ARRL Simulated Emergency Test

Normally, the first weekend of October is designated for holding the annual ARRL Simulated Emergency Test (SET). In 2022, The NNY section held its operations October 1-7. Some NNY counties held special nets on Saturday morning, October 1. Please contact your County Emergency Coordinator if you would like to get involved. If you can not get in touch with your EC or if your county ARES is not planning an organized SET activity, please contact NNY Section Emergency Coordinator .

Information below was used for the 2022 Simulated Emergency Test and is provided for information only.

The first weekend of October is designated for holding the annual ARRL Simulated Emergency Test (SET), although local and Section-level exercises may take place throughout the Fall. The SET is ARRL’s primary national emergency exercise and is designed to assess the skills and preparedness of Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) volunteers, as well as those affiliated with other organizations involved in emergency and disaster response.

The SET encourages maximum participation by all radio amateurs, partner organizations, and national, state, and local officials who typically engage in emergency or disaster response. In addition to ARES volunteers, those active in the National Traffic System (NTS), Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES), National Weather Service (NWS) SKYWARN, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), and a variety of other allied groups and public service-oriented radio amateurs are needed to fulfill important roles in this nationwide exercise.

The SET offers volunteers an opportunity to test equipment, modes, and skills under simulated emergency conditions and scenarios. Individuals can use the time to update a “go-kit” for use during deployments and to ensure their home station’s operational capability in an emergency or disaster. To get involved, contact your local ARRL Emergency Coordinator or Net Manager.

2022 NNY Section SET:
Concept and Introduction

The NNY section held practice runs of SET operations in July, August, and September.
Instructions for Monthly PreSET (July, August, September)

The 2022 NNY Section SET in October will follow the same general plan as the pre-SET activities.

Scenario in a Nutshell:

Something has happened (we don't care exactly what) and a request to collect certain information has been made to ARES at the section level.

The procedure that we will use is to have each county collect individual responses to the specific Request for Information, then the responses will be consolidated at the county level into a single county report that is sent back to the SEC.

In a real scenario, the SEC would consolidate all the county reports and send one report back to the requesting agency.

Here are the instructions provided to ECs:

Holding a special SET net or nets on Saturday morning, October 1 would be a good idea if your group is expecting it or you think it will increase participation, however, it is not required. You may follow the same procedure as the pre-SET where the consolidator station(s) collect responses on regular nets the first 7 days of the month. Or you can schedule a special SET net any other time. Do whatever works out best for you and your ARES group.

Franklin County EC Rich Davenport KD2ZKZ plans to have a HF net on 3958 at 9 AM Saturday. Please contact him directly if you wish to coordinate.. *There will probably be NNY activity on 3958 starting around 8 AM. If stations can get on early and 'hold the frequency' that would be very good.

The main difference between the SET and pre-SET is that the Request for Information (RI) will be announced only to ECs shortly before the SET. It is recommended that the content of the RI is not announced to the participants beforehand. If ECs feel the need to send the RI out to everyone by email, that is their choice, but in an actual situation, the information needed will not be known beforehand by anyone and we assume the Internet is not working.

Update 9/29: The RI has been sent to ECs or their representatives by Winlink.

Details for sending the consolidated reports back to the section EC are included in the RI email. Winlink is the preferred mode. If desired, arrangements can be made to send by NBEMS digital for additional digital messaging practice.

After completion of the on-air SET activity, ECs should send a copy of the RI to all participants.

Item (4) in my September 21 email to ECs describes an added national component to the SET, which is the receipt and acknowledgment of a 'military message' from the DOD sent to amateur radio groups via MARS operators (using their amateur callsigns on amateur frequencies).

If I had known about this earlier, I would have specifically included it in the original plan. Unfortunately, the DOD COMEX details were not released until recently. Since the Federal Government agencies involved in Homeland Defense and Disaster Relief have indicated that Amateur Radio is an important communications asset, All NNY ARES groups should make every effort to participate.

In NNY, the primary mode of delivery of the military message from Northcom to each county will be by Winlink digital. Only one station in each county needs to receive and acknowledge the message. If time permits the message can be read or retransmitted digitally to all participants. Participating in the DOD interoperability component of the SET earns additional points.

SET scorecards and report forms will be available on the ARRL Public Service/Field Service Forms page. All ECs and net managers should complete and submit the reports

de KC2WI
last updated 8 PM September 29