Ron Hashiro

The most frequently heard remark after Hurricane Iniki was that we as amateur radio operators should have been better prepared. The amateurs on Kauai and Oahu were challenged to exchange and deliver hundreds of messages accurately in a timely fashion each hour for many hours. The messages were a mix of short messages and some that were multiple pages in length. Most of the messages were handled by voice communications as that was the means that most operators had operational.

The Makani Pahili 2014 hurricane exercise is a major and more extensive exercise than MP 2013 because all four counties will exercise their respective catastrophic plans.

A major part of the Makani Pahili exercise is for all operators to deploy and set up their stations and for the operators to gain experience, speed, accuracy and proficiency in sending and receiving ICS-213 messages between the nets and under net operating conditions. It tests existing arrangements and capabilities between the amateurs and the agencies and communities that we serve. It tests the operator's ability to generate and efficiently exchange ICS-213 messages under actual net operating conditions and changing radio propagation.

Stations are encouraged to generate and send test messages for the exercise, gain practice and become proficient BEFORE the next emergency or disaster. Stations are encouraged to generate ICS-213 messages that contain an actionable request as opposed to simply a message that has just status and is informational. This is so that the receiving party can generate a message containing a simulated reply. All stations will use "THIS IS AN EXERCISE MESSAGE" at the beginning and end of all messages.

A PDF version and an MS Word version of the net preamble and net bulletins became available on May 7, 2014.

Net Control Stations, bulletin stations and net liaison stations are encouraged to pass the net bulletins on the nets to simulate and practice passing net bulletins.

The amateur radio community recognizes Clem Jung KH7HO who has made major contributions in organizing and coordinating the amateur radio component for Makani Pahili 2014.

• Scenario
• Information on FLDigi
• Timeline for Saturday, May 31
• State Civil Defense
• Department of Emergency Management (Oahu)
• Oahu District 4 - Windward Oahu
• Maui County EOC
• American Red Cross
• Healthcomm
• Sunday June 1 SKYWARN Net
• Tuesday June 3 Operations, 10:00 am - 2:00 pm
• FLDigi Installation for Mac OSX
• Reminder on Test Procedure - Kerchunking repeaters is illegal
• After Action Report
• References

The hurricane scenario:

Hurricane Makani will be a category 4 hurricane as it develops to the east of the Big Island. It will travel east of the Big Island coast as a category 4 hurricane and travel north between Big Island and Maui. It will continue as a category 3 hurricane as it travel north along the western coastline of Maui, Lanai, Molokai and Oahu. As it travels further north and west of Kauai it will be a Category 2 hurricane.

The highlights of the exercise scenario:

All islands will be affected. On Saturday May 31, 2014, amateur radio operators at State Civil Defense EOC and other state-wide and county-wide locations will be operational.

A Mass Care EOC Drill for the island of Oahu will be held at the City & County of Honolulu Department of Emergency Management (DEM) on Saturday, May 31, 2014. C&C of Honolulu Department of Emergency Management (DEM) will exercise six shelters and request amateur radio operators provide shelter communications from these six sites. Shelters will open on Oahu for simulation and exercise from 8:30 am to 12 noon.

• Manoa Valley Church [Fred KH7CR, Gordon KH6GL, Jack KH6DQ, Betty WH6GR ]
• Mililani Baptist Church (also with a Pet Shelter) [Mario KH6PRD, Tony KH6TG]
• Sunset Christian Academy – North Shore (Sunset) [Bill KHKV, Glorry WH6ECD, Stuart WH6DZF ]
• St. John Vianney – Kailua [Keith WH7GG, Jan WH7Y]
• Boys and Girls Club in Waianae [Trevor WH6EJL, Bernard WH6EEQ, Kaleo KH6KC ]
• Windward Retreat Center in Kaaawa [Brian WH6EKV]

On Sunday June 1, 2014, Hurricane Makani will first hit Big Island.

From 8:30 am to 2:00 pm Tuesday, June 3 2014, the County EOCs and SCD EOC will conduct a communications exercise. A part of that exercise is a simulated communications outage in which the only communications between County EOCs and State Civil Defense EOC in Diamond Head will be via amateur radio, satellite phones and other contingency services. The use of regular telephones, cell phones and Internet will not be allowed during the simulated communications outage.

