Amateur Radio donates thousands of man hours of supplementary public service communications in civil emergencies, official drills and events such as parades and marathons each year. Such events show Amateur Radio in its best light, and it is critically important that ARRL bring documentation of this public service work to the attention of the Congress, the FCC and other public officials. Your information below is an important addition to the record. Please complete and return this form to the Public Service Branch at ARRL Headquarters. Thank you.

1. Nature of activity (Check one).

   Communications Emergency. Amateurs supplied communications required to replace or supplement normal communications
   means.

   Alert. Amateurs were deployed for emergency communications, but emergency situation did not develop.

   Special exercise. Amateurs supplied communications for a parade, race, etc.

X Test or drill. A training activity in which amateurs participated.

2. Brief description of activity: Communications exercise

3. Places or areas involved: Anchorage, Alaska; Matanuska-Susitna Valley, Alaska

4. Number of amateurs participating: 7

5. Event start date/time: 22 Sep 98/2015L                     6. Event end date/time: 22 Sep 98/2100L

7. Duration of event (hours): .75                                     8. Total man-hours: 4.5

9. Number of repeaters used: 0

13. Nets and/or frequencies used (including repeater call signs): Big City Simplex Net, 146.52 MHz; Alaska Bush Net, 7.093 MHz; Anchorage, Alaska Packet BBS, 145.01 MHz

14. Number of messages handled: Six pieces of exercise traffic

15. Names of agencies receiving communications support: N/A. Local area communications exercise.

16. Please list call signs of amateurs who were major participants: KL5T, KL7HF, AL7GA, KL7CC, AL7KC, KL7IKF, AL7RE

17. Other comments: See attachment containing exercise assessment and script

Please attach photos of amateurs in action, newspaper clippings or other data.

_____________________________________________________________________

Name of Amateur Radio organization providing service: South Central Amateur Radio Club, Anchorage Amateur Radio Club, ARES.

Location of organization: City or town: Anchorage          State: AK

Your name: Larry K. Petty                                           Call sign: KL5T

Address: 2631 W. 27^th Ave, Anchorage, AK 99517

ARRL appointment, if any: VE, ARES member         e-mail address: [email protected]

Telephone: (907) 552-2448      (907) 248-3864
                        (days)               (evenings)

I attest that the information provided above is complete and true to the best of my knowledge.

                                      19 Oct 1998

A communications exercise (COMMEX 980901) was held on the Big City Simplex VHF phone net on 22 Sep 98. The net is held each Tuesday evening at 2000L on 146.52 MHz. After net check-ins tapered off, net control, KL5T, kicked off the exercise. Following is the script for the exercise:

1. At the start of the net, request that all stations stay with the net, as after check-ins, we will be conducting a small communications exercise. We would like to see maximum participation.

2. After roll call, advise the net of the following:

"This is a communications exercise. Repeat, this is a communications exercise. This exercise is intended to demonstrate and exercise various modes, bands, and equipment that stations should maintain capabilities with for effective disaster preparedness communications. At this time, all net stations are directed to check in to the Alaska Bush net on 7093 LSB, and request QSO with KL5T. KL5T will provide further instructions. All stations must actually check-in to the Bush Net to be eligible to take the actions prescribed by KL5T.

3. Standby for queries and prepare to receive message traffic back from net stations in a few minutes. I'm not sure how long this will take, but I think we need to carry it through as far as we can.

4. Copy traffic back from the net stations. You don't actually need to write down the messages, as I've provide them below. Just check them off and note which station provided them. Once all the messages are received, read back the messages to the net.

5. Thank the net for their participation, and encourage stations unable to participate to move forward with expanding their capabilities via whatever actions are necessary, for example: license upgrade, equipment installation, etc.

6. Close the net as you see fit.

Following contains information about the rest of the exercise:

- KL5T will be checked in to the Alaska Bush Net, and advise Bush Net net control that he is expecting stations to call. He will request net control assign him a frequency to stand by for calls on. Bush Net net control will send stations to the appropriate frequency to contact KL5T. KL5T will query contacting stations if they have officially checked into the Bush net. If so, he will advise stations to pick up one or more unique packet messages (by message number) on the ANCBBS by whatever means they may have available, to include requesting assistance from other amateur stations. The messages will contain further instructions. If the Bush Net has shut down, KL5T will stand by on 7093 LSB for calls.

- Participating stations will retrieve messages from the ANCBBS as directed by KL5T. These messages will have been posted on the ANCBBS prior to net time by KL5T. Each message will contain some information regarding the Public Service Honor Role, and direct the retrieving station to QSP the message back to the Big City Simplex Net Net Control. Messages will be brief.

- Once all stations have reported back, after a reasonable period of time, and with coordination with KL5T, net control will read back the messages to the net as a whole.

