"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.

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.

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

Which model HF radio did you get?

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

Arnie -

On Sun, 21 Mar 2004 14:42:46 -0500, Arnie Macy wrote:

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

"Goofball, Goofball, this is Zoomer with a No Notice Test Message".

We used to just LOVE those...... ggg (The remote deskset was on
my desk....)

--
73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane

From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest
Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon

Retired and loving every minute of it....
Work was getting in the way of my hobbies

"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

"William" wrote in part ...

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.

Our goal was to check the functionality of the HF gear. We made multiple
contacts on multiple bands -- making contacts throughout the day. Those
were the parameters of the test. Test successful. We have written MOAs
with the stations that we intend to contact during the exercise, so they
completely understand the nature of the "no-warning" scenario. We also ran
functionality tests on the VTC/SAT and VOIP equipment. It was a busy day.

As you know, all major exercises have an extensive OPORD that directs us
before anything begins. Ours has been in place for months. All T's
crossed.


Does your military installation have a MARS base support team?

We do not use MARS for multiple reasons. All of our ops are civil service
and FCC Licensed Hams. This gives us much greater latitude in the
equipment, modes, and frequencies available to us. The EM operation is a
completely civilian one. Sorry if I didn't make that clear before. Of
course, we had to clear the frequency use with the folks at the installation
DOIM, but that was just a formality.

Arnie -

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

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.

Our goal was to check the functionality of the HF gear. We made multiple
contacts on multiple bands -- making contacts throughout the day. Those
were the parameters of the test. Test successful.

Your initial post didn't make it appear that way.

We have written MOAs
with the stations that we intend to contact during the exercise, so they
completely understand the nature of the "no-warning" scenario. We also ran
functionality tests on the VTC/SAT and VOIP equipment. It was a busy day.

Sounds good.

As you know, all major exercises have an extensive OPORD that directs us
before anything begins. Ours has been in place for months. All T's
crossed.

And you've trained your volunteers to some standard?

Does your military installation have a MARS base support team?

We do not use MARS for multiple reasons. All of our ops are civil service
and FCC Licensed Hams. This gives us much greater latitude in the
equipment, modes, and frequencies available to us.

That's too bad. Military communications has a specialized function
for such purposes.

The EM operation is a
completely civilian one. Sorry if I didn't make that clear before. Of
course, we had to clear the frequency use with the folks at the installation
DOIM, but that was just a formality.

Arnie -

Always is.

Best of luck.

"William" wrote ...

And you've trained your volunteers to some standard?

Our "volunteers" are government employees who have this duty assigned to
them as part of their employment, and they are well trained in EM. All of
the angencies that support us have trained their volunteers via either RACES
or ARES in EM. Of course, that training varies from jurisdiction to
jurisdiction, but there is little we can do to enforce our standards on
them.

Does your military installation have a MARS base support team?

We do not use MARS for multiple reasons. All of our ops are civil
service
and FCC Licensed Hams. This gives us much greater latitude in the
equipment, modes, and frequencies available to us.

That's too bad. Military communications has a specialized function
for such purposes.


I agree that the specialized function it provides could have assisted us --
and we too a long look at that when we were planning. But in reviewing all
COAs, the cost-benefit just wasn't there. Since we are primarily in contact
with civilian agencies (both state and federal) during emergencies, it made
better sense to utilize the cilvilian HAM radio assets we had in place. We
have plenty of standard military comms available other than MARS HF. The
Amateur radio piece is for redundancy purposes -- not as a primary means of
communication. For example, all of our VHF is military and of course the
SAT and wireless is run on military net/satilites for security purposes.

Arnie -

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

And you've trained your volunteers to some standard?

Our "volunteers" are government employees who have this duty assigned to
them as part of their employment, and they are well trained in EM. All of
the angencies that support us have trained their volunteers via either RACES
or ARES in EM. Of course, that training varies from jurisdiction to
jurisdiction, but there is little we can do to enforce our standards on
them.

