KK4IOH Blog: 2013

Here is the Scenario sent to us by Dwayne N5XUL:

Direction Finding Exercise 1 June, 2013 Scenario

At approximately 6:30 AM this morning a level 5 tornado touched down in Collierville TN. This

storm system spawned several tornadoes in the southeast. Collierville took a direct hit with

several buildings in the downtown area being totally destroyed including the Mayor’s office and

the cities Emergency Management office. All of the towns available emergency equipment and

resources are over tasked. The Collierville Mayor has requested mutual aid from all surrounding

communities and the state of Tennessee. Area hospitals have several patients that are being

transported by all means available.

The governor’s office has activated the Tennessee guard to help the towns people.

Ham radio operators were requested to help out as well.

Your mission is to support local law enforcement and fire officials in this event.

There are several reports of people being trapped in their homes and businesses.

You are requested to meet at the starting location for this event for your assignments. Please

bring any equipment and supplies you may need to accomplish your mission.

This is a DF Exercise designed to get you thinking about an event happening in your area.

Please remember to be SAFE. You will be working as a team member for this exercise. There are

two teams for this exercise. One team will work the West side of the area and one team will work

the East side of the area. The center of town is covered in debris and is closed down while crews

are removing electrical lines, trees and open gas main threats.

For this exercise both teams will go to two pre-picked waypoints using the Lat/Long coordinate

system only.. These two points are simulated storm shelters that you are requested to check. They

are marked with small orange surveyors flags and a short piece of PVC pipe. Your job is to find

these markers and bring them to me at the transmitter site.

While at these locations use your DF equipment to take bearings to the transmitter location. I

plan to use 147.420MHZ on an Arrow 3 element beam pointed at the start location. I also plan to

use a normal non-directional antenna on 146.620MHZ. At the start of the exercise I will point the

arrow antenna directly at the start location for a few cycles and then point it 45 degrees off and

then 90 degrees off so you can see the differences. This will allow you to record the difference in

signal strengths and characteristics of a direction antenna.

To cut down on confusion and lighten my work load., each team will pick a team leader.

Participants will give their information to their team leader and the two team leaders will send

the groups best estimated bearing information to me over the Olive Branch repeater. Please

remember that most Collierville repeaters are heavily damaged for the purposes of our exercise. I

will then relay actual Google Earth bearings and distance from your location to my location so

you can compare information . This will give you direct feedback on your equipment and ability

to take good bearings.

We are breaking new ground with this exercise. Recent tornado events in Oklahoma have led me

to my objectives for this exercise. They are as follows:

1. Be able to find Lat. Long. Coordinates using your own resources. This could be a GPS unit,

computer mapping software, actual paper maps, Android or I phone applications. Please

remember that an actual disaster could take down internet connectivity.

2. Introduce participants to Direction Finding a beam antenna. The lessons learned from this

exercise may be used in future exercises. I already have an idea in mind for the next exercise.

3. Introduce the concept of CERT teams and training. I have invited Collierville Cert instructors

to attend our exercise. If you have not attended a CERT class, I highly recommend it.

4. APRS concepts. Not all of our participants are APRS capable. If you have an APRS radio,

android, I phone application or Digital Radio for APRS, please bring it to the exercise. Please

look at the symbols you can enter into your equipment. I would like you to set your symbol to

“DF” and send a beacon from the start location as well as the Lat/Long coordinates I send you to.

After the exercise, all participants can go to www.aprs.fi and set it for the last 3 or 6 hours and

see the actual positions you were at for the exercise. This is a very helpful capability in times of

disaster so almost anyone can see where you are/were at from around the world. I plan to beacon

my transmitter location during the exercise so participants can view it on their equipment in the

field. Word of caution: Do not use the EMERGENCY symbol over APRS unless you really

want to meet new people. It is taken very seriously.