The Maui Red Cross sheller exercise for Thursday June 5th has been cancelled.

Stations are encouraged to use FLDigi to exchange ICS-213 messages digitally. FLDigi v2.21.82, FLmsg 2.0.3 and FLwrap v1.3.4 may be downloaded at this web page. Stations may send and receive messages by holding the PC mike and speakers next to the radio mike and speakers. The preferred method is to use a Tigertronics Signalink USB Interface with the 6-pin mini-DIN (Data) interface cable to use with amateur radios manufactured after 1996.

Jack KH6DQ made a presentation and two note files to aid in setting up FLdigi and FLmsg.

• NBEMS presentation
• FLdigi setup information
• FLmsg setup information

To resend and relay an FLDigi message that you have received:

• Open the FLMSG program.
• In the main menu, click on File > Open
• In the window that opens, navigate to the NBEMS.files > WRAP folder
• In the lower right hand corner, change the file filter from ".CSV" and select "All".
• A list of WRAP file (received messages) appears, with the received date and time included in the file name. Select the message of interest.
• Announce on voice that you will be sending a message, then click on the "AutoSend" button on the main menu.

It it will resemble these screen shots on the w1hkj.com web site.

The American Red Cross Headquarters of the Hawaii Chapter requests that the shelters transmit the following shelter reports. The EOC is looking to receive reports via FLDigi where possible. Sample PDF forms of completed reports are available. To download and save to your computer, right click on the links below.

ARC HI Daily Report Templates for FLDigi

File	Subdirectory	Comment
flmsg-directory-structure.png		Directory structure for the custom form template files
ARCHIDailyMgr.htm	NBEMS > CUSTOM	Blank ARC Shelter Report form in HTML format
ARCHIDailyMgr.c2t	NBEMS > ICS > Templates	FLMSG Template file for ARC Shelter Report
ARCHIDailyMgr.csv	NBEMS > CSV	CSV file for ARC Shelter Report
daily-shelter-manager-report-for-county-eoc-example-1.pdf		First Sample Message
daily-shelter-manager-report-for-county-eoc-example-2.pdf		Second Sample Message

When preparing the exercise FLDigi ARCHIDailyMgr test messages, be sure to include in the note "This is an exercise message", and for the message number, include "001 - This is an exercise message". When transmitting the FLDigi message, announce on voice "Sending an exercise message", and at the completion announce on voice "End of exercise message".

Various sites and EOCs will open before 8:30 am to set up and test the equipment for the net which starts at 8:30 am.

The preliminary timeline for the net on Saturday, May 31, 2014 from 9:00 am to 12 noon is:

• 9:00 am, start the net. Announce net preamble, take check-ins, start message handling
• 9:10 am, simulated 20 mph winds arrive on the coasts of all major Hawaiian Islands. Residents are seeking shelter in place or at designated shelters.
• 9:45 am, simulated 75+ mph winds arrive on the coasts of all major Hawaiian Islands. Winds gusts up to 132 mph or more may be experienced. HF antennas on towers fail. Loss of commercial power. Mobile operators forced to cease operations due to flying debris. Only hurricane-rated repeaters remain on the air. Operators next to glass windows forced to withdraw to safer interior rooms. (If you're in a concrete building, move to an interior room and test simplex operations.)
• 10:15 am, End of damaging winds. Residents leave shelters and begin post-hurricane assessment, clean-up and relief operations. Initial field damage assessment possible.
• 11:50 am, Prepare to wind down the net. Announce final statistics (if available)
• 12 noon, close the net

DEM messages will be exchanged in ICS-213 message format.

American Red Cross messages will be exchanged in ARC message format.

Statewide Hurricane Exercise - State CD RACES/ARES participation.

Expected path of the simulated exercise Category 3 or 4 hurricane as it passes near the major Hawaiian Islands, approximately 50 to 75 miles off-shore from the coasts of the islands.

May 30, 5:00 pm HST - Hurricane warning in effect for all of Hawaii
May 31, 9:10 am HST - Simulate people sheltering at home or evacuating into shelters.
May 31, 9:45 am HST - Simulate people in shelters with damaging winds outdoors.
May 31, 10:15 am HST - End of damaging winds outdoors. People able to leave shelters.
May 31, 11:50 am HST - Prepare to close the exercise radio net.

