10.NWS Gray Interop Plan

10. Interoperability Plan

1. Activation Types Defined

2. Routine Event Interop Plan

3. Major Event Interop Plan

10. Interoperability Plan

Our ability to function alongside other EMCOMM organizations requires advance planning and careful coordination to ensure efficient sharing of limited airspace. In addition, the team must adhere to established communication protocols to ensure effective communication with other agencies.

This Interoperability Plan (“Interop Plan”) describes our plans for coordinating our activities with other organizations and communicating with other agencies. This plan uses a two-part approach depending on the type of activation: “routine event” and “major event.”

10.1. Activation Types Defined

A “routine event” activation is any activation meeting these criteria:

• Local nets are activated in one or more Operating Areas.

• The SKYWARN Radio Desk may or may not be activated.

• State Emergency Operations Centers (EOC's) are not activated.

• Local EOC's may or may not be activated.

• Event duration is generally 6 hours or less.

Examples include most summertime severe weather, short periods of freezing rain or snow which cause brief disruptions to travel, localized flooding, etc.

A “major event” is an activation meeting two or more of these criteria:

• Local nets active in two or more Operating Areas.

• SKYWARN Radio Desk is activated.

• At least one state EOC is activated.

• Event duration is generally 12 hours or more.

Examples include tropical storms, hurricanes, major winter storms, and large-scale severe weather outbreaks such as large squall lines.

10.2. Routine Event Interop Plan

During most routine events, SKYWARN is the only EMCOMM group on the air. ARES teams may be on standby or in the early stages of activating, or, in perhaps a rare case, could have nets on the air. The greatest concern for potential on-air conflicts would be local club nets, traffic nets, etc.

For these events, coordination with other nets is best handled by the SKYWARN net controller or the Area Manager. It is not practical to hold a club net alongside a SKYWARN net, so most club nets will gladly yield to SKYWARN activity by delaying or canceling the net or by moving it to an alternate frequency. SKYWARN generally takes precedence in these situations, but if we are asked to move to another frequency, we will honor that request.

The Area Manager or Amateur Radio Coordinator should be engaged by Net Control to work out any disagreements that might arise.

Interagency communication is typically not a concern for these routine events. While several localities might experience a widespread loss of utilities such as power or telephone, communications are not often impacted at such a time and in such a manner as to require an alternate communication path be established between the National Weather Service and one of those localities. In the unlikely event such a need arises, the SKYWARN Radio Desk can be activated to provide that link.

Standard SKYWARN frequency plans will typically be used. The team will maintain both “plain language” and ICS 205 formatted standard frequency plans for each Operating Area and make them available on the team web site. Frequency changes necessitated by cooperation with other repeater users may result in temporary changes to alternate, unpublished frequencies. In this instance, the user of the standard SKYWARN repeater will be asked to help direct SKYWARN traffic to the new frequency. HF frequencies may be used to collect reports from outlying areas not served by VHF/UHF SKYWARN repeaters. These nets would be operated by regular SKYWARN Net Control Operators.

10.3. Major Event Interop Plan

Major events involve significant severe weather over a large portion of the County Warning Area. State and local EOC's are likely active and this plan includes establishing a communications link between the National Weather Service and the EOC's.

In all instances, if the Maine ARES Net is active, the SKYWARN Radio Desk will check in to that net and will maintain a presence there to send and receive formal message traffic from served agencies. Under no circumstances will Spotter reports be handled across this net unless specifically requested by the ARES NCO.

If Maine ARES is not active but MEMA is active, WX1GYX will establish an HF communications link with that EOC via any statewide emergency net or other designated frequency. If the MEMA EOC is not active but New Hampshire’s state EOC is active, an HF link will be established with New Hampshire's EOC via any statewide emergency net or other designated frequency.

If no state EOC is active, the Maine ARES frequency will be monitored for traffic bound for NWS Gray.

NOTE: Consult the latest WX1GYX Standard Communications Plan ICS 205 documents for the current frequencies assigned to Maine and New Hampshire emergency nets.

Communication with local or county EOC's will be coordinated through the appropriate statewide emergency net whenever voice communication is required. In all instances, the preferred method by which formal message traffic should be passed is Winlink, and all messages shall be in standard ICS 213 format.

Prior to the activation of WX1GYX, an ICS Compliant communication plan (ICS 205) will be prepared and transmitted to all team members and emergency management partners and will be posted on the team web site.

During major events, there is a high likelihood that SKYWARN will be sharing VHF/UHF airspace with other nets. It is very easy to run two emergency nets side-by-side on one frequency: the two Net Controls alternate calls for check-ins and take turns handling traffic for their respective nets. Stations breaking into a net should indicate which of the nets they need to communicate with. Should a frequency become too congested trying to share airspace, one net will need to move to another frequency. If SKYWARN's alternate/backup repeater(s) are available, SKYWARN will move to those frequencies. Whichever net stays behind on the original frequency will be asked to assist in directing traffic to the other net.

The Amateur Radio Coordinator is responsible for working out communication conflicts during major event activations and should be consulted immediately if any on-air conflict cannot be promptly resolved to the satisfaction of all parties involved. Historically, good sense and common courtesy have prevailed and there have been no major issues. We expect this to continue.