Extended Bulletin Articles
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January 2, 2010
Who says NTS is obsolete?
In this era of cellphones and instant communications, it is
refreshing to hear of instances when the tried and true methods of
communications can hold their own. Two instances are chronicled here.
On December 17, 2009, the net manager of the Ontario Phone Net (OPN)
, Bob Sharp VA3QV, originated several messages containing Christmas
greetings. One of these was addressed to Ian MacFarquhar VE9IM, in
Rothesay NB. The traffic was passed on the net to the liaison for the
Second Region Net (2RN), Glenn VE3GNA. At 7:45 pm, the Cycle 4
session of 2RN convened on CW. The message was passed to Lyle Bates,
VE1VAU at that time. As the local session of the Atlantic Provinces
Net (APN) completed somewhat earlier, the message was passed the
following day, the 18th to Wade Wall VE1TAY in nearby Taymouth NB.
On December 21st, a message from VE1TAY originated on the 20th at
2300Z confirming delivery of the greeting to Mr MacFarquhar was
received by VE3GNA and relayed to VA3QV on OPNon the 22nd. The
message went on to state that Ian returned similar greetings to the
stalwarts of OPN.
From Ottawa ON to Rothesay NB and back in under 74 hours ( OPN meets
at 2100Z daily, and the return message was created at 2300Z on the
20th) . Even allowing for the delay in getting the traffic into OPN
on the 22nd still is just over 96 hours turnaround. Better than
Canada Post.
The second instance is even more amazing. Glenn VE3GNA, does weekly
updates of his personal database of amateurs in Canada, and creates
NTS traffic welcoming new hams to the hobby. One of these was David
Bruce Peer VE3RIE of Ottawa. The message was given to VA3QV on the
26th of December and phoned to Mr Peer the same evening.
It turned out that David had only recently written his exam, and had
been told on the 22nd that he had passed. He was still awaiting
confirmation of his assigned callsign by IC and the message was the
first he had heard of it. The greeting confirmed that his first
choice of callsign was approved, even before the actual letter
arrived from Industry Canada, in the SAME city.
Oh yes, Virginia, NTS does work, and should be wholeheartedly
supported by all hams, whether directly or indirectly. Why not
utilize the system to extend greetings to Aunt Sarah in Whitehorse,
or Uncle Don in St Johns, NL? Granted it is easier to text or phone.
But there is still something exciting about receiving a message from
a loved one via radio, and it gives the delivering station a thrill
to participate. Not to mention the practice in case our services are
ever needed in a real emergency. Practice makes perfect.
73,
Glenn Killam, VE3GNA / VA3OPN Ontario Section Traffic Manager
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October 24, 2009
Grey County Simulated Emergency Test 2009
Grey County ARES held its Simulated Emergency Test on Saturday
October 17th, 2009. The scenario for this exercise was a December ice
storm in Grey County that led to long power outages, caused many
municipalities and the county to declare emergencies and to set up
warming centres for residents who had no heat . An H1N1 flu
outbreak added to the background of this scenario.
The exercise began on the third day of power and communications
outages. For this exercise, all of the local repeaters were out of
service, either from lack of power or from antenna damage caused by
ice buildup. All communication was done using 2m simplex or HF. The
EOC at the Grey County Building in Owen Sound, the EOC at the Owen
Sound firehall, the Durham EOC at Rockwood Terrace and the EOC at the
Hanover firehall were activated for this exercise.
Participating in the exercise were Jon VA3CIC, Dan VE3CLD, Fred
VA3STG and Bob VE3LKD. No other agencies were involved in the
exercise. All the messages were pre-arranged and timed for release,
but the ARES operators had to put them in standard NTS radiogram
format.
During the three hour exercise, a total of 19 messages were sent and
19 were received. Since the exercise forced us to use VHF for local
messages and HF for longer distances, some of the messages required 3
hops to be delivered. This generated another 18
"receive-and-forward" messages. Each station averaged 14 messages
during the exercise. This exercise did not include any out-of-county
messages, or contact with provincial EMO. We did make one contact
with the 40m COMSONT net during an unsuccessful attempt to switch our
HF link from the 80m band to the 40m band.
While all of the EOC locations involved in this exercise do have
emergency power sources, we did not use them for this exercise.
This exercise was also our first to include the newly equipped EOC
station in the Grey County Building.
We wish to thank all the ARES participants listed above, Gina Greig
from Grey County and Terry McDonald, Deputy Fire Chief in Hanover who
both came in on a Saturday morning so we could use their stations,
and the Fire Chiefs, CEMCs and facility administrators who opened
their facilities and hospitality to us for this exercise.
-- Bob Droine VE3LKD, ARES EC for Grey County
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Official Bulletin Manager Brad Rodriguez, VE3RHJ.
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