National SOS Radio Network

Experimental (Regional) Phase of Connecticut Drill

June 17, 2006

1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Local Time

IMPORTANT:  The role of FRS and FRS / GMRS combo radios in the "National SOS Radio Network" program is local neighborhood communications as described in the "Neighborhood Emergency Radio Communications Service" guidelines as proposed by EMCOM:  http://www.emcomus.org/commwp.html  The radios are not for significant-distance communications.  Repeat: They are not meant for significant-distance communications.

However -- as a simple research study -- we we wanted to learn two things:  (1)  How well a "$15 radio" could communicate with central or regional communication resources.  (2)  How well the general public, totally untrained in radio communications, could function during highly congested airwaves.  We discovered, as was reported in our post-event press release, the following (as provided to the press by Eric Knight): 

"What really surprised us was how orderly the radio conversations were. We were certainly prepared for communication chaos, with hundreds of people trying to contact us at the same time. But the chaos didn't occur." Knight went on to say, "I have to give the public great credit for the common courtesy they used. People simply took their turn. We've thus discovered that ordinary citizens, with zero formal communications training, can effectively communicate during extremely heavy radio congestion -- as what might occur during a real emergency. That was one of the most important lessons we learned."  To view the entire press release, please refer to Yahoo News: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/6/prweb400615.htm

The primary, and most important, phase of the drill was to encourage neighborhoods, throughout Connecticut, to learn how to use their FRS-compatible radios.  Within hours of completion of the drill, we received a wave of e-mails and phone calls from Connecticut residents located all over the state.  From the sheer volume of calls and e-mails we received -- and are still piling in over a week later -- we estimate that a few thousand people throughout the state participated in one way or another.  Given that we are a totally volunteer, one-hundred-percent 'grassroots' organization, we have to tip our caps to the media that greatly helped with public exposure.  We also have to thank the wonderful ham and GMRS volunteers here in Connecticut that helped this essential phase of the drill succeed.

To provide a slightly more technical perspective on the Experimental (Regional) Phase of the Connecticut Drill, the following drill report has been compiled by the National SOS Radio Network:

First off, it is important to note that this is not a scientific study.  The data is provided to simply enable the general analysis of the performance of FRS-compatible radios in use by the general public, and how signals from these radios can be received by an experimental "Hartford-area receiving station".

The "Hartford-area receiving station" was comprised of a Maxon 210+3 GMRS handheld radio (serial number 504001838, manufactured circa 1994), connected via 25’ of 4XL8IIA Certified Quality Cable to an Austin DFQ’r antenna, cut for 460 MHz, mounted on 16 feet of fiberglass mast for a total of 20’ height (which is within the FCC's GMRS allowance).  The antenna was mounted next to a parked automobile where the drill operators were seated; the elevation of the location was 938'.  The Maxon is rated at 5 watts running off external battery power; in this case, external power was an automobile car battery via an accessory-power jack.  Eric Knight operated the Maxon unit under his GMRS license, call sign WQEP718.  The Maxon unit was set to "Channel 3":  462.6125 MHz.

The locations of the call-in participants were recorded.  We cannot vouch for absolute location authenticity, as the participants were on the "honor system" to provide their locations accurately.  We did, however, take extra steps to verify the longer-distance reports (such a via phone calls after the drill).  To protect personal privacy, the names and addresses of the call-in participants are not displayed in our Web site data.  It should be noted that we used the publicly available "geocoder" online system at www.geocoder.us to convert physical locations to GPS data points. 

All call-in participants were reminded to use the "low power" 500mW setting on their radios, in order to comply with FRS regulations. 

It is also important to note that this phase of our drill was independently monitored by two unaffiliated entities:

(1)  Orest "Andy" Zajac, N1CJG, member of the Manchester, Connecticut EMCOMM team, using his FRS radio. 

(2)  Daniel Callaghan, WQDC539, a GMRS operator using a Midland GXT-300 FRS / GMRS radio.

Andy and Dan learned about the drill via public announcements, and graciously volunteered their time to participate.  Thank you so much!

The Google Map below plots the locations of the various public participants calling into our "Hartford-area receiving station".  Note that you can zoom in on the map.  You can also drag around the map with your mouse by holding down the left mouse button.  Once you zoom in, and click on a location point, you'll see a little additional information about the call-in participant -- including the point-to-point ("as the crow flies") distance rounded to the nearest mile & kilometer. The green icon with the "C" indicator was the fixed "Central" Maxon location.

Of course, as mentioned in our previous tests, data from this drill represents just one particular location.  The results are certainly not meant to be generalized to other instances.  Again -- as mentioned at the top of this write up -- the role of FRS and FRS / GMRS combo radios in the "National SOS Radio Network" is local neighborhood communications.

The following is the Google Map of the call-in participants: