2011 GEORGIA SIMULATED EMERGENCY TEST

(August 10, 2011 Version)

 

 

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this drill is to test our capabilities to relay a simple message in an environment where normal means of Amateur communications are severely degraded or non-existent. A secondary goal is to involve Technician Class licensees in a large-scale emergency communications drill.

 

SCENARIO:

An ice storm has paralyzed the Southeastern United States.  In addition to between 3 to 10 inches of snow on the ground, ice accumulations between 1/3 and 1 inch have brought down numerous trees, branches and power lines.  Estimates are between 60 to 80 percent of homes are without power.  Many roads are impassible. Transportation and commerce are nearly at a stand still.  Federal, State and Local response is very slow due to the magnitude and widespread effects of this storm.  Communications infrastructure has also suffered.  Downed wires, power outages, bent antennas, and failed back ups have crippled normal communications.  Amateur Radio operators have not gone unscathed.  Many wire antennas are down and beams look like inverted V’s.  ARES has been activated and asked to provide communications support.

 

AA4BA notes:

During the last two winter storm events when we have been activated by Hall County EMA our systems have fared well.  Our served agency antennas have proven robust and we have spares that can be easily deployed at the Emergency Services Complex, Northeast Georgia Medical Center and our ARRL Official Emergency Station.  All of our regular repeaters have emergency power but we will do some simplex nets as should be done in all drills.

 

What do we have?  We have:

Limited Repeaters at the discretion of the ECs and DECs.

Limited Internet at the discretion of the ECs and DECs.

VHF/UHF Simplex

Limited HF due to downed antennas

Our ingenuity

 

THE DRILL:

The SEC will initiate a series of messages with destinations throughout the State and, possibly to adjoining States.  There may be a message originating in White County that needs to go to Randolph County.  At the same time, a message originating in Charlton County needs to go to Fannin County.  The message needs to be relayed quickly and accurately from County to County until it gets through. When the receiving County gets the message, the EC will log the time of receipt and Email the SEC a copy of the message and the time of receipt.

 

The drill begins at 0900 Eastern Time, Saturday, October 1, 2011 and finishes at 1200. If an EC or DEC wishes to extend the exercise past 1200, that is their call.

 

AA4BA notes:

As we did the last two years, we will have an informational net at 2000 hours Friday night 30 September 2011 to announce our intention to activate fully at 0800 Saturday morning.  The initial announcement that we are starting will be at 1900 hours.  The EC will start on the LARC repeater and then move through all of our published frequencies announcing which frequency he will QSY to as he hops about.  The intent will be to use all of our available repeaters to announce the 2000 informational net.  The SET goals as laid out by the ARRL are for groups to prepare plans to operate for 72 hours and we are allowed under the rules to operate and gather points for a full 72 hours.  We will officially key up our first transmission at 1900 hours 30 September and run through Sunday night.  Exact ending time is not yet determined.

 

GROUND RULES:

 

1. Simplex should be used wherever possible.

2. Traffic can be passed between fixed and mobile stations if needed.

3. All traffic MUST be preceded by “THIS IS ONLY A DRILL”

4. Roads may be impassable. Therefore, movement of mobile stations may be limited by the EC or DEC. It may be necessary to assign other than usual operators to locations such as county EOCs.

Many of our assets own 4x4 vehicles and are experienced at driving in adverse conditions.  Since this is a slow moving winter storm, we had plenty of notice from the NWS and the foresight to place our mobile units before the weather made moving equipment risky.

5. Repeater output frequencies are authorized provided the repeater control operator has turned off the repeater transmit function.

6. All stations are encouraged to use their emergency power source and set up emergency antennas if possible.  If it’s something you’d expect to do during a real ice storm, no better time than now to test it out.

We will be fulfilling this with our three mobile units that are all set up on an as needed basis.  We will be following our standard protocol for most communications emergencies.  All of our Fixed locations and mobile units have battery backup systems and generators.  This is just another average exercise for us.  We do this for all of our SET drills.

7. “GOTA” type stations using Technician licensees operating under the mentorship of a General or higher-class control operator are encouraged.

8. Creative “thinking outside the box” is encouraged to circumvent the rules (provided it’s legal!)

9. Above all else, let’s have some fun with this!

 

DOCUMENTATION:

Passing formal traffic REQUIRES proper documentation.  There are a variety of ways to do this.  Most of us are familiar with the ARRL radiogram form (FSD-218). This can be downloaded and reproduced as necessary.  Another form is the ICS-213.  Again, this may also be downloaded and reproduced.  Attachment 1 has a sample form that tries to combine the best features of both.  Again, the form is not as critical as establishing the paper trail.

