CAP Nationwide Communications Exercise?

[ZigZag911]

As I recall, this was done in the 1960s-70s on an annual basis...not sure why it stopped...but anything that encourages training and teamwork is good, in my view.

[Eclipse]

Nets do not tell you how the system will work in an emergency.

Then you are using the nets wrong.

Sorry to be blunt...but that is the bald face truth.

A national COMMEX should only have thing like knocking a node off of the net and see how long it takes to recover.  But in order to do that you have to know what the steady state of the net is in the first place.

NVWG is not part of that net as far as I know.....so the net is broken before we even injust exercise inputs.

I know getting everyone together to play is hard.......so you plan it out well in advance....and you hammer wings and regions who fail to have enought trained personnel to respond.

Sorta, kinda, not exactly.

The truth is most of the equipment being checked during the nets is a non-factor during missions, so there's no point to it.
The majority of those in my AOR and wing who respond to missions have no interest in a nightly round of "no traffic, over".

I would fully support a mandate of regular participation in the nets by anyone with issued equipment, but as it stands, without
that, we're not confidence checking the people or equipment we'd actually use or depend on.

Also, rarely, if ever, do net check-ins, or even comm exercises,  include the aircraft radios or tactical repeaters - both critical in real missions.

My wing did a very interesting test about two years ago where they put just about every airplane up that we had, and tested the ability
to talk from one end of the state to the other using only VHF, high birds, and message handling.  Surprisingly it worked very well, but nothing like that has been done since.

[Spaceman3750]

The Constant Watch exercise plans are available in the secure area of the NTC site.

[Senior]

I will be participating in Ardent Sentry in Missouri Wing.  Not a lot of information
out there, just where to report.  The most I have heard is CAP may work with
MO National Guard in some role.  I am looking forward to the experience gained in a National Level Exercise (NLE). 

[Eclipse]

Ardent Sentry is not a communications exercise.

[arajca]

True, but Constant Watch is planned around Ardent Sentry. Those wings participating in Ardent Sentry are not expected to participate in Constant Watch, and Ardent Sentry traffic has priority over Constant Watch traffic.

[mclarke]

I am just going to simply wonder if this is an OPSEC issue. Regardless if we participate or not, we should use discretion in what we post here.

[wuzafuzz]

I am just going to simply wonder if this is an OPSEC issue. Regardless if we participate or not, we should use discretion in what we post here.

Nothing posted here so far approaches OPSEC concerns.  The fact CAP is participating in disaster exercises and communications exercises is not a secret.  In fact it is worthy of some attention from Public Affairs.

The National Comm Team leader posted about the communications exercise on Facebook.  CAP Volunteer Now posted information about CAP's Ardent Sentry participation on the Internet.  I think we are safe.

Now if someone posts frequencies and designators they will deserve a boot to the head.

[wuzafuzz]

Exhibit A:
http://www.capvolunteernow.com/headline_news.cfm/emergency_responders_prepare_for_new_madrid_earthquake_exercise?show=news&newsID=10422

[Senior]

What is the event we are calling Ardent Sentry?

The email from my wing states Ardent Sentry as the CAP event.  The NLE is linked with SEMA and the National Guard.  I had not heard of Constant Watch until reading about it here.  As for OPSEC, in my wing we have had notices of the NLE before March, my CERT Instructors knew about the NLE and the local fire department knew about it also.

[Eclipse]

What is the event we are calling Ardent Sentry?

http://tinyurl.com/3ncd5ce

[Senior]

I didn't think about using Google.  I  thought with all your knowledge "Eclipse" you may have a link to the FEMA,HQ CAP, etc. websites that would help. 

[wuzafuzz]

Google has been nearly useless with regard to Ardent Sentry 2011.  You will find info on previous years events, both official and conspiracy theories.  Some of it is entertaining reading.

From what I gather Ardent Sentry is an annual exercise practicing military and federal response to a variety of disaster or terror scenarios.  For 2011 the big quake is at least one of the scenarios.  I don't know if there are others.  Some CAP wings are participating in the earthquake portion of Ardent Sentry.  The rest of us are impacted by the CAP only exercise: Constant Watch.

[SarDragon]

Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Tick-tock.

