It was a double feature tonight, because our group was also running the regional net for all other municipalities and groups.
Now, first off, I give EmComm guys a lot of grief, and deservedly so, but we have a really good group here in my town, as I'm sure there are all over, so please save me the "now you're one of them!" comments and emails.
For a little context, our group, the Peninsula Emergency Measures Organization (PEMO) is comprised of three municipalities on the, you guessed it: Peninsula where we live. Our region, is managed by the Capital Regional Emergency Radio Coordinators Commitee (CRERCC), and is comprised of 13 municipalities, 3 additional electoral districts all with their own EmComms groups. Additionally, 1 NGO (The Red Cross) & 1 Government ministry (Emergency Management BC) also take part in the regional net.
Confused yet?
Selfie with my official PEMO t-shirt at the Fire Hall
Back to our group, it's petty easy: at 7:00pm sharp we start the net, introduce ourselves, ask for news, then call for check-ins by municipality, (which as you remember, there are three). This process is done first on VHF simplex, then UHF, then HF (80m).
It was a quiet night, I think we had two check-ins on VHF. It is normally much higher.
That part of it was pretty easy. Steve, VE7BBM, did all the work while Bruce and I shot the shit.
It was all over and done with in a couple minutes and then we had 20 plus minutes to chat before the regional net started, which is when we started looking at the digital end of things. More on that later...
Once 7:30 rolled around both Steve and Bruce, VE7BWA, manned the VHF radio for the regional net, which is done via a local 2m repeater. With Bruce at the mic and Steve armed with a pen and paper it was pretty seamless. Reports came in from all involved which were all way higher than ours.
All-in-all it was actually a lot of fun and very informative. It may seem mundane and boring, but one day all the practice and equipment checking might come in handy.
I was pretty impressed by the wide range of capabilities our little group has, VHF, UHF, dual band packet, HF, HF pactor, etc, etc, etc...
I don't know much out the digital end of amateur radio, I have all the gear and will look in to it soon (and will post all about it), but it plays a very important roll in emergency communications which I have to admit I was totally ignorant to.
After the nets, we started playing around a bit with the digital end of things. Our group uses RMS Express for these activities. I have to confess, it was pretty neat. I'm actually kicking myself for not looking in to it sooner.
WARNING - This is where the nerd in me comes out: we managed to send an email via HF radio from Central Saanich to a WinLink station in Southern Mexico, which then sent it via the internet to my phone. I replied to WinLink which went from my phone via the internet to Halifax, which sent it to Port Angeles, Washington via HF radio and then back to us in Central Saanich via VHF radio... All in a matter of minutes.
I don't care who you are, THAT'S COOL!!!
I was really happy I went. I don't know how often I'll get to go in the future, but I will definitely head down wheneber I can.
It's good to know that all the infrastructure and equipment is in place and being tested regularly. Not to mention all the devoted volunteers who man the stations take the courses and practise regularly.
Where we live is a ticking time bomb when it comes to a big earthquake, so more than likely, we're going to put all this practising to work sooner or later.
That's about it, after everything I has a beautiful walk home in the summer twilight.
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