2014 SET Postmortem - jjmcd/ARPSC GitHub Wiki

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Participants in the 2014 SET are encouraged to comment on this page so everyone can share thoughts.

I would encourage folks to highlight their jurisdiction with an h2 tag (3 hash marks)

SEOC

From the SEC

As viewed from the SEOC, things went fairly well. I was disappointed that more programs didn't put their plans in MI-CIMS, however, many programs made good use of the tool during the exercise.

It was clear that we at the SEOC need a lot more training in D-Star.

We heard some comments that folks didn't know what frequency the SEOC was on as the bands changed. We did try to keep up that info in MI-CIMS, but we weren't always up to date, and not everyone who needed the information had access to MI-CIMS.

As always, we needed more operators in the SEOC, although the tight space makes that challenging. I think most folks, not only the SEOC, need someone who can monitor and update MI-CIMS and doesn't have to operate. In the SEOC under normal circumstances, the SEC is in the SEOC and can generally keep MI-CIMS up to date, but being separate from the station does mean that communication with the station is less than perfect.

We identified the need for a key at the phone rig.

We didn't use Pactor or Moto-Turbo due to lack of antennas. We hope to have a dedicated Pactor antenna up fairly soon, but for now, the Moto-Turbo is going to have to share an antenna with the analog/D-Star radio.

Michigan Digital Traffic Net (MIDTN).

Acting in the role of manager of the Michigan Digital Traffic Net (MIDTN)

Prior to the date Oct.4,2014 I posted to MICIMS (WebEOC) forms ICS-201, ICS-202, ICS-204, ICS-205 to indicate what the MIDTN expected to do and accomplish during the exercise.

As a Digital Relay Station (DRS) I received an hour before the exercise began three Priority S.E.T. messages and upon opening the MIDTN I directed these messages be sent via phone Net (MACS) to the recipients of these messages who were present as Net Control Operators of the MACS network NTS. (KB8RCR (2), WB9JSR (1).

The MIDTN recorded eleven Counties plus SATERN, MIVDF, & NWS checking into the Net, during the exercise period.

93 log entries into the MIDTN log and three entries to the Phone circuit, and VHF repeater sites.

A total of 13 messages were handled and five new stations were included into the 102 existing recorded Michigan Digital Stations using the MIDTN and Digital.

Note on problems incurred, using more than one HF rig with antennas so close on city size lot caused desensing of second rig during transmission from first rig.

To operate as Net Control for MIDTN during a State Wide Exercise would require more manpower to cover the Radio Circuits as well as input to the MiCims (WebEOC), this especially if this station was tasked to support the local EM for Crawford County or a detail requiring support for District 7 HQ etc.

Edward Bassett. N8FVM ADEC7, MIDTN Mgr.

MITN-MACS Net joint session

0800 Commenced operation. KB8RCR acting as the first NCS
0935 WD8USA took over as NCS. It appears that there was some miscommunication as to the duration of the assignments. I need to work on that.
1000-1100 W8RDG NCS. Ron did well for having limited NCS experience.
1100-1250 WB8TQZ NCS

WB9JSR Liaison to SEOC. John used a variety of frequencies and modes to accomplish this and did well for us in this capacity.

Time in session: 4h 50m
Traffic handled: 25

This year KB8RCR made prior contact with the Old Geezer Net that operates daily on 3.952 and arranged an effective sharing of the frequency. I had anticipated moving off 3.952 until they finished their operation but this worked out quite well.

Had a total of 27 check-ins in-state and participating. There were 2 out of state stations inquiring as to the nature of the operation and one QRP portable operator checking in, first with 1W and then with 20W to a vertical from the Pentwater area.

Entered Net information into MICIMS and took info on 2 Grand Rapids area operations (American Red Cross and Grand Rapids Amateur Radio Association) from WD8USA. This took longer than it should have because I did not ask all the right questions initially, and Joe probably assumed I knew some of the answers, for entry onto the State web site. Lesson learned: Make up a hardcopy form for recording all of the information as received. This should provide the necessary memory jogging to guarantee completeness. Among other things, the Facility Name and Phone number are necessary for making entries to AuxComm Station Status.

