OPS: INTEROPERABILITY OPERATIONS ON 60-METERS

The five 60-meter channels have a primary allocation to Federal stations, which include FEMA, SHARES, and MARS stations.  Amateur Radio has a secondary allocation on these channels, and must yield to Federal stations when directed by a Federal agency to do so.

Because of this shared dual allocation, the 60-meter band provides the only opportunity for the Amateur Radio operator to directly interact with Federal agencies.

FEMA Region X, which comprises Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington, conducts a monthly NET to test interoperability between Federal stations and Amateur Radio stations.  This activity includes the use of both voice and digital communications.  For digital transmissions, Amateur Radio operators may encounter WINLINK being used for HF email, and MT63-2KL or MT63-1KL (supported by the free FLDIGI application)  used for general text communications.

Interoperability Exercises and COMMEXs (i.e. Communications Exercises) that are conducted on the 60-meter interoperability channels are often conducted under the authority of a MARS program, or under the authority of the SHARES IWG (i.e. Interoperability Working Group).  In almost all cases, an operational order is issued that contains the following information:

• Event Simulation Type

• Affected Area

• Operational Period

• Situation Description

• Operational Instructions

• SPOTREP (i.e. Spot Reporting) Instructions

The operational instructions may impose limitations upon participating stations.  For example, it is not unusual for the operational instructions to restrict participation of stations to those at specific locations (i.e. a station located at a Federal, State, County or Critical Infrastructure/Key Resource partner's facility).

The SPOTREP instructions will indicate the format and content of information to be conveyed over radio (i.e. what data and the order of that data).  Locations are usually indicated with a Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) code, which indicates both the State and County in a 5-digit number (see the Reference menu item found under the Resources menu on this page).  Deviation from the instructions will result in imposing additional work load upon the Federal liaison station.  Further, stations that generate reports, when the station is explicitly excluded from participation based on the operational instructions will result in unnecessary traffic, additional work-load for the liaison station, and the loss of network bandwidth capability (i.e. less real traffic can be handled due to the time taken handling excluded traffic).  In some cases, this imposes data processing tasks upon the FEMA Interoperability Working Group, using a very small paid staff.  The ripple effect is that tax dollars may be spent performing tasks that are neither scheduled or funded, resulting in delaying of completion of other scheduled and funded tasks.

It is commendable that so many Amateur Radio operators want to participate, but it is also vitally important that the operational instructions be adhered to.  Interoperability SPOTREP instructions often use FIPS codes to indicate the state and county of origin, as shown below:

If you hear an interoperability NET, COMMEX, Exercise or EMCOMM operation, please make an attempt to obtain the operational instructions.  If you cannot locate the operational instructions (under the Activities menu on this web-site), determine an idle period, where the NET control station is idle, and call the NET control station.  Upon establishing contact with the NET control station, ask the NET control station to summarize the operational instructions, including any exclusions and SPOTREP instructions.

If you need to know what the operational instructions are, chances are that other operators need this same information.  Triggering an on-NET announcement, if not done with excessive frequency, can have the positive effect of eliminating disqualified traffic, and can only serve to help participating stations in successfully completing the operation.