Monday, November 2, 2015

Communications Exercise - You can help Nov. 8th



Onondaga County ARES, RACES, OCREC and the amateur community are requested to participate in a national exercise scheduled for the upcoming weekend. This training exercise
simulates a national Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) and Geo-Magnetic storm.




All amateur operators are invited to attend. There are no deployment requirements for this exercise so it is a great opportunity for everyone to participate; including our operators who find it difficult to get out into the field...we have a need for your participation in our emergency plans. We welcome operators of ALL skills and physical abilities. Details below:



Situation (Unclassified): TRAINING EXERCISE SIMULATES A NATIONAL CORONAL MASS EJECTION
(CME) AND GEO-MAGNETIC STORM. IN 1859, ONE OF THE LARGEST GEOMAGNETIC
STORMS ON RECORD OCCURRED. KNOWN AS THE CARRINGTON EVENT, THE CME
ASSOCIATED WITH THIS SOLAR STORM WAS A DIRECT HIT ON THE EARTH. TELEGRAPH
COMMUNICATIONS ACROSS THE GLOBE, WHICH HAD BECOME THE PRIMARY METHOD
FOR COMMUNICATIONS AROUND THE WORLD, FAILED. IN 1989, ANOTHER CME
KNOCKED OUT ELECTRICITY FOR 12 HOURS TO OVER 6 MILLION RESIDENTS IN QUEBEC.
THE SOLAR STORM OF 2012 WAS OF SIMILAR MAGNITUDE TO THE CARRINGTON
EVENT BUT PASSED EARTH’S ORBIT WITHOUT STRIKING THE PLANET. SHOULD A CME
OF THIS MAGNITUDE STRIKE EARTH TODAY, THE RESULTING GEO-MAGNETIC STORM
IS EXPECTED TO CAUSE SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE TO ELECTRICAL AND TELECOM-MUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE, CONSUMER ELECTRONICS, AND CAUSE WIDESPREAD
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DISRUPTIONS. SOME ESTIMATES INDICATE UP
TO 2 TRILLION DOLLARS IN DAMAGE AND RECOVERY FROM SUCH AN
EVENT MAY EXTEND FROM SEVERAL MONTHS TO YEARS. ONLY EQUIPMENT
THAT HAS BEEN PROTECTED DURING THE GEO-MAGNETIC STORM SHOULD
BE EXPECTED TO OPERATE POST-EVENT.

MISSION: IN A SIMULATED NATIONAL CRISIS SITUATION, MARS STATIONS WILL
EXERCISE CONTINGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SUPPORT IN COOPERATION WITH AMATEUR RADIO STATIONS FROM 071200Z NOV 2015(1200z Nov-7th) TO 102359Z NOV 2015 (23:59z Nov-10th)

Onondaga County amateur radio operators have been requested to report the following information to the County RACES Radio Officer or designee during a portion of this drill with further instruction provided when you check in:

POWER STATUS          
WATER STATUS          
SANITATION STATUS          
MEDICAL FACILITY STATUS          
COMMUNICATIONS STATUS            
TRANSPORTATION STATUS            
SOURCES OF INFORMATION (if other than first hand observation)          
REMARKS
 NOTE: Actual status is
 requested.  If you have AC
 power, the power status is OK.

Drill: The Onondaga County Deputy Emergency Coordinator and RACES Radio Officer have established the following paths for amateur operators within Onondaga County to forward their situation reports (all times are local):
11/8/2015 at 07:30 147.300R - A net will be held to collect reports
11/8/2015 at 08:00 146.775R - A net will be held to collect reports
11/8/2015 at 09:00 - The New York State RACES net will begin collection of the county reports
11/8/2015 at 11:00 147.300 simplex - A net will be held to collect reports (use of the repeater output in simplex will simulate the loss of the repeater)  
11/8/2015 at 11:30 146.775R - A net will be held to collect reports
11/8/2015 at 21:00 - 147.300 and 147.000R - Reports formatted in NTS format may be sent to the RACES RO (KB2WAU) via the net - Note: internet, phone and store and forward systems are not allowed for this exercise so the messages should be relayed directly to MARS, ARES or RACES for movement up the chain

There is no need to respond with your ability to participate unless you would like to act as net control for one of the net times.

***PLEASE do not respond to this e-mail as it is a large distribution list***
Please send all questions / comments to onondagaraces@earthlink.net
Thank you for your participation.
73
Richard Kilmartin
KB2WAU

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