the day may make it impossible to sleep for the night crews past noon. Its sleep you must have in order to keep pace with the needs for the long term. Chances are, you will not get the amount of sleep you are use to. Cat naps may be the rule.


Here is a typical burned out commo officer.
Note the dependence upon pizza and Mountain Dew to break the boredom.
The "and what do you think you want" look is also a dead give-away.
Just kidding. Actually this is Ross at the 1999, NATO Summit MST.

The Let Down

Upon returning home, another feeling starts to set in. The feeling of no longer being needed and important. It's a big transition to go from an active DMAT team member back to routine life. Sure, its nice to be back, to have the family, and to have a long needed rest, but there is a strong sense of personal identity loss. You had many people depending on you in an emergency setting, now there is no emergency and no immediate need. You may find it difficult to concentrate on routine activities and may have a feeling of restlessness. It may take several days or weeks for you to get use to the old routines and to settle back into normal life. Give it time, you'll be just fine.
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