WICEN Vic: Friday 10th Sept - Digital Playground Training Exercise

Tue Sep 7 19:11:00 CDT 2021

Hi Tim, John and Peter,

The Mt Buller paket repeater should be operational on 147.600 VK3RGM-2 it does cover into Wangaratta and parts of Gippsland, it may be worth a try.

Regards,

Peter

VK3YZP

From: wicenvic <wicenvic-bounces at vic.wicen.org.au> On Behalf Of John & Bronwyn
Sent: Wednesday, 8 September 2021 9:46 AM
To: vk3mit at gmail.com; 'Peter Larsen' <peter.g.larsen at icloud.com>; 'Mark Hudson' <vk3mdh at gmail.com>
Cc: 'WICEN distn list' <wicenvic at vic.wicen.org.au>
Subject: Re: WICEN Vic: Friday 10th Sept - Digital Playground Training Exercise

Hi Tim & Peter

Not much luck either way. 

My path out east is not good, I can't hear Mt Taylor repeater. It's  a bit frustrating, a few km up the hill is very different.....

A VARA digi will need some thought re hardware, a packet digi is easy, just radio + TNC.  

But, a VARA digi needs a Windows computer.  The computer must be reliable and suit the available power budget.  Hardware & software reliability are key. 

It also needs all stations using it to have a licensed version of VARA. 

See you on HF?

Cheers,   John

On 07/09/2021 21:54, Timothy Mc Bain - VK3MIT wrote:

Digipeating may be a solution with 2m.

Tim.

VK3MIT

Wangaratta

From: wicenvic  <mailto:wicenvic-bounces at vic.wicen.org.au> <wicenvic-bounces at vic.wicen.org.au> On Behalf Of Peter Larsen
Sent: Tuesday, 7 September 2021 9:27 PM
To: Mark Hudson  <mailto:vk3mdh at gmail.com> <vk3mdh at gmail.com>
Cc: WICEN distn list  <mailto:wicenvic at vic.wicen.org.au> <wicenvic at vic.wicen.org.au>
Subject: Re: WICEN Vic: Friday 10th Sept - Digital Playground Training Exercise

Thanks Mark.

Planning to be on the air once again Friday, Sept 10 for a little more testing and learning.

It would be interesting if we could expand the system for make FM links out into the country areas as well.

Guessing at this stage, my closest reachable 2m contact is probably John VK3ZRX. I can reach the VK3RLV repeater from BAirnsdale but uncertain if I can raise John directly. Something to work on for a while.  In the mean time, HF it is.

The Winlink on Wednesday or Winlink Thursday groups (https://www.emcomm-training.org/index.html) in the USA have some very well organised learning programs with regular check-ins using particular forms each week. I think the Winlink Thursday may have the more accessible documentation. They apparently accept enrolments from OS hams as well.

Peter

VK3LSN

-----

Peter Larsen
PO Box 141
Bairnsdale VIC 3875

Mob. 0419 320 733

peter.g.larsen at icloud.com <mailto:peter.g.larsen at icloud.com> 

On 7 Sep 2021, at 6:05 pm, Mark Hudson <vk3mdh at gmail.com <mailto:vk3mdh at gmail.com> > wrote:

Good afternoon everyone,

If your around Friday evening between 1930hrs ~ 2130hrs please join us in any capacity you can.

We’ll have an open Zoom session running as well as a digital emergency training exercise.

Zoom Details

Topic: WICEN Digital Playground N#2

Time: Sep 10, 2021 19:30 Australia/Melbourne

Join Zoom Meeting

 <https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88448188662?pwd=Snoyc2FLRlU3NE8xV3dDN0JkNXZXQT09> https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88448188662?pwd=Snoyc2FLRlU3NE8xV3dDN0JkNXZXQT09

Meeting ID: 884 4818 8662

Passcode: 428339

Friday Nights Training Exercise – NOTE – This is not how I usually write a emergency training exercise or SOP’s but due to timing and the informality of Friday night here it is.

The Aim & Objective - The aim of this week’s exercise is to see how many WICEN stations we can get on air with VARA Winlink. The objective will be the successful passing of several messages by each field station. This exercise also tests having two Melbourne Metropolitan control stations using single frequencies (both on HF & VHF). 

The scenario

At 1930hrs all internet & phone communications fail across the state of Victoria due to a unknown “issue” in the states telecommunications systems. This means all agencies are without their usual voice and data systems. A State Emergency Management Plan has been enacted written for this scenario. You have set up your station at your assigned local Police Station. At the Police station senior Police, Fire, Ambulance and possibly SES leaders have assembled.

Your WICEN standard operating procedure says as follows (for this exercise).

1.       If connecting with VARA FM connect to either VK3EQ or VK3MDH and send a message (email) using VARA FM P2P that you are at your assigned location (please specify your location) and confirm your fully operational. You will get a message back from the Net Control Station acknowledging your message. The NCS will need to reconnect to your station.

2.       If your using VARA HF Chat, connect to either VK3EQ or VK3MDH. Leave a message that you are at your assigned location (please specify location) and that your fully operational. You will get an acknowledgement back via chat and then the NCS (Net Control Station) will disconnect.

At approx. 1945hrs ~ 2000hrs. the NCS you logged into will send you Message 1. Via the same radio frequency (method) you checked in on.

It’s now 2000hrs and at this stage as power has not been affected.  Local VHF comms using fire appliances (simplex VHF) have been used to coordinate local responses to any immediate urgent needs for assistance. There is a concern that a long outage could cause the public to panic. 

At approx. 2030hrs you will receive message 2. Again you will need to respond to this message.

Note: Your WICEN Vic standard operating procedure for this event states, Rik VK3EQ and Mark VK3MDH will have their Winlink stations on the air on 145.200 in Vara FM P2P mode. For HF they are using 3581khz dial freq using VARA HF Chat.

Let’s test the plan and any questions please let me know.

Also few interesting radio video from this week’s lockdown binge.

P25 Presentation – Emergency Agencies Tasmania

 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE98s0ezgdM> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE98s0ezgdM

Winlink Portable Operation

 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE98s0ezgdM> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE98s0ezgdM

Cheers,

Mark

Mark Hudson
State Ordinary Member & Membership Officer

WICEN Victoria

Mobile  <tel:+61%20409%20500%20414> +61 409 500 414 

Email  <mailto:vk3mdh at gmail.com%C2%A0> vk3mdh at gmail.com 

Website  <http://www.vic.wicen.org.au/> www.vic.wicen.org.au 

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