Date and times February 21st, at 2030 hours.

We are going to give it another try, this time a little more structured.  In the past we have talked about the size of Polk county, and that we have it divided up into 4 regions – north west, north east, south east and south west, and have assigned simplex frequencies to all 4 along with a common county wide frequency.  These are:

       •        County Wide:
               o        2m – 145.510
               o        70cm – 446.150

       •        North West:  North of SR 542/US92 and West of US 27
               o        2m – 147.465
               o        70cm – 446.050

       •        North East:  North of SR 540 and East of US 27
               o        2m – 147.405
               o        70cm – 446.025

       •        South East:  South of 540 and East of US 27
               o        2m – 147.585
               o        70cm – 446.075

       •        South West:   South of 542/US92 and West of US 27
               o        2m – 147.420
               o        70cm – 446.125

All the above are Simplex, no tone.

Steps for this Simplex test:
   1.   Meet on the WC4PEM repeaters

   2.   When the primary Net Controller gives the instruction to do so, go to the VHF Simplex frequency assigned to your region of the
        county.  For this test we are just using the VHF frequencies.

   3.   Check the frequency for use.
        a.      If not in use, give your callsign.  Once another station has come back to you, decide which of you will be the region
                Net Control.
        b.      If the frequency is in use and not by ARES, request from those using it if they can standby and allow the Simplex test
                – if they will not, do not push the issue and return to the WC4PEM repeaters and await instructions.
        c.      If another station that is participating in the test has assumed region Net Control, then proceed as a check-in and
                give them your call sign.

   4.   The region Net Controller will then ask for check-ins and request any relays of those that are attempting to check in but that
        the Controller can not receive.  As a guideline, use:
        a.      This is (your call sign), ARES Net Control for Region (your region) Polk County.  Please check in to the net, one at a
                time.  If you hear a station that is attempting to check in that I have not acknowledged, please relay that station’s
                call sign.
        b.      Give the region net check in process approximately 10 minutes.

   5.   At the end of the region net check in, the region Net Controller should go to the county wide VHF Simplex frequency and attempt
        to contact the County Net Controller.
        a.      If contact established, give the county Net Controller a count of the stations that you were able to contact along with the number that were relayed in, then go to the WC4PEM repeater
                and wait for the Net Control to return from the Simplex..
        b.      If unable to contact the County Simplex Net Control, go to the WC4PEM repeaters to await further instructions.

That is it.  Pretty simple and should not take us more than around 30 minutes.  Might want to print these out to make it a little easier.

Hope we can get a good turnout for this.

Thanks.

Jim
W4XDS
Polk ARES AEC of Operations