Memoranda
Exercise Operational Readiness (EOR)
(Tuesday 13th January, 2009, 19.00 – 21.30 hours, UTC)
Debrief
EOR was originally conceived as a test exercise to help members of Norfolk County Raynet (NCR) be ready when possible emergency conditions might be developing and then be able to turn out for the exercise at short notice.
The basis of the exercise was for members to be mobile and then call into a portable control at which stage they would be given a 6 figure OS grid reference to which they would proceed and upon reaching the location would contact control reporting in and giving their now named location. Stations were then given a further reference to move to and so on through the exercise. These locations were rest/evacuation centres/other important public buildings that a RAYNET member might be called out to.
Control, G7RNN/P, was set up near Sandy Hill (approx 1 mile south of North Walsham, just off the A149) at approx 35m above sea level. Power was 50W transmitted through a slim jim at approx 20 ft height. (Grid location TG295 277). Controller for the evening was G7VAH (Norfolk County Raynet Coastal Controller) with G4PSH (Norfolk County Raynet Coastal Dep. Controller). It was a fine moon lit and still evening, a pleasant change from the cold snap which we had been experiencing at the start of the year.
Control opened at 19.00 and soon had several mobile stations in contact, along with G3IOR acting as a QSP station in Norwich, for the evening. M0CNP acted as a QSP station for the North Coastal area and latterly 2E0NLK also came on air. The last station was stood down at 21.30 UTC.
Lessons from the evening.
1) Map work – It soon became apparent that with the OS constantly changing map numbers, that we were not necessarily sure we were all reading off the same map e.g. on the 1:25000 (approx 2 ½ inch) maps, the current map 252 appears as the old map 25 . . . As we were using a mix of 1:50000 (approx 1 ¼ inch) and 1:25000 maps the overlaps are not the same. . . but as long as we are familiar with reading a NGR Map the grid referances location should be the same no matter which map we use. We did find a few inaccurate grid references as well. These references had been provided by the local authorities and are now being individually checked by G4PSH and will be updated in the members’ area. This type of map work did show the difficulties of using this system in built up areas.
2) Coms. Were generally good, though at the start we did have deliberate interference from an unknown IQ0 station, thought to be in the Hellesdon area. Fortunately this did not persist through the evening. With the exception of one mobile and G7FSI as he moved up the coast, control was able to hear all stations as good readable at almost all times, and when not the QSP stations were able to relay successfully.
Conclusions
It should be remembered that it would be highly unlikely that stations would just be sent out with a grid reference. Part of the exercise was to introduce an “unknown quantity” into the evening – if people for example had been told to proceed to Aylsham High School, rather than just being given an unknown grid reference, people might have perceived it as being not such a valid exercise. Stations with 2 people in the car found navigating in the dark much easier, especially in built up areas.
This type of exercise does test the reliability and range of mobile stations especially if we are not permanently mobile “installed”. In an emergency we might easily have to rely on our mobile station because a hand held is out of range / we have to move quickly, so it is essential we know that everything works. (Hence the testing of a portable control as opposed to working from North Walsham Silver!). Passing of messages needs to be slicker (Controller holds hand up to this one) as it is easy to double with another station and shorter messages, hopefully lead to less confusion. QSP stations showed their worth in the exercise, but at least one set of instructions were passed incorrectly – we need to remember that if acting as a QSP station, it is no good trying to remember a relay message in our head, we have to write it down as said and then relay it as quoted – no paraphrasing!
Can I thank those who turned out for the exercise, especially those on their first exercise. I trust you enjoyed the evening as much as I did and any suggestions on how we can improve it for the next time would be most welcome.
On the evening, the following RAYNET members took part, (not in any order!) G3IOR, M0CNP and 2E0NLK all QSP stations;2E0ILH, 2E0BDB, G7FSI, G0SMS, GOWTG, G7AEP,G7KBF,G8UJO, M0KXK, M1CQS and G4PSH, dep con.
73,
Steve, g7vah.
Coastal Controller, Norfolk County Raynet.