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, AK; Matanuska-Susitna Valley, Alaska

4. Number of amateurs participating: 12

5. Event start date/time: 13 Oct 98/2018L                    6. Event end date/time: 13 Oct 98/2024L

7. Duration of event (hours): 0.1                                    8. Total man-hours: 1.2

9. Number of repeaters used: 0

10. Estimated manpower cost: $12 (man-hours times $10/hr)

11. Estimated cost of equipment used: $4,200 (hand-helds, repeaters, etc.)

12. Total estimated cost of service: $4,212 (add amounts from lines 10 and 11)

13. Nets and/or frequencies used (including repeater call signs): Big City Simplex Net, 146.52 MHz and 146.46 MHz

14. Number of messages handled: 11 pieces of tactical exercise traffic

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

16. Please list call signs of amateurs who were major participants: WL7CKB, KL0CY, KL0EO, WL7KH, KL4E, NL7NN, WL7PV, NL7SK, KL7ITI, AL7RE, KL7AE, KL5T

17. Other comments: See attached COMMEX evaluation.

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

Name of Amateur Radio organization providing service: South Central 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. 27th Ave, Anchorage, AK 99517

ARRL appointment, if any: ASM, VE, ARES               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.
 
 

//signed//
Larry K. Petty/KL5T                                                                                      21 Oct 98
 

A communications exercise (COMMEX 981002) was held on the Big City Simplex VHF phone net on 13 Oct 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:

Announce during the net preamble that the net will be conducting a communications exercise. Request all stations stay with the net until net shutdown.

Once the net appears to have received all its checkins, commence the exercise.

STATE: "Attention all net stations, attention all net stations, this is KL5T. This net will now conduct a communications exercise. I repeat, this net will now conduct a communications exercise."

STATE: "The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate the importance of our ability to follow instructions, and to maintain a working knowledge of the equipment at our disposal. Our goal is 100 percent participation from all net check-ins. All stations, standby for further instructions. I say again, all stations standby for further instructions. This is KL5T. Please standby."

PAUSE 30 SECONDS OR SO

STATE: "Attention all net stations, attention all net stations, this is KL5T. Following are exercise instructions. I say again, following are exercise instructions. All net stations, at this time, change frequency to 146.46 Mhz and standby for roll call. I say again, all net stations, at this time, change frequency to 146.46 Mhz and standby for roll call. Are there any fills?"

Provide any information asked for. Once no additional information is requested, STATE:

"This is KL5T, changing frequency to 146.46 Mhz."

Change frequency to 146.46 Mhz and STATE:

"Is this frequency in use?"

If not, proceed. If it is, explain the situation, and advise all net stations to change frequency to 146.4 MHz and repeat the procedure."

"This is KL5T for the Big City Simplex Net communications exercise. All net stations, prepare for roll call. Respond with your callsign and state whether you have all-mode, or fm-only capabilities on 2-meters. I say again, respond with your callsign, and state whether you have all-mode, or fm-only capabilities on 2-meters."

Run the roster once, pausing only briefly allowing stations a chance to respond.

Once the list is run once, go back and run the roster again for any stations that didn't respond. Once complete, ask for any additional late stations or checkins.

STATE: "All net stations, at this time change frequency back to 146.52 Mhz and standby for roll call. I say again, change frequency back to 146.52 Mhz and standby for roll call. This is KL5T. Are there any fills?"

Provide any information asked for. Once no additional information is requested, STATE:

"This is KL5T, changing frequency back to 146.52 Mhz."

Change frequency to 146.52 Mhz and STATE:

"This is KL5T for the Big City Simplex Net communications exercise. All net stations, prepare for roll call. Simply respond with your callsign and 'roger' when called."

Run the roster once, pausing only briefly allowing stations a chance to respond.

Once the list is run once, go back and run the roster again for any stations that didn't respond. Once complete, ask for any additional late stations or checkins.

Once no more stations respond, STATE: "This is ENDEX, or end of exercise, all stations please standby for a brief exercise summary."

Calculate exercise metrics based on the data collected, and announce the following:

"All net stations, the following are preliminary exercise results:

STATE: We had 14 stations checked into the net this evening when we commenced the exercise. 12 stations, or 86 percent of net stations successfully changed frequency to 146.46 Mhz to participate in roll call, and 12 stations, or 86 percent of net stations successfully changed frequency back to 146.52 Mhz for roll call there. 6 stations, or 50 percent of exercise participants indicated they all-mode capability on 2-meters, while the other 6, or 50 percent indicated they had only FM capability on 2-meters. A total 12 stations, or 86 percent of all net stations successfully participated in all facets of this exercise. This exercise commenced at 2018L and terminated at 2024L, for a total elapsed time of 6 minutes. Are there any comments or suggestions?"

Note any comments or suggestions for inclusion into the written exercise summary.

STATE: "This is KL5T, net control for the Big City Simplex Net. I want to thank all net stations for their participation in the exercise this evening. A written summary of the exercise will be provided in the SCRC and AARC newsletters. I highly encourage net members to take the time to script communications exercises of their own, either for insertion into scheduled nets, or for upcoming monthly COMMEXs. Please contact myself, KL5T; or any radio club or ARES officers or participants if you'd like to become more involved in our effort to improve and enhance our emergency communications preparedness."

The following data should be collected:

1. Note the time of the initial call announcing "This is a communications exercise"

2. Note the total number of stations participating in the net, to include net control.

3. Note the total number of stations that made the change to 146.46 Mhz.

4. Note the total number of stations that made the change back to 146.52 Mhz.

5. Note the total number of stations that made both frequency changes.

6. Note how many stations were all-mode capable and how many were fm-only capable.

7. Note the time of ENDEX.

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I believe this was a very successful exercise. We were striving for 100 percent participation, and achieved 86 percent -- not bad. To boot, the entire exercise was conducted in six minutes. Net stations were prompt with their responses to the frequency changes and to net control's call for roll. Good net discipline was noted throughout. However, as with any exercise, a couple minor areas were identified that could be improved:

- Net control clearly asked for stations to respond with their callsign and to state whether they were all-mode or fm-only capable on 2-meters. Stations did respond with that information, however, as amateurs often tend to do, many stations also passed whether or not they were on battery power or commercial power, stated what type of transmitter they had, etc. Remember, it is imperative stations comply with the explicit instructions of net control to ensure expeditious operation of any net. A good rule of thumb would probably be to make every attempt to clear the frequency as quickly as possible, and assume there is a station in wait with higher priority traffic than yours to pass. If net control needs additional information, they will ask.

- Although net control specifically requested stations stay with the net until net shutdown, two stations either left frequency early, or decided not to participate. Perhaps net control should have asked stations to advise him if they'd be unable to partake in the exercise.

Other than these two minor exceptions, everyone did a GREAT job, and should be proud of their operating skills. Although this was, by most folks standards, a very simple exercise, it did test our ability to operate our radios and to follow explicit instructions.

A hearty congratulations goes out to the following exercise participants:

WL7CKB
KL0CY
KL0EO
WL7KH
KL4E
NL7NN
WL7PV
NL7SK
KL7ITI
AL7RE
KL7AE
KL5T

Again, many thanks to those who participated. I highly encourage all to consider scripting a communications exercise.

73,

de KL5T