ARES / ACS - S.E.T
Simulated Emergency Training
Saturday October 14th 2023
Under the guidance of RAC the Toronto Amateur Radio Auxiliary Communications Service Group hosted a simulated emergency exercise Saturday October 14th 2023.
Ken VA3KEX, David VA3KDJ and Tom VA3VWX will be serving as the EC’s ( Emergency Coordinators) for the Toronto Region under the leadership of the SEC, CEC and DEC.
All Toronto ACS (formerly ARES) stations are welcome to participate including those who are not ACS members but are interested.
A brief plan outlining the the general setup is available below. The SET is scheduled to take place between 11:30AM and 1:30PM. The maximum (greatest) eclipse will occur in Toronto at 13:09:34 (1:09:34PM EST / 17:09:34 UTC). The eclipse will begin at 11:55AM and conclude at 2:25PM.
As part of the SET, RAC has requested that amateurs monitor the bands and see how if at all conditions change during the eclipse. The frequencies and associated groups will become available soon and will be posted here.
From RAC
Operation Dark Skies: Part 1
Saturday, October 14 – National Canada-wide SETPart 1 of the SET will be held for five hours on October 14, 2023, including the solar eclipse.
The objective is to gather information on Amateur operations before, during and after the solar eclipse. All data will be reviewed for future planning of emergency events.
Radio Amateurs of Canada is looking to engage as many operators as possible and utilize all bands and modes.
CanWarn-trained individuals can also give up-to-date local weather reports and visual observations during the event. Reports will be sent to canwarn@rac.ca or on Winlink to AUXC-CAN.
Eclipse Details
S.E.T Basics
The purpose of the SET (simulated emergency training) is to aid amateur radio operators who are ARES / ACS members in learning and understanding how to conduct themselves during an emergency, pass traffic efficiently, operate across multiple bands, and learn how to properly pass digital traffic through the use of Winlink and any associated forms.
Stations are asked to check in with net control on the VE3SKY repeater at 11AM. You are asked to provide your location and capabilities, after which you will be directed to a field station location. Stations with limited capabilities (hand held only operation) will have the option to attend the simulated EOC NCS base camp location or volunteer to work with a field station.
Once stations who are operating as a remote field base station arrive at their prospective location, they will be asked to contact the EOC NCS via VE3SKY and monitor 147.405 simplex. Instructions will be given once contact with NCS has been established and the field stations will then be tasked with reaching out to each other on 147.405 simplex. Each station must log what station(s) can be heard with a known signal strength.
Once the initial round of base station outreach on 147.405 has been completed, these stations will then email this list back to NCS via Winlink by using the VA3VWX@winlink.org address in a simple text list form (see below).
Sample Winlink Email List
My Station – GRID FN03GO – Old Mill Remote Base
—Stations Heard—
VE3AJF – 59 – Allen & Lawrence – Field Station
VE3YTP – 33 – Royal York & Lake Shore – Mobile
VA3KDJ – 47 – Woodbine Beach – Field Station
Upon completion of the Winlink email, all remote stations are asked to check back in with the EOC NCS on the VE3SKY machine and confirm receipt of the Winlink traffic. At this point NCS will then ask & provide the various remote stations with pieces of traffic they will pass amongst themselves on 147.405 simplex through relays.
Stations with HF capabilities (field base & mobile) will be tasked with SSB voice communication locally on 80m and/or 40m and nationally on 80/40/20 and potentially other bands.
Stations with HF capabilities are asked to utilize these bands to pass Winlink traffic to any RMS gateway they are able to successfully connect to. In addition to Winlink, we also suggest stations try using JS8Call+JS8Call Utilities to send their APRS position to the network over HF. Details of these operations will be presented by the NCS.
— Schedule —
1100 hrs – check-in on VE3SKY
– stations will be asked to deploy
– members will be asked to work together
1130 hrs – field operations
– all remote stations check in on VE3SKY upon arrival / set-up
– after check-in complete, remote stations / field station communicate with each other on simplex via 147.405 FM
– VA3KDJ will assist with simplex coordination
1150 hrs – message handling begins
– remote stations will be given traffic to pass amongst each other on 147.405
– traffic will be relayed digitally after receipt to VA3VWX@winlink.org via Winlink and then verbally confirmed via NCS on VE3SKY
– traffic among remote stations continues for duration of event
1200 hrs – HF traffic handling begins
– remote stations will be tasked with SSB NVIS communications to each other locally (80M / 40M)
– remote stations will be tasked with sending and receiving Winlink traffic via HF bands (use any RMS gateway)
– remote stations will monitor and log band conditions across 80/40/20/10 as the eclipse progresses
– attempt to use JS8Call+Utilities to send APRS location beacons and message VA3VWX via APRS
1309 – Maximum Eclipse
– log time and signal observations across all bands
– continue with traffic handling in all modes across all designated bands
– continue digital operations
1340 – log submissions
– submit all eclipse logs digitally via Winlink to VA3VWX@winlink.org
– conclude voice traffic on all bands
– standby for net control on VE3SKY to clear stations in an orderly fashion
1400 hrs – end of SET
– SET concludes
– after report / analysis conducted by ECs and submitted to local ACS group.
Basic Traffic Flow
Simple Infographic
Suggested Amateur Radio Go Kit(s)
Winlink
Once a voice FM link has been established with the EOC NCS on the VE3SKY repeater, please attempt to make contact via Winlink using any available RMS gateways (HF, FM, Packet, etc). If RF is not possible, a Telnet (internet) connection is acceptable for the exercise.
If you are an advanced Winlink user or would like to learn about the forms, please use the IMS 213-R form (pictured below). A short tutorial video is also embedded and a link to a PDF describing each field in detail is available below.
APRS Location & Email Usage
Stations with APRS capabilities are asked to send position reports from their base station every 15 minutes and from a portable station every 5 minutes. This ability should be fully communicated to the EOC NCS station. This will allow the EOC to monitor all individuals involved in the activity and help “locate” any individuals who may not be responding to the field stations.
APRS EMAIL Server (EMAIL)
The easiest way to send email is to send a message to EMAIL with the recipient’s email address as the first “word” of the message. You may only send one line messages (67 total characters maximum). This should only be used if Winlink is not functioning and/or the intent is a simple one-way message. The proliferation APRS-IS RX only gateways may prohibit the NCS response from being recieved.
Send APRS message “email@address” message text” to EMAIL.
APRS Format: URCALL-10>APRS::EMAIL :urname@urdomain.bogus This is a test.
HF APRS with JS8CALL
Due to the depreciation of HF packet, the best current means to inject data into the APRS network via HF is through the use of the JS8CALL software and a utility called JS8CALL Tools
The JS8Call Tools Utility allows JS8Call to send APRS messages (location, SMS gate, Email, etc) via HF to receivers around the world.
Provincial Frequencies
