NBK Bangor tests `Giant voice`

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Northwest Navigator> KITSAP/EVERETT EDITION • Friday, JANUARY 29, 2010
NBK Bangor
tests
‘Giant voice’
By MC2
Chantel M. Clayton
NPASE Det. NW
Emergency management
representatives tested Naval
Base Kitsap, Bangor’s emergency notification system
Jan. 21-22.
Officials began testing
towers, or giant voice systems, throughout the base
to ensure they were working
properly.
According to George
Nixon, emergency operations center manager for
NBK, the wide-area alerting network, similar to
the emergency broadcast
system, allows for security
and emergency management personnel to broadcast pertinent information
to service members, civilian
employees and their families on board the base in the
event of an emergency.
“This system is viable to
us as far as getting information if something does
take place in the area, such
as earthquakes or major
flooding,” said Nixon. “We
can let the public on the
installation know, say in the
instance of an earthquake,
that roads may be closed,
which gates may be closed,
what facilities are available
on the installation. We can
recommend that people stay
indoors, take shelter — we
can put out just about anything over this system.”
Nixon said the system is
also linked to Navy Marine
Corps Intranet computers
installed throughout the
base.
“The giant voice system
is tied in to another system,
which is a computer desk
top, where we can actually
put out the same information on every computer
on the installation,” said
Nixon. “If you’re online at
the time the broadcast is put
out, a pop up window will
come up on your computer
BRIEFS
Bangor power
outage
There will be an electrical power outage at NBK
Bangor on Saturday, Jan
30, from 2 to 5 a.m. affecting the Albacore, Bonefish, Tullibee and Perch/
Pickerel housing areas, as
well as the Navy Lodge.
The power outage will be
taking place in order to
facilitate the energizing of
a new community center
at the Bonefish Housing
area.
Building healthy
marriages
MC2 Chantel M. Clayton
Chris Perry, a field engineer, tests the decibel level of an emergency notification system tower on board
Naval Base Kitsap, Bangor. Engineers are tested the system to ensure sound levels do not go above 110
decibels. The system allows for base personnel at Bangor and Keyport to receive important information
in the event of an emergency.
screen, and we can put out
that information on your
computer as well as over the
big voice system.”
Nixon says that this system is also tested daily, during morning and evening
colors.
There are five towers
throughout NBK Bangor,
each are 120 feet tall and
Occupational Hearing Loss
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KEYPORT
Hearing Loss caused
by exposure to loud
noise is an injury. Let
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have six conical-shaped
speakers. There are also
speakers mounted to various buildings and structures
throughout the base, where
putting up poles weren’t
available.
This system is also linked
to towers and speakers on
board NBK Bremerton and
Keyport. There are a total of
11 towers between the three
installations, with hundreds
of speakers mounted to various structures.
There are more than 700
pre-set messages, and the
operator also has the ability
to speak into a microphone
and get messages out, similar to using a 1MC on board
a ship.
According to Nixon, they
have the ability to isolate
messages to one base, or
disseminate messages to all
three bases at once.
When the system is
turned up to full capacity, messages can be heard
throughout neighboring
towns around the bases, to
include Poulsbo, the city
of Bremerton, and even
to Tonados Peninsula in
Jefferson County, which is
directly across the water
from NBK Bangor’s waterfront.
“The system itself was
installed eight years ago,
and has gone through some
changes and growth. We’re
at the point now where we
have come out of the crawling stage, and we’re now in
the walking stage. Hopefully
once we get the testing done
and every thing is up and
running and the contract
for maintenance is signed,
we’ll be in the sprinting
stage, and the system will be
used for just about anything
that we need to use it for.”
The NBK Religious Ministries Department will
be hosting a two-day
Marriage Enrichment and
Couples Communication
Skills seminar Feb. 11-12,
from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at
the NBK Bangor Chapel.
For registration or to get
more info contact the NBK
Chaplain’s Office at (360)
396-6005.
Seabee Ball
date set
March 6 is the date for
this year’s Seabee Ball to
celebrate the 68th Seabee
and the 143rd Civil Engineer Corps anniversaries
hosted by Construction
Battalion Mobile Unit 303
Detachment and Naval Facilities Engineering Command Northwest. This
year’s theme is “The Fighting Seabees”, immortalized in the movie starring
John Wayne and Susan
Hayward set in World War
II in the South Pacific. The
event will be at the Admiral Theater in Bremerton.
Ticket information at YN2
Wendy Wohlford at (360)
396-6622 before Feb. 24.
MWR releases computer network update
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Bremerton (360) 373-5883
Port Orchard (360) 876-1252
Toll Free 1-800-422-8942
Fleet & Family Readiness Programs
In November, the Navy Cyber Defense
Operations Command (NCDOC) detected
a possible network intrusion on the Navy
Region Northwest Morale, Welfare and
Recreation (MWR) computer network.
This network supports computers operating at a variety of MWR, Youth and Teen,
and Fleet and Family Support Programs
throughout the region. A portion of the network connection was temporarily disconnected to investigate the possible intrusions,
to rebuild the secured systems network, and
restore services.
The intrusion continues to be investigated and patrons should be assured this
vital quality of life service will be restored
as quickly as possible.
The www.navylifepnw.com Web site was
included in the affected network investigation, but has been cleared by NCDOC. The
site should be operational within the next
two weeks.
In the interim, the Web site address has
redirected customers to Facebook pages
created for each respective Navy Region
Northwest installation for current program
information.
Department of the Navy information systems are constantly under attack from many
sources. The Navy takes any network intrusion very seriously and the security measures being taken are necessary to ensure
our network remains secure.
Defensive mechanisms must continue to
be an integral part of design and implementation of all Navy networks, including
the public access computers and other networks run by the Fleet & Family Readiness
Program.
A critical part of our defense is each userís
awareness and practice of good information assurance procedures and to remember
when we let our guard down, all networks
are vulnerable.
Fleet and Family Readiness staff apologizes for this inconvenience and will notify
patrons as soon as it is known when services
will be restored.