Emergency power is available at this site but was not used as initially planned due to some other local operational requirements. No credit will be taken for this.

WD8KDB was monitoring MIDTN for me and relayed one relevant message via local 2M link using FlDigi/FlMsg. This worked. It was better than the phone relay we attempted last year but, as observed by WD8USA, constant on-site monitoring in this station would provide better situational awareness.

Subjectively, it seemed to me that participation was up over last year and that we handled more traffic and handled it better. That being said, there's still room for improvement. You can tell the difference between the experienced trafffic handlers and the ones that aren't.

Observations on the traffic handling and net procedure:

Some folks recommend the use of VOX when handling traffic. I'm not one of them and I haven't seen anything lately to change my mind.

Take a few seconds to compose check-in info and comments. Minimize the ad-libs. They take up time the net often does not have and make it really hard to discern the point of the transmission.

Keep answers to questions brief. Don't give every last detail unless asked, just enough to provide a complete and self-supporting answer. It seems that if you ask some people what time it is they try to tell you how to build a clock.

SEOC is getting noticeably better at their composition and rate of delivery. They did do something that was a little disconcerting. They waited for the “Roger” for each section (Preamble, Address, Text, Signature) before sending the next section v. the standard NTS procedure of pausing and then continuing if no fills are asked for. Still, this is better than going too fast and getting ahead of the Receiving station.

Something else that was a little unusual: It appeared at times that they were using Time of Origin in place of Message Number. Other times they did it per NTS. Need to pick a scheme and stick with it. Suggest NTS.

People need to learn the value of polishing their procedures and techniques on the normal daily/weekly nets rather than wait for the high volume/high pressure opportunity they get on S.E.T. day or during a real event. Also, remember Jim Wades response to those who say they can't be bothered to drill but “will be there if needed”. “Yes, but how will you know what to do?”

Folks need to learn the significance of “Wait” and “Standby”.

We had some stations announcing their calls signs followed by... nothing. Did not wait for a standby/call from NCS. Did not say what area (if any) they were representing. Did not say whether or not they had traffic.

There is a lack of understanding of the demands on NCS by many of the stations checking in. It explains much of what was mentioned above and, once again, demonstrates the value of regular participation in lower-level, routine, net operations as both a regular check-in and as NCS (even on a casual rag-chew net). Unfortunately, we're up against the same problem we complain about all the time – How do you get them to do it?

Other observations:

As handy as the Net to District Mapping diagram from the ARPSC site is, the print is pretty small for me to use quickly and effectively. I'm going to try putting it into a spreadsheet sorted by County and by District/County for quicker easier reference. Once done, I'll forward it.

The shift to 40m occurred about on schedule. Progagation on both bands was good.

I really need to get an inverted-vee up for 40M. I've gotten surprisingly good results from my vertical statewide but I may have encountered the limits of it.

WD8USA makes some good points about the need for 60M capability. My problem to date is that I'm leery of digging into a viable IC-718 and messing it up, thereby being off the air completely. Joe has offered some help with that.

N8XX made some good observations regarding some of the message addressing coming out of SEOC:

Some kind of Statewide directory that can be downloaded and printed out would be useful in the right hands. General distribution of some of this information may have to be limited for obvious reasons. Prior to the S.E.T. I saw a link to one version of the EC list that had all that v. the one that normally shows up on the web site. The trick for me is continuing to get the the verbose one. We'd still need that info for the served agencies we're trying to reach unless, of course, the originating station does the right thing and gets that info from his served agency (probably still a better solution).
Use of “booking” might facilitate some of this traffic.
Lack of familiarity with NTS procedures is evident and is an impediment to proper traffic flow.

See the longer note in the N8XX comments -- WB8RCR

Summary

This was a good exercise in that a few new capabilities were tested, I was able to observe some improvement in certain aspects over last year, and a few things still did not go well (indicating that learning is still taking place). This last point is not bad news, quite the contrary. If we ever get to the point that we think we know it all, we'll probably be missing something.

