Notes from Our Emergency Communication Exercise

In an exercise proposed by the "Prep Like A Pro" group, an event (EMP, CME, cyber-attack, etc.) has resulted in a wide-area blackout (no commercial power) and has also taken down cellular networks and ISP access points (the Internet doesn't go down, but your ability to access it certainly can) throughout the region. For this exercise we assumed an event similar to the Great Northeast Blackout of 2003 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003), but for the purposes of this exercise, the event occurred in Cascadia.

According to the ARRL Operating Manual, 10th Edition: “In a nuclear attack scenario, wireless communications resources would be limited, and the only systems that might be usable include limited satellite communications (SATCOM), limited TV/radio broadcasting, Family Radio Service (FRS), General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS), Citizens Band (CB), Multi-Use Radio Service (MURS), HF Automatic Link Establishment (HF-ALE), and Amateur Radio.”

At the beginning of the exercise we shut off the Internet router and then turned off the main breaker to the house, cutting off all commercial power (everything now ran off the solar system or internal batteries in the devices). Cell-phones were turned off, and set aside.  

Now a power outage is not initially particularly concerning. We have solar as a back-up / supplement to commercial power. We would normally use a cell-phone app to report the outage to the power company, but in this case cellular service is down. -- Both commercial power and cellular service failing at the same time is an indicator of a wide-area problem.

Next we used a battery powered radio to obtain news from local FM broadcast stations. Real-world they are, of course, all still broadcasting - local stations aren't playing in the exercise - but for the purposes of this exercise, we assumed that all FM broadcast stations in the area were no longer on the air. 

Failure of commercial power, cellular service, and FM broadcast stations at the same time triggers our emergency communications protocol.

1. Tune to your local National Weather Radio (NWR) station to determine (1) is it still on the air, and (2) is it broadcasting All Hazards information. 

2. Tune to the area AM radio news station (clear station). Is the station on the air? 

3. Tune to the WWV time stations. Are signals still being heard from Fort Collins, CO?

4. Tune to local public service (police / fire) dispatch frequencies. Is there radio traffic? If yes, monitor and gather information!

5. Tune to US Coast Guard Seattle on VHF Ch.16 & Ch.22A. Is there radio traffic? If yes, monitor and gather information!

6. Monitor Emergency Management Radio Systems Comprehensive Emergency Management Network (CEMNET) - Washington State

7. Monitor Army / Air Force MARS frequencies.  (Frequencies are in your MARS Handbook.)

8. Attempt to connect to area Amateur Radio repeaters. What (if any) repeaters are still working? (Many Amateur Radio repeaters in our area have back-up power.) 

9. Attempt to connect GMRS repeaters as well. Specific GMRS repeaters of interest are Tiger Mountain and Mason/Benson, as these have the greatest coverage in our area.  

10. Check into the local ARES Simplex Net on its 2 meter FM frequency.

11. Check into the local GMRS (FRS) Simplex Net, this can be done on a hand-held radio from our location. 

12. Set DMR radio to specified DMR simplex channel in order to send and receive DMR Simplex SMS Messages. (Radio will receive and store messages without being constantly monitored.)

13. Set APRS radio to 144.390 (APRS freq.) Listen for beacons and check for messages. Assume the iGates and digipeaters will be down. (If iGates are operational send status messages through SMS Gateway to out of area contacts. Transmit your position (GPS) beacon. APRS maps may be available to out of area contacts (include ARL Msg in APRS status.) 

14. Bring up Winlink and send check-in message to ARES NCS station, peer-to-peer (radio only). Attempt to connect to an HF Winlink gateway outside of the region. If an HF gateway is available send status message to out of area contacts.

15. Monitor designated HF frequency. (We are generally using QRP+ HF radios, such as IC-705 and Xiegu 5105 / 6100.)  

16. Send status by satellite messenger (inReach) to out of area contacts.

17. If power has been out for four (4) or more hours, switch to power conservation protocol.


Lessons Learned / Notes

We were able to exchange brief messages using the LoRa (Meshtastic) network. While the LoRa network worked fine, it was limited in range to around 2km. (This might be improved with better antenna placement.)

Although cellular was assumed to be down / overloaded, we were able to place telephone calls to landlines by using the 'autopatch' feature on local repeaters.

While we have established triggers to activate our emergency communications protocol, we lack an effective alerting method for those in the field (in remote areas). A person out hiking, camping, or working in an outdoor environment might be unaware of a power outage, and cellular / Internet connections are problematic at best in remote areas.

Using VarAC, stations can send repeated beacons, leave messages for other remote stations, and have keyboard-to-keyboard conversations using fairly low power. This was demonstrated with a QSO between WA and MA. Consider writing a communications protocol for VarAC (or JS8 Call) to be added to above tasks. Is HF beaconing / chat needed in the wake of an emergency?

We currently us ARRL Numbered Radiograms (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARRL_Numbered_Radiogram) for digital messages. An expanded / additional list of numbered messages is needed.

Several repeaters in the area have an Echolink connection. We can connect to the repeaters via radio (RF) and potentially access remote repeaters / nodes if there is still an Internet connection between the repeaters. (For this exercise we assumed that the Echolink connections were inoperative.)

Shortwave stations may be broadcasting from outside the region. (Initially SW stations are unlikely to broadcast news of a regional event.) Keep track of what SW stations you are receiving, date, time (few stations broadcast 24/7), and content type.

While some group members have citizens band (CB) radios, we have not incorporated CB into our communications planning. Being in a rural area, away from major highways, most CB channels are unused in this area. CB might be a useful addition for local communication (especially with the addition of FM mode).  

We did not use our AREDN / HamWAN connections during the exercise. Additional thought is needed about whether AREDN / HamWAN will provide essential information for the group in a post disaster environment.

A WiFi network (using external antennas, https://www.amazon.com/Extended-Repeater-Extends-Coverage-Location/dp/B076KRTXQ6/) could be used to link devices. A network of this type (using just a router, without additional antennas) was demonstrated by Comms Prepper in his YouTube Videos:
Part 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=youElAJGmgM
Part 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeER-EB6Axo  


Conclusions

Not having access to the cellular network and/or the Internet has very little effect on our ability to communicate within our own group. Lack of Internet access did not result in any loss of access to general information and references, since we maintain a very large digital and physical (printed) library of preparedness information. Lack of Internet access did however result in a significant reduction in access to news media sources. If an event resulted in local FM broadcast stations going off-the-air, along with no access to the Internet, this would reduce our access to local news media to near zero. News from outside the area, via SW and AM broadcast was still available.