T'was the Night before Christmas

T’was the night before Christmas, And all through two-meters,

Not a signal was keying up any repeaters.

 

The antennas reached up from the tower, quite high,

To catch the weak signals that bounced from the sky.

 

The children, Tech-Pluses, took their HTs to bed,

And dreamed of the day they’d be Extras, instead.

 

Mom put on her headphones, I plugged in the key,

And we tuned 40 meters for that rare ZK3,

 

When the meter was pegged by a signal with power.

It smoked a small diode and shook the tower.

 

Mom yanked off her phones, and with all she could muster,

Logged a spot of the signal on the DX Packet Cluster,

 

I ran to the window and peered up at the sky,

To see what could generate RF that high.

 

It was way in the distance, but the moon made it gleam—

A flying sleigh, with an eight element beam,

 

And a little old driver who looked slightly mean.

So I thought for a moment that it might be Wayne Green.

 

But no, it was Santa - the Santa of Hams.

On a mission, this Christmas to clean up the bands.

 

He circled the tower, then stopped in his track,

And he slid down the coax right into the shack.

 

While Mom and I hid behind stacks of CQ,

This Santa of hamming knew just what to do.

 

He cleared off the shack desk of paper and parts,

And filled out all my late QSLs for a start.

 

He ran copper braid, took a rod and pounded,

It went into the earth, till the station was grounded.

 

He tightened loose fittings, re-soldered connections,

Cranked down modulation, installed lightning protection.

 

He neutralized tubes in my linear amp...

(Never worked right before— now it works like a champ).

 

A new, low-pass filter cleaned up the TV,

He corrected the settings in my TNC.

 

He repaired the computer that would not compute,

He backed up the hard drive and got it to boot.

 

Then, he reached really deep in the bag that he brought,

And he pulled out a big box, “A new rig?” I thought!

 

“A new Kenwood? An Icom? A Yaesu, for me?!”

(If he thought I’d been bad it might be QRP!)

 

Yes! The Ultimate Station! How could I deserve this?

Could it be all those hours that I worked Public Service?

 

He hooked it all up and in record time, quickly

Worked 100 countries, all down on 160.

 

I should have been happy, it was my call he sent,

But the QSL cards and postage will cost two month’s rent!

 

He made final adjustments, and left a card by the key:

“To Gary, from Santa Claus. Seventy-Three.”

 

Then he grabbed his HT, looked me straight in the eye,

Punched a code on the pad, and was gone—no good bye.

 

I ran back to the station, and the pile-up was big,

But a card from St. Nick  would be worth my new rig.

 

Oh, too late, for his final came over the air.

It was copied all over. It was heard everywhere.

 

The Ham’s Santa exclaimed what a ham might expect,

“Merry Christmas to all, and to all, good DX.”

1996 by Gary Pearce K4AAQ

Permission granted for any print or electronic reproduction.

P.A.C.E. Plans

Imagine the cell system and internet going down and you have no way to communicate with family members. What would you do?

Having a family communications plan to use when infrastructure goes down is a great way to provide peace of mind, considering the threats we face today. A plan can also reduce the amount of stress we experience during these types of outages.

PACE is an acronym for Primary, Alternate, Contingency and Emergency. When creating a PACE plan, thought is given to how you would communicate within each category.

The Primary plan is what you do when the world is operating as normal, with no interruptions to power grids or communications systems. An example of a Primary plan would be to use your cell phone to call or text a family member.

Alternate plans are methods of communication that would not be as convenient or as good as the Primary but is still a viable option. An example of an Alternate plan is to use social media, email or Zello to contact a family member. 

Contingency plans come into play if primary and alternate methods fail. This solution is not as convenient as the first two options. In this scenario, cell phone networks and the internet are likely down. An example of a contingency plan is to use radio to communicate.

The last step in PACE planning is the emergency method. This is your last-ditch plan. Nothing else has worked and you need to think out of the box. In this scenario your last-ditch effort might be to meet your family members at a park if that is the closest point to your workplaces. If one person doesn’t show up, then maybe you can leave a note in a pre-identified location at the park and head home.

Another example of an emergency method is an out of area contact. Cell systems may tie up quickly in a local emergency, while long distance access could still be possible. A designated out of area contact is a valuable tool to help coordinate the reuniting of your family when local systems fail.