WD8USA

DE WD8USA NR 70 R 070200Z OCT 2014

FM WD8USA MICHIGAN

TO: WB8RCR, MIDLAND MI

INFO:

WB8R COLDWATER MI
KD8CAN GRAND RAPIDS MI
N8DGD GRAND RAPIDS MI
N8XX CEDAR SPRINGS MI
KA8DDQ LANSING MI
WB9JSR PORT SHELDON MI

BT

SUBJECT: AFTER ACTION REPORT SET 2014

STATION: WD8USA BELMONT MI
EMERGENCY POWER USED: NO
NUMBER OF MSGS PROCESSED: 6
NUMBER OF MSGS ORIGINATED: 4
LOCATION: HOME STATION
WEATHER DURING EXERCISE: COLD, OVERCAST, RAIN
WHAT I DID DURING EXERCIZE: ACTIVATED HOME STATION, PASSED TRAFFIC BETWEEN LOCAL RED CROSS CHAPTER AND MY STATION, ASSISTED WITH NCS DUTIES ON MITN FROM 1330Z TO 1415Z OPERATED DIGITAL OLIVIA, FM VOICE ON 47.420 UNTIL 1600Z ASSISTED THE GRAND RAPIDS ARA WITH RELAYS AND MESSAGE ROUTING-
PROBLEMS OBSERVED OR ENCOUNTERED: TESTS BETWEEN KALAMAZOO ,OTTAWA COUNTY AND KENT CHAPTERS ON 47.42 NOT SUCCESSFUL- THE OTHER STATIONS WERE NOT WORKING THAT I COULD TELL- THIS UP TO NOW HAD NOT BEEN A PROBLEM- CONFUSION AT TIMES WITH MESSAGE TRAFFIC AND HOW TO HANDLE IT FROM THE STATE- NEEDED CONTACT NUMBERS WITH THE MESSAGES TO SPEED UP RESPONSE TIME- ROUTING BACK TO STATE PROBLAMATIC WHEN CONTACT WAS LOST ON 3.932 VOICE WITH THE STATE AROUND 11AM OR SO- STATE VOICE WAS NOT ON 7.232 THAT WE COULD TELL AFTER 75 MTRS BECAME PROBLAMATIC- IT DOESN'T HELP WHEN THE 6TH DIST EC DOES NOT PLAN AN EXERCISE OR HAVE CONTACT WITH THE COUNTIES IN THE DISTRICT FOR THE MOST PART- MI VHF TRAFFIC NET NOT ACTIVATED ON LINK SYSTEM- CIRCIUT FAILURE- NTS MESSAGE KNOWLEDGE NEEDS IMPROVEMENT AND I NEED TO SEND MORE SLOWLY! COULDN'T MONITOR THE DIGITAL NET LIKE I WANTED TO- TOO MANY RADIOS GOING- MANY EXCUSES MADE AS TO WHY COUNTIES COULDN'T PARTICIPATE FOR ONE REASON OR ANOTHER- NEED MORE THAN ONE EXERCISE LIKE THIS A YEAR! INCOMING NCS SHOULD HAVE AS MANY STATIONS LOGGED IN BEFORE ASSUMING NCS AND AWARE OF OUTSTANDING TRAFFIC OR ADVISED OF IT-
WHAT WORKED WELL: HOME STATION EQUIPMENT, THE BANDS WERE VERY GOOD FOR A CHANGE- COULD HEAR ALL STATIONS IN THE NET VERY WELL- 60 MTRS CH 2 WAS VERY STRONG AND FAR LESS NOISY THEN 40- TESTS WERE GREAT HERE! NEED MUCH MORE FOLKS ON 60- MIKE WB8TQZ VERY GOOD OVERALL- TOP NOTCH- SUGGEST ALTERNATE NET CONTROL BE DESIGNATED IN CASE THE NCS GOES DOWN- WEB EOC LINK THROUGH MIKE WORKED WELL- HAVING A PRESENCE ON THE CW NET THROUGH THE RADIO CLUB WAS A PLUS! OLIVIA WORKED VERY WELL ON 40 AFTER 12 NOON! PLANNING FROM THE STATE TOOK MANY HOURS- THANKS TO THEM FOR PUTTING ON THIS EXERCISE AND TO THE GRAND RAPIDS ARA FOR A GOOD TRAINING EXPERIENCE