Call signs:
SCD - KH6HPZ

SCD will be on the following frequencies at differing times:

HF - Command/Control/Message Handling

147.060+ PL 103.5 - DH Repeater - Command/Control/Message Handling
444.350+ PL 103.5 - DH Repeater - for interoperation with Oahu DEM RACES

Initial contact will be made on the 147.060 repeater. Stations will then be moved to another frequency, if possible, to handle traffic.

HF will also be used as follows to communicate with SCD and to exercise NVIS.

SCD will be on the SCD interisland net:
40m on 7088 kHz LSB (+/- qrm)
60m on 5330.5 kHz USB (Channel 1) (+/- qrm)
80m on 3993.5 kHz LSB (if 40m is not open)

Messages will be exchanged in ICS-213 message format. A major part of this exercise is to gain experience in sending and receiving ICS-213 messages. Stations are encouraged to generate and send test messages for the exercise simulating situations in your neighborhood and community. All stations will use "THIS IS AN EXERCISE MESSAGE" at the beginning and end of all messages.

Net Schedule:
Saturday (May 31) will be from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. KH6HPZ at State CD will be operating. Testing to occur before 9:00 am. The RACES operators will simulate and generate reply messages for the Saturday exercise net.

SCD will be operating FLDigi on HF. Mode will be MT63 with 1KL (default) windows. (Subject to change.)

May 31 EOC Operators.

• Ron Hashiro AH6RH
• Kevin Bogan AH6QO
• Robin Liu AH6CP
• Peter Yuen KH6JBS

On Tuesday, June 3, SCD RACES will operate from 8:30 am to 2:00 pm to receive traffic. The messages will be forwarded to SCD staff as part of the simulation and exercise.

Statewide Hurricane Exercise - Oahu DEM RACES participation.

• District 1 - Oahu EOC, Manoa Valley Church Shelter Exercise
• District 2 - Sunset Christian Academy
• District 3 - Mililani Baptist Church Shelter Exercise
• District 4 - See Windward Oahu District below
• District 8 - Boys and Girls Club (Waianae)

Net Schedule:
Oahu HQ - KH6OCD
May 31, 8:30 - 12:00 - Mass Care EOC Drill.
May 31, 7:00 - DEM EOC Open.
May 31, 8:30 - Communications Test with Oahu EOC, send messages from shelters to Oahu EOC
May 31, 9:00 - Start of Makani Pahili Net
May 31, 12:00 - End of Net operations

DEM will be on the following frequencies:

VHF/UHF

• 146.76- Mokuleia Repeater - Linked with FFMB repeater
• 146.98- PL 88.5 FFMB Repeater - Traffic
• 444.325+ PL 103.5 Waimanalo Repeater - Traffic
• 444.350+ PL 103.5 Diamond Head Repeater - Traffic

HF:
40m on 7080 kHz USB.

DEM will be using FLDigi MT63-1K for VHF/UHF and 7080 USB.

May 31 Mass Care EOC Drill Operators.

• Chuck Oh N6NCT
• Ralph Miranda WH7PD
• Linda Miranda (AUX)
• Elsie Watanabe WH7BB
• Darrell Omuro KH6XL
• Russell Houlton WH7O

May 31 Makani Pahili Net Operators. EOC open at 7:00 am.

• Ralph Miranda WH7PD
• Elsie Watanabe WH7BB
• Darrell Omuro KH6XL
• Russell Houlton WH7O

Ralph WH7PD provided the DEM RACES Net Preamble for the Saturday May 31 activity.

Oahu District 4 (Windward) Shelters.

Net Schedule:
Start at 8:30 am, end at 12 noon.

Oahu District 4 Shelters will be on the following frequencies:

VHF/UHF:

• 146.505 - District 4 Simplex - Voice and FLDigi MT63-2K.
• 147.00+ PL 103.5 Windward Repeater - District 4 Traffic (Primary Voice and FLDigi)
• 444.175+ Portable Repeater - Voice and FLDigi.
• 444.325+ PL 103.5 Waimanalo Repeater Voice and FLDigi.

HF:

• 40m on 7080 kHz USB Primary. Voice/FLDigi MT63-1K.