5. Give participants an opportunity to use and test their equipments capability. Please bring a

copy of your equipment manuals. There is nothing more frustrating then trying to program a

function when you can’t remember how its done. Charge your batteries. Remember field day is

coming up and this may give you an excuse to blow the dust off of your equipment early.

I am not going to pick the teams or team leaders for you on this exercise. I have done so on past

exercises. I want you guys to work this out on your own. I will recommend a few things you

need to think about. Each team should have about the same number of people.

Each team will need someone who has a mobile radio capable of hitting the Olive Branch

repeater. Please program 147.255+, 79.7 PL tone. A 5/8 antenna on medium power should work

well. I also want to thank Tim, KD5CKP and the Olive Branch repeater club for the use of the

clubs repeater. I also hope some of their members will attend the exercise. Be prepared to

program your radio to a different frequency just in case we need to change plans. Plan to use

146.520 simplex to talk between groups to check your range of communications. The repeater

will be primary.

Plan to have one APRS capable person in your group if possible.

I would pick someone who lives in the Collierville area for my team for obvious reasons. This is

one of the reasons I picked Collierville. It gets most of us out of our comfort zone.

PLEASE FOLLOW THESE EXERCISE RULES:

1. SAFETY: Yours safety in this exercise is the most important item. Watch your driving around

Collierville. You are responsible for obeying all traffic laws. Don’t speed or drive in a reckless

manner. Riders, GPS watchers and other participants, DON’T distract your drivers. Tell them

ahead of time they are approaching a turn or stop sign. Drivers Drive. Observers be safety

minded at all times.

2. THIS IS A DF EXERCISE. IT IS NOT, I REPEAT ,NOT A FOX HUNT!!!!

PLEASE REFER TO IT AS AN EXERCISE.

Note the following definitions.

Definition: Fox hunt- participants may work together or as lone hunters to find the fox

transmitter. Competition is often involved. First one there wins.

Definition: DF Exercise- A TEACHING EVENT WHERE PARTICIPANTS WORK

TOGETHER AS TEAMS AND COMMUNICATE WITH OTHER TEAMS/NET

CONTROLLER TO ACHIEVE STATED OBJECTIVES.

3. All “DF exercise participants” are welcome. If you want to attend a “Fox Hunt” this is

“NOT THE EVENT FOR YOU”. We will have fox hunts in the future and you are welcome to

attend but the rules here are different. Please observe them. I do not want anyone to interrupt the

TRAINNING for those who wish to participate in the exercise.

I DON’T MEAN TO UPSET ANYONE WITH THIS RULE BUT I WANT PEOPLE TO

UNDERSTAND THAT YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO WORK WITH A GROUP.

In an actual event people who do not comply with the rules would be sent home.

I do not wish to run anyone off with this comment but I work very hard to put together training

exercises to teach new techniques to those who want to learn and test their capabilities and it is

very important that people follow the rules. This should be a fun event for those who participate

and I want your feedback and ideas for future events and scenarios that you would like to see. I

do plan to have a debrief at the end of the exercise and I welcome your comments and critiques.

If we have to reschedule this event, I will try to contact someone who can announce it on the

Olive Branch repeater and the 146.82 repeater as well as e-mail so please monitor one of these

repeaters on the way to the exercise. I will try to have it announced prior to the event if at all

possible. Thanks, Dwayne N5XUL

I'm fascinated by 900 and microwave frequencies. I am new to 900 and have no equipment operating on the higher bands at this time.

Most people in the area are using Moto's for 900 and I own 2 of them. I had read about the Kenwood TK-981 rigs and decided to give them a try.

They work well and are easy to program.

I was able to find a place where I get get into our local repeater at 927.6125 from my front balcony. I am surrounded by buildings and I am in a lower spot than what surrounds me to the North and to the East.

The repeater is located East/NE of me. I have a 200 foot tall building across the street NE of me. It's a problem for me. I found I can point a small YAGI north and get into the repeater. I have no doubts this is via reflection.

Here I am outside testing the radios and checking into the Super Sunday Niner Net.