Operational Plan for Radio Channel Use

[wuzafuzz]

Many members have expressed confusion regarding the wide variety of radio channels in the narrow band channel plan.  The loss of CAT and simplex use on a common repeater output really changes the procedures members are accustomed to.

As a result my squadron commander has asked me to create a standing operational plan defining how our squadron will use available channels.  This plan will of course be subject to, and compatible with, plans published at higher echelons (none I'm aware of currently address the new channel plan).  It would be in effect at all times except when superseded by communications plans for missions or events.

At first blush my thought is to create a comm plan just like I would for an event or mission.  I would publish the appropriate ICS forms and supporting Word docs on our squadron website.  The plan would be accompanied by periodic training/reminders.

Before starting, I'm curious to hear what other units may be doing along these lines.

[RADIOMAN015]

Many members have expressed confusion regarding the wide variety of radio channels in the narrow band channel plan.  The loss of CAT and simplex use on a common repeater output really changes the procedures members are accustomed to.

As a result my squadron commander has asked me to create a standing operational plan defining how our squadron will use available channels.  Before starting, I'm curious to hear what other units may be doing along these lines.

With narrow band implementation and the upcoming loss of the use of Vertex 150 portables, many units are just basically an army of one or two radios at best .  You are fortunate IF you have so many compliant radios that you need to write a plan for local use  .   I'd suggest you look at your wing's plans for guidance.  Simplex wise in the past I would run all the units ground assets (portables, base, mobiles) on TAC#3 (wideband) & access our local repeater IF necessary.   In your planning you should be realistic on communication range (run a test if you have any doubts)  based upon the type of radio equipment you have available.  IF everyone has 25/50 watt mobiles & bases with external antennas than simplex is best for local operations.  IF however most have 5 watt portables, than hopefully you've got a local repeater & that will be your primary method.  HOWEVER, again testing simplex even with portables is a good idea because repeaters can go down & your plan should consider this.
GOOD LUCK!
RM
       

[Eclipse]

RADIOMAN has a good point, and further to that, even for those that still own compliant equipment most do not have the ability to easily program the radio themselves.  They get whatever plan the tech decided to implement that day.

[IceNine]

I think you are missing the point.

I think he is asking for a plan on how to use the standard programming, not a standard program.

The new channel plan is confusing especially when all you see if the plan and not the definitions for each channel.

[RADIOMAN015]

I think you are missing the point.

I think he is asking for a plan on how to use the standard programming, not a standard program.

The new channel plan is confusing especially when all you see if the plan and not the definitions for each channel.

Overall I think it is pretty simple CC#1/CC#2 can include ever radio (base, mobile, portable, & aircraft), the specific plan designates which one to use.   AIR#1/AIR#2 is air to ground & air to air, the specific plan designates which one to use.  GUARD #1, all aircraft to monitor, all mobile/portable & ground stations to monitor when feasible OR as designated in the plan.  TAC #1 primarily for local operations, portables to mobile or base, may be also used by aircraft in limited circumstances, again whatever the plan states.
Generally, many wings try to keep everyone on the same simplex channel during small missions.  IF the mission expands repeaters as well as an air/ground would get added.   

Unfortunately (or fortunately) it's what the wing (and maybe local communications plan) indicates.   Remember that a plan may have to be modified due to circumstances (e.g. interference on the channel/frequency, nearby wing using the same channel, radio programming errors (make sure you check EVERY radio & EVERY channel that gets reprogrammed BEFORE you really need to use it, etc)
RM         

[wuzafuzz]

Ice Nine hit the nail on the head.  I'm only looking to standardize how we use existing channels programmed in Corporate owned radios.  No custom programming is considered.  All by the book.

Radioman015's ideas are tracking pretty close to mine.  Designate a "usual" simplex channel and repeater channel, with instructions to monitor Guard whenever possible.  Easy to understand and remember for non-radioheads.  Still, I'm curious to hear what others think.  Plus this conversation may prove useful for those who haven't considered this yet :-)

[arajca]

With the NB transition and repeater replacement, most wing comm staffs are busy. One project that will be starting in every wing after the transition is reviwing and revising the wing communications plans. I know COWG has asked for input from all levels of communications officers, but has received very little.

