Announcing the 2023 MS ARES Simulated Emergency Test (SET) 12 Aug 2023
The 2023 MS ARES SET will feature a land falling hurricane and recovery. The event will be 12 hours in duration. The hours of operations have been updated this year to 430am through 430pm local time. Modes in use will be High Frequency (HF) point to point NVIS systems as well as VHF/UHF repeaters (for inland voice nets). Again this year, we will also be using the Brandmeister DMR Talk-groups for Mississippi on VOIP hot spots.
SET coordination will always be managed on the primary statewide HF Voice network and failover to DMR, NBEMS Digital HF as necessary.
Purpose:
The main purpose of the SET is to evaluate strengths and weaknesses of the state's Amateur Radio emergency preparedness as well as to demonstrate amateur radio to our served agencies and the public. Mississippi RACES is also very much a part of this test.
MS ARES is designed to operate without infrastructure like repeaters or hardline internet services. The SET's success is based on message handling via radio frequency (RF) networks.
ARES Mission:
It is the mission of the Mississippi Section Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) to serve as the coordinating point for amateur radio operators in Mississippi and their served agencies in the event of a communications emergency.
ARES is a national-level volunteer organization whose purpose is to serve the public by providing licensed, certified, and competent Amateur Radio communications to federal, state, county, and local government agencies, as well as to nonprofit disaster relief organizations.
The primary activity of ARES is to provide emergency communications during disasters or remarkable events such as severe weather (hurricanes, flashfloods, ice storms), power failures, large area events (parades, marathons, races, walks, bicycle tours), etc... During an event, ARES will supplement public service communications or stand in the place of primary normal communications when other channels become unavailable. ARES will operate before, during, and after major disasters.
This year's test will be in three phases:
Pre-landfall preps
Landfall, and
Recovery
Only the coastal stations will be restricted on power and infrastructure.
If a station has satellite internet (aka Starlink) they will be allowed to use that mode for comms.
A GroupMe texting group activated to help guide operators to active net frequencies and modes.
What do we need from MEMA?
Just for you to know that we're there doing our thing, testing our RF networks and trying to beat our performance from last year. In 2022, we scored fifth in the nation, however the previous two years, we scored #1 in the nation. We're trying to get back to the #1 spot.
Why does Mississippi do so well at this test? Because the state has very little amateur radio infrastructure in place so normal day-to-day communications have to occur via our local HF nets in the absence of big hi-level repeaters. We have gotten really good at regional voice and digital communications over the years. When a real emergency takes place in our state, our operators rely on these regional nets to pass traffic.
We do get points for passing simulated traffic back and forth for our served agencies. For 2023, we would like to better coordinate with MEMA so we are testing message traffic that would fit in a land falling hurricane emergency. Let us know your thoughts?
I appreciate the bandwidth!
V/R,
Stay tuned for more information. Please mark your calendars to participate in this event. Even if for just a short time throughout the day. We will be having a real hurricane event one of these days and this practice can help build our skills and identify the weak spots.
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