List of shelters:

• St. John Vianney (Kailua)
• Windward Retreat Center (Kaaawa)
• Castle High
• Kailua High
• Kalaheo High
• Pope Elementary
• BYU - Hawaii

Maui County EOC will be participating in Makani Pahili using tactical call sign "Maui EOC". Maui EOC will be operating on the State RACES VHF Repeater system, the Maui Civil Defense Agency (MCDA) county wide repeater system and HF. The EOC does not have digital messaging capability and is looking for an amateur radio operator with that capability.

The operators are:

• Melvin Fukunaga KH6H
• Bill Heyde KH6UU

The operators are:

• Carolyn Levy, WH6EAQ
• Paul Nosal, KF7NGK
• Randy Kurashiga AH6Q

Statewide Hurricane Exercise - Healthcomm participation. TBD.

Call signs:
Healthcomm - KH6HC

147.280 - Hawaii Medical Center-West Repeater
443.775+ pl 123.0
443.825
444.775+ pl 123.0

Healthcomm will be on HF:
40m on 7080 kHz LSB (+/- qrm) Primary
60m on 5371.5 kHz USB (Channel 4) (+/- qrm) Alternate
80m on 3888 kHz LSB (if 40m is not open) Alternate

The National Weather Service Forecast Office in Honolulu will activate their SKYWARN amateur radio operations on Sunday, June 1, 2014 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. Amateur radio stations and SKYWARN members are encouraged to check-in and pass their report. The report is:

• Your call sign, name
• SKYWARN ID, if available
• Current location
• The real world weather report (ie, Kapolei, 82 degrees, Sunny and few clouds)

Operations will be on the SCD VHF RACES repeater network, and the linked All-STAR repeater network 146.76-, 146.98- PL 88.5, 147.02+ PL 103.5, 147.04+ (Mauna Loa) PL103.5, 147.06+ PL 103.5, 444.325+ PL 103.5, 444.350+ PL 103.5.

Operations will also be on HF on 7.080 USB, FLDigi MT63-1K.

The operators are:

• Jack Tsujimura KH6DQ
• Bart Aronoff KH7C
• Clem Jung KH7HO

State Civil Defense, Department of Emergency Management (DEM), and Kauai, Maui and Hawaii County EOCs will operate the Makani Pahili net on amateur radio frequencies on Tuesday, June 3, 2013 from 8:30 am to 2:00 pm. The traffic will be between the State CD EOC and the four county EOCs only.

The traffic for the Tuesday net is post-landfall hurricane messages. Situation Reports (SITREPs), Status Reports, and request for assistance to the SCD EOC are typical traffic for this net.

Operations will be on the SCD 7088 kHz LSB for voice and FLDigi ICS-213 formal messages, the SCD RACES VHF repeater network will be secondary.

Between 8:30 am and 2:00 pm, there will be a simulated communications blackout except for amateur radio. SCD, Oahu, Kauai and Hawaii County EOCs will participate exchanging situation reports, status, resource requests, etc. Maui is evaluating the situation and arrangements. Further details as it develops.

SCD Operators will be:

• Ron Hashiro AH6RH
• Kevin Bogan AH6QO
• Clem Jung KH7HO
• Rick Kimitsuka KH6OM
• Jack Tsujimura KH6DQ
• Peter Yuen KH6JBS

DEM Operators will be:

• Linda Miranda (Aux)
• Elsie Watanabe WH7BB
• Ralph Miranda WH7PD
• Jeff Sue AH6IX
• Russell Houlton WH7O

If you installed FLDigi and FLmsg on the Mac, you'll need to do this one modification in a Terminal Window in order to add a symbolic link to the hidden file folders and make it visible.

A reminder to ALL stations - especially newly licensed stations - that when testing access and coverage with repeaters to clearly identify your transmissions with your callsign and the word "Test" or "Testing". Momentarily keying your radio to activate the repeater to cause it to transmit without saying anything (known as "kerchunking" a repeater) is an unidentified transmission. Unidentified transmissions are a violation of FCC Part 97.119(a) and is illegal. Do not kerchunk a repeater, even once.

If you kerchunk repeaters, do not be surprised when you receive a notice from the FCC regarding your operations.

