Page 52 May June 2014 TCA

Most of the exercise participants live in This picture of my station
jurisdictions covered by the Pacifc was published in the recent
Northwest Emergency Management CrossBorder Exercise which
Arrangement (PNEMA) – a mutual aid was done on the West Coast.
agreement between the USA and Canada
for the purpose of coordinating The following is a list of
preparedness and response efforts during Amateur Radio Stations
disasters – and the Pacifc Northwest contacted by me during the
Border Health Alliance, a collaborative CrossBorder Exercise. I was
group of healthcare disciplines forming in a perfect spot to relay
mutual assistance agreements for messages from southern
resources and planning. stations into the net control
on Vancouver Island. By
More than 75 Amateur Radio operators way of explanation, on
participated in this exercise from the high frequency radio, some
three provinces and fve states. A primary stations are too close to
net control station was established by each other to communicate
VA7ARE located near Duncan, British effectively, therefore a relay
Columbia; and a supporting net control is necessary.
station (AA7SB) operated from the
Veterans Affairs Hospital in Seattle, My Amateur Radio station
Washington. These stations coordinated was at the ready at 9 am on
communications between hospitals and Saturday, January 11.
EOCs by passing messages and situation I relayed contact information
reports between the numerous locations, to the net control VA7ARE
using HF in tandem with both VHF and from: VE7NEZ, Nelson
UHF local repeaters for both voice and BC, AC6VV Southern
digital message traffc. The purpose was Pasadena Medical Center in
to identify repeater frequencies and California, K7ARE, VE7WJ,
digital communication paths that will W7OM, VE7GYR Nanoose
allow messages to be sent between Bay, VE7SWF, VE7KFM,
stations in diverse areas. VE7PEP BC Emergency
The Washington State Patrol and the Preparedness station,
Washington State Guard also participated KC7GX, VE7KAZ Kamloops,
in the exercise. Emergency Management VE7EDK, VE7VEP Emergency Radio operator in his car in Victoria, AC6VV, K6ARN
agencies – including Homeland Security a Hospital Centre in San Diego, KE7BLC, Blaine Washington, VE6DCD, VE6JRS
(DHS) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Calgary, N9YQ Vancouver Washington, AA7PT Deer Island, K7EAJ Oregon,
Police “E” Division Headquarters in the VE7KAZ again Kamloops, WA7TC, K7TRP Hillsborough, VE7SCC Coquitlam and
fve states and three provinces – watched an unusual call from WGY920 A FEMA station in Boise Idaho.
this exercise because it was a textbook During this time I relayed these calls to the net station VE7ARE. Overall about 25
example of emergency communications contacts were made back and forth during the exercise. I also received mail from
deployment across a diverse geographic
area that would be in place during a large the Winlink system, recently installed, using the Internet. While this worked well, one
scale disaster. may suspect it will fail because of infrastructure problems during a real emergency.
CrossBorder 2014 was a wonderful I operated from my home station which consists of an HF Tri-Band beam at 70 feet
learning experience. With upwards of 90 and an Icom 7600. I also contacted net control in Whitehorse on VHF and had the
stations spread along the western coast ability to contact any Yukon Community on the Yukon Amateur Radio Association
of North America, this very ambitious terrestrial VHF/UHF linked network which includes Atlin in British Columbia and
undertaking was delivered in four months. Skagway, Haines and Juneau in Alaska.
Admittedly, there were certain aspects of We also have an IRLP VHF node number 1500 which is located at Yukon College.
the event that didn’t work well so the
exercise itself taught the design team I can appreciate all the effort which went into staging a huge exercise such as
valuable lessons. In looking back at the CrossBorder and appreciate in being asked to participate.
event, the things that worked well
included the following key points: Ron McFadyen, VY1RM
(Past and founding President of the Yukon Amateur Radio Association)
• The exercise took place on a
weekend in which there were no Depiction software models created • Twitter was used before, during and
major HF (SSB) contest events for the exercise. after the exercise with good success.
focused on North America. This in
turn dramatically reduced the • HF Pactor produced good results. • The exercise was the frst time in
potential for band congestion during Amateur Radio history that all PNEMA
the exercise. • Winlink traffc was continuous signatories were linked during any
throughout the exercise with just form of communications test event.
• HF communications easily linked Net short of 100 messages being passed.
Control with stations in the Yukon, • The Red Cross in western WA-state
AK, CA, ID and OR. • The RCMP “E” Division Headquarters ran a very successful (in-house) test
(VE7HQE) and WSP (Washington State event behind the scenes of
• Participant information was managed Patrol), KF7RHQ linked their agencies CrossBorder 2014 and were delighted
using an Excel spreadsheet and the (for the frst time) via Amateur Radio with the overall result.
same data was used as input to the during the exercise.
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