DELARANuze

Club News

Everything was covered with ice.

Nobody could move. Wires were

down, power was off.

April Fool Joke? Nope! An EMA tabletop

exercise!

Delaware ARES was invited to participate as a partner with the Delaware HS/EMA for a full scale tabletop exercise last month. The scenario centered around a paralyzing ice storm, and presented county responders and officials with a number of problems to overcome. (Think 2012 when it really did freeze over!) ARES teams went to work early in the month to prepare- we wanted to make sure digital transmission using fldigi over VHF was working, and MESH teams moved a reflector (read: post office) on the MESH system to the Red Cross, where it would relay messages over our MESH nodes. Several hours went into the preparation. The county presented a form it is using for tracking status, based on an ICS format. Joe K8MP and others conned…er…convinced both fldigi and WinLink gurus across the country to construct this form for use. We got it in time, and it worked very well. Stan, N8BHL and Bob, W8ERD manned the County Control Station at the Red Cross. Joe, K8MP and Randy, AC8VM were the ARES contingent at the EOC. And Jamie, KE8JLG, set up a portable operation at the YMCA (used as a warming shelter) in order to do both voice and fldigi. Much of the traffic was on simplex, some more was on the 145.19 repeater. Kudos also to Joe Hussey, W8RIC who worked up the radio facilities inside the EOC. That was a nice experience today. Did everything perfectly, heck no. Did I get frustrated, nope, just got to work. Never tried digital mode from a mobile set up before and frankly I was surprised the mobile antenna did so well. My car is kinda small on the inside and was quite awkward having all the necessary equipment in such a compact area. But made it work. I used the 2M with the Signalink into the laptop with the magnetmount. I did bring the pole antenna but had no cause to use it. I also brought along a portable power source to keep the laptop charged. It has a built in inverter and worked flawlessly. I had it in the trunk and just plugged the laptops power cord into it and it reached the front seats with plenty of cord. I did have the issue that digital mode could transmit but would not receive and decode. Stan and I tried brainstorming it and that wasn't working. Just as I was about to give up on it I noticed there was a extra selection in the sound card settings so I opened it to find additional settings so I chose the 'Correct' settings and gave it a try. I contacted Stan to try a new transmission and it worked perfectly. Whew ... Its dry runs like today that you work out the bugs. KE8JLG Jamie
Randy Lowe AC8VM pictures
DELARANews

Club News

Everything was covered with ice.

Nobody could move. Wires were

down, power was off.

April Fool Joke? Nope! An EMA tabletop

exercise!

Delaware ARES was invited to participate as a partner with the Delaware HS/EMA for a full scale tabletop exercise last month. The scenario centered around a paralyzing ice storm, and presented county responders and officials with a number of problems to overcome. (Think 2012 when it really did freeze over!) ARES teams went to work early in the month to prepare- we wanted to make sure digital transmission using fldigi over VHF was working, and MESH teams moved a reflector (read: post office) on the MESH system to the Red Cross, where it would relay messages over our MESH nodes. Several hours went into the preparation. The county presented a form it is using for tracking status, based on an ICS format. Joe K8MP and others conned…er…convinced both fldigi and WinLink gurus across the country to construct this form for use. We got it in time, and it worked very well. Stan, N8BHL and Bob, W8ERD manned the County Control Station at the Red Cross. Joe, K8MP and Randy, AC8VM were the ARES contingent at the EOC. And Jamie, KE8JLG, set up a portable operation at the YMCA (used as a warming shelter) in order to do both voice and fldigi. Much of the traffic was on simplex, some more was on the 145.19 repeater. Kudos also to Joe Hussey, W8RIC who worked up the radio facilities inside the EOC. That was a nice experience today. Did everything perfectly, heck no. Did I get frustrated, nope, just got to work. Never tried digital mode from a mobile set up before and frankly I was surprised the mobile antenna did so well. My car is kinda small on the inside and was quite awkward having all the necessary equipment in such a compact area. But made it work. I used the 2M with the Signalink into the laptop with the magnetmount. I did bring the pole antenna but had no cause to use it. I also brought along a portable power source to keep the laptop charged. It has a built in inverter and worked flawlessly. I had it in the trunk and just plugged the laptops power cord into it and it reached the front seats with plenty of cord. I did have the issue that digital mode could transmit but would not receive and decode. Stan and I tried brainstorming it and that wasn't working. Just as I was about to give up on it I noticed there was a extra selection in the sound card settings so I opened it to find additional settings so I chose the 'Correct' settings and gave it a try. I contacted Stan to try a new transmission and it worked perfectly. Whew ... Its dry runs like today that you work out the bugs. KE8JLG Jamie

Holiday Party 2019

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