September - October 2024 Report

 U.S. National Preparedness Month and PACE

This month we may hear many messages about being prepared and emergency preparedness as our US neighbors recognize September as National Preparedness Month. In Canada we have “Emergency Preparedness Week” during the month of May.

Whether it is the US influence in Canada or our own Canadian EP week it is always a good reminder that we should be prepared. SEPAR (Surrey Emergency Program Amateur Radio) has the specific focus of planning and helping with preparedness to aid in communications should normal communications methods fail. As part of the local Surrey Amateur Radio Communications (SARC) club we take our hobby and look at how we could help with communications if needed.

This does take a club of active members to make a healthy program. All the events, from socials to workshops, help build relationships, generate ideas, and take individuals areas of interest to help build creative solutions to help with emergency communications. A small group interested in Meshtasic, or VARA for Winlink can help others understand how this works and can be applied to passing messages when needed.

Often just the basics of helping a newly licensed amateur get on the air, use a repeater, or get a home HF station with a limited antenna on the air are some of the best things we can do. Remembering this is meant to be a fun hobby, and having active radio operators is one of the best things a club can do.

Weekly nets are “practice” sessions, as are contests. Each of these ensures working equipment and a more experienced operator. Knowing we could help with disaster communications is also a good reminder for each of us to be personally prepared.

Of course, the basics of having a prepared home include food, water, alternative methods to stay warm (or cool), alternative light sources, medical needs etc. All these basic preparedness items, lists, plans etc. are easily available with a simple internet search. For the radio operator we also include alternate ways to power our radios (or recharge batteries), knowledge on how to program and use our radios and what the local amateur community will do in an emergency. We should know the main repeaters around the area and their coverage footprint. We should have an idea of our radio reach without a repeater (simplex). We should have an idea of how long we can run our radio on alternative power etc.

Each of us should have a personal Family Communications Plan and your Emergency Communications Group should also have a communications plan for the organization. One of the easiest ways to build these is using a PACE Plan. PACE stands for:

Primary (what is your normal day to day method of communications? Cellular, Text (SMS) etc.?

Alternate (If the primary above is not working what would you do next? Internet based communication like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger etc.)

Contingency (Things are not working so you go to radio (frs/gmrs, cb, ham) or satellite phone or messenger.

Emergency Plans. (A predetermined meeting location or message on a board etc.)

These above examples are just that, examples. The idea is most of us use cellular based communications each day so that will likely be the first option. If cellular is not working but the internet is up, have you an app or agreed upon method to message one another.

If you go to radio, do you have a time, a frequency (repeater) etc.? Have you thought about having as out of area contact as you might be able to contact them and use them to relay messages etc. The point is taking some time think this through and write it down on a card, put a pdf on your phone etc.

This same principle works for your Emergency Communications group. In Surrey we meet each week on the net and as part of it go to simplex or another repeater to make sure people know what to do, and how their radios work. Each week the net controller reminds people that in an emergency we will use the repeater and if it fails, we will go the local agreed upon Simplex Frequency.

The SEPAR and SARC net scripts are available on the website if you are wanting an example of how we run the nets. See www.ve7sar.net

As we finish summer vacations and many of us go back into fall routines with work, school etc. it is a good time to be reminded of this communication plan need. Many of us have the 72 hours plus emergency preparedness covered and don’t have a simple, no cost communications plan developed. I encourage you to help your family and friends to build a PACE plan, in fact if you do this and share it with your family it may help highlight other areas your family is concerned about.

As always please reach out if you have any questions or comments or if you would like to participate in the SEPAR program within Surrey.

~ Gord Kirk VA7GK
SEPAR Coordinator