Yesterday (Saturday October 3rd) this station did participate in the 2009 Simulated Emergency Test (SET) which was run in the Province of Ontario as joint venture with the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES Ontario) and Emergency Management Ontario (EMO) with the assistance of the National Traffic System for Ontario (NTS) (Ontario Phone Net).
I did not participate at the local level but did participate at the Provincal Level being part of a Province Wide 80m HF Radio Net that did operate to pass formal NTS Traffic between various points in the province of Ontario.
In these days of Internet, Text Messaging, Cell Phones and all sorts of other Hi-Tech goodies our basic communications seem to have gone by the wayside. Traffic that used to go via HF Voice now goes out Digitally using Winlink 2000 and Pactor which also can connect to the Internet.
NTS Voice and CW communications seem to be heading towards the way of the Dinosaurs…
But yesterday we showed we could still do it. We put up with poor band conditions on 80m, we put up with high static levels and poor hearing with “senior operators” (I fall into that catagory), we put up with new operators who are not used to HF Communications but we welcome them, as they are the future of our hobby….
Stations checked in from all areas of the province, North West Ontario, Northern Ontario, North East Ontario, Eastern Ontario, Central Ontario, the Golden Horseshoe, the GTA, Southern Ontario and South Western Ontario and traffic was passed. Not always quickly… but the traffic was passed…
Now jumping on my soapbox for a few lines I will agree with the people grumbling out there that are thinking that we will never get used and that its an old inefective system. Hell, your most likely right….
BUT….
There is a very small chance that we will have a major infrastructure failure… where all the new toys will not work…. and then it will a good thing that a few of us “old pharts” will be able to step in and keep things moving, yes moving slowly and ineffeciently but moving never the less.
Many times in the past when people have been commenting on my poor antennas I have commented that I would rather be on the air with a poor antenna than not on the air.
I believe that I would rather have a final backup system up and running when “all else fails” than be standing on a hill praying for a cell site….
Its slow, its outdated, and it still works….
NTS…
73bob
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(if you are interested there will be detailed report after the 2nd part of the test concludes on Wednesday October 7th on the Ontario Phone Net Blog- http://ontariophonenet.wordpress.com Look for it most likely by the following weekend.
Tags: 2009 SET, amateur radio, Amateur Radio Emergency Services, ARES, ARES Ontario, NTS, Ontario Phone Net, SET Exercise, Simulated Emergency Test
October 4, 2009 at 5:40 pm |
Hi Bob,
Nice to read your comments on the first part of SET 2009 and being an old dinosaur myself I can certainly agree with your comments. From an operations standpoint it was challenging to have new radio operators at the controls at the Toronto EOC but we certainly need new blood in the hobby.
These young people were certainly willing to step up to the plate and give it their best, for our part we have to be patient and coach them along. No matter how much classroom training you provide nothing takes the place of hands on experience with an understanding coach to guide them along….these will be the next generation of amateur radio operators after we are gone.
Most of the operators that were behind the mike from the EOC were young military people from the 700 Communications Squadron and 709 Communications Regiment that had just taken the Amateur radio course in the spring and were very enthusiastic to participate in Field Day and the SET.
The work we have done with our military partners over the past few years has been very rewarding for the supervising staff of Toronto EmComm and EMO ARES, we will be leaving behind a new generation of Ham’s to continue the tradition of public service through Amateur Radio.
Many thanks to you and all Ontario Phone Net operators for helping out so much during this exercise, guys like you, Glen, Ian, Shawn and all the OPN controllers are a credit to our hobby.
Look forward to the EOC exercise coming up on October 7th and will be taking an active part behind the radio rather than supervising in the background.
73,
Jim Taylor, VA3KU
EMO ARES Coordinator
October 4, 2009 at 7:16 pm |
Jim,
Those “Military Types” rate a very boisterous “Bravo Zulu” for their excellent work on Saturday.
it was a pleasure to work with them at the other end of the antenna…
73bob
October 27, 2009 at 2:18 am |
Here are the Stats for the SET:
Here are the stats from the HF Portion of the SET.
132 Individual Stations checking in which represented
57 Ontario Municipalities which in turn represented
30 Local ARES Groups which included
10 Municipal Emergency Operations Centers
In addition these stations handled a total of:
35 pieces of NTS Traffic
Like I said earlier… We did good