Emergency Radio Club of Reno County
Hutchinson, Kansas

 

Emergency Radio Club of Reno County

SET Exercise September 29-30, 2007

Specific Objectives Evaluation

o       The ability of the ERCRC to establish a stand-alone station off of the main power grid on short notice.
o       Within 1.5 hours after notification of the emergency, the ERCRC and RCKARA will establish an emergency amateur radio station using emergency power, operating from the Old Fire Station at the Field Day site.

o       Exercise began at 0730 hours local time. Hams spoke to each other by VHF repeater to find out what had happened and what was expected of them. Several arrived at the old fire station by 0800 hours and by 0835, the station was established with an HF rig, a VHF rig, a laptop computer, an HF dipole, and a VHF freestanding vertical. VHF communications were begun immediately. HF communications were begun at 0900 hours with the start of the Texas QSO Party.

o       The ability of the ERCRC to staff and operate a station under emergency conditions for extended periods of time with heavy traffic volumes.
o       For a period of 12 hours the first day and 6 hours the second day and using the emergency station established at the Field Day site, the members of the ERCRC and RCKARA will work as many stations in the Texas QSO Party as possible, simulating the handling of emergency traffic.

o       Except for the 2000 to 2100 hours local time period, the station was continuously staffed and on the air. The station was briefly off the air for generator refueling or antenna adjustments. These time periods were less than ten minutes in length for any one period. The HF station worked 107 Texas stations in the 17 hours on the air.

o       The ability of the ERCRC to establish an operator’s schedule on the fly.

o       Although the schedule was completed for the Saturday portion, the Sunday schedule was left open. In addition, one time period on Saturday was open. Even though the schedule was not completed on paper, no time slot was left unfilled. Complete schedules and if slots are left unfilled, write in the person who fills the slot later.

Objective MET

o       The operator’s ability to operate HF under contest conditions in addition to emergency conditions.

o       During the ARO’s scheduled operating time, the ARO will make as many contacts as possible with Texas stations participating in the TXQP and log such contacts on the computer program. ARO’s may have an assistant to help with logging duties, if the schedule allows.

o       Contacts were made, and logged into the computer as expected. Conditions were poor on most bands except for
40 meters. All contacts were made on 40 meters Phone and CW.

o       Any requests for assistance, such as food, additional manpower, to replace inoperable equipment, etc. should be handled over VHF using the 146.67 repeater, or simplex operations.

o       The 147.12 repeater was used in place of the .67 machine due to the latter still being out of service. Requests for items were made in this manner with no problems.

Objective  MET but with some difficulty. (problem was with the fixed station, not the mobiles)

o       The ability of the ERCRC members to report from mobile/portable locations with tactical traffic and follow directions.

o       VHF Mobile stations will report to the operating position to pick up a packet of exercise messages and an instruction sheet. They will follow the instruction sheet, which will direct them where to go and what to do.

o       Mobile stations reported as requested and fulfilled this objective very well. There were some times when the fixed station at the fire station had problems hearing the VHF radio, since the volume was up on the HF station. A separate operator for each band is required, as one person has severe difficulty doing both of these operations at the same time. Also, the location must be in a less “acoustically hard” location. The echoes in the fire station bay made it difficult to hear. There should either be padding on the walls, or the station should be set up outside in a tent or under a canopy of other cover.

 Lessons Learned:

o       Set up the location in a quiet room – one that will keep echoes to a minimum.

o       Headphones for each radio would be helpful. Dual headphone jacks would be great for those with an assistant/logger. An external speaker would be nice to have as well, when a single radio is set up in a room by itself.

o       There should only be one radio per operator as attempting to run two radios at the same time is too much for one person to do.

o       We should establish a storage box that contains the “administrative stuff” to go along with our “go-box” radios. This Admin box should contain message forms, clipboards, pens and pencils, notepads, envelopes, a copy of Part 97, other needed forms such as schedules, etc.

o       We need to make certain that our amateur radio operators are having their needs met. If this means a rover of our own to go to locations with food, drink, or other relief, this needs to be done. On the other hand, if a ham is told to be totally self-sufficient, they need to bring their own food, water and other comfort items. If they are assigned to a served agency, that agency should make sure they are being cared for.

o       We should build a couple of simple antennae to keep ready for this possibility in the future. A 40/80-meter dipole, and possibly a vertical or a buddipole type system for 2-40 meters. Along with this, the club should keep two 100-foot rolls of RG8X with PL259 ends and a few barrel connectors. Some easy-up antenna supports with guy wires, guy stakes and a stake to set the pole on would be great.  We should also have a small sledge to drive stakes.  These poles should probably not be over 30 feet tall. A work day/antenna party has been suggested as a way to accomplish much of this.

o       Each member of the club should put together a go-box station, a go-kit deployment supply bag and have a disaster plan in place at home. They should bring everything they think they may need.

o       Whenever someone deploys with a radio (either their personal radio or the Emergency Management radio) they should bring along the operating guide. You never know when someone unfamiliar with the rig will need to change a menu setting or make an adjustment.

o       Everyone said they enjoyed the VHF portion of the exercise. The simulated messages were a hit with the mobile stations. The map was helpful.

o       Many people realized some of their own shortcomings and are personally working on being better prepared.

o       The control station should keep a log of who is out, where they are at, and what they are doing. This can be kept on a whiteboard in order to make it easier to visualize, but should be recorded on paper or computer for recordkeeping.

o       Stations relaying traffic should give their traffic in short bites so the person receiving the message can copy it as close to verbatim as possible. Speak slowly, clearly and spell out uncommon words phonetically if needed.

o       Two days may be too long to run an exercise, except for Field Day.

o       Operating periods for any one operator should be kept to two hours or less. If there is an assistant operator/logger, this time period could be extended when shared between the two.

o       The call-up roster should be exercised when this kind of event is being tested.

o       All members should wear proper identification. In a real event, the members would need this ID to travel through the disaster scenes or to report in to different locations.

Many thanks are given to those amateurs who assisted in this exercise. Many more thanks are given to those amateurs who replied to the survey in order to help us improve our capabilities.

Participants were, KA4CKR, WÆUY, KCÆBHE, NÆFHF, KBÆFJI, NÆLQE, AJÆNR, KÆSFV, KCÆVBF, WÆZC, KBÆZIA and Amber Fields.