So, considering the points above, a basic PACE plan for your family could look something like this:

1. Primary – Text messages, as calls may be affected during a local emergency

2. Alternate – Social Media

3. Contingency – Radio: amateur or GMRS

4. Emergency – Meet up in person, or an out of area contact

You would then add more detail around each of these categories, like creating a group for text messages, a Facebook Messenger group for internet communications, the specific radio frequencies to use if texting and the internet fail, and an emergency meet-up location - as well as details about your out of area contact.

When working on your PACE plan, try to avoid having a single point of failure. If all your plans rely on the internet, then you are vulnerable to internet failures. 

PACE plans should be reviewed and updated on a regular basis to account for changes to the channels you use, people included, phone numbers, etc. Instructions can be printed on a wallet-sized card and given to each person.

Go Kits

Being prepared for an emergency communication assignment involves a wide range of considerations: radio equipment, tools, power sources, along with clothing, personal gear, food and water. 

Having a go-kit planned and assembled ahead of time raises your level of preparedness, allowing for a quicker response when that call-out happens. Your kit should be tailored to your needs, your typical assignment and for a typical duration.

In addition to items usually on your person at all times, such as photo ID, cash and coins, cell phone and watch, a very basic go-kit consists of a handheld radio, extra batteries and a portable charging system to keep you on the air for the duration of the event, contained in a convenient to store and carry bag. 

An online resources I found suggested a few additional items should be readily available in your go-kit, such as:

• A copy of your current amateur license

• Speaker microphone

• High gain HT antenna

• Antenna adapter - SMA to SO-239, as an example

• Flashlight and spare batteries

• Pen or pencils and paper

• ICS and Radiogram forms

• Multi-Tool or Pocket Knife

• ANSI Type II Reflective Vest

• Water

• Small Bag of Snacks

• First Aid Kit

• Group or organization credentials

This is a basic list of equipment. For extended events of 24 or more hours, or events where packet communications will be necessary, additional communicationsequipment and personal items would be needed. 

Ideally, you should divide your Go-Kit into small, easily-transportable modules, based on expected type of assignment, length of assignment, and storage location. An event lasting a few hours will not require a bag of clothing and personal care items, but Go-Kit modules should supplement each other with additional equipment and supplies, to extend your capabilities and endurance.

If you are interested in assembling a go-kit I encourage you to search amateur radio go-kit on the web for examples and additional suggestions.

Code Red and Frequency Update

Saturday, September 16th, the Logan City 911 Center completed a test of the Code Red notification system. Emergency alert services are a great way to receive notifications when an emergency occurs, therefore, if you did not receive the notification, I encourage each of you to sign up for future alerts using this link: Code Red Alerts.

Once on the linked website, there is a brief description of the service and a clickable button to open the screen where you can enter your location and notification options. There is also an app for push notifications for mobile devices, with the option to pay 99¢ to add weather alert notifications.

The system is geographically based, allowing you to select physical locations you want to be notified for, and you can select text, landline and email alerts for emergencies affecting the physical locations chosen.

Next, some information about the frequency update mentioned last net and detailed in a recent post to the blog.

Over the last few months a push was made in the local amateur community to update the frequency assignments for every city, town and faith based group with an active emergency communications organization. The updates have been attached to the Cache County Emergency Communications Plan, allowing all amateur operators in the valley to see the new assignments, via that document.

During the update process, efforts have been made to more closely follow the Utah Band Plan as it relates to simplex frequencies in the VHF and UHF bands. 

As you recall, our primary net frequency was previously adjusted to follow the Utah Band Plan for VHF frequencies. At that time I did not review the band plan for UHF frequencies, where I would have noticed a change was also needed there. 

To correct that oversight, the UHF frequency for our net will adjust to 446.500 MHz. I did not get this message out to the net members until I emailed the link to the blog post on September 10, therefore I propose we make the change between the September and October net meetings, and begin using this new frequency as the cross-band repeat transmit frequency for the October 15th net meeting.

For the amateur operators working with the Newton EOC, we now have frequencies assigned to the EOC that will be presented at the meeting on the 21st.

As we move to make this change, if I can help with programming of radios I would be happy to do so. I have software and cables for Kenwood TMD700, many of the Baofeng handheld radios and some of the Anytone mobile radio models.

NWCV Net Frequency Update

Over the last few months a push was made in the local amateur community to update the frequency assignments for every city, town and faith based group with an active emergency communications organization. The updates have been attached to the Cache County Emergency Communications Plan, allowing all amateur operators in the valley to see the new assignments, via that document.

During the update process, efforts have been made to more closely follow the Utah Band Plan as it relates to simplex frequencies in the VHF and UHF bands. 