 

PREPARATION:

Each EC needs to know the EC in the surrounding County(s).  This is like meet your neighbor if you haven’t already done so.  Some large Counties will need several relays potentially intercounty before the message exits to the next stop in the delivery chain.  Sometimes the message may need to backtrack.  It is up to the ingenuity of each EC to ensure a message gets successfully through his/her County.

 

This is our opportunity to more actively involve Technician Class licensees in emergency communications.  Since disasters start and end locally, the value of local communications can't be understated.  This means HTs and Technician licensees helping with communications on a search and rescue team, relaying info from a shelter to an EOC, helping at a fire station where people may seek treatment or shelter, etc.  EC’s should conduct a number of simplex drills to determine how best to route messages within their Counties and to surrounding Counties.  This is also the time to coordinate simplex frequencies.  We all can’t use 146.520 or 446.000.  What other frequencies are available and will work for you?

 

AA4BA notes:

We will deploy at least one of our mobile units in the hospitals lactation center parking lot in front of the main hospital campus as the last two years.  As many people as can make it are encouraged to visit this station Saturday morning.  The plan is for this location to be active from 0900 till 1200 hours on  Saturday.  The N4YT command center will be deployed and its location will be announced during the early morning hours of Saturday during our regular nets and tactical communication.

 

In an effort to promote more involvement from Technician class licensees and introduce them to HF, each County is authorized multiple HF GOTA stations.  This is an opportunity to mentor Technician licensees in operating on HF and in using HF net procedures.  The stipulation is the ACTUAL operator must be a Technician class licensee under the supervision of a General or higher-class control operator.

 

AA4BA notes:

We will be activating our EMA, hospital and O.E.S. station so anyone desiring to operate out of one of these locations can email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or just call out on the LARC machine when they become mobile.  There will also be control operators and rigs at both mobile unit locations so that any Technician Class operator will be able to find a location to work from.

 

State HF Nets will be at the discretion of the Section Traffic Manager as to how many are held during the allotted time and who will be Net Control Stations.

AA4BA notes:

Traditionally these nets will run on the even hours most of the day Saturday and the final net will be on Sunday evening.  Monitor our frequencies and 3.975 MHz LSB to stay apprised of the situation as things develop.

As we will again be joined by other states in this exercise, be aware that traffic may need to pass across state lines. The various State EOCs will also be on the air, and the various Section Traffic Managers may wish to set aside a “Command Frequency” for those stations to initiate contact.

 

AA4BA notes:

Each operator needs to maintain a log of their contacts during this event.  When you make a contact this is the pertinent information that you must obtain.  The contacts call sign, are they an ARES, RACES or EMA member operator. Please log the county and state for thye group they are in.  I cannot stress how important it will be to get this information.

For you HF contesters, this weekend is the California QSO party.  If you are interested, participate and chase as many contacts as you can.  When you make a contact, ask them if they have any affiliation with an emergency communications groups and if so, what county and state they are attached to.

For you D-star folks, make as many D-star contacts as possible using as many reflectors as possible.  Log the info of each contact and their affiliation.  In addition, ask them what the repeater call sign is that they are personally using and log that info as it is important for scoring.  Rip D-star a new rear end.  It is an easy way to get to folks without HF equipment.

The 20 minutes before and just after each state HF net is a good time to make contacts as operators tune up and tune in to the state frequency.  Also check into as many other states nets as possible and use that tune up time before the official start of nets to call for stations with emergency group affiliations.

Hop all the repeaters you can reach that you have programmed into your radios.  Scan the bands and make any and all possible contacts via any mode your capable of.  PSK on 30 meters will be a goldmine for those that are savy with digital modes.  Be sure to check into the state PSK net if you can.  As you monitor the state HF nets times for these events will be announced regularly.

Help pass any message that comes your way via any mode you can.  If your NBEMS, PSK, D-RATs or any other digital mode capable look for contacts and remember to ask for the call signs, counties and states of the operators you talk to.

As we pass traffic we will assign tasks to willing participants.  Any amateur radio operator that wants to play with us this weekend is welcome.  Be sure to gor to our website and download and print all of our frequencies of importance.  I am not going to put all of them into this plan so you need to use the resources we already have in place.

 

From Barry Kane:

This is going to be a very busy weekend for the GA ARES hams and we will have a couple of opportunities to test the hospital radios, if that fits your plans.

