Every fall the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) holds their annual Simulated Emergency Test (SET). One Saturday in October we “hang out” on the air like we might on any typical weekend. Of course we know that this day won’t be a typical day but we try to act like nothing is up. At a given time the exercise director will make a call on one of the local repeaters declaring the beginning of the exercise.
The call will go out for an operator capable of acting as Network Control Operator or NC. The NC is in charge of directing traffic during the exercise. Communication is directed to the NC by transmitting your call sign. The NC responds by identifying the station that he wants to communicate with. They conduct their business and then the NC will call on another station. This helps keep everyone from trying to talk at once. That could have bad consequences in the case of an emergency situation.
We train all year so that we will be ready to operate in an emergency but there is nothing like an exercise like the SET to see how well you have prepared. We are checking to see how quickly we can get into place and set up in the case of an actual emergency. We establish relationships with the local representatives of our “served agencies”. Served agencies are everything from volunteer fire departments, organizations that operate shelters, to governmental agencies that have larger scopes of responsibility than they have budget to exercise those responsibilities.
Our national ham radio advocacy organization, the Amateur Radio Relay League, has a slogan that they are quick to use to describe the role of Amateur Radio, “Amateur Radio, when all else fails.” It is a testament to our ingenuity, our attention to detail, and our dedication to our families, our neighbors, and our communities.
I often hear people, especially younger people who have grown up with the internet, ask what is special about ham radio? I can do all that with my cell phone and the internet. While much of what they say is true what they don’t realize is that cell phones and the internet are dependent on infrastructure. Ham radio prides itself in its ability to operate in the face of massive failure of communication and power infrastructure. We have batteries and generators. We don’t depend on cell towers or fiber optic trunks for communication.
We also have a culture of life long learning. We teach each other new technologies and new techniques. We build kits so that we understand the technology that we use from the ground up. We build antennas, radios, compact racks to facilitate our ability to grab our equipment and go. It’s an inspiring activity to be involved with.
Sweet dreams, don’t forget to tell the ones you love that you love them, and most important of all, be kind.