The initial priority of the ISMA CERT is to provide an effective means of communication within and between member CERTs and with the county Emergency Operations Center.

This entails:

Creating an internal three tier communication architecture that accounts for the Indian Spring CERT as a coordinating body between the EOC and the 24 community CERTs

Extending the County Emergency Communications networks from the EOC down to the individual community CERT Contact Teams

The Three Tier Internal Communications Network
The normal emergency radio commectivity between a CERT and the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is a two tier communication system:

Tier 1: an amateur radio link between the EOC and the community(ISMA) HOA/POA CERT's Incident Command Post (ICP) and

Tier 2: that CERT's ICP communication with its teams in the field.

The situation is different here because the Indian Spring community requires a three tier system to acconodate the insertion of the IS CERT between the EOC and the 24 iindependent community CERTs:

Tier 1: an amateur radio link between the EOC and the community(ISMA) HOA/POA CERT's Incident Command Post (that has no teams in the field) and

Tier 2: a radio link between the community(ISMA) HOA/POA CERT's Incident Command Post (ICP) and the 24 independent community CERT Incident Command Posts and

Tier 3: a radio link between each of the 24 community CERT Incident Command Post their teams in the field.

(note: the EOC prefers to communicate only with the community HOA/POA CERT. They emphatically do not want to deal with subordinate community CERTs)

An NCA communications network will address this requirement. With the cooperation of the participating community CERTs. The Extended Emergeency Communications network (ExEmComm Network) will be a three tier network:

Extending the County Emergency Communications Networks
Extension of the Indian Spring communication infrastructure to the County Emergency Communications networks is essential to:

Maintain a common operating picture of the incident for the EOC

Provide up-to-date information to assist in formulating responses from the EOC, EOAs, law enforcement, fire rescue, and other responding agencies

Provide the ability to recieve direct tasking from the EOC at any level of the Indian Spring CERT Architecture

• Tier 1 is the extension of Palm Beach County's Emergency Communications (EmComm) network, from the EOC/EOAs to the NCA communicator (amateur VHF radio operator)


• Tier 2 would be the NCA inter-CERT directed network. This GMRS network would provide communications connectivity:
  • between the NCA GMRS radio operator and the community CERT Incident Command Posts/Headquarters GMRS radio operators, and
  • between the community CERTs' GMRS Incident Command Posts/Headquarters radios


• Tier 3 would provide FRS communications between the individual community CERTs' Incident Command Posts/Headquarters and their Contact Teams in the field.