ARES is based around a county by county structure, with an EC at the county level, with (Possibly) an DEC and a SEC (who reports to the section manager) above that

NYC has a fairly small (based upon our population) group, but is fairly forward looking. We have the general attitude (particularly in Queens, where I USED to be the EC, and AM an AEC) of "we are communicators FIRST, hams SECOND". We train to get the message through by whatever the BEST method is. Doesn't hurt that we have some serious telecom people involved, and there are a lot of 'connections' with folks in the land mobile radio service (aka commercial radio)

In Queens, almost our entire focus for the past 7 or so years has been digital comms

As for Winlink being evil - the way it's currently used on HF _IS_ pretty bad, but we consider that way way down the list.

As I said, for digital comms, our FIRST choice is setting up 'standard wifi' or even getting their broadband working (hey, having members involved at cable and telco operations on the digital end helps). The NEXT choice is using the ham channels of the WiFi spectrum with amps (Yes folks, ham radio operators actually have 1st dibs on 2300-2450 Mhz - which is channels 1-6) We can run SERIOUS power on channels 1-6, enough that we have tested 12 mile WiFi links! (do NOT step infront of that transmitter please)

The other thing is that the NY Metro area (Marty - I have NOT checked if it reaches your area) has an extensive "flexnet" digital packet backbone, which is how WE move Winlink (and for that mattter non winlink) data. We come in on a VHF 'User port", it gets bumped onto a UHF Backbone, and routed to where we need it to go - you have a map of all the possible paths, and you can route around nodes that are down, and there are extensive gateways to/from the internet on the network - route your winlink packet to one of them, it it puts the email out onto the net, and routes it back (and it doesn't do the evil stuff that HF winlink does - just an increase in packet traffic on an already digital backbone)

Between our groups here in the city, with some help of some guys in Nassau, we are fully prepared to drop up to 3 voice repeaters and 3 packet nodes wherever needed in the area, and get them linked in

So, as I said, it all depends. Here in Queens, You're likely to have someone show up with digital modes out the ears, with the necessary help to setup digital backbone relays (or have communications to one of the other guys who does) and has access to some of the best repeater points in the city