The following document is a rough draft for discussion purposes of QRP involvement in the 2003 Simulated Emergency Test. All comments are welcome.
The ARRL Simulated Emergency Test (SET) takes place the first weekend of October, although groups can hold their own simulated emergency anytime during the fall season. The purposes of the SET, according to the ARRL web site, are as follows:
Adapting these to the QRP community, I would say that our purpose would be to:
For our weaknesses, I would identify:
I think our main emphasis should be on communicating to the rest of the amateur community what are capabilities are. Although I am sure that many QRP-L members are experienced in emergency communications, this is really our first effort as a group to participate. Therefore, I think our main effort this year should be to show the ARRL and other Amateurs that we can fill a very important role in emergency communications.
Therefore, I think our main goal this year should be to make a very strong showing to the ARRL that we have a large number of operators who are eager to participate, and that we have both the skills and the proper equipment to fill a need.
I think the most important skill we need to practice and to demonstrate is how to send emergency traffic, both to and from each other, but also to the existing traffic nets, which should be operating at full capacity on the SET weekend.
We should put special emphasis on our unique skills–the ability to do so from remote locations, with emergency power, and on a moment’s notice.
I think we want to be able to show two things: First, we want to show that there are a lot of us who are willing and able to participate. Second, we want to show that we can competently do the things that might be required in an emergency.
These two things might be at odds with one another. If we were to set up our own nets, and ask QRP’ers to check in, I think we could get hundreds to check in. Look, for example, at the QRP-L foxhunts. There are probably several hundred different hams who take part at least occasionally, and at least a hundred take part each week. I think it would be very easy for us to get a large turn out in numbers.
On the other hand, try to imagine what one of the foxhunts would sound like if we tried to exchange emergency traffic at the same time. I don’t think that would work too well!
But the foxhunts are a great way of demonstrating how many of us there are. Therefore, we definitely want something during the SET weekend for QRP’ers simply to be able to check in and show that they are participating.
But we also want a separate activity to show that we have the skills to pass emergency traffic. Since I think it would be impossible to do this in a foxhunt-type event, I think we should also encourage QRP’ers to pass traffic on existing traffic nets.
We should have enough QRP nets operating during the SET weekend so that any QRP’er is able to check into at least one. Therefore, different nets should operate on enough different bands and modes and at different times, to ensure that any QRP’er anywhere in North America is able to check in.
Each of these nets would have one pre-designated Net Control Station (NCS) who could take checkins. To enable as many as possible to check in, the amount of information passed should be limited, perhaps to a foxhunt-type exchange (maybe name, QTH, and whether the station is portable and/or battery powered). If time and the number of checkins permits, the net participants could simply ragchew (since I think most of the existing QRP nets are basically ragchewing nets).
Since there are a number of QRP nets existing now, I think we should encourage as many of them as possible to run at least one session during the SET weekend.
However, it is important to make sure that any amateur anywhere is able to check into at least one net. Therefore, we should look at any gaps to make sure that we have enough nets running. If we don’t, we should recruit volunteers to be NCS at other times and frequencies. I think it is important to have one or more nets each day on at least 80, 40, and 20 meters.
After the SET weekend, each net control station should send a report to some central location (and unless someone else volunteers, I would be willing for it to be me), listing the stations who checked in to his or her net, and reporting any other interesting information (such as, for example, how many of them were operating with battery power and/or from portable locations).
It’s not as popular an activity as it once was, but there are traffic nets covering all of the United States and Canada that meet every day of the year, usually on 80 meters. All of these nets are part of the National Traffic System (NTS), a hierarchy of nets that can (in theory, and usually in practice) move messages from anywhere to anywhere. All of these nets should be operating at full capacity during the SET weekend, and I think this is the best way for QRPers to pass traffic. Because SET is designed, in part, to test how well NTS works, I think this makes it an ideal way to show how well we can interact with other amateurs.
NTS is a hierarchy of nets, operating throughout the United States and Canada. In general, there are three levels of nets: Section Nets (generally statewide, but sometimes covering a smaller area), Region Nets (covering several states, usually approximately one call area), and Area Nets (each one covering about a third of the continent, roughly corresponding to time zones).
