EmComm Practice

 

Hurricane Ida is raging against SE Louisiana with winds at 145 mph and pressure at 930 mb.  If something like this happened in your area, could you establish and maintain communications?

Too often, we practice but when we practice, we cheat.  EmComm in your back yard is very different than for realz.  I have deployed as a communicator to five hurricane disaster areas.  What you have is what you bring with you.  There is no running back to the house because you forgot something. 

Fortunately, these large-scale events do not happen very often.  On the other hand, they do not happen enough to keep our skills sharp.  The question becomes, how do we prepare and maintain those skills during the in-between times?  I think an excellent way to practice is to do Parks on the Air (POTA) and Summits on the Air (SOTA) activation.  As an activator, you often must rely only upon what you bring with you, including power.  It teaches you how long your batteries last and what voltage level your radio quits working.  It can also give you an idea how much RF power you really need.   For those enamored with digital modes, you can learn how much energy your computers use.  It’s an important consideration since once it is gone, it is gone.  Some of us have adopted solar panels but again, if you are using more power than the panels can produce, you come up short.  If you do an activation as a part of your EmComm training, I recommend going at least 20 miles away from home.  That is typically the point at which it is too far to turn around or go back to the house for something.

One way to efficiently pass traffic is with CW or Morse code.  It requires less power to travel the same distance as voice/SSB and does not require a computer which is an additional drain on your power supply.  For the same reasons, many SOTA activators use CW as their main mode of operation.  Back in the day when I was a Tech+ KC5RKS, I enjoyed CW and that is how I made my first DX contacts.  Life took over and I had to put down CW.  However, I am working at getting my chops back.  I am currently somewhere around 15 wpm.  As a Tech+, I was about 18 wpm. 

CW is not the end all to communications, but when everything else is failing or you’re  running low on power, It would be nice to pull that CW key or paddle out of your back pocket and continue to operate.  73