"Arnie Macy" wrote in message ...
"William" wrote in part ...

Did Mark Morgan "deserve a lot harsher language than I have ever sent his
way?"

WOW, I haven't heard that name in a long time.

I don't even remember anything about Mark. But I do remember Steve
getting his hemorrhoid tied up in knots over him.

And that is the amateur's attitude to communications. I flipped on
the radio and talked to Costa Rica! Everythings great, I got
Emergency Comms!

I think you are missing the point here, William. I said that Iowa was the
first station that we contacted. You are making a huge presumption here
that it is the only station that we contacted. Do you really think that we
would contact one station, declare victory, then call it a day? You know
better than that. We made multiple contacts during the day as we switched
from band to band.

Presumption? Perhaps.

If I dial home, and I get Iowa, then my comms failed.

You need to have a goal before you ever switch the radio on.

Let's say that your goal is the Military Police desk at Ft. Riley,
Kansas.

You get on the radio and "Viola," you got Iowa. Great. Good first
step. Ask that Iowa amateur to dial the Military Police desk at Ft.
Riley, Kansas (333-444-5555). Hmmmmm, who's gonna pay the $0.07/per
minute charges? Iowa ham won't do it. Iowa was a failure. Try
Nebraska if prop holds.

Make up your own scenario. Don't count off this ex-IG augmentee to
create your exercise scenario for you.

Next time you inadvertantly contact an amateur in another state, ask
him to phone patch you through to that state's EMA or State Police.
That at least would be worth noting.

Actually, not a bad idea; however, this was a function test of equipment in
preparation for an exercise later this month. When we activate that
exercise, we will be contacting those types of agencies directly (including
out of state)

OK, you are going to contact the EMA and State Police *_directly_*
with amateur radio? Cool. How are you going to do that?

We didn't want to have to coordinate that contact in advance
because it would take away from the realism of the upcoming exercise and
give them a "heads up".

Right. No prior coordination. But...

Part of the exercise is to see how quickly they
will respond in a "no warning" situation -- or if they respond at all.

No.

1. You state a requirement for them (your ham volunteers) to be able
to do such things. Your MOU is a place to state broad requirements.
The SOP or Instructions cover the specifics.

2. You train them to do such things.

3. You then give them a no warning exercise scenario where they have
to do what they (1) have a requirement to do, and (2) have been
trained to do.

That is how it's done in the military. Really.

Does your military installation have a MARS base support team?

Which model HF radio did you get?

Kenwood TS 570D(s) and
Kenwood TM 261A (VHF)

Excellent choices. Simple and capable.

bb