BT

NNNNN

K

St. Joseph County

0745 - I conducted a simplex roll call with all ARES members - 6 out of 10 responded.

0800-1200 - Monitored MIDTN and MITN/MACS. Checked into MITN. 1 msg received for Dist 5 and retransmitted via VHF to Barry County (K8BMI), Branch County (WB8R), and Kalamazoo County (N8NOR). I tested 60m with WD8USA with very good results after 75m got bad and the net switched to 40m. The net probably should have switched to 40m earlier. Some stations were hard to hear on 75 but 40 was great. The net seemed much more organized this year and most stations were very readable on 75 until around 10:30 local. We have no access to MI-CIMS but are working with our EM to get trained ASAP. Once our EOC is up and running with HF and DStar, we will operate there during the SET.

WB8TQZ, WB8RCR, and WD8USA did a great job running the net as usual. Whoever took net control after USA was weak and unreadable at my station. I seem to have a pipeline to Joe and Ryan as they are always strong.

There was no guidance or organized activity within Dist 5. When I took the message for all of Dist 5, I contacted as many counties via radio as I could but being in the south central part of Dist 5, there is no reliable way to reach the northern counties via VHF/UHF. There should have been guidance in advance to contact the Dist 5 DEC for dissemination to the other counties. A Dist 5 HF freq should be established for comms within Dist 5. Dist 5 did designate 3970 as a rally freq, but it hasn't been used or tested. Net controllers should contact the DEC's to pass information to counties, and the DEC's should contact the EC's, and then reverse the flow to relay info back to net control, then to the State EOC. I will bring this up at the next Dist 5 meeting in Nov.

Nice job!

Greg Carlin KD8LSM

EC/RO St Joseph County

N8XX

I operated @ Grand Rapids chapter house, Red Cross, with the Grand Rapids Amateur Radio Association's station W8DC.

Surprisingly, the ambient RF noise was tolerable (for a change). Being in a heavy retail and light industrial area sure can be noisy on 80 and 40 meters.

Now, to get to some "interesting points":

We were given at least two or three messages from the State EOC with insufficient addresses. "DEC Region 6" means we have to take time to figure out what this means, where to find an address, especially lacking a local VHF net which was designated to be operational but did not show. The originator surely knows names, call letters, addresses, and phone numbers. And, in an communications emergency, phones may or may not be working, so the destination traffic net needs to be reliable. In an emergency, such things as names, call letters, addresses, may NOT be known by the stations on hand, even if the local net were operating.

 This was intentional.  In an incident, traffic is generally
 addressed to the role rather than the person.  This is uncomfortable
 for experienced traffic handlers who are accustomed to having a full
 address and phone number, but in an incident, it isn't the person but
 the position who needs to get the traffic.  It does add to the confusion
 that the DEC 6 happens to be an individual; perhaps it would have been
 better to address the "District 6 Logistics Section Chief", but without
 some advance warning, that would have confused everyone.  -- WB8RCR

The next message with insufficient addresses was to "All EC's in Region 6." Now, to an olde tyme NTS traffic person, that would mean it should be routed to the sixth region net and delivered to all the EC's in Nevada and California. But, to others it might mean stations in the western part of Michigan. A possible case for misrouting. Again, an assumption that the EC's in various counties would be known or looked up in some obscure document, hard copy of which might or might not be available near the final relay point. Thanks to Joe, WD8USA, who had such a list and volunteered to take the message, otherwise it would have been in limbo.

