Simulated Emergency Test
November 2007

Our club participated in the test again this year along with 13 others throughout South Western BC. We were fortunate enough to have access to the Centennial Area this year where we could set up our equipment and operate. The arena is the emergency reception centre for the city so this was an excellent place to do an emergency test. Not only were we able to practice message passing but we were also able to check out what issues operating out of the reception centre would may be present.

Ralph and Eric were the first to arrive this morning and they quickly got started setting up the equipment. We had arranged access to the roof of the facility where we were able to setup a 2m Yagi and an 80 foot loop antenna for HF. We were fortunate in that the roof was flat but it did have a number of larger pools of water to work around. Soon Stuart and Deme arrived to help. We learned that Stuart wouldn’t be joinging us on the roof however as he was afraid of heights as was Ken. So the antenna work was left t up to Ralph, Deme and Eric. Shortly after the antennas were situated the rain came and we quickly moved inside.

Setting up Eric’s IC-208 for VHF and Ralph’s IC-706 for 80m went quite quickly and we were soon on the air. We noticed an extremely high noise level and had to ask net control to move up a few kilohertz. Even there we had a hard time hearing stations but we learned that many were having a hard time on 80m. We were able to receive a number of messages on 2m and then send them on 80m CW to Qualicum Beach.

Around noon Stuart and Eric left for a coffee and donut run to tide us through the end of the exercise. Then it was back to the roof to take down the antennas and clean up the facility. Over all we had a good time operating and socializing and felt that the effort was worth while. We did get a few path tests completed for the city and prepared a report for the White Rock Fire Chief.