The correct procedure is to key your microphone, identify your transmission with your callsign and the word "Test" at the same time as you are keying down, then release the PTT switch and listen. (Example: "KH6ABC Test.") As a courtesy, another station on frequency may acknowledge your test signal with a signal report (Example: "KH6ABC, you are loud and clear. KH6ZZZ.")

Again, NEVER kerchunk a repeater with an unidentified transmission.

This section is compiled and adapted from the after-action reports submitted by the groups operating during the amateur radio portion of Makani Pahili 2014, adjusting mainly for consistency in formatting and reporting.

This report is work-in-progress.

KHON2 and KITV provided media coverage for the May 31, 2014 shelter exercise.

Summary Statistics

Agency	Nets/Frequencies	Operators	Check-ins	Voice Messages Passed	FLDigi Messages Passed	Comment
Hawaii SCD-HF	1	5	8	9	10
Hawaii SCD-VHF	1
DEM
DEM District 4-Windward Oahu-VHF	6	11		2	4
DEM District 7-Manoa-HF	1	4			9
DEM District 7-Manoa-VHF	1	4		2	4
Hawaii Civil Defense
Kauai County
Maui Civil Defense
Total Reported

State Civil Defense

What worked well

• Refurbished equipment setup as a whole worked well.
• The new printer arrangements worked well.
• New HF Folded Dipole arrangements worked well.
• FLDigi and existing Signalink USB worked well.

What could be improved

• The VHF/UHF radio and antenna needs to be looked at again.
• The audio splitter cables were unavailable. Operators didn't use headphones.
• Splatter from ARC 7080 USB operation interfered with weaker stations on 7088 LSB.

Comments

Comments from Stan AH6KO on the SCD VHF net.

What worked well

• Most operators came prepared, used good net procedures.
• Use of digital mode MT-63 showed a lot of improvement over the last year. Message exchanges were efficient. A necessary resend was completed effectively.
• Digital messages were treated as serious messages, not just interesting broadcasts. NCS asked for a destination for each message.
• Maui stations were able to move traffic on an alternate (simplex) frequency.
• Most messages were actionable.
• Nancy WH7XO took over the net seamlessly when Oahu EOC apparently had transmitter problems. She was totally prepared and knew exactly what was happening.
• Scenario was well-planned; timing was good. Net kept moving, yet there was plenty of space for everyone to participate.

What could be improved

• Some operators attempted to pass voice traffic informally without using any format, even ad-hoc. Recommend -- Continue emcomm net training and publicize. The training is working.
• Only a few effective voice messages were sent. Recommend -- Even as use of digital modes increases, continue voice message training; it will be needed.
• Too much time spent moving traffic on the main net. Recommend -- Even for an exercise, we should find ways to practice moving to an alternate frequency when available. Perhaps NCS could ask or suggest. (See above; Maui stations did this. There may have been opportunity to do this between Keaau ARC and Hilo EOC, but not sure.)
• Not all actionable messages received replies. Recommend -- Try to focus on replies in future exercises. Practice replies in training nets, for voice and digital.
• The required switch to emergency power when the winds increased was a good aspect of the exercise, but I (for one) was not prepared/able to switch smoothly. Recommend -- Emphasize actual switch to emergency power in future exercises.
• I was surprised that only 12 stations checked in on VHF/UHF. Perhaps there were more on HF. Recommend -- Publicize after action-report and continue the excellent publicity for the exercise itself.

DEM RACES

DEM EOC - HF, Russell Houlton WH7O

Activity:

For most of the event we were checked into the ARC net on 7.080. We received or intercepted a total of 25 messages, including 3 CSV files.

FLDIGI is very successful. I can’t remember ever passing so much or doing it so easily. We even received one message where the tones were not audible.

One disappointment was some messages were verbose. It would have been painful to have to send then via voice.

Lessons learned:

The rooftop antenna worked very well. We could hear everyone with the exception of one station on Kauai that net control also struggled with. There was an interfering sequel that we didn’t track down – just worked around it as best we could with filters. Some sleuthing needs to be done to see how it can be minimized as it may be due to nearby equipment.

Direct wire for FLdigi is preferred. We had two computers. One hardwired, one speaker/mic coupled. The speaker/mic missed about 1/3 of the messages. The hard wired computer received every transmission with the exception of one station that was off-frequency. So speaker/mic can be used as backup, but we should plan on direct-wire as much as possible.