Why not use a book message with same preamble, text, and signature as common parts, and names, calls, addresses, and phone numbers?

And, in several messages there was a long sentence to the effect "Please give response within 30 minutes" or even more verbose. Why not the handling instruction HXC? Have we lost knowledge of the Handling Instruction set?

In the writeup of the scenario, a list of nets in graphical form was on one page, but it wasn't obvious on what frequency (or frequencies) they could be found. Had the internet been down, we'd have been up a creek without a paddle.

==========================

As Joe, WD8USA said, propagation was very favorable! 75/80 meters held up through the 1400Z sessions of the state wide nets. 40 started peaking some time after 1500Z, and it was difficult to determine to where the CW net had moved, and the MITN was very marginal until closer to 1600Z. If we had 60 meters, none of the three operators knew how to use it - but we did note that one of the 60 meter channels was suggested. Perhaps we should all consider 60 meter capability?

==========================

All in all, an annual test of emergency communications is a very useful tool.

It even keeps an olde codger semi-sharp in traffic handling.

72/73 de n8xx Hg

Benzie County

The State wide plan was for several counties in the U.P. to have severe cold followed by a quick warm up causing broken water pipes buckled roads, homes flooded and LP tanks ripped and floating down the run off water rivers.

Our local Benzie County S.E.T. continued along those lines causing the EM to activate the EOC. The Betsie River was flooding US 31 in Honor with 30 homes under water and Frankfort had some 20 homes flooded along the lake shore. The Benzie Bus Garage was opened as a shelter and a watch on the river was posted.

Our local manning was called out and responded according to our plan. A Net was conducted as the mobile units were in route to their assignments. We activated the EOC and Paul Oliver hospital with four members each. We used ghost operators to man a Shelter and river overflow location.

The thrust of the plan for each area started by retrieving digital messages awaiting the operator’s arrival. For the EOC it was an FLMSG sent by Olivia 8-500. For Paul Oliver it was by packet. Each location started the task of events listed in the msg. For the EOC they sent a packet message to KG8CW on check-ins, they checked into MI CIMM and NTS routing for District 7 via Digital HF.

At 10:00 O’clock Shift changed occurred causing each location to swap with the other. Again there were digital message waiting for the new shift to tackle. There was input from the shelter with concerns of criminal activity. The sheriff’s dept. responded directly. Paul Oliver had a request for supplies they had asked be sent to the SEOC Lead Nurse.

At 11:45 the local S.E.T. was terminated and the participants met in the EOC for a debriefing.

It was overwhelming that most if not all the stations in the EOC Communications Room and Paul Oliver were new. A START UP LIST was needed to guide members though the operations. (THIS HAS BEEN DONE)

It was noted that the repeater failed after it was placed on emergency power. I explained this was not intended but communications from the EOC did not skip a beat. They recalled the net on SIMPLEX on the output of the repeater. (Investigation found the battery charger had boiled the battery dry, even after refilling the battery with water and charged, it was toast.) (This was fixed by the Benzie EM Frank Post whom replaced the batteries (2) and a new maintainer/charger.)

Several members inquired about the 80 meter net on Olivia. It was poor copy even in the beginning though we did get checked in. We missed the band changed to 40 and I would have not looked at 7.042 but instead would have been around 7.083. We lost 120 feet of 80/40 antenna height and are currently searching for a better system.

Benzie County RACES/ARES has great backbone communications on DStar with Paul Oliver Hospital. Our VHF/UHF Voice Simplex Range is adequate for now. Packet communications are great as well, as we use the W8BNZ-3 Mailbox as are server. We were unable to connect to STATE on any Dstar Activity. I would have thought STATE would have sent a script to all known ARES/RACES repeaters like ours WI0OK to connect up on.

 This is a good catch and a change that needs to be made at the SEOC.
 The SEOC is new to D-Star, but we will get some D-Star expertise to
 assist us with this    -- WB8RCR

We are unable to take advantage of the Digital Side of our new Yaesu Fusion Repeater. This would give us Digital Voice which would be interoperable with 911, Text messages, GPS/APRS location in real time map able, GPS measuring from units on or point to point, and real time photographs. The Analog side of the repeater worked very well, including the short time the battery lasted on emergency power.