[wuzafuzz]

With the NB transition and repeater replacement, most wing comm staffs are busy. One project that will be starting in every wing after the transition is reviwing and revising the wing communications plans. I know COWG has asked for input from all levels of communications officers, but has received very little.

I saw that and plan to send you something fairly soon.  As you say, there is a lot going on lately.  But that keeps it interesting!

For now all I've done is create an ICS 205 with our "normal" comm plan, as kind of a place holder until something supersedes it.  It's been sent to my Group Comm Officer as well as squadron ES and operations folks for review/comment.

Eric
RMR-CO-147 Communications Officer

[desertengineer1]

Many members have expressed confusion regarding the wide variety of radio channels in the narrow band channel plan.  The loss of CAT and simplex use on a common repeater output really changes the procedures members are accustomed to.

As a result my squadron commander has asked me to create a standing operational plan defining how our squadron will use available channels.  This plan will of course be subject to, and compatible with, plans published at higher echelons (none I'm aware of currently address the new channel plan).  It would be in effect at all times except when superseded by communications plans for missions or events.

At first blush my thought is to create a comm plan just like I would for an event or mission.  I would publish the appropriate ICS forms and supporting Word docs on our squadron website.  The plan would be accompanied by periodic training/reminders.

Before starting, I'm curious to hear what other units may be doing along these lines.

I'm heading the NB transition efforts at wing level here. 

A couple of initial thoughts...

Your first point of contact needs to be the Wing DC.  He/she has access to a large set of resources and can get you up to speed on any transitional plans.  Wings DC's are the ADCON on interim plans until the national code plugs are finalized.  There are things we are allowed to do until that time.

Regardless of the current status, expect your portion of the Ops Plan to be way more detailed than in the past.  Instead of channel designators particular to individual states, repeaters and simplex channels will have universal designators such as P55 or V1 - and that will be the same ROE across the nation.

Wing DC's have traded many versions of Comm Plans between each other.  Get with your DC for the latest.  Remember, of course, that it's still a work in progress.

Remember also that many wings don't know what channels the repeaters will be operating until they drop off the trucks.  But the same basic rules will still apply..  Example:

Mission base = channel XX (Simplex)
Backup #1  = Repeater YY (ex: P55)
Backup #2 = Airborne Repeater channel ZZZ (Tactical repeaters)  Quantars are going away.

XX, YY, and ZZ will depend on location and available resources.  The 205 will list channels.  HF will stay the same, but shipping of ALE units are in full swing.  Expect new modes to follow in comm plans as procedures are developed.

[wuzafuzz]

I'm heading the NB transition efforts at wing level here. 

A couple of initial thoughts...

Your first point of contact needs to be the Wing DC.  He/she has access to a large set of resources and can get you up to speed on any transitional plans.  Wings DC's are the ADCON on interim plans until the national code plugs are finalized.  There are things we are allowed to do until that time.

Regardless of the current status, expect your portion of the Ops Plan to be way more detailed than in the past.  Instead of channel designators particular to individual states, repeaters and simplex channels will have universal designators such as P55 or V1 - and that will be the same ROE across the nation.

Wing DC's have traded many versions of Comm Plans between each other.  Get with your DC for the latest.  Remember, of course, that it's still a work in progress.

Remember also that many wings don't know what channels the repeaters will be operating until they drop off the trucks.  But the same basic rules will still apply..  Example:

Mission base = channel XX (Simplex)
Backup #1  = Repeater YY (ex: P55)
Backup #2 = Airborne Repeater channel ZZZ (Tactical repeaters)  Quantars are going away.

XX, YY, and ZZ will depend on location and available resources.  The 205 will list channels.  HF will stay the same, but shipping of ALE units are in full swing.  Expect new modes to follow in comm plans as procedures are developed.

Thanks for the thoughts.  I already started with my Group Comm Officer.  It'll be interesting to see how it all shakes out. 