[RADIOMAN015]

I personally look forward to this exercise.  We will do what we can at the local level with our intra squads portables, VHF base/mobiles/portables, & HF/SSB/ALE equipment.  We will also give an honest self evaluation of our strengths & weaknesses at the end of the exercise.

RM   

Unfortunately, it looks to me like this is a weekday exercise, and most adult CAP members work during the weekdays, and also cadets go to school.  During the evenings cadets have to do their homework, and may be able to attend one weekly CAP meeting.  Adult senior members may or may not be available.

So this may be a staffing challenge rather than an equipment challenge, BUT of course if you don't have the available staff to operate the radio equipment than your exercise may not be as effective IF you at least had part of it on a weekend   (and remember if it was the really thing many members would be willing to take some vacation time from their employment).   I know we will try to do our best to support our wing/region BUT I'm already seeing limitations at my level
RM

[cap235629]

we are passing traffic at around 0100 zulu everday

[PHall]

Unfortunately, it looks to me like this is a weekday exercise, and most adult CAP members work during the weekdays, and also cadets go to school.  During the evenings cadets have to do their homework, and may be able to attend one weekly CAP meeting.  Adult senior members may or may not be available.
RM

Natural disasters have a nasty habit of happening any day of the week.
We know we can do stuff on Saturday and Sunday, but how about Wednesday at 1400?
Sounds like they want to get a true picture of what we can do.

[wuzafuzz]

Unfortunately, it looks to me like this is a weekday exercise, and most adult CAP members work during the weekdays, and also cadets go to school.  During the evenings cadets have to do their homework, and may be able to attend one weekly CAP meeting.  Adult senior members may or may not be available.
RM

Natural disasters have a nasty habit of happening any day of the week.
We know we can do stuff on Saturday and Sunday, but how about Wednesday at 1400?
Sounds like they want to get a true picture of what we can do.

Whether they get a true picture will depend on the time of day they try to pass traffic.  Radioman015 was right: people will/can leave work in droves for a real emergency but not for a drill.  When a tornado hit a nearby town a few years ago, many CAP members were able to leave work to go help.  Hundreds of us showed up.  That simply doesn't happen when there is no perceived urgency, as with a exercise.

Hopefully most traffic will be passed during evening hours when most of us can come out to play.

If volunteers are going to train up, most of it has to happen on weekends.  It gets more challenging when we want to train with folks who get paid.  Many of them train during the business week.

[DH]

I've heard some good discussion, I've heard some that seem to complain no matter what we do. There are people who are not in CAP who read this blog and form opinions about us based on it. Some use it to help us, some seem to want to hurt us. It can serve as a good forum for frank discussion and idea sharing.

While we normally practice and train on weekends, we must be able to play well with others. Most of those others practice and train during the week, when they get paid to. The nice thing about CAP is that our membership is very diverse. We have young cadets as well as seasoned retirees. Some have ridged schedules, some are flexible. It's what helps CAP be flexible and that too needs to be evaluated from time to time.

While it is true that the "affected Wings" are located in the Central US, radio waves are funny. Sometimes I can't talk to someone 30 miles from me by HF or VHF. But I may be able to relay a message to that person from a station 300 miles from me. The ability to do that also needs to be evaluated and practiced. If it was easy, it wouldn't be called an "exercise".

[RADIOMAN015]

While we normally practice and train on weekends, we must be able to play well with others. Most of those others practice and train during the week, when they get paid to. The nice thing about CAP is that our membership is very diverse. We have young cadets as well as seasoned retirees. Some have ridged schedules, some are flexible. It's what helps CAP be flexible and that too needs to be evaluated from time to time.

Well our squadron will be beaming out radio signals on VHF FM/P25 Digital, HF/ALE, HF/SSB conventional, likely from around 1700 to 2400 hrs local EACH evening of the exercise.  That's what we can do.

I think it is reasonable that anyone with a CAP radio (especially HF/SSB, HF/ALE) to at least participate in a four hour block for a couple of evenings or even days during the exercise period.  The AF spent a lot of taxpayers money on our radio equipment and we need to be able to show them that we can operate an adaptable contingency network to link everyone together via radio if the need arises.   Also we should be doing this just to have fun folks and teach our cadets (and seniors) a bit more about radios.
RM