The station 1 computer has malware/adware/virus which plagued us trying to log on to MI-Cimms. We used station 2 computers to make it happen.

The flow in the New EOC Communications room worked very well, giving 3 people the room to function.

The flow at Paul Oliver works. It’s a little dark and stuffy, though the door to the roof can open, the weather also comes in. We need another computer with monitor to break up the three areas of operations. We can function with two as the EOC should stay with three.

This exercise did not use the Mobile Communications Van. There would have not been any digital ability including Dstar, Fusion or packet. There is no computer or hardware at this time to support the digital communications in the van.

Submitted

Mike Flynn, KG8CW

Benzie County EC/RO

Alcona County

Initiated our local SET Net on the Alcona County 147.04 MHz Repeater at 0800. A total of 12 check-ins who were asked to respond providing their capabilities to support any of the following: •HF Phone •HF CW •HF Digital •VHF Packet •EchoLink •VHF direct to District #3 145.31 MHz Repeater •Digital VHF/UHF •MI-CIMS

Assigned each Check-In to one of the above modes in addition to monitoring our local repeater Net to handle potential traffic. Net Control for our local Net was handle by 4 different stations with all maintaining a time log for every transmission. As is our practice, the complete Net was recorded for purposes of reviewing the proceedings.

At 0830 the EOC was activated and our Communications/Command Trailer was placed on standby. The EOC and Radio Room had emergency power (both Automatic Generator and Battery Backup) which tested fine during a one hour backup test session. The scenario used was the early winter storm and flood conditions resulting in the loss of 911 Communications, Road, Bridge and Power Outages.

Initiated and handled a number of messages using most of the above listed modes. With the Tawas High Profile Packet node being unreliable, N8HA setup a Packet Digi Station, SW corner of Alcona County, at 75 feet which allowed Packet access to most of the District #3 southern Counties. We were able to initiate Packet traffic using Outpost formatted NTS radiograms to the Ogemaw & Iosco EOC’s as directed by the District #3 EM. Provided various reports to the MI-CIMS system under the Alcona County RACES ID.

Closed our local net and checked out of the District #3 145.31 MHz Repeater net at 1115.

A review of Pluses/Minuses at our monthly Alcona County Amateur Radio Group meeting (10/16/2014) provided the following (in addition to a detailed review of equipment and operator performance):

PLUSES:

•SET plans as developed by the State and District EC worked well compared to past SET’s

•Mike Horn, WB8TQZ handled a great amount of traffic on the MITN as Net Control and effectively used the checked-in stations efficiently on both 75 and 40 meters.

•Packet Digi Station temporarily setup by N8HA (noted above) provided the necessary path to handle Packet traffic.

•Using multiple Net Control stations proved very useful especially for training purposes of new amateur radio operators.

MINUSES:

•A number of our new amateurs with only HT capabilities could not consistently reach our repeater requiring a number of relays. Assistance to improve their equipment/communications methods is planned.

•VHF propagation from other areas of the state on our repeater’s input frequency was extremely and unusually high during the first 1 ½ hours of the net. Even with unique PL’s of the two other repeaters, if some out of area station was running high power, it would cause some interference when our local station was running low powered HT’s. Problem was mostly solved by having our local station run higher power or relayed. Also a good reminder to all to use only the power needed to reliably communicate and not use 100+watts with beam antennas from out of area stations when using their local repeater.

•Might have been useful to positively end the SET statewide at a predetermined common time - - a number of our county amateurs stayed on various NETS well into the afternoon hours but were never used after approximately 11 am.

Overall the 2014 October 14th SET was an excellent tool which will allow us to reinforce our communications methods and improve in areas requiring enhancement.

Submitted by: Stanley L. Darmofal, W8SZ EC/RO Alcona County, District #3

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