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OPSASP      Version 1. 3     3/1/92



OPERATIONS  [CATEGORY: OPS]
ASPECTS of OPERATIONS

ONE HOUR EXERCISE QUESTION
A frequently asked question is "How can we do a long exercise
when the RACES regulations limit them to one hour a week?"
The answer is by not calling it a RACES exercise on the air.
There is no time limit to Amateur radio exercises other than
strictly RACES. The definition of RACES is emergency
communications for a specific local government jurisdiction by
its assigned Amateur radio operators. RB86-14.

QUESTIONS ABOUT CONNECTING THE EOC'S WITH PACKET.
Fred Molesworth, Volunteer Packet Coordinator, Oregon State
Emergency Communications Center, gave a report on the growth and
plans of their statewide Amateur Radio packet system; "Organizing
Packet Networks - The TOPS Story".
"TOPS - The Oregon Packet Society - is about six months old now.
It includes almost all the node operators, the BBS sysops, the
traffic handlers, and the ARES group. Four of the eight TOPS
directors are from the ARES. No one will stress the packet system
more than the ARES and RACES; that is what exercises are good for
-- to drive design improvements.
"We have learned that keyboard to keyboard doesn't cut it when we
installed a BBS at the Oregon State EOC. Our autoprint is always
turned on so that any person at the State EOC can receive a
message at any time.
"We're going to set up district bulletin boards (store and
forward mailboxes) to use auto routing capabilities without undue
loading problems. Our goal is to have a BBS in every (36) county
EOC with a 24-hour dedicated BBS. We can setup the forwarding
times to anything we want -- not once an hour as in normal packet
networks. We want to go between any two counties or the State EOC
in a matter of minutes.
"There are about one thousand active packet radio users in the
state of Oregon."
Question and answers followed: -How do you train those who setup
county EOC bulletin boards? 
"We (State volunteers) go to the counties and provide them the
training. In this way they all get the same training and learn
the same do's and dont's."
- How are these ARES BBS's different from regular Amateur Radio
bulletin boards? "We do not carry any 4SALE, AMSAT, ALLUS and
similar messages."
There were over 80 Amateur Radio and CAP emergency communications
and emergency management leaders invited to this workshop from
Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska. The conference was judged a
complete success and long overdue. RB 136
PROPER COMMUNICATIONS CHANNELS
Frequent requests are received from city and county RACES
participants and other amateurs on how to contact us directly in
Sacramento. Whereas this is ok on an informal basis, the danger
is that some Amateurs Radio operators may be led to believe that
that is the accepted communications route. This is not the case.
State OES is divided into six mutual aid regions. Thus all county
Amateur/RACES communications goes to their appropriate OES region
and not to Sacramento. All communications plans and operations
should reflect this.  RB86-37 

HF RADIO IS VERY IMPORTANT
Because so much VHF-FM is used so much in the RACES some may get
the impression that that is all there is to the RACES.  It is
true that most emergency communications needs at the city and
county level are met by VHF and UHF bands and that HF is reserved
for intermediate distance State OES RACES use.  But there are
local incidents where HF can and should be used.  Recent forest
fires, for example, required the use of 80 meters to get out of
deep canyons where all other radios failed. The overall
capability for HF mobile RACES operation has diminished
substantially over the past two decades.  This is a serious
matter in any large or mountainous county.  Does your RACES have
at least one HF mobile that can readily be put into the field? 
Does its antenna have good high angle radiation characteristics
desired for typical intermediate distances?  Are you ready? RB
86-19.

DISPATCHING RESPONDERS OUT-OF-AREA 
HOW FAR IS FAR? A ham at a recent meeting said he thought very
few hams would ever leave their county on a RACES or ARES
mission. Others disagreed. One side feels it goes with the
territory and will respond if called upon to do so. The other
side feels that it is stretching public service too far. This is
obviously a subject matter that varies from person to person. How
do you feel? It is suggested that all RACES Radio Officers and
ARES EC's poll each of their members to learn the answers in
advance of making out-of-area dispatch requests.  
Ptn of RB 86-28 
Ptn of RB 86-28