ACT2 will focus on interoperability and interaction between amateur radio operators and other groups.  Specifically, we will practice moving traffic between local CERT groups and public safety stations that are staffed by amateurs.  The relationship between these two volunteer public service groups is often described as an important part of a response plan, yet we rarely practice a large scale scenario that includes them both.

For the exercise, we will simulate a wide scale telephone system outage in key coastal areas, which results in an overloaded inland system as well.  CERT volunteers will be utilized to collect simulated damage assessments and citizen 911 calls and relay those over FRS/GMRS radio to an amateur radio communicator for delivery to the appropriate agency.

General Plans

HF Voice

We will conduct a quick HF net from approximately 1100-1130 to collect checkins from stations with this capability.  We will again use the state frequency of 3964kHz LSB.  The AC1ES station will be net control.  If you have HF capability at your operating location, please check in.

Winlink

We encourage all stations to use Winlink for exchanging SITREP information.  Please copy the AC1ES station on all traffic for the purposes of logging and post-exercise reporting.

D-STAR

As in ACT 1, we will use the D-STAR systems in Hillsboro and at Mt. Hebo for coordination between Tillamook, Lincoln, and Washington counties.  The systems will be linked together, so use whatever is closest for you:

State of Oregon OEM ARU - W7OEM

The Oregon State Office of Emergency Management (OEM) is staffing their Amateur Radio Unit (ARU) station for this exercise.  All county stations should send situation reports and Declaration of Emergency (DOE) messages to the OEM ARU station via Winlink.  Be sure to adhere to the OADN requirements for message formatting and subject field tagging of any message you send.  The OEM ARU personnel will respond to DOE messages with a request for damage assessments.  Additionally, they will provide you with a report on your compliance with the defined procedures.  This will be a good opportunity to practice these procedures and get immediate feedback from the OEM ARU.

Tillamook County - KB7EOC

In collaboration with local, county, and state stakeholders and volunteers, Tillamook County hopes to integrate communications between CERT and amateur radio operators.  By testing the process of relaying messages between FRS/GMRS and amateur radio, they hope to move traffic between "boots on the ground" volunteer teams in multiple areas up through the various levels of staff, including the state.

Integrating CERT volunteers will provide an opportunity to familiarize them with the equipment and procedures involved in an emergency communications response.  Some highlights from their detailed exercise plan:

• 0900-0915: Setup and Scenario Briefing
• 0930-0945: Develop COM plan
• 1000-1015: Send Emergency Declaration to OEM and other counties
• 1030-1045: Notify CERT members of request
• 1145-1200: Send SITREP #2 to OEM

Washington County

The Washington County EOC will not be activating, but several of the city stations within it will be.  NOTE: The Hillsboro EOC station will be the acting county EOC for this drill.  If you have traffic that would normally be sent to the county, send it to K7HIO.  We will use the 146.900MHz repeater for communication with WCCCA and the 147.360MHz repeater for communication between the CERT radio groups.  The details for the repeaters are:

City of Hillsboro - K7HIO

The City of Hillsboro ham station will be activating the EOC and the water station.  They will test their alphanumeric paging system again now that they have trained their operators to use the interface.  The newly-installed HF station will be tested on voice and Winlink/Pactor. Primary intra-city voice traffic will occur on the K7HIO site repeater.  Situation status information will be sent via Winlink to the Washington County EOC every hour, along with the results of the CERT search efforts described below.

Members from the Hillsboro CERT team will be participating in the drill, conducting a staged neighborhood search and damage assessment in Orenco Station.  Non-ham personnel will use FRS radios to communicate tactical traffic, mock 911 calls, and the results of the search back to multiple ham stations in the park areas.  The damage assessments will be relayed to the Hillsboro EOC station and the 911 traffic will be forwarded to WCCCA's 911 dispatch center.  Check out the Hillsboro CERT exercise plan.

City of Beaverton - W7BVT

The Beaverton CERT radio team will be working to send and receive mock health and welfare messages to and from stations in Hillsboro and Tillamook.  In a real widespread disaster, CERT personnel will be critical in assisting the process of getting notification of affected family members to their loved ones in other locations.  The Beaverton CERT team will prepare for this realistic scenario by interacting with real CERT and amateur radio teams in adjacent cities.  The City of Beaverton's amateur radio station (W7BVT) will be staffed to support the CERT operations as necessary.

WCCCA - KD7REX

The Washington County Consolidated Communications Agency (WCCCA) will be staffing their amateur radio station during the exercise for the purpose of receiving simulated 911 calls from area CERT groups.  The agency is the 911 center for the county, which means that if the telephone network is down, volunteer communicators would be relaying those calls over the radio to that station directly.  They will monitor 146.900MHz for these calls during the exercise.

Sherwood - KD7RFC

The city of Sherwood EOC ARU will be activated and will participate in the drill. A series of goals are outlined for participants to act as a team. Sherwood will particpate with/on 2m/70cm voice and 2m packet operations. The ARU will assist other participating EOC's by sending and receiving EOC traffic.  See their detailed ICS-201 form for the rest of their plan.

Lincoln County - W7ONP

Lincoln County RACES team members will be staffing their preassigned stations.  The Lincoln County EOC will operate as net control checking in all stations as assigned.  The EOC will send a sitrep and DOE for the event, and after the response from OEM, RACES members will coordinate with local CERT teams in all three county areas to provide damage assessments.  The focus will be on communication from the EOC to amateurs who can relay information to and from local CERT teams, and compiling the damage assesment informaiton for transmission to the OEM.