Manly-Warringah Radio Society Communications Exercises Rev A 27Jul99 Held in conjunction with local horseriding clubs; Northside Riding Club, Forest Hills Pony Club & Kellyville Riding Club. Acronyms HRO = Ham Radio Operators The Communications Exercise is a chance for HRO to get out into the field & test their ability to provide emergency communication. The HRO need to be able to choose suitable equipment, power it (mostly without mains supply), maintain orderly infomation exchange with the `net' (often under trying conditions) & try to provide emergency information on demand. Our communications excercises are given purpose by helping a horseriding club by providing instantaneous communications across their cross country courses. Parts of these courses are often out-of-sight of the main arena & hence there is always the chance of an emergency not being noticed by the event organisers. We provide some ability to fill this gap by having HRO around the course who, by their communication, are aware of what horse/rider are on the course at any particular time. We also help assimilate start & finish times quickly for quick dispersal. A typical setup. Callsigns START - HRO at the beginning of the course FINISH - HRO at the end of the course CLUBHOUSE - HRO at the clubhouse. Net controller (+1 helper) Alpha - HRO at the first jumped manned by a radio operator Bravo - HRO at the second jumped manned by a radio operator Charlie - " " third " " " " " etc ROVER - HRO roving around the course. may be attached to an official CONTROL - HRO sitting in the announcers box (Kellyville only) to pass messages to the announcer. All HRO watches & official clocks are synchronised to `true local time' before the event. It is generally accepted that we need at least 3 HRO (+1 helper) with enough gear for 3 radio sites or we can provide almost no benefit to the horseriding club. These would be positioned at CLUBHOUSE, START & FINISH. CLUBHOUSE is usually where the horse riding officials are given information that is relayed over our net. They can also request information to be sent from here as well. Any extra HRO will be positioned around the course, generally at a particular jump or within sight of a number of jumps. There may also be a ROVER who can move around the course & releive any HRO on jumps or simply keep up with a mobile horseriding official (president of the horseriding club, officiator of the event etc). START will let all HRO on the net know when each horse has begun the course. It has been found that begining a horse on the minute is very beneficial, as all HRO know at what part of the minute START will announce the horse number (first 10 seconds) & hence restrict radio traffic. We also provide an analogue clock face so that riders can begin themselves on the minute (some of the horses {& riders} get spooked by people counting down). START announces the horse number so that all HRO will know which horse has begun & they can check this off a list (or simply write it down on a notebook). When the horse passes them, the HRO at a jump will simply cross off the horse number, thus confirming that the horse has passed them. There is no need for the HRO on the jumps to call this information in to the net controller (CLUBHOUSE). Looking at this list will soon highlight any horses that haven't gone past which may be forwarded to CLUBHOUSE for resolution (See "missing horses"). FINISH will call in to CLUBHOUSE the horse number & finish time so that it may be relayed to the horseriding officials for timely dissemination. This is usually done at the bottom of the minute (around the 30sec mark). Except in emergencies, the net should be quiet from 50sec until START announces the next horse to begin the course. Determination of missing horses/riders Through cross checking what horses have begun the course & what have passed the HRO it can be determined that a horse may have been held up for some (possibly emergency - typically a fall) reason. By tracing back to the last HRO who saw the horse on the course at a particular position, it can be determined down to a section of the course where the horse went missing. An example: (Assuming horses are begun in sequential numbering which is ususally the case) If HRO Bravo heard START announce that Horse#14 is on the course & #14 hasn't come through when #15 & #16 have, then Bravo would start to wonder if there has been a problem. If #17 comes through & there is still no sight of #14, then Bravo would mention this to CLUBHOUSE. CLUBHOUSE would check with Alpha. If #14 has passed Alpha, then CLUBHOUSE might check with Charlie. If #14 has passed Charlie, then Bravo has simply missed checking #14 off; if Charlie has no record of #14, then it is highly likely that there has been a problem between Alpha & Bravo with #14. The event is stoppped & Alpha & Bravo walk toward each other along the course, checking with all the jump Stewards (who keep their own records) whether #14 has been through until they either find #14 or hear that it has prematurely retired.