In addition to the normal GA ARES Hospital Net held on the first Sunday of the month at 3:00 p.m., we will also be participating in a multi-state Simulated Emergency Test (S.E.T.) starting at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday.  The Georgia Hospitals are invited to contact the net control station on Saturday between 10:00 and 10:30 a.m. on the usual frequency of 3.975 MHz (LSB) to check in.  This will count for their monthly check in and will eliminate the need for the Sunday check in at 3:00 p.m.

The net control will be K4GK (Charles Pennington) and he will be calling the nets on both days.  So if you are not able to do the check in on Saturday morning, then the normal Sunday afternoon time slot will still be available.

We have added radio facilities at Crisp Regional Hospital in Cordele, GA and you may hear from them.

Thanks for your participation.

Barry Kanne, W4TGA
ASEC for Public Health
GA ARES

 

Here is some of the traffic that will be generated on the state level.

 

 

ATTACHMENT 1

SAMPLE COMBINED ICS/ARRL FORM

 

 

ORIGIN         DESTINATION         MESSAGE

 

Dade               Fulton                          EMA reports 90% of homes without power

Rabun              Fannin                         Request SAR dog team when available

Chatham          Fulton                          Port operations halted due to ice

Seminole         Camden                       Did generator shipment leave your location?

Effingham       Washington                 Is K4GK still on the air?

Lowndes         Catoosa                       I-75 shut down at Florida border

Catoosa           Lowndes                     I-75 shut down at Tennessee border

Troop               Hart                             I-85 shut down at Alabama border

Hart                 Troop                           I-85 shut down at South Carolina border

Haralson          Richmond                   I-20 shut down at Alabama border
Richmond       Haralson                      I-20 shut down at South Carolina border

Bibb                Chatham                      I-16 closed in Macon at I-75

Chatham          Bibb                            I-16 closed in Savannah at I-95

 

Hall ARES prescheduled nets:

Friday 30 September 2011

1900 hours:  EC begins making announcements.  Start on LARC machine and then will hop about to all of our published frequencies.

2000 hours:  Informational net on LARC 146.670 machine.

Keep monitoring through the night and keep situationally aware.  Make and log any contacts you can during this period.  Remember the info you have been asked to log.

Saturday 1 October:

We activate at 0800 and tactical traffic will begin on LARC machine.  The State HF net should start about this time so be monitoring 3.975 LSB

0900 hours: 2 meter Net on Tri-County machine 146.625 - Offset PL 127.3

1100 hours:  Simplex net on 145.550

1200 hours:  HF net on 3.975 MHz.  This is a state net and Hall ARES will be net control.

1300 hours: 2 meter net on W4TL machine 145.310 -offset  123.0 tone

1500 hours: 2 meter net on N4DME machine 147.330 + offset 127.3 tone

1700 hours: 2 meter simplex net on 145.550

1900 hours: 2 meter net on Baldwin 147.180 machine

1930 hours: 2 meter D-Star net on Hall ARES KJ4ZLL repeater linked to reflector 30.  145.12000MHz -0.600

2100 hours: 70 centimeter net on LARC 444.950 +offset 131.8 tone.

2300 hours and beyond.  Continuing tactical net, rag chew, traffic handling and general good time running on LARC 2 meter machine till everyone passes out.

Sunday 2 October:

Continue to monitor State HF frequency and LARC machine.  All available assets will be given assignments to fit their capabilities. We need to keep the airwaves hot looking for any potential contacts on any and all bands using any and all modes.  Remember this is a winter storm event so if you want to just operate from your home please feel free to do so.  Everyone needs to at least log a few contacts and send your log reports to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it when the drill is over.

We have lots of surprises and different tasks that will be given out when the time is right.  Be available and be flexible.  This is a simulated emergency so we are not going to plan every task to the minute or announce them in advance.  When in doubt, show some initiative and do something even if it is wrong.  Most of all, HAVE FUN!

Any and all EMA passkey holders are asked to volunteer for a shift at the EMA anytime during the drill.  Anyone wishing to operate from a mobile unit at any time just holler for N4YT or KI4H over the LARC machine for locations and additional information.  The hospital station will be manned as opportunities arise for operators that are cleared for access to this station.

Net control assignments will be given as the day event takes place.  Nobody is preassigned to run any particular net so do not be surprised if you get roped into a net.  If you want to volunteer for a particular net email AA4BA to reserve your slot.