County of Vermilion River Regional Alliance 2008 Exercise

The exercise will run from 4 pm to 10 pm on 2008 March 5th. (My initial email said 8 pm. I was wrong.) However the amateurs need only be setup by 5:30 pm.

The locations and assignments are:
County of Vermilion River - Len VE5WI, Sharon VE5BAP, Jim VA6NJK
Village of Kitscoty - Bill VE5FN, Bill VE6DBA
Village of Marwayne - Ed VA6EF, Don VA5DDL, John VE6JDD
Village of Dewberry - Bob VE6PIG and Gary
East Central 911 - Wainwright - Mike VE6MEX & Bill VA6RQ
Village of Mannville - Don VE6VAC, Eric VE6BBP

As these are all villages, with the exception of EC911, I didn't track down the address. Look for the block or two with commercial buildings or ask someone.

This is a formal message handling exercise. There will be a lot of listening if you are not the stations which are currently transferring the message.

The message forms will be supplied by the municipality. The incoming, outgoing and station logs can be downloaded from ARES Edmonton Region. Click on Documents on the left hand side.

Station operators.

Please let net control know as soon as you are in your vehicle heading to a site. If there are multiple operators at your site take turns sending and receiving the messages. I'd like to see everyone have a chance at the microphone.

Before transmitting a message add the word exercise. Use your tactical call sign, that is the location other than during roll call. For example "Paradise Valley - County Office" rather than VE6ABC this is VE5XYZ.

You will be responsible for bringing a radio, power supply, antenna, coax, etc, etc. Distant locations, such as Mannville, will require a directional antenna or some height. Don VE6VAC has that location under control.

Where reasonable we will be asking stations that can communicate via simplex to move off the VE5RI repeater to transfer messages. Examples might be between Marwayne and either Vermilion, Dewberry or Kitscoty. Or Kitscoty to Paradise Valley. Maybe. Or with Don's Yagi at 30' in Mannville he might be able to work a station or two simplex.

Let net control know if you are moving to another frequency and tell net control when you are back.

Sign in at the sites. And once you are setup call in to let net control know you're operational. If you need to take a short break let net control know you're temporarily unavailable. And let net control know once you're back.

Net control operators.

Starting about an hour before the net monitor to see who is on the way. Every half hour or so do a brief sitrep and a roll call. The setrep should mention that this is Exercise Comfort. The roll call will also keep us legal as to Industry Canada ID requirements.

Net control or a logger will log each station as they set up, during roll calls and as folks sign out.

External links

Crossband repeating

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 After the Exercise - Pictures and Stuff - from the files of VE5FN and others

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Alberta government, County of Vermilion River and Village of Kitscoty and Amateur Radio Operators

                                                                                                                                  ^{VE5FN photos}

CVR Reeve Don Whittaker                                                            CVR administrator Glenda

CVR rep Orest Popil                                                                       Kitscoty Village Administrator Harold Trew

Alberta DEMO Bill Boskwick                                                          RCMP Cst Luke                        RCMP Cst Mike

Bill - VE5FN copying a message                                                                                  ^{VE5FN photo}

Bill - VE6DBA takes his turn copying                                                                         ^{VE5FN photo}

Bill - VE6DBA sending a message. Darryl Frank, Kitscoty mayor, observing               ^{VE5FN photo}

VE5FN and VE6DBA take a break                                                                                   ^{VE5FN photo}

Debriefing after the exercise - Len VE5WI, Jim VA6NJK, Tony VE6MVP, ?, Steve VE6SRL  ^{VE5FN photo}

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Amateur Radio Operators and Village Personnel at Marwayne

John VE6JDD, Ed VA6EF and Don VA5DDL handling EMO traffic                 ^{Contributed photo}

VE6JDD                VA6EF                          VA5DDL               Joanne Horton       ?  ^{Contirbuted photo}

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Exercise Comfort Scene at Mannville

Don VE6VAC, Eric VE6BBP and Herb VE6PRE setting up the yagi ^{Contributed photo}

Don VE6VAC and Eric VE6BBP with the truck mounted yagi                      ^{Contributed photo}

Candace of the Village of Mannville                                                          ^{Contributed photo}