As you recall, our primary net frequency was previously adjusted to follow the Utah Band Plan for VHF frequencies. At that time I did not review the band plan for UHF frequencies, where I would have noticed a change was also needed there. 

To correct that oversight, the UHF frequency for our net will adjust to 446.500 MHz. It took me longer than anticipated to send this update to the net members, therefore I propose we make the change between the September and October net meetings, and begin using this new frequency as the cross-band repeat transmit frequency for the October 15th net meeting.

As we move to make this change, if I can help with programming of radios I would be happy to do so. I have software and cables for Kenwood TMD700, many of the Baofeng handheld radios and some of the Anytone mobile radio models.

***Note: The last change I submitted - to add new frequencies for Newton Town, and to display the Benson Stake frequencies under every community represented by this net - has not been published to the document, yet. It was a recent request and I'm sure it will be reflected there as soon as possible.

Below is a copy of that revision submitted to the list managers. Please click on the image to see a larger view. If any City or Town ARES organization in our part of the county would like to select their own frequencies they have room to do so by contacting the list managers, but the frequencies we use for this net will also be displayed under each city or town represented in the Benson Utah Stake.

Interoperability

Interoperability can be defined as the ability of anyone to talk with whomever they need to, whenever they need to, when properly authorized. Communications interoperability is essential to responders during emergencies and natural disasters.

There was a medical response recently that illustrated the importance of communications interoperability.

A few weekends ago, responders in Franklin County were dispatched to an off-road vehicle crash with injuries in a remote area of the county. One of the involved persons had contacted Franklin County by cell phone, but the connection was lost. His next attempt was routed to Cache County dispatch, and thankfully, through a mutual aid agreement in place for quite some time, the two dispatch agencies have radio and computer aided dispatch interoperability, allowing Cache County dispatchers to add their own comments to the call created by Franklin County. As they were now in contact with the patient, this established interoperability provided valuable information that Franklin County dispatch would not have had as they were no longer in contact with the patient who called by cell phone.

As you may know, LifeFlight expanded its operations by stationing a helicopter at Logan Regional Hospital, available 24-7 to respond when air transport is needed. It was determined that a response from Lifeflight would be helpful. Cache County dispatch made contact with the new operations base at Logan Regional Hospital, and during their pre-flight preparation a communication plan was discussed. This plan entails assigning a responder on scene to be the contact for the helicopter, and communications would occur over one to the landing zone talk groups found in the radios of the responding agencies. Franklin County has that kind of interoperability with the air medical system based in Pocatello, but the frequencies and talk groups used by Lifeflight and Utah based ground crews are not the same as used in Idaho.

I believe this was their first flight into Franklin County since the helicopter went into service at Logan, and in this instance it was determined that Cache County dispatchers would need to operate as net control, because the radio interoperability has not yet been coordinated between LifeFlight and Franklin County.

The helicopter flew to the scene as directed by Cache County dispatchers. Once there, they were able to land and establish face-to-face communication with Franklin County units, but their additional actions were to include flying over the area to provide lighting as ground based crews worked to locate the last patient and bring all patients off the mountain. Back in the air, coordination reverted back to Cache County as net control, but it would have been easier if communications interoperability was already established between the two agencies.

Thankfully, the interoperability described above exists between the two neighboring counties, allowing Cache County dispatch to fill the role of net control for air and ground crews during this incident, and they could fill that role again until actual communications interoperability between Franklin County and Lifeflight is established.

I would encourage all operators joining the net tonight to review the Cache County ARES emergency communication plan which includes the list of frequencies that will be used in an emergency, and include these frequencies in your radio programming. Being prepared in advance will establish that important communications interoperability with other amateur operators should an emergency arise in Cache County. Follow this link to view the emergency communications plan: Cache EmComm.

Radio Procedures

Back in June, the local Fire Department had a hydrant testing project to complete. At the last minute I decided to enlist a few of our radio operators to help with the data recording, as a training opportunity.

We had an operator at the EOC to receive and make a written record of the data, as well as an operator working with each team of firefighters. The radio operator was the scribe for the firefighter teams in the field, and once the data from each test was available, it was relayed to the EOC over our primary net frequency.

I have two points to share with the net from this exercise for our training:

Operators in the field used tactical call signs during the exercise, as is common in all kinds of public service events supported by amateur operators. This is extremely beneficial during lengthy events when operators filling assignments may change. The tactical call sign allows you to contact a station without knowing the FCC call sign of the operator. It virtually eliminates confusion at shift changes or at stations with multiple operators.

