A new and exciting event – the HAMNET Blackout 2020 – a national training exercise for HAMNET will take place on the weekend of 29 and 30 August 2020.
This year it is being organised by the HAMNET teams in ZS3 and ZS4 call zones. For more information, go to the blackout page or contact Rickus directly.
While a lot will be the same as the last exercise, an exciting new addition is the focus on digital modes. JS8Call and WinLink will be used as primary operating modes, although the “Message must get through” remains and any way will do.
Operating off grid for the 24 hour period from noon on Saturday to noon on Sunday is more of a challenge than it sounds. While you can charge your batteries before the start, only off-grid power is allowed for everything. The challenge here is power through the night – including lighting, cooking, heating, and so on. After running the whole afternoon – charging your batteries by solar while you can – you go into the long night hall. Remember it is winter here, so the sun sets early and rises later so it is quite some time before your solar panels get charge into those tired batteries.
A generator does make it easier, yes. But the purists will never stoop to that level – not in training! OK, maybe it is only me. I still think that generators will be a short lived solution in the event of a serious power outage. Remember only while there is power can the petrol station pumps work – after that we are down to you own private store, what is in your vehicles and lawnmowers!
Lets talk a little about the digital modes – JS8Call and WinLink and why they have been chosen as the primary tools.
I know some people (ZS4BS?) who will joke about the digital modes – FT8 getting more than it’s fair share of abuse (HI) who will tell you digital modes are for kids. Digital modes get through where phone will not. This is a fact. FT8 gets further than CW in a lot of cases and is “understood” by more hams today than CW. Also a fact. Given the current sunspot cycle, interference, and the fact that we running low power all point to digital being the right choice.
WinLink lets you send emails – either through the WinLink system (online to other email addresses) or peer-to-peer, which is what we are going to do. This will allow us to send lists etc. to other stations and you can imagine how that would be an advantage when there is no internet available. Photos can also be sent, but depending on the conditions you would not want to send big files, and photos might be a grey line – and care taken when sending files of any size really.
JS8Call, based on FT8, allows for keyboard-to-keyboard communications. This is great for two reasons – one you can send the message to anyone who can hear it (just like phone), but you can also send it to people who are asleep. Well, lets clear that up a bit, the message can be received and stored and viewed later by the operator. A phone contact would not be made, but you can still get the message if you were asleep, taking a leak, or repositioning the solar panels!
To try and do justice to these two modes in a single blog post is simply not possible. They are both great modes and worth playing around and becoming familiar with them as they are great tools to have in your disaster box.
We are getting a Raspberry Pi with the relevant software loaded. A RPi can operate on very low power and is powerful enough to be useful in the field. A typical field deployment would involve battery power to a radio, the RPi, and perhaps a cell/tablet charger. The tablet is used to VNC into the RPi so no need for a keyboard and/or screen. All built into a simple, easy-to-deploy man-pack/frame/bag.
Oh boy, I’m looking forward to the exercise – this time I’ll be in the field 🙂