RACES Notes 03/08/2006

News and Announcements

1) Upcoming Events
Mar 11 - Scottsdale Hamfest
Mar 11 - SEARS Meeting 
Mar 18 - SAR Training Mission
Mar 18 - Red Cross Drill - Benson
Apr 29-30 - La Vuelta de Bisbee Bike Race

2) Search and Rescue Training - The SAR team will conduct a cold 
case search just south of Pearce in Sulphur Springs Valley near 
mile post 44 of US 191 on March 18th 0900 hrs.  A combination of 
Horse, ATV and foot teams will be conducting a ground search 
looking for missing person expected to be dead.  We will use 
this as a training mission to assist in command and control of 
the event.

3)  The Red Cross is conducting a drill in the Benson area on 
Mar 18th and have requested assistance.  As most of you are aware, 
the ARRL and ARES has an MOU with the Red Cross for communications 
assistance so this gives us another opportunity to excel.  They 
are requesting a two person team to provide connectivity with 
the Red Cross in Tucson from approximately 9 - 12.   I am guessing 
they will be using a 2 meter repeater on Mt. Lemmon or Bigelow for 
the connectivity.

4) DICE - 06 -1. The purpose of DICE was to test and evaluate 
communications interoperability with Federal, State, County and 
local first responder agencies. Our purpose was to participate 
using the new County Emergency Response Vehicle and train some 
of our own operators on its operations.  The exercise simulated 
a series of Hazmat and Mass Casualty situations in Cochise County 
and Santa Cruz County designed to test and stress the communications 
response procedures and capabilities over the course of the 
week (28 Feb - 3 Mar).  We tested all the operational assets we 
had.  We learned some things that still need to be changed for 
ergonomic or operational reasons.  We still have a number of things 
that need to be finished up such as the Antenna Adapter for the 
top of the Pneumatic Mast, RF Panel, and the external Input/Output 
panel. We also are converting everything to Anderson Power Poles 
for our DC connections.  I will attach the formal After Action 
Report to the notes this evening. I want to thank all those who 
were able to come out and give us a hand.  

5) Propane Tank Incident near Bisbee - We were called out initially 
to assist for an evacuation. I was diverted enroute to pick up the 
new comm van and take it over to assist AZ DPS.   Primary role turned 
out to provide an email link between AZ DPS on scene and the AZ 
DPS in Phoenix as we sent and received photos from the incident 
site.  A 9600 gal propane truck went over the side on highway 80 
and was located about 80 foot down the canyon from the highway.  
There was serious consideration that a BLEVE might occur and cause 
considerable damage to the surrounding homes.  Several homes were 
evacuated.  As we speak they are burning off the fuel.  Check any 
of the Tucson channels tonight for coverage. All the major networks 
were on scene including NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox.  You will see the 
truck in the background on several of the shots. 

Training: 

Tonight I would like to refresh some of the common Prowords used 
on amateur nets. 

(1)	Prowords  "OVER"/"OUT".  Voice transmissions on VHF or UHF 
repeaters are rarely concluded with the Proword "OVER".  The 
courtesy tone or bee bop of the repeater serves the function to 
tell the other party you are finished talking.  Sometimes during 
weak signal simplex operations, it is good practice to use the 
Proword OVER or OUT. On HF, this practice is strongly recommended 
but one never ever uses both together.  Why you might ask?  Each 
Proword signifies to the station you are in contact with that your 
transmission is completed and that you are either awaiting a 
response ("OVER"), or not awaiting a response ("OUT").  The other 
station should not transmit until the current net operation (traffic 
relay etc.) is completed and one of these two Prowords is used.  
When entering an HF net always conclude your check-in with the 
Proword "OVER" because you are awaiting acknowledgment from the 
NCS of your check-in. The Proword OUT implies that you are 
finished talking and do not expect anything further to be said.  
It is also polite to allow the station initiating the conversation 
to be the person to finish the conversation.

