AREN

IARU Region 1 invites the HQ-stations of its member societies and stations of special emergency communication groups to participate in the “Second EmCom party on the Air” on Saturday, May 5th, 2007 at 11.00 – 15.00 UTC. The operation will take place on and near the emergency Center-of-Activity (CoA) frequencies on 40, 20 and 15 meters (+/-QRM).
The CoA frequencies on 80 and 17 meters will not be used during this event.

The objective of the party is to increase the common interest among member societies in emergency communication, test how usable the CoA frequencies are across Region 1, and create practices for international emergency communication between Region 1 member societies and special emergency communication groups.

Please keep in mind: This is not a contest – it is an emergency communications exercise!

The protocol is as follows:
1) All traffic during the party will take place in SSB only.
2) IARU Region 1 HQ station will be OF3F in Finland.
3) It will be QRV simultaneously on the three CoA frequencies: 7060, 14300 and 21360 kHz +/- QRM.

During first three hours each participating station will try to contact OF3F and also as many other national HQ and special group stations as possible. During the last hour, (14.00 – 15.00 UTC) these stations will contact only OF3F for reporting. The report should be sent only once, on the band on which communication with OH3F is best. All traffic in the party will happen on SSB.

Participating stations are calling:
“This is HQ station of (RSGB, REF etc.) calling Region 1 EmCom stations for testing” (Please announce time to time “this is an exercise”).

The messages to be exchanged during the first three hours consist of eight numbers and the abbreviation of the national society/special group – in other words:
real RS report, number of bands simultaneously in use (1, 2 or 3), and number of operators at this station (in 2 digits, i.e. 3 operators is transmitted as “03″), the transmitter power (in 3 digits, i.e. 50 Watt would be 050) and the acronym of the society/group (RSGB, REF…). We will use the word “slash” to separate details in these messages:

Example:

4U1ITU could give to OF3F the following information:
58/3/03/500/IARC

RS = 58 (please give accurate reports, not just “59″!).
3 = number of bands simultaneously in use at 4U1ITU.
03 = there are 3 operators at 4U1ITU.
500 = 4U1ITU runs 500 W.
IARC = International Amateur Radio Club of ITU HQS

The message to IARU Region 1 HQ station OF3F during the last hour will be following:
RS / total number of stations of Region 1 societies or groups contacted during the party / numbers of stations contacted on 7, 14 and 21 MHz.

Example:
4U1ITU reports to OF3F: 57/28/00/23/15.

RS = 57 (please give accurate reports, not just “59″!).
28 = total of 28 different HQ/special group -stations contacted.
03 = 3 different HQ/special group stations contacted made on 7 MHz.
23 = 23 different HQ/special group stations contacted on 14 MHz.
15 = 15 different HQ/special group stations contacted on 21 MHz

All messages consist of five groups: RS is the group number 1, this group number one is separated by / (`slash’) from group number 2 and so on. If you have not received any of the groups properly, you ask: “Please repeat group number #”.

HQ-station OF3F is not giving messages – only receiving and confirming them. To avoid QRMing the HQ-station, please move to frequencies near the CoA for contacts with other stations.

For creating a more realistic situation, please limit your transmitting power during the exercise to 100 watts. A special value is given to stations operating mobile/portable and/or on emergency power.

Greg Mossop G0DUB has kindly agreed to collect all information and to prepare a final report. Please send your comments and logs to Greg at: gregm(at)greg-mossop.co.uk. The final report will be published in August 2007.

We hope that even more stations than in November 2006 will participate in this second EmCom Party on the Air. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need any additional information.

A third EmCom Party is planned for 17 November, 2008, with new rules and procedures.

Three AREN delegates EI7IG, EI4JN and EI2JB recently attended a course on Field Search Skills hosted by the South East Mountain Rescue Association. The 2 days of instruction included both classroom tuition and practical exercises held in the Comeragh mountains. This included a night exercise on the Saturday night. Other professional and volunteer organisations represented included the Garda Siochana, the Coastguard, the Civil Defence and SEMRA.

While AREN’s involvement in missing person search operations will principally be of a communications nature, it is important for members to be cognisant of the methods used and the challenges faced by the search teams. For this purpose, a training module AREN and SAR will be delivered to members in the near future.

EmCom PartyThe IARU Region One, First EmCom party on the Air will be held this coming Saturday the 18th of November. The operation will happen on the IARU emergency centre-of-activity frequencies on 40, 20 and 15 meters only (+/-QRM).

The objective of the party is to;

1) increase the common interest among member societies in emergency communication,

2) test how usable these frequencies are cross the Region 1 and

3) create practices for international emergency communication between Region 1 member societies and special emergency communication groups.

Only Headquarter stations of each countries Emergency Communications Organisations are invited to take part. Dave EI4BZ will operate the IRTS AREN station.

Mountain RescueOn the same weekend, 3 more AREN members will be joining The South Eastern Mountain Rescue Association on a training weekend. There will be plenty of APRS activity in the Galtee Mountains. Some activity on the 40m and 80m AREN frequencies is also to be expected.

Training ProgrammeARENs Winter on-air training Nets will resume on Wednesday the 15th of November at 9:30pm local. This session will be devoted to APRS. The primary Frequency will be 3.690 MHz with a secondary frequency of 7.099 Mhz +/- QRM. This is a member’s only net. Reports from non-members will be taken after the Net closes.