Net Operation

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Net Activation

A request for ARES assistance will originate from the Santa Cruz County Office of Emergency Services or other served agency. That request will go to the first person reached on the phone tree for served agencies. The person receiving the request shall record the name of the individual, his/her title, telephone number, and name of the agency requesting assistance. Also, log the time and any essential information regarding the incident, such as the location, situation details, and locations to be staffed by ARES members, along with how many are needed at each station. Determine if there are any special instructions regarding routes and access to the affected area. Be certain you are absolutely clear on all information. Then, contact the DEC and EC's of the affected area. You may, at least for the moment, find yourself acting as the NCS. You should go on your local repeater and broadcast the following alert:

"ALERT ALERT ALERT. THIS IS A (FIRE/MEDICAL/GENERAL) ALERT. THIS (IS/IS NOT) A DRILL. ARES HAS BEEN ACTIVATED BY (who called you)."

If you are unsure about assuming net control, say:

"IS THERE A NET CONTROL OPERATOR ON FREQUENCY?"

If a net control operator responds, give them all pertinent details regarding the situation. Then, continue the bulletin:

"ALL STATIONS COPY. THIS IS A (FIRE/MEDICAL/GENERAL) ACTIVATION OF THE SAN LORENZO VALLEY ARES NET. STATIONS AVAILABLE FOR ASSIGNMENT PLEASE CHECK IN WHEN REQUESTED."

Provide details of the incident.

Initially, the station will be acting as both the Tactical and Resource Net Control stations. As soon as possible, other stations should be instructed to repeat the information bulletin on other area repeaters. This will serve to alert others on the possibility of a need for their services. More importantly, this will help keep the primary emergency frequency free of informational requests from the merely curious.

After the initial alert, the Tactical Net will become operational. Dispatching operators to assignments will first be handled there. Emergency situations involving ARES will most likely involve the Red Cross and area hospitals. County EOC, along with these locations, will be the first to become operational. These locations will be initially manned by specific pre-designated trained individuals. Note that admission to the EOC in Santa Cruz will not be possible without the proper ID card.

Net Basics

Some principles apply to all nets. These principles are absolutely essential during emergency operations. Without net discipline, chaos would result. The Net Control Station is responsible for proper operations, whether a real emergency exists, if the operation is for a public service event, or for training purposes only.

There are two types of nets, open and directed. If the net is an open net, you may contact anyone on the frequency. If the net is a directed net you must contact the NCS to obtain permission to talk directly to another station. Although a single experienced operator can handle a busy and complicated net under normal circumstances, more than one operator may be required at a site during disaster operations. The second operator may assist in copying messages and in keeping track of all participating stations.

All formal traffic shall be recorded and logged. Failure to keep accurate records creates many operational problems.

Rules for Net Operations

• Monitor all communications as closely as possible. This minimizes interference with traffic exchanges, and you will not miss essential information regarding the general situation.
• Be alert and ready to respond to the NCS for assignments and information requests.
• Use tactical calls - a simple description of the location. For example, "Shelter 1", "St. John's", "County Comm", and so on. Tactical calls are used for accuracy and efficiency. Your personal call sign is not used (except for FCC identification purposes) because it is virtually impossible for all stations to know at all times which individual operator(s) is assigned to a particular location. Often, message handling is facilitated because agency personnel hear their received messages directly. You are assigned to a site as part of the net, not as an individual. FCC rules must be satisfied, of course, by giving your call every ten minutes and at the conclusion of an exchange of transmissions.
• During a directed net (also called a controlled net) traffic is passed to other stations only when cleared by the NCS. To contact NCS, it is necessary only to transmit your tactical call and the "traffic". If you have traffic for another location, indicate that during the initial call. For example:

  "County Comm from Boulder Creek Fire, traffic for Red Cross."

• When you have priority traffic to pass, indicate this in the initial call to the NCS. For example:

  "County Comm from Boulder Creek Fire, priority traffic for Red Cross."

• Acknowledge all calls to your station promptly. This applies even if you must tell the calling station to stand by. Don't forget to get back to the station you asked to stand by!
• Listen to all communications. Take care to listen before transmitting, to avoid interference to other stations.
• Keep all communications brief and to the point. This is not the time for ragchewing. Do not stop to think after the microphone button is pressed!
• Efficiency is the watchword, but that doesn't necessarily mean talking fast. Transmissions must be made at a speed which allows receiving messages to write down the message. This is one of the most common mistakes made by net operators. When you are copying messages, don't be afraid to tell the other station to slow down. Unnecessary repeats are a certain sign of poor communications and waste time.
• Use clear text in simple, easily understood language. "Q" signals are not appropriate for voice net operations. In effect, they're slang, and easily misunderstood. Remember that personnel from the served agencies should be able to understand any message when they are listening.
• Use procedural words (prosigns) to help speed communications between stations, but use them correctly. For example:

  COPY

  Indicates that a message has been understood in its entirety. It is not the same as "yes" or an indication of agreement!

  OVER

  Indicates the end of a transmission and is an invitation for the receiving station to respond. It is not necessary to use this word in repeater opertions, as the courtesy tone and/or squelch tail perform the same purpose quite well.

  CLEAR

  Indicates the end of a series of transmissions. No reply is required.

  AFFIRMATIVE

  is much less likely to be misunderstood than "yes".

  NEGATIVE

  is much less likely to be misunderstood than "no".

• If you must leave at any time, always inform the NCS. Only the NCS may authorize the closing of a station, even for a brief time. When you are back on the air, notify the NCS promptly. For example:

  "County Comm from Felton Fire - be off the air for five minutes."
  "County Comm from Felton Fire - back in service."

