The day before the exercise, Norm Styer - AI2C on Canby Road at Clarkes Gap checked his equipment, reviewed the Loudoun ARES operations plan, and the Virginia VDEM and Virginia ARES Internet Sites. The Virginia EOC was operational on 3947.0 kHz as part of the VERTEX and communications checks were conducted with W4ZA in Richmond at the Virginia EOC. A second check of the state-wide packet radio system was conducted with a message sent to W4ZA@W4ZA. On the afternoon of April 25, Norm Styer sent the following report on preparation and readiness to Tom Dawson and others preparing to participate:

Operations At Loudoun EOC       By 0700 hours, as I came up on 147.48 MHz simplex, Tom Dawson - WB3AKD was mobile in western Loudoun County and looking for a tail guard for his over loaded tower trailer. He asked for John Unger - W4AU and we got him turned around at Clarkes Gap. At about 0725 hours, AI2C passed one early message from W4ZA-Virginia EOC to WB3AKD that had been distributed on packet system several hours before the start of the local exercise. Within the hour, all had arrived at the Loudoun EOC and work on assembling antenna started. At about 0845 hours, K4LRG was on the air from within the EOC. The Antenna Erection Crew John Ives - KI4TXP of Leesburg, Grant Russell - KI3EMT of Round Hill, Tom Dawson - WB3AKD of Round Hill, John Unger - W4AU of Hamilton and Victor Carter - KB9WXV of Ashburn      After the basic communications were operational from the EOC on the VHF and UHF frequencies, Tom and his crew set to work on bringing up a WiFi system and later an HF link. The WiFi network operated in the 2.4 Ghz band and was intended to restore, if necessary, basic communications between the county EOC and the town of Leesburg's EOC. The approach was to distribute WiFi repeater packages along the route. Three remote repeaters had been completed when the exercise was terminated.      Communications operations by the ARES stations at the EOC was minimal. A couple messages were processed. These were ARES related subjects regarding ARES manning levels and needs. They were relayed through the off-site station at AI2C. No other traffic was passed. The exercise terminated about 1300 hours. John Ives - KI4TXP of Leesburg, Tom Dawson - WB3AKD of Round Hill, John Unger - W4AU of Hamilton, Margaret Gentges - AI4UX of Great Falls and Carol Boehler - KF4TJJ of Leesburg

Portable Antennas At Loudoun EOC Portable Antenna Platform The Portable Antenna Systems By Tom Dawson - WB3AKD

Some Final Thoughts - Some For Food - We Need To Grow - de AI2C

     Responses to Loudoun traffic sent via the packet system took an hour or more to get back to Loudoun from W4ZA. This would not be the best circuit during an emergency unless more dedicated paths were provided. We did learn how to put together a 'path' on the state-wide packet system; this should speed traffic flow. We need to exercise it. That is, load it up. The 'direct path' method of operation should be stressed and let us see what happens.

     On the HF nets there was little exercise traffic: just communications checks, some county EOC's checking in - I logged no more than 5 or 6, and one or maybe two ARES related status request messages. There was a considerable amount of 'stand-by' time. I trust that exercise traffic about the 'affected' area was handled on southeast and central Virginia VHF and UHF nets. But had we had exercise traffic for the HF system then there would be a similar problem that was evident on the packet system and one technique that should work is to move the traffic off frequency - like "go down 5 or 10, call your station, pass your traffic and report back into the net." Likewise, more intense training is necessary; I would expect several hundred cross-state messages a day, many with multiple addresses, in a live event. In this case, several nets will be need to operate simultaneously on each band-mode; this would best be handled by organizing the several nets based on who is needing to talk to whom, or separate them based on precedence or nature of the traffic. Finally, this will require several more stations at the Virginia EOC. It might be best to have the NCS and one or more ANCS's situated at other than the Virginia EOC. These scenarios need to be taught, trained and exercised.

     I found folks using several message formats: ICS-213-OS, the standard ARRL message form and something else on packet. It sure wasn't always clear as to who some of this traffic was to be delivered. I worried about originating date-time, the receipt date-time and my retransmit date-time. And the ICS-213 form doesn't require a word count - the check. There was one comment about having to also send the original message, Item 6 Message, when you are given a responding ICS-213 for transmission. We need clarity on this and then practice this often. Right now I envision a lot of stuff getting lost, being delayed to seek clarity, or not being responded to. Finally, I think we'll need most stuff to be record or written traffic - not hand written; so think packet radio and other digital modes and plenty of portable stand alone laptop computers and printers. I'd like to be proficient in refiling traffic from a voice net directly to a packet radio keyboard, that is, type it into the packet terminal message format as you copy it on the voice net. My manual refile usually took five minutes, maybe longer, my typing is not so hot, after I had hand written the original off the voice net. I never did get down to the 3578 kHz Chip64 HF spread spectrum digital test that was to be operational but after reading the submitted after action reports it appears that the folks had poor propagation and didn't pass any traffic.

     Lastly, more than one local off-site station would be needed in Loudoun County and each needs multiple operators. The multiple active off-site Loudoun stations should divide up the NCS or ANCS duties between the VHF voice, the UHF voice, the HF voice, the HF digital and the VHF packet networks. A separate HF or VHF frequency could be designated as an "order-wire circuit." And, as the operation progresses, NCS and ANCS and net assignments should be handed off among several on-call or backup stations - think one on duty, one on live backup and a third or fourth on schedule for later duty for each segment of the network. Traffic from and into the Loudoun EOC can then be handled on several means by several stations simultaneously. And, packet radio in and out of the Loudoun EOC would be very helpful. And, finally, I know remote tactical imagery to the EOC would also be nice; we need some local gurus to build this package.

     It was nice riding with you all. I hope we can do it again. Best Regards, Norm Styer - AI2C de Canby - Clarkes Gap - Loudoun - Virginia.

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