After Action Report – Operation Tornado Alley – CERT exercise 7/22/2006

Mission Coordinator: Frank Watervoort – AB0WV

Date of activity: July 22^nd, 2006

Duration of activity: 07:00-13:30, 6.5 hours

Description of activity:

- Primary: Support exercise safeties/observers by providing formal communications net and shadows to the observers for communications

- Secondary: Provide ATV coverage and record activities

ARES Groups participating: District 24, District 22

Served agencies participating: None of the D24 served agencies were participating in this exercise.

Description of Served Agency Participation: N/A

Number of ARES Participants: 13, including Mission Coordinator and D24 particpants that were coordinating the CERT exercise.

Name & Call sign of Participants:

Dick Bush – WB0EVA

Eric Freund – K0EWF

Gary Sutton – WB5PJB

Jim Hertzel – W0BO

Larry Matney – N7ZFN

Russ Lawrence – KA0ULN

Mike Martin – KB0VJY

Daeron Cofer – KC0CNS

Dirk Malsch – N2PDQ

Pete Malsch – KC0DGM

Donita Hilfinger – KC0SWX

Dave Cook – KC0MHT

Frank Watervoort - AB0WV

Person hours of Amateur Service: 86.5

Goals of the activity: Assist the exercise observers/safeties with communications using a formal net, provide ATV coverage of the activity.

Were the goals accomplished? YES

What went well: Assignments, UHF repeater use, communications, formal net, debrief, all went very well and very smooth. Net participants that did not adhere to formal net communications protocol were not D24 members and were advised of proper net protocol.

What needs improvement: It would have been better to just use a camera with a tape inside to provide higher quality video, but the goal was to use ATV for this purpose. The screen of the laptop that was used to record the ATV signal into MPEG-2 stream was hard to see due to glare from the sun, therefore quality of the received signal was hard to determine at times. Had to play a lot with video gain to optimize picture. Created a DVD for CERT organizers.

Lessons learned: We could probably have done without a formal net due to the fairly low amount of traffic, but this was good exercise for some of the participants. Provide more shade so laptop screens can be more visible (purchase backdrop/cloth wall for canope that was used).

Additional training needed: None that I could determine. Everyone did a great job. Our job was fairly straightforward. The equipment also worked great.

General comments: We were able to assist using communications when an exercise participant got too much exposure to the sun and needed to be evacuated to a cooler spot. Communications on UHF into the building worked great using Dirk N2PDQ’s repeater, even into the basement.

Kind regards,

Frank Watervoort

AB0WV