Windows 7/Home and above can be configured to be a wireless access point and file server. Windows 7/Basic lacks the ability, but it can connect to such a network. By doing this we could collaborate on composing messages and sharing files.

Stairwells make good waveguides for communicating between floors via UHF. We found that by placing a mag-mount antenna in the stairwell, we could communicate from the roof to the basement with ease where other antenna placements failed.

DEM District 4 - Windward Oahu

The after action report for DEM District 4 and the shelters is online.

DEM District 7 - Manoa Valley Church Shelter

The after action report for DEM District 7 and the shelter at Manoa Valley Church is online.

Kauai County

SKYWARN Net

The SKYWARN Net was held on Sunday, June 1, 2014, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. HST. The net was a very good exercise for hams to call in weather reports. The requirements were: Call sign, name, SKYWARN ID number (if they have one), location and their real world weather report. Fourteen check-ins for HF with five sending digital SKYWARN FLdigi messages. Forty check-ins on VHF/UHF linked repeaters with seven sending digital SKYWARN FLdigi messages.

What worked well

• FLdigi worked well on both VHF/UHF and HF.
• Use of the FLmsg weather forms on both VHF/UHF and HF digital.
• Use of a HF relay help with weak signal stations.
• The linked VHF/UHF State and DEM RACES repeaters worked.
• Used a HT with a laptop in the NWS conference room with acoustical coupling which keep the noise away from the HF radio station.

What could be improved

• Will need a printer for each radio station to print out digital messages to forward to the lead meteorologist.
• Better location of the HF 40 meter dipole; however, the roof of the NWS limits how the 40 meter dipole can be positioned.

Tuesday EOC Net

State Civil Defense - What worked well

• Messages exchanged with DEM and Maui EOC. Messages were not exchanged with Hilo EOC and Kauai EOC. 11 exercise messages received. 7 exercise messages transmitted.
• The use of FLdigi allowed accurate transmission and timely delivery of messages given to the operators.
• 40 Meters (7088 kHz) worked well.
• The communications check and exchange of test FLdigi messages before the net worked well.
• Printing with the new printer worked well. Printing three copies worked: (a) operator copy, (b) copy for ERT leader, (c) copy for RACES liaison for tracking open items.
• The use of the message inbox trays helped. For the next event, trays for (a) incoming, (b) outgoing, (b) open action items are needed.
• FLdigi was able to exchange long messages. An ICS-205a form transmitted on HF took 4 minutes 30 seconds at 1 KL and 8 minutes 30 minutes at 500L, and was copied with no errors.

What could be improved

• The county EOCs were not set up for HF. Only Maui EOC setup for HF, but experienced high noise level from the office building. Kauai EOC has an HF yagi.
• The originators of the messages need training on how to write better messages. All names and positions should be filled in. The use of abbreviations and lingo not familiar to others hampered understanding and handling of the message. Use plain English and spell out abbreviations.
• WebEOC requires a contact name and telephone number in order to enter an incident/message for tracking. County EOCs sending actionable messages should include a contact person and telephone number in each message.
• The audio splitter cables were unavailable.
• For the next event, each operator should bring headphones and an audio splitter - in case existing headphones are unavailable.
• People came to ask the status of inbound incident message status. Should have asked the ERT Team Lead first.
• ERT Team Lead needs to send back reply messages to the RACES desk.
• Procedures need to be developed for handling of the station log. For the log entry, place a "RX" or "TX" in the left margin for the rows with message handling information if a message was received or sent, and entry the subject for the log entry. The team is looking at the ICS 309 form for use as a combined station and message log. The incoming and outgoing message logs can be processed later from the station/message log.
• Need to improve the handling of the ICS-213 form. Separate the incoming from the outgoing reply messages.

DEM After Action Report

The DEM After Action Report is available.

DEM transmitted 9 FLdigi messages, and received 1 FLdigi exercise message.

Additional information and educational materials are available at:

• Actual operations during Hurricane Iniki
• Lessons learned
• Standard Operating Guidelines
• Use Powerpole Connectors
• Generating exercise ICS 213 Messages
• ICS 213 Message Handling
• Emergency Communications Phraseology
• Common Hawaii frequencies
• FLDigi Operating Guide