Saturday November 14th 2009 18.00 — 22.00 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 14th, 2009 18.00 – 22.00 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;
- increase the common interest in emergency communications.
- test how usable the CoA frequencies are across ITU regions.
- create practices for international emergency communication and
- practice the relaying of messages using all modes.
So, please remember that this is not a contest, it is an emergency communications exercise to develop the skills we will need to provide an international emergency network.
Messages 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 – GB4NRC
Region 2 – YS1YS 21360- 7060 – 3985 and LU4AA 14300 – 7240 — 3750
Region 3 –9M4CJS
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 3895 | 3600 |
7060 or 7110 | 7060, 7240 or 7290 | 7110 |
14300 | 14300 | 14300 |
18160 | 18160 | 18160 |
21360 | 21360 | 21360 |
Stations intending to participate are requested to register through their IARU Regional/National Emergency Communications Co-Ordinators as follows;
Region 1 — http://bit.ly/htGHy
Region 2 — http://www.iaru-r2.org/emergencies/
Region 3 — http://www.iaru-r3.org/dcom/r3dcom-com.htm
If your country does not have a National Co-Ordinator then please contact the regional co-ordinator via the details on the websites.
A list of participating stations will also be available at www.iaru-r1.org Participating stations should call ‘CQ GLOBALSET’ giving their callsign and organisation ( ARES,RAYNET, NETMAR etc. ).
MESSAGE FORMAT
Each participating station will send messages to their Regional HQ station formatted using the IARU HF International Emergency Operating Procedure which can be seen here. That page also has the message forms to be used for the exercise.
Stations should relay messages received towards the Regional HQ station.
To comply with licence regulations, all messages should be addressed to Greg Mossop, G0DUB and should come from a licenced radio amateur.
Messages should be less than 25 words and must not include anything which would be considered as a ‘real emergency’ message by a listener.
For example;
- Weather report at the station location
- Number of operators available
- Interesting fact about the station
would all be acceptable messages. An example message would be;
1 Routine ZS6BUU 6 Johannesburg 1100 8 APR To Greg Mossop G0DUB Johannesburg weather 15 Degrees and sunny From Francois Botha ZS6BUU
There is no limit on the number of messages to be sent but each one must have a unique message number.
Regional HQ stations will not be sending messages, only receiving 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. We are especially interested in 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 g0dub@winlink.org , 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 possibility 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
A log sheet for messages passed is provided here so that analysis of the exercise will be easier. Stations are only required to submit logs of the messages relayed, not the messages themselves. Please send your logs with comments, pictures and suggestions for future exercises to; globalset08@raynet-hf.net as soon as possible after the SET and no later than 24th December 2009 so that a report of the event can be produced.
Thanks for your support of emergency communications.
Greg Mossop, G0DUB
IARU Region 1 Emergency Communications Co-Ordinator