Are the Micom II's going away or will they somehow coexist alongside ALE radios? 

[arajca]

Eventually, they'll be replaced by ALE radios. No idea how long that will take.

[wuzafuzz]

Bump.

I was just told the Technisonic radios do not have transmit capability on the Guard channel positions.  Since I'm not aircrew I don't have good working knowledge of that radio yet.  Can anyone tell me if that is true?

Since we were told to monitor Guard 1 all the time, it seemed natural to use Guard 1 as a calling channel.  My proposed plan instructed everyone to scan Guard 1 all the time.  Establish contact and make immediate arrangements to switch to an agreed upon channel.  This seems a good way to overcome the lack of a universal simplex in the new plan.

If the Technisonic radio is transmit inhibited on Guard, then it's back to the drawing board.

[desertengineer1]

Bump.

I was just told the Technisonic radios do not have transmit capability on the Guard channel positions.  Since I'm not aircrew I don't have good working knowledge of that radio yet.  Can anyone tell me if that is true?

Since we were told to monitor Guard 1 all the time, it seemed natural to use Guard 1 as a calling channel.  My proposed plan instructed everyone to scan Guard 1 all the time.  Establish contact and make immediate arrangements to switch to an agreed upon channel.  This seems a good way to overcome the lack of a universal simplex in the new plan.

If the Technisonic radio is transmit inhibited on Guard, then it's back to the drawing board.

The TDFM's can transmit on Guard, as far as I know, but your wing's code plug may have TX disabled for that channel.  Check with your wing DC (or the programming guru therein) to make sure.

Of course, when the national channel plan comes, this will be whatever they decide.

[wuzafuzz]

Bump.

I was just told the Technisonic radios do not have transmit capability on the Guard channel positions.  Since I'm not aircrew I don't have good working knowledge of that radio yet.  Can anyone tell me if that is true?

Since we were told to monitor Guard 1 all the time, it seemed natural to use Guard 1 as a calling channel.  My proposed plan instructed everyone to scan Guard 1 all the time.  Establish contact and make immediate arrangements to switch to an agreed upon channel.  This seems a good way to overcome the lack of a universal simplex in the new plan.

If the Technisonic radio is transmit inhibited on Guard, then it's back to the drawing board.

The TDFM's can transmit on Guard, as far as I know, but your wing's code plug may have TX disabled for that channel.  Check with your wing DC (or the programming guru therein) to make sure.

Of course, when the national channel plan comes, this will be whatever they decide.

I ran out to the airport with another member and checked it out.  Ours did transmit on Guard 1, and the Guard 2 position transmitted on TAC1.  As you say, all bets are off for the next round of programming.

On the bright side, my efforts to create a communications plan were noticed and are now being duplicated at Group level.  :-)

[RADIOMAN015]

I think one of the short falls of ALL communications plans is the addition of a provision of a one way radio alert broadcast method on a designated CAP frequency (ies) (authorized/discussed in CAPR 100-3).   There's a reluctance now at CAP HQ Communications policy wise to release these frequencies to the membership supporting ES operations.  A simple consumer grade NFM radio scanner programmed possibly to the local area CAP repeater output frequency and/or GUARD #1 would easily add  cost effective alert capabilities for squadron members.  There's no gurantee in an emergency that local cellphone and/or land line telephones will be in service.

There's other radio communications alerting possibilities (e.g. Amateur Radio, CB, GMRS, MURS, Commercial LMR, etc), but these would cost the member's more money & potential licensing issues.
RM

[desertengineer1]

I think one of the short falls of ALL communications plans is the addition of a provision of a one way radio alert broadcast method on a designated CAP frequency (ies) (authorized/discussed in CAPR 100-3).   There's a reluctance now at CAP HQ Communications policy wise to release these frequencies to the membership supporting ES operations.  A simple consumer grade NFM radio scanner programmed possibly to the local area CAP repeater output frequency and/or GUARD #1 would easily add  cost effective alert capabilities for squadron members.  There's no gurantee in an emergency that local cellphone and/or land line telephones will be in service.

