Saturday November 8th 2008 04.00 – 08.00 UTC

IARU Region 1 invites the HQ-Stations of all IARU member societies and
stations of Emergency Communications Groups to participate in a Global
Simulated Emergency Test on Saturday November 8th, 2008 04.00 – 08.00
UTC. The operation will take place on and near the emergency
Centre-of-Activity (CoA) frequencies on 80, 40, 20, 17 and 15 metres (+-
QRM ).

The objectives of the test are;

1/ increase the common interest in emergency communications.
2/ test how usable the CoA frequencies are across ITU regions.
3/ create practices for international emergency communication and
4/ practice the relaying of messages using all modes.

Please remember that this is not a contest, it is an emergency
communications exercise !

Following the recommendation of the GAREC conferences, participating
stations are requested to use /D in their callsign (D=distress/disaster)
where permitted by their licensing administration.

Traffic may be passed on voice (SSB), Data or CW modes as detailed below.

Voice mode
Each IARU Region will have a HQ station operating on voice as follows:
Region 1 – TBA
Region 2 – TBA
Region 3 – TBA

HQ stations will be QRV simultaneously on all CoA frequencies
appropriate to their region +- QRM as shown below.

Region 1 Region 2 Region 3
3760 3750 or 3985 3760
7060 7060, 7240 or 7290 7060
14300
18160
21360

Stations intending to participate are requested to send their callsigns
to globalset08@raynet-hf.net before the exercise so that HQ stations can
be aware of the number of stations calling them. A list of participating
stations will also be available at www.raynet-hf.net

To practice relaying messages, each participating station is allowed to
send six (6) messages: three during the first two hours and three more
during the last two hours of the test.

After sending their own messages, participating stations should start to
relay messages of other stations, when a message has been relayed twice
it should then be sent to the HQ station of their own region. It is very
useful if messages ‘jump” between countries and/or Regions.

Participating stations should call ‘CQ GLOBALSET’ giving their callsign
and organisation ( ARES,RAYNET, AREN,NETMAR etc. ).

Each participating station will send up to six messages to their
Regional HQ station as follows;

- Time of sending the message in UTC
- The callsign of the sending station
- Message number – 1,2 or 3 in the first half of the exercise, 4,5 or 6
in the second half.
- Bands available for use – use the meter band designation NOT frequency.
- Number of operators at the station
- Emergency power available – 1=None, 2=Battery, 3=Generator (of any
kind), 4= Battery and Generator.
- Emergency Communications Group or National Society
- As messages are relayed, add via… via… to show the callsigns of
stations which have relayed this message.

A one-character prefix will be used before each part of the message in
order to make it easier to decode

Where:
- M(ike) = Message number
- B(ravo) = Band available
- O(scar) = Operators
- P(apa) = Power available
When a station other than an HQ station receives a message, it should
relay the message towards the destination in whatever way it can.

For example :- a message originated by SU1KM in Egypt for the Region 1
HQ station might be passed initially to a station in Malta on 40m, from
there to a French station on 80m, and finally to the destination HQ
station on 80m.

For example :-

1. ZS6BUU sending message number 1 at 0430UTC, 80,40,20,10m bands
available, 3 operators, no emergency power, member of HAMNET.

“0430 ZS6BUU M1 B80 B40 B20 B10 O03 P1 HAMNET”

2. MM3UJL/P sending message number 4 at 0700UTC, 160,80,40,20,10m bands
available, 2 operators, both battery and generator available, member of
RAYNET

“0700 MM3UJL/P M4 B160 B80 B40 B20 B10 O02 P4 RAYNET”

Regional HQ stations will not sending messages, only receive them. To
avoid QRMing the HQ stations, please move to frequencies near the CoA in
steps of 5KHz for contacts with others.

To create a more realistic situation, please limit your transmitting
power during the exercise to 100 Watts. Special value is given to
stations operating mobile/portable and/or on emergency power.

Data modes

Data stations must send the same format as used for voice messages.
There will not be any HQ stations for data modes, data stations should
use the frequencies defined for their preferred mode in national
bandplans. This makes the use of ‘CQ GLOBALSET’ and registering your
intended participation particularly important.

‘Structured’ modes such as Winlink, ALE, PSKmail should send their
messages directly to globalset-data@raynet-hf.net , other data modes
should attempt to relay the messages through two other stations before
sending them to globalset-data@raynet-hf.net for analysis.

CW Mode

CW is included in this SET to increase the possiblility of stations
making contacts in difficult conditions and should be used when SSB or
data contacts are proving impossible. There will not be any HQ stations
for CW, CW stations should operate near the CoA frequencies when SSB
traffic cannot be heard.

CW stations must send the same format as used for voice messages and not
exceed 15wpm. If necessary CW messages can be relayed through two other
stations before sending them to globalset-cw@raynet-hf.net for analysis.

Conclusion
Please send your logs with comments, pictures and suggestions for future
exercises to; globalset08@raynet-hf.net as soon as possible after the
SET. A brief report of the event is required for the IARU Region 1
conference in Cavtat on 16th November but the full report is hoped to be
available in December 2008.

To be fair to all regions we use three different time slots for the
exercise, the next exercise will be on May 2nd 2009 at 11.00 -15.00 UTC
with the event in November 2009 being at 18.00 – 22.00 UTC.

Thanks for your support of emergency communications.

Greg Mossop, G0DUB
GlobalSET Organiser