Net Classifications

Tactical Net

A Tactical Net is established to handle message traffic between served agency operational locations. This would include the Red Cross, CDF, EOC, a disaster site, and so on.

Situation or incident update information should not be requested from the Tactical NCS by individual operators.

Command Net

The Command Net is used by the Shift Supervisor and the leadership of an event to communicate to each other in order to resolve Amateur Radio related problems. This net would also be used to allow cities to talk to each other in order to communicate with the supervisors of the event. If there is sufficient activity for this net, it shall be moved to a seperate frequency.

Situation or incident update information should not be requested from the Command NCS by individual operators.

Resource Net

The Resource Net is implemented when operational (Tactical) communications activity would be impaired by traffic relating to the ARES personnel staffing and other administrative activity. Assignment and coordination of Amateur communcations personnel and equipment are handled on the Resource Net.

Situation or incident update information should not be requested from the Resource NCS by individual operators.

The Resource NCS will provide scheduled situation/incident updates as frequently as practical. This normally occurs via regularly scheduled broadcasts. The NCS will periodically announce the scheduled time for these broadcasts. Situation update summaries are broadcast to appraise monitoring Amateurs of the status of the emergency and to solicit volunteers as needed.

The summary is normally prepared by the EC, PIO, or other supervising person. Only official facts will be broadcast, i.e., no personal commentary is appropriate! Remember that the media and general public will probably be monitoring. The "official" summary will be rebroadcast until an authorized update is provided to the Resource NCS.

The Resource NCS will broadcast the summary report, with updates, on the hour and half hour. Urgent updates should be broadcast as appropriate. For example:

"Attention all stations. This is (your name and call), the Resource Net Control Station. Due to the current (kind of sutation), the Santa Cruz Amateur Radio Emergency Service is involved in emergency communications for (list the agencies involved). Please stand by for an update regarding the situation. (Broadcast a summary of the situation as received from the shift supervisor, PIO, or other authorized individual.) Situation updates are broadcast every thirty minutes. The next update will be at (specify the local time of the next update). Communicators are need at the following locations for the following shifts (indicate locations and shifts requiring staffing.). If you are available, please call this station. This is Resource Net Control, (your call).

Volunteers should always check in with the Resource NCS for assignments. The Resource NCS will have up-to-date information concerning the manpower and equipment requirements for operation. When volunteering for an assignment, the Resource NCS will give you information regarding the length of assignment, what personal equipment requirements, and anything else you should know before reporting to a site. If you are not told, be certain to ask - you may be in real trouble if you report to a site with the wrong radio equipment or inappropriate personal apparel.

As the Resource NCS, you are responsible for working with the Shift Supervisor to schedule operators for all required stations. Be sure to schedule for both the current shift and a shift or two ahead, so that there are ample operators available!

To schedule operators, determine how many operators are required at each station (the Resource Station Requirements Log Sheet can be of use when tracking this information). Determine what operators are available for which shifts, and schedule operators appropriately. The Resource Assignment Log Sheet can be used to aid in scheduling operators.

Resource NCS should insure that volunteers possess skills commensurate with the requirements of the task to which they will be asssigned. If training is required, it is the responsiblility of the Resource NCS to provide it. Bear in mind that all volunteers must be registered disaster service workers; they should have registered prior to the event, or be able to register at their assigned station (some served agencies, such as the Red Cross, will re-register all volunteers as they check in for their scheduled assignments).

Packet Net

When a long list needs to be sent from one location to another, packet radio is a more efficient way of passing traffic. With packet, lists do not need to be repeated, there is a permanent record of the traffic, and both ends do not have to be at their radios at the same time. Also, if a printer is available, a hard copy of the message can be printed.

The folowing procedure is in place for SCCARES.

When a Packet Net has been established, Net Control will post a bulletin on the the Packet Bulletin Board System (PBBS) giving the packet tactical calls for each location. Tactical call signs can be a maximum of six letters.

Traffic will be sent to a station by posting a bulletin to the tactical call sign of the receiving station. The subject of this bulletin is the tactical call sign of the receiving station. The body must contain:

1. The tactical call sign of the originating station.
2. Who the message is to at the receiving served agency.
3. Who the message is from at the sending served agency.
4. The body of the message.

For example:

SB WATRC
FROM SCRC WB6AAA
TO SHELTER MANAGER FROM RED CROSS DIRECTOR [CAROL]
HOW MANY ADULTS AND CHILDREN DO YOU HAVE REGISTERED AT THIS TIME? 
HOW MANY DINNERS DO YOU ESTIMATE SERVING TONIGHT?

Keeping a Log

For both resource and tactical nets, a log must be kept. Many times when there is a lot of activity, you will find that you need to refer to your log often to keep track of what questions have been answered, and what stations are actually on the air. A log is a running commentary of what is happening at your station. It also helps serve the person that takes over for you in case you forgot a detail in your brefing to them. Many times event personnel will ask to have a copy of your log or ask a time that an event happened.

The log can be kept in many forms. (You can view the suggested SLVARES message log form and print copies for your use if you wish.) Some agencies require a pre-printed form, while others use a notebook or ruled paper. If you are at an indoor location, 8 1/2" x 11" paper is the best side. Outside, a smaller notebook may work better. At a minimum, you need to track the following:

• Whether the net is open or directed.
• Date and time of each event.
• If it is a message, who it is to and who it is from.
• Directions given from the NCS.
• The Tactical call signs of each station on the net.
• The frequencies of other nets operating during the event.

Remember that others will read your log. Write slowly and legibly enough that it will be readable later.

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