Tactical call signs will usually provide some information about the location or its purpose. It is often helpful if the tactical call signs have a meaning that matches the way in which the partner identifies the location or function. For our exercise, the operators in the field were assigned the call signs “flow” team, and “reference” team, directly aligning with the function of the firefighters they were working with.

When using tactical call signs it is still necessary to identify with your FCC call sign every ten minutes, and at the end of your last transmission. Ending a transmission is as easy as stating the tactical call sign assigned, followed by your FCC call sign.

For our exercise, the information recorded, and relayed to net control, was hydrant test data. Each report to net control included the address of the hydrant, outlet size and type, as well as the PSI readings obtained at each location. It was very important to record accurate data as the test results would be used to determine the ISO rating for the community. To ensure the information relayed was received accurately, the net control station of our exercise would repeat the data received back to the operators in the field, allowing the sending operator to verify it had been received correctly. This is a good practice to use as you work with our partner agencies during an emergency, and during club supported public events.

Our 26th Net

Happy Father's Day to everyone who may be joining us tonight!

This will be the 26th monthly meeting since the Northwest Cache Valley Net went on the air in May of 2021. I thank each of you who have joined us over the last 2 years. 

I’ll be brief tonight before we go to roll call. 

Earlier this month I made my first contact outside of North America. The timing was right - I beat the dogpile that quickly develops when distant stations call CQ on the HF bands, and I logged a verified contact with a station near Moscow, Russia. I had been wondering if my antenna could send a signal round the world and it was exciting to make this contact and know I have the capability. 

I hope you have the opportunities to enjoy amateur radio the way you would like to.

If you are interested in participating in the many public service events coming up this summer, or to just monitor the events to become more familiar with event communications, visit barconline.org and go to the activities tab to see the schedule of events.

April Exercise Recap

Announcements

An exam session for all license classes will be held Thursday, June 1, 2023 at 7:00 p.m at the Sheriff’s office in Logan. Follow this link to RSVP your intent to sit for the exam.

Also, I would like to congratulate KB7UOW for passing the General Class license exam at the previous session. I know he is out of the country tonight and is not able to join us, but I wanted to let the net members know.

 

Training

April 20 was the County EOC exercise and for for training tonight I would like to summarize how it went for us at the Newton EOC.

The County EOC staff activated the emergency tones on the BARC repeater system at 18:00 hours and commenced a roll call of operators, beginning with the city stations, followed by a call for operators not affiliated with a city or town EOC, who wanted to participate.

At the Newton EOC, KE5HHW and I were in service when the roll call began, and soon after we were joined by KF7NWA and an observer.

In addition to our check-in to the County EOC net, we opened a net for operators in Newton and surrounding area on the primary frequency we use for this net.

As part of the exercise, the county wanted a situation report from each participating station, identifying the modes of communication available to each EOC or operator, as well as the stability of utilities at the operating location. When we conducted our local roll call we were able to obtain the situation report information from the stations who checked in, but our response to the county was a response for only the EOC itself.

It was good to gather this information from the operators who checked in to our local net, as we are able to better understand the capabilities of your station should we need your assistance during an actual emergency. If you would like to share the situation report for your station please let notify me with an email to greg.fabricius@gmail.com and I will send you the categories as a reply.

Observations from the EOC:

We have two radios at the Newton EOC, one for data communications with a soundcard interface connected to a computer, and another for voice communications, but we only have one antenna at the present time. To make it quicker to transmit on either radio we have a 3 position switch connected to the antenna feed line, but it was still inconvenient when we needed to respond to a voice call at the same time we were preparing to send a data transmission.

We hope to add additional antennas in the future, but we know that we can make it work until then. As our operating procedure, we could prepare our data transmissions and hold them in the Winlink outbox. Then we can ask for voice traffic to stand by during the time we will need the antenna for the packet radio messages.

Another hurdle was related to the amount of data traffic happening during the exercise. We use a Signalink interface at the EOC, giving us the option to use the faster transmission available with VARA enabled gateways, but the only VHF VARA gateway in the valley tends to be heavily used during these exercises. Because of the high traffic situation we had to try several times to make a good connection in order to send our situation report form.

Unfortunately, I had not researched ahead of time to determine if the Signalink hardware would allow us to send packet Winlink messages, which would be helpful as there are three other VHF gateways available in the valley for the somewhat slower packet Winlink system. Since the exercise I have been able to determine what is needed in order to send both VARA and packet Winlink messages and I am in the testing stages for the EOC system.

All told, it was a great opportunity to put our communication plan to thet test. I am grateful to the operators who helped at the EOC, as well as those who checked in to our local net with a situation report.