Five Myths About Net Control
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Being net control is not what many people think it is. Net control is not all-powerful, nor particularly glamorous. It is, however, important to the smooth running of amateur radio operations during an exercise, special event, or actual emergency. That being said, on to the myths:
Various Roles In EMCOMM
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During the past year we have discussed a variety of issues related to EMCOMM and the variety of missions available for Amateur Radio operators. We’ve even discussed non-emergency involvement in community events, field day, fox hunts, and balloon launches.
Recent discussions with various Amateur Radio operators has made me realize that I’ve not done a good job of discussing the various roles an amateur radio operator can play.
Everyone has different levels of knowledge, experience, skills, and even physical abilities that influence how and where they can, and should, participate.
Not everyone needs to be deployable to the hospital to be involved in EMCOMM, nor do they need to necessarily take all the FEMA courses previously discussed. Some will not want to take all the courses, others are not likely to be able to deploy in an emergency, and others may just not be interested in working in that environment. That’s okay, there are other ways to help. That being said, I want to continue to encourage those who are interested to take those courses and pass the FEMA certificates along to me. We’re still a few folks shy of the target number for the team.
Tanner/Carrollton Hospital As A Served Agency
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Tanner Hospital in Carrollton is currently in the process of negotiating a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with ARES. Under this agreement ARES will coordinate the deployment of amateur radio operators to the hospital upon activation by the hospital’s emergency management staff.
Many of you are already ARES members. Those of you who are not please feel free to sign-up by clicking on the "Join ARES" link on the sidebar menu and filling out the form.
Just to be clear, ARES is an organization that operates interdependently of radio club leadership structure. That being said, there must be a cooperative effort between all radio clubs, amateur radio operators, and ARES. Many of us have been working hard to rebuild our working relationship with ARES and local served agencies like the county and local hospitals.
Special Events as EMCOMM Training
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One of the problems with practice, courses, and training activities such as this, is the fact that theory fails the moment it meets reality. Even exercises suffer from the fact those planning the exercise are, well, planning. Preconceived ideas are brought to the exercise by the planner or planners.
Of course, the planned exercise usually suffers the same fate as every other plan, it too will show its flaws the moment it meets reality.
So, what do we do to improve our ability to refine our skills and deal with unexpected circumstances? There are several options. We can improve our skills by participating in special activities such as fox-hunting, balloon launch and tracking, and special events.
Tonight we’re going to discuss Special Events. Special Events are unique from the other mentioned activities because we are serving other organizations and people we may never have worked with before. As a result, the participants, routes, weather conditions, and unexpected emergencies will change from year to year.
So what are the similarities to an real EMCOMM event? Here are a few:
Simulated Emergency Tests
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A Simulated Emergency Test is exactly what the name implies: A planned simulation of an emergency designed to test our ability to respond to both anticipated circumstances and unanticipated events. The purpose of a SET is to:
- To find out the strengths and weaknesses of ARES and the National Traffic System (NTS), the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) and other groups in providing emergency communications.
- To provide a public demonstration to served agencies such as Red Cross, Emergency Management, hospitals, and through the news media of the value to the public that Amateur Radio provides, particularly in time of need.
- To help radio amateurs gain experience in communications using standard procedures and a variety of modes under simulated- emergency conditions.
One important aspect of the SET is to ensure operations on emergency power and without a repeater. Carroll County is blessed with a repeater that operates from a facility that has extensive short-term and long-term backup power capability. However, the repeater has been known to have issues during adverse weather conditions.
UHF/VHF simplex operation is a challenge in our area due to trees and hills, so utilizing Near-Vertical-Incidence-Skywave (NVIS) on HF may be the better option. HF, for most of us, is a DX (distance) activity, so NVIS isn't something we normally work with. I've spoken about NVIS before, but the basic idea is to do what we normally try to avoid, operating with an antenna close to the ground, which causes more vertical propagation which bounces off the atmosphere and is reflected in a 100-500 mile cone surrounding the transmitter. Higher antennas will mostly skip right over nearby stations. I would recommend everyone consider having 80 and 40 meter antennas capable of being flown as low as 15ft above the ground. Due to the nature of atmospheric reflection, 40 and 80 meters tend to be the only reliable NVIS bands.
Operators should, whenever possible, be prepared to switch to backup power as part of the test, as a real emergency may very well include power outages.
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