The following were the messages pre-posted on the ANCBBS by KL5T:

ANCBBS Msg #: 17411 This message is part of a Big City Simplex Net communications exercise. The station retrieving this message should QSP the message number of this message, and the following text back to the Big City Simplex Net net control:

"There are 8 categories of activities that count for points toward the public service honor roll."

ANCBBS Msg #: 17413 This message is part of a Big City Simplex Net communications exercise. The station retrieving this message should QSP the message number of this message, and the following text back to the Big City Simplex Net net control:

"Category #1: Checking into a public service net, using any mode, 1 point each, maximum of 60 points."

ANCBBS Msg #: 17415 This message is part of a Big City Simplex Net communications exercise. The station retrieving this message should QSP the message number of this message, and the following text back to the Big City Simplex Net net control:

"Category #2: Performing as Net Control Station for a public service net, using any mode, 3 points each; maximum of 24 points."

ANCBBS Msg #: 17417 This message is part of a Big City Simplex Net communications exercise. The station retrieving this message should QSP the message number of this message, and the following text back to the Big City Simplex Net net control:

"Category #3: Performing assigned liaison between public service nets, 3 points each; maximum 24 points."

ANCBBS Msg #: 17419 This message is part of a Big City Simplex Net communications exercise. The station retrieving this message should QSP the message number of this message, and the following text back to the Big City Simplex Net net control:

"Category #4: Delivering a formal message to a third party, 1 point each; no limit."

ANCBBS Msg #: 17421 This message is part of a Big City Simplex Net communications exercise. The station retrieving this message should QSP the message number of this message, and the following text back to the Big City Simplex Net net control:

"Category #5: Originating a formal message from a third party, 1 point each; no limit."

ANCBBS Msg #: 17423 This message is part of a Big City Simplex Net communications exercise. The station retrieving this message should QSP the message number of this message, and the following text back to the Big City Simplex Net net control:

"Category #6: Serving as an ARRL field appointee or Section Manager, 10 points each appointment; maximum 30 points."

ANCBBS Msg #: 17425 This message is part of a Big City Simplex Net communications exercise. The station retrieving this message should QSP the message number of this message, and the following text back to the Big City Simplex Net net control:

"Category #7: Participating in a communications network for a public service event, 10 points each event; no limit."

ANCBBS Msg #: 17427 This message is part of a Big City Simplex Net communications exercise. The station retrieving this message should QSP the message number of this message, and the following text back to the Big City Simplex Net net control:

"Category #8: Providing and maintaining an automated digital system that handles ARRL radiogram-formatted messages; 30 points."

----------------------- RESULTS ------------------------------

- A total of 16 stations checked into the net, including net control.

- Of those 16 stations, 14 were eligible to participate in the exercise. Net Control (KL0EO) and the HF sub-control station (KL5T) clearly could not play in the message retrieval/relay process.

- Of the 14 stations eligible to participate, 6 were able to comply with the first set of instructions, that is, were able to check in to the Bush NET on HF (7.092 MHz) LSB.

- Of the 6 stations that checked in with KL5T on the Bush Net, 5 received the instructions to retrieve message traffic from the Anchorage Packet BBS system with no negative replies because of capabilities. The one remaining station stated directly he had no packet capability and terminated his participation at that point.

- Of the 5 stations accepting instructions to retrieve the packet messages, 3 were able to directly retrieve the traffic themselves. One station requested the assistance of one of the stations on HF; these two stations teamed wonderfully to pick up this traffic. The remaining station failed to indicate they could not retrieve the packet traffic to KL5T and KL0EO and just disappeared with no further dialogue.

- All 4 stations that were able to retrieve the packet messages, correctly relayed their traffic to the Big City Simplex Net net control. They were very precise about their traffic handling, and even corrected a semi-colon on read back that was initially copied as a colon.

Stations that made it to the HF check-in included:

KL7HF AL7GA KL7CC AL7KC KL7IKF AL7RE

Stations declining an ability to retrieve VHF packet traffic:

KL7IKF

Stations requesting relay to retrieve VHF packet traffic:

AL7RE

Stations assisting in the relay of VHF packet traffic to non-capable stations:

AL7KC

Stations correctly passing their assigned message traffic back to Big City Simplex Net net control:

KL7HF KL7CC AL7KC AL7RE

A hearty congratulations to the stations able to complete all facets of the exercise, especially to those that teamed with one another to get the traffic passed. To all other stations, thanks very much for the participation. I do hope this provided a degree of incentive to either upgrade license classes, or simply acquire capability within current privileges. With any luck, this will be the first of a continuing series of communications exercises that stress the importance of maintaining a complete station, capable of multiple modes of communications that might be required in a real disaster situation. I encourage any stations with an interest in this type of activity take the initiative to script communications exercises for insertion into any of the local or regional HF and VHF nets.

73,

de KL5T