There's other radio communications alerting possibilities (e.g. Amateur Radio, CB, GMRS, MURS, Commercial LMR, etc), but these would cost the member's more money & potential licensing issues.
RM

The end goal of the national channel plan is to eliminate the frequency element completely.  The reasons are varied, but mostly driven by new spectrum rules, AF moves from WB to NB, and the limited availability (and reduced need) of equipment that meets the new rules.  In a nutshell, we're well behind the curve compared to everyone else and it's time.

The comm plans will have to reflect this accordingly.

On the good side, the only hard operational difference will be...  designations of channels rather than frequencies.

Our comm plans already have this in place.  For example, Mission Base primary will be V1.  Secondary will be the fixed repeater, designated as (for example) R51.  In the event of no repeater, airborne repeaters will be used (the new tactical repeaters are arriving at wings now).

Not much will change if the comm plans are written as they should be.  Just the channel designators will.

Of course, there are a few intermediate cases like VHF AM Air-Air which will not change.

More capability is on the way for HF (ALE and ALE Mobile's shipping now).

The majority of the work falls on some very tired comm officers.  Intermediate code plugs and repeater installs have us really busy.

[RADIOMAN015]

I think one of the short falls of ALL communications plans is the addition of a provision of a one way radio alert broadcast method on a designated CAP frequency (ies) (authorized/discussed in CAPR 100-3).  There's other radio communications alerting possibilities (e.g. Amateur Radio, CB, GMRS, MURS, Commercial LMR, etc), but these would cost the member's more money & potential licensing issues.
RM

Not much will change if the comm plans are written as they should be.  Just the channel designators will.

Of course, there are a few intermediate cases like VHF AM Air-Air which will not change.

More capability is on the way for HF (ALE and ALE Mobile's shipping now).

Well my exact point in communications planning is that it needs to be "realistically" addressing the reduced number of VHF radio communications assets that will be available when narrow banding is completed.  (Remember all those modified VHF portables -- Vertex 150's will be gone). 

Frankly where usable cellphones will be the primary mobile voice communication method available, since the majority of senior members (as well as many cadets) have this capability & require no additional costly purchases.  Also the internet & email/sms text messages to telephones should be planned to be used.

I think from a communicatons planning standpoint we need to take a "mixed" network(s) approach to communications.  We may find that the internet (email msgs) and or cellphone voice network to or at certain geographic locations & than reintroduction of the message traffic will be by radio (formal radio message handling is a lost art now in CAP) to areas not reachable by land/cellphone.     

Frankly, a more critical review of the effectivness of ALL communications plans needs to be accomplished on an ongoing basis.  CAP's missions/operations continues whether new repeaters are being installed or not.  However, I do agree with you that there's limitations on radio communications staffing & perhaps there should be a plan on how to increase this staffing.
RM 

[desertengineer1]

Absolutely, and with respect to "realistic" comm plans, I'll borrow a phrase from the military life:  "Train as you fight and fight as you train"

Go ahead and put all of these into both the non FOUO comm plan (listed generically and by channels) attachment and the FOUO ICS 205.  We certainly do it, and pretty much everything is in there (Cell phone --> voice/text/data, Internet --> email/WIMRS/imagery/mission planning, and so on).

I make SAREX warlords and evaluators work for it   

Channel plans will be the same.  Primary, backup, repeaters, high-bird, they are all listed according to zones/channel designators.

All of our radios should be narrowband compliant by now (or at least wings should have plenty on-hand).  Of course, there are varying degrees of "readiness" in there.  The Neutec's are NB voice, nonP25, so they will relegate down a little on the food chain.  And all of this still revolves around member's knowing and versed in the comm plan and procedures.  GOOD LUCK, and always keep involved with the wing DC's and each other.  Nobody is working in a vacuum here.

[arajca]

Neutecs are NOT narrowband compliant. Taits are.

[desertengineer1]

Neutecs are NOT narrowband compliant. Taits are.

OOPS.  My Bad.  Meant to write TAIT but the brain was thinking elsewhere.  Sorry