I could be wrong, but I think only school teachers and the ARRL's W1AW
Operator are allowed to be paid while using amateur radio.

Does your military installation have a MARS base support team?

We do not use MARS for multiple reasons. All of our ops are civil
service
and FCC Licensed Hams. This gives us much greater latitude in the
equipment, modes, and frequencies available to us.

That's too bad. Military communications has a specialized function
for such purposes.


I agree that the specialized function it provides could have assisted us --
and we too a long look at that when we were planning. But in reviewing all
COAs, the cost-benefit just wasn't there. Since we are primarily in contact
with civilian agencies (both state and federal) during emergencies, it made
better sense to utilize the cilvilian HAM radio assets we had in place. We
have plenty of standard military comms available other than MARS HF. The
Amateur radio piece is for redundancy purposes -- not as a primary means of
communication. For example, all of our VHF is military and of course the
SAT and wireless is run on military net/satilites for security purposes.

Arnie -

Fair enough.

Subject: Wrong Again, Len! (Communicator Power)
From: (William)
Date: 3/24/2004 5:26 AM Central Standard Time
Message-id:

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

And you've trained your volunteers to some standard?

Our "volunteers" are government employees who have this duty assigned to
them as part of their employment, and they are well trained in EM. All of
the angencies that support us have trained their volunteers via either
RACES
or ARES in EM. Of course, that training varies from jurisdiction to
jurisdiction, but there is little we can do to enforce our standards on
them.

I could be wrong, but I think only school teachers and the ARRL's W1AW
Operator are allowed to be paid while using amateur radio.

And for once you'd be right. Congratulations.

I agree that the specialized function it provides could have assisted us --

and we too a long look at that when we were planning. But in reviewing all
COAs, the cost-benefit just wasn't there. Since we are primarily in
contact
with civilian agencies (both state and federal) during emergencies, it made
better sense to utilize the cilvilian HAM radio assets we had in place. We
have plenty of standard military comms available other than MARS HF. The
Amateur radio piece is for redundancy purposes -- not as a primary means of
communication. For example, all of our VHF is military and of course the
SAT and wireless is run on military net/satilites for security purposes.

Fair enough.

It only took you three days.

Steve, K4YZ

"William" wrote ...

I could be wrong, but I think only school teachers and the ARRL's W1AW
Operator are allowed to be paid while using amateur radio.
__________________________________________________ _________

I understand your point, but the intent of this section in the FCC rules was
to stop Ham radio from being used for commercial purposes, not to prohibit
emergency communications. Nothing in the rules prohibits use of this
equipment during an emergency by any licensed person. Or for that matter,
any person whatever. As I said, our Ham equipment is being used for
redundancy, so for all practical purposes, it will never be used for routine
communication -- other than testing to ensure it is working properly.

Arnie -









ary communications has a specialized function
for such purposes.


I agree that the specialized function it provides could have assisted
us --
and we too a long look at that when we were planning. But in reviewing
all
COAs, the cost-benefit just wasn't there. Since we are primarily in
contact
with civilian agencies (both state and federal) during emergencies, it
made
better sense to utilize the cilvilian HAM radio assets we had in place.
We
have plenty of standard military comms available other than MARS HF.
The
Amateur radio piece is for redundancy purposes -- not as a primary means
of
communication. For example, all of our VHF is military and of course
the
SAT and wireless is run on military net/satilites for security purposes.

Arnie -

Fair enough.

Subject: Wrong Again, Len! (Communicator Power)
From: "Arnie Macy"
Date: 3/21/2004 1:42 PM Central Standard Time
Message-id:

"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.

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.

Hey Arnie...

Brian Burke, AKA "Billy Beeper" AKA "William" accused you of "enabling" me
over my refusal to be bowled over by Lennie's arrogance.

Don't let him make YOU an "enabler" by acknowledging his alter-ego.
BillyBeeper/William is Brain Burke, taking a lesson from Lennie in how to
disperse his foolheartiness over several screen names.

73

Steve, K4YZ

PS: Welcome back!