Amateur Radio Exercise Report Form

Section 1: General Information
County/District/Agency Name: Clarke, Madison, Oglethorpe, Jackson, Banks County ARES, and Oconee County RACES Date/Time Exercise/Drill Conducted: December 20, 2007 / 9:00 am to 10:50 am
Location of Exercise/Drill: Live exercise was conducted at the University of Georgia, and Amateur Radio communications were conducted in Clarke, Oconee, Madison, Oglethorpe, Jackson,and Banks Counties.
Person (POC) supervising or controlling the Exercise/Drill: Edward Rollor, Clarke Co. ARES EC, (Amateur Radio Communications only).

Section 2: Exercise Information
Type of Exercise: Drill - Amateur Radio Communications

Brief Description of Scenario:
The University of Georgia conducted a live exercise in which there was an explosion at Soule Hall on campus. Victims were triaged and sent to either Athens Regional Medical Center or St. Mary’s Hospital. Although Amateur Radio operators were not pre-assigned to pass traffic for this exercise, they did test their skills and equipment at various served agencies (St. Mary's Hospital EOC, Athens Regional Medical Center EOC, East Georgia Red Cross EOC, Clarke Co. EMA, Madison Co. EMA, Oconee Co. EOC, Northeast Georgia Public Health EOC, and the Institute for Health Management and Mass Destruction Defense on UGA Campus). Mobile, portable and home stations were also encouraged to check in to the exercise net.
This Net was designed on rotating the Net Control Station at specified times and checking communication capabilities on various repeaters in the area as well as providing mobile, portable and home stations the opportunity to evaluate their equipment. The rotating Net Control Station offered Amateur Radio operators the chance to practice their communications skills as Net Control Operators. This procedure also offered each served agency station the opportunity to act as a Alternate Net Control Station by recording all check-ins for each repeater test. Since Amateur Radio operators were located at several EOCs, traffic from the live exercise participants was encouraged. One message was passed from the St. Mary's Hospital EOC to the Clarke Co. EMA concerning the number of victims in triage categories. Our main involvement centered on concerns about our training and equipment capabilities. An effort was made to follow a pre-published schedule of repeater tests.

Exercise Objectives:
1. To test and practice the communication skills of Amateur Radio operators,
2. Test and practice Net Control and Alternate Net Control skills of communicators,
3. Test regional repeaters from each served agency sites,
4. Test served agencies and other Amateur Radio stations communications equipment,
5. Provide stations not affiliated with served agencies the opportunity to practice communications with served agencies.
6. Provide backup emergency communications, if a communications failure occurred during the live exercise.

Agencies/Organizations represented:
Clarke Co. Amateur Radio Emergency Service
Oconee Co. Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service
Oglethorpe Co. Amateur Radio Emergency Service
Madison Co. Amateur Radio Emergency Service
Jackson Co. Amateur Radio Emergency Service
Banks Co. Amateur Radio Emergency Service

Section 3: Outcomes
A communication chart was used to record reception and transmission data.
Outcome is listed by served agency stations:

Clarke Co. EMA - This station received all stations through all repeaters except for a few stations that could not get into a repeater. However, out of the 3 stations unable to get into repeaters, 2 of them were picked up on reverse. The one station, University of Georgia, not heard on reverse, had an antenna located in a low area and was operating on the 70 cm band which does not have the range of 2-meter communications. The station performed well and received good communication reports from all Net Control Stations. The equipment has been purchased to install a HF station and it should be installed before the end of January.

Athens Regional Medical Center - This station had little difficulty in receiving most every station. This was the first operation of the station from its new physical location and on a newly installed UHF/VHF antenna. Station was able to copy all repeater operations without difficulty and was able to copy most stations on reverse (simplex) mode. The exception was the Madison Co. EMA was not heard on any local repeaters or on reverse (simplex). Some additional station refinements will make this a top-notch station in the system.

St. Mary's Hospital - This station had many communication difficulties and the equipment needs to be examined as soon as possible to determine the cause of the problems. The operators were unable to make contact with the 2-meter radio at the station and were unable to make changes in frequency settings, tones and shifts. There was no manual available and the antenna system indicated possible coax problems. When the coax was tested with a MFJ259B antenna tester the SWR was 1.2 for all frequencies tested, even in the HF range. This would indicate a short or disconnect in the coax. The station operated via HT and could be heard on reverse at the Clarke Co. EMA. In fact, the station was heard by other stations during the simplex frequency test. Also, during the time that St. Mary's EOC operated as the Net Control Station, they were able to contact several stations that were on the N4ZRA repeater and the KD4AOZ repeater in Athens. Since the N4ZRA repeater is on the roof on St. Mary’s, the EOC was able to use the repeater for contacts. Not all stations have 70-cm band capabilities and therefore there were fewer contacts. However, in a real disaster this repeater could provide the necessary contact to the EOC station in the basement of the hospital. The KD4AOZ (Athens) is located nearby and can also provide 2-meter capabilities by HT if the station is not fully functional. The noise level is high in the EOC and a headset should be available for use.

Red Cross EOC - Eddie, W4REV, provided the station equipment for this exercise. When transmitting there was a buzzing sound in the room indicating RF interference with another device. This may have effected the transmission of the station. This station had a lot of noise on the receiving signals and had a difficult time understanding other stations. Most likely an external antenna would make a big difference.

Northeast Georgia Public Health EOC - This station was operated from a mobile unit since the communication equipment has not been moved from the former EOC to the new EOC. This station had little difficulty in reaching most repeaters, but was unable to communicate on the N4ALE repeater in Colbert. This station operated at 5 watts for most of the exercise, except when attempting to reach the N4ALE repeater, when power was boosted to 50 watts. Even at this level, the unit could not reach that repeater. The mobile unit was intentionally parked beneath high tension power lines to assess the impact of the lines. There was no discernable impact on communications. A member of the District 10 emergency operations staff monitored most of the drill. Most stations could be heard during the drill except as noted on the chart. All stations could be heard on reverse. There was a noticeable hum on the KD4AOZ repeater and the N4ZRA 70 cm repeater.

Institute for Health Management and Mass Destruction Defense - This station had good audio and reached all repeaters except for the N4ZRA repeater on top of St. Mary's and the NE4GA Commerce repeater. The station is located in a low spot and in the basement of Barrow Hall. A better antenna system would remedy the problem.

Madison Co. EMA - This station, located in Dainelsville, had difficulty with stations in Oconee Co. The radio is 2-meter only and therefore there was no attempt to contact the N4ZRA 70 cm repeater. This station will be adding HF capabilities in 2008.

Oconee Co. EOC - The performance of this station was excellent. Hopefully, HF capabilities will be added in the near future.

Other comments:
1. Fifteen other stations also checked in on various repeaters. The attached record charts from various stations show spotty results which are difficult to analyze since some stations may not have attempted to make contact on all repeaters.
2. The simplex frequency test showed that all served agency stations could communicate in this fashion, but for some mobile, portable, and home stations a repeater could be required. Two of the home stations that were operating at over 30 mile apart were able to hear each other in simplex mode, both stations had good antenna systems demonstrating the importance of a good antenna system.
3. Mike, WB9TBY, demonstrated good Net Control Station procedures by asking another station to serve as his Alternate Net Control Station during his rotation. This is a good standard operating procedure and should be followed during nets, especially emergency nets.
4. Future exercises should incorporate the Incident Command System.
5. Future exercises should test digital communication capabilities. In particular, it would have been interesting to have images from the live exercise sent to the EMAs using Amateur Radio Slow Scan TV. Other digital communication modes should also be considered such as PSK31, PSKmail, Airmail, and Packet for sending text and files messages.
6. Communicators need to listen more carefully and not broadcast over other stations.

Web Page last updated December 22, 2007