 (2) Prowords "WAIT"/"WAIT OUT".  If it is necessary for a station 
to pause during their transmission for any reason, the prowords 
"WAIT" or "WAIT OUT" will be used.  The Proword "WAIT" is used 
when the pause required will last for only a few seconds; "WAIT 
OUT" is used when the pause requires more time.  Even though the 
Proword "WAIT OUT" ends with "OUT" the communication between 
these two stations is not yet complete, therefore no other station 
will transmit during this pause unless they have emergency traffic 
or traffic of a higher precedence than that being handled.

(3) Prowords "ROGER"/"AFFIRMATIVE"/"NEGATIVE".   The Proword 
"ROGER" signifies only that you understand the information 
transmitted to you, without indicating approval or disapproval; 
"AFFIRMATIVE" signifies approval or Yes and "NEGATIVE" disapproval 
or No.  Additionally, since "ROGER" only signifies understanding, 
the Proword "ROGER" is not used as an action word.  For example, 
it is inappropriate to say "I ROGER INTO THE NET..." or "I 
ROGER YOUR TRANSMISSION", where "ROGER" spoken alone will suffice.

(4) Proword "WILCO".  The prowords "WILL COMPLY" or its contraction 
"WILCO" may be used interchangeably.  It is used in response to 
a request or tasking and means that you understand the tasking 
(thus no need to use in conjunction with the Proword "ROGER") 
and agree to accomplish the task.   

(5) Proword "BREAK".  Its use is twofold.  First, it is used 
in the transmission of messages to signify the breakpoints 
between the message heading and the text of the message, then 
again following the end of the message text.  Second, "BREAK", 
spoken once, is used to interrupt a net when a station has an 
emergency or traffic of a higher precedence than that which 
is being handled at that time.  Unlike the military service and 
MARS operations, amateur operators also use the Proword "BREAK" 
to conclude their communication with one station and immediately 
establish communication with another station.  One common misuse 
of the Proword BREAK is saying BREAK when someone stops speaking 
and lets up on the transmit key to reset the repeater timer 
during long transmissions.  Actually, we really do not need to 
say anything at that point although the use of the Proword RESET 
does it make it clear that we are simply releasing the transmitter 
to allow the timer to reset and not finished talking.      

(6) Proword "I SPELL".  Difficult words or groups within plain 
text messages may be spelled out using the phonetic alphabet 
preceded by the Proword "I SPELL".
For example say the word followed by the Proword "I SPELL" and 
then spell the word phonetically and say the word again.  For 
example, "CATENARY, I SPELL CHARLIE ALPHA TANGO ECHO NOVEMBER 
ALPHA ROMEO YANKEE, CATENARY."  

(7) Proword "INITIAL".  Single letters will be spelled phonetically 
preceded by the Proword "INITIAL".  However, the words "I" and 
"a" are considered words not initials; they are not spoken phonetically.

(8)  Proword "FIGURES". Numerals will be preceded by the Proword 
"FIGURES" when there is a need to distinguish between numerals 
not in mixed groups and words.  "FIGURES" is not used when 
transmitting the heading of a message or when the prowords "NUMBER", 
"TIME", or "GROUPS" are used.  Numbers will be transmitted digit 
by digit, except that exact multiples of hundreds and thousands 
are spoken as such. The decimal point is spoken as "DAY-SEE-MAL".  
Roman numerals will be transmitted as the corresponding Arabic 
letters, preceded by the Proword "ROMAN".  For example, the Roman 
numeral "XVI" is spoken as "ROMAN NUMERAL X-RAY VICTOR INDIA".

(9)	The Proword "PERIOD" is used to indicate the end of a 
sentence during voice communications. We also learned during 
our NTS training that we use the word X-RAY in NTS traffic to 
identify periods. Recently it has become common to use the word 
"DOT" when providing internet addresses or email addresses.  

That's plenty for tonight, now let's go down the roster for comments.



Bob
Robert L Hollister