To show how this system works, let me use an example. Let’s say that I want to pass along birthday greetings from my station in Minnesota to my Uncle Tex, who resides in Houston, Texas. The first step would be for me to check into a Minnesota Section Net and announce to the Net Control Station that I have traffic for Texas. I would be paired up with the station who was assigned that day to take messages for the regional net, which in my case is the Tenth Region Net. The NCS would send me off frequency, and I would send the message to him.
A couple of hours later, that station would check in to the Tenth Region Net, and announce to the net control that he had traffic (my message) for Texas. He would be paired up with the station assigned to go the next higher net (the Central Area Net), and they would move off frequency. He would then send my message to that other station.
That station, in turn, would check into the Central Area Net, and announce that he had traffic (my message) for Texas. He would be sent off frequency, and would pass the message to a station who would take it to the next lower net, the Fifth Region Net, of which Texas is a part. That station would check into the Fifth Region Net, and again announce that he had my message that needed to be passed to Texas. He would be assigned to give the message to someone who would repeat the process at the Texas Section Net.
Finally, that station would check into the Texas Section Net and announce that he had traffic for Houston. With any luck, there would be someone on from the Houston area, and he would pass the message to that station. The operator in Houston would phone my Uncle Tex and pass along my birthday greetings..
This might sound complicated, but the end result, provided everything is working smoothly (which it usually is), is that my message arrives in about four hours.
One might ask two questions, first of all, why I didn’t just pick up the phone and call Uncle Tex. Well, I could have, but then I wouldn’t be using Amateur Radio. But more importantly, if I had a message to send (presumably more important than just “Happy Birthday”) and the phone lines were unavailable due to some catastrophe, that would not be an option. The main reason, as far as I can tell, for NTS to send birthday messages and the like, is to keep in practice for some future emergency.
The second question is why didn’t I just send the message directly to someone in Houston, Texas. Certainly, even with QRP, I should be able to reliably make communication between Minnesota and Texas. Of course, that presupposes that there was someone in Houston waiting to contact me and willing to make a phone call. Since I do not have such a sked prearranged, my only option would be to start calling CQ HOUSTON and hope that someone answered, and that they were willing to make a phone call for me. Since such a procedure does not seem very reliable, the NTS becomes a more realistic option, for I can be fairly certain that, after my message is relayed several times, someone in Houston will most likely check in to the Texas Section Net and be willing to make a phone call for a fellow ham in Minnesota.
My proposal is for every member of QRP-L to be strongly encouraged to send two (or more) messages through the existing NTS traffic nets: First of all, one message to a friend or relative (either a ham or a non-ham) in another state. There would be a couple of reasons for this message. First of all, it would prove (both to the originating station and to anyone else) that it could be done. It seems to me that being able to send such a message would provide a certain amount of peace of mind to any QRP’er, knowing that in an emergency, he or she would be able to send messages anywhere in the country.
Secondly, it would show other amateurs that there are a lot of QRP operators who have both the equipment and the skills to participate in public-service communications. As shown above, each of these messages would pass through multiple other stations, each of which would see a possibly unfamiliar callsign of a station who demonstrated that real communications is possible with QRP and/or battery power. One purpose of SET is to see how NTS works during periods of extremely heavy traffic. Let’s give them some extremely heavy traffic to deal with!
The second message sent by each QRP’er would go to the same recipient. If there are no other volunteers to be the recipient, I am willing to volunteer. That message would simply be something along the lines of: “THIS QRP STATION ACTIVE IN 2003 SET WITH BATTERY POWER.” The purpose of this message would be mainly to demonstrate how many of us have the skills and the equipment to take part in public-service communications. As with the other message, this would pass through multiple stations, each of which would take note of the fact that a large number of QRP and battery-powered stations showed up around the country to take part. And of course, I (or some other volunteer) would be able to compile this information and pass along to QST just how many of us were willing and able to take part.
With this two-pronged attack to SET, I think we could make a formidable showing.
Here are the steps I think we need to take: