Amateur Radio Emergency Service
and
Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service

University of Georgia Exercise
Operating Procedures and Objectives
December 20, 2007

Objectives:

1. Provide an opportunity for Oconee Co. RACES, Clarke Co. ARES, Madison Co. ARES, Oglethorpe
ARES, Jackson Co. ARES and Banks Co. ARES to work together in a cooperative effort in providing
support to various served agencies and to demonstrate the ability to communicate over an
extended range between counties.

2. Test served agency stations.

3. Test repeaters in the region.

4. Provide ARES/RACES members the opportunity to test their equipment and ability to connect with
various 2-meter repeaters from their mobile, portable or home stations.

5. Provide ARES/RACES members the opportunity to pass tactical messages and use tactical calls.
Some formal traffic may be passed during the exercise.

6. Provide the opportunity to ARES/RACES members to test their ability to change frequencies
quickly in case of a repeater failure. RACES/ARES team members should have important emergency
response repeater frequencies preprogrammed in their radios.

7. Test the ability of ARES/RACES members and served agencies stations to provide reliable
communications in simplex mode.

8. Provide all served agency stations the opportunity to operate as the Net Control Station (NCS)
and as the Alternate Net Control Station (ANCS) during the exercise. An ANCS would prevent the
loss of informationand would provide guidance for the ARES/RACES Teams if the main NCS lost
contact with the rest of the group. A rotating NCS will provide all served agency stations the
opportunity to serve as the NCS and as an ANCS.

Operating Procedures:

The Net Control Station will be rotated through out the exercise to give all served agency stations
the opportunity to test their NCS skills and to test all served agency stations in their ability to
operate an Net Control Station. The rotation schedule is listed in the accompanying EXCEL chart
and the blue shading indicates the NCS for each repeater.
The exercise will begin at 9:00 AM with the Clarke Co. EMA station starting off as the NCS. Each NCS
will keep a record of check-ins and will use the records as a call down list throughout the exercise.
Served agency stations will be assigned tactical calls to simulate a real event. All stations checking
in should give the following information: Call Sign, Name, and Location or Tactical Call. All NCS should
remember to ask for relays.
After each served agency completes their rotation as the NCS they will announce the next repeater
frequency to be tested and the next Net Control Station in the rotation. The Net will close after the
last station passes the Net back to the Clarke Co. EOC and there is a final check for traffic and final
statements.
There is the possibility that some traffic may be passed during the net. If a NCS has time to ask for
traffic, then the traffic will be accepted and should be passed quickly. If a served agency gives traffic
to a station that is not Priority traffic, and the NCS is unable to stop and take traffic due to time
constraints, the traffic should be held until the end of the Net. The Clarke Co. EOC will ask for any
traffic at the end of the exercise.
If a served agency has Priority or Emergency traffic, then the NCS should make sure that the traffic
is passed to the proper station despite the time restraints.
All stations should have Radiograms on hand.