Callup Process: The callup began at 0845. The data base had been filtered on members who have indicated availability on weekends, and also a desire to participate in exercises.

It was then sorted into three categories:

1. Members with alpha pagers
2. Members with numeric pagers, but no alpha pagers
3. Members with no pagers at all.

First, an alpha page was sent to all members that have an alpha pager e-mail address in the PPARES data base. As the pages went out, Curtis Knott KB2ZVX and Bill and Moe Pierce KDØJU and WBØRTF began the callup via telephone to the members with no pagers at all. At the same time, Rob Roller N7LV began the numeric page callup process by sending the message "145265" (representing the frequency of the check-in net) to all members that had a numeric pager listed. The callup process was complete by about 0920.

Note that once the mission got underway, the Teller County tasks ran independent from the El Paso County tasks for this exercise. Normally there would be a liaison between the two counties during an emergency.

Callup: In Curtis Knott KB2ZVX reports that 100% of the phone numbers he dialed were correct, which gives trust to the data in the data base. The alpha page, sent via e-mail, is probably the most reliable way of getting the word out to the maximum number of members, assuming the phone and the internet is working normally. The telephone callup is probably the least effective in getting members to report in. There seems to be a positive correlation between whether members have pagers and the members that respond to the callup. The members with pagers are generally more likely to respond to a callup. Curtis reports that none of the people he called via phone participated in the exercise.

This is the first time the data base has been used to tailor the callup process to include only those that have indicated availability and a willingness to participate in an exercise. Out of about 280 members, this whittled the list down to about 114 members that qualified for callup. (47 got an alphapage, 29 numeric page, and 34 got a phone call.) By this method, the entire callup was performed in about 35 minutes.

Hospital staff courteous: PPARES members were urged to keep the intrusion to the emergency room operations to a minimum. Prior to the exercise, coordination was made with the hospital safety or emergency preparedness staff, and the people in those offices were to contact the charge nurse for the Saturday A.M. shift. Two of the three charge nurses knew we were coming, but were not aware exactly why we were coming, nor were they even aware that ham radio operators had an operating location there. Nevertheless, the hospital staff were courteous, and allowed us to bring our members in for familiarization. Hospital staff that had been present during previous exercises recognizes some of us, and were happy to see us. Ms. Deanna Funk of Penrose Hospital asked the nurses to take very good care of us.

Need for operators to have maps: Unless the members had been to a particular agency before, most members needed directions, or at least an address, to each agency. Therefore, it is recommended that each member get a city map, and each member should become more familiar with the agencies. The served agency locations will be added as an annex to the PPARES Operations Manual.

Operations manual needs to have information about served agencies: This goes hand in hand with the members carrying a map. Members are encouraged to find the agencies on a map, and when time allows, take a drive by each of the agencies so they can drive right to it next time they're called to support the agency.

Need to improve participation rate: As with most exercises, participation is relatively low. Considering there are about 280 names in the data base, and we have good availability data on about ½ of them, the actual number of hams that participated are very low, in the area of about 10% of the total. The PPARES staff should try explore ways to get more people involved. One suggestion was made that we should have a core group of members that are willing to spread the word about PPARES to as many other hams as possible. Hopefully this word-of-mouth advertising may recruit more active hams into PPARES, which would in turn improve our participation rate.

Most hospital staff do not know about ARES: In preparation for an exercise, coordination is usually required through the city office of emergency management. Usually permission is given directly by the OEM to contact the hospital and arrange a convenient time for the exercise. However, the information doesn't always flow all the way down into the emergency room, where the amateu radio operating position is located. Additional one-on-one coordination is required directly with the hospital emergency preparedness staff, and even then, on the day of the exercise, the nurses in charge were not always aware that we were coming in for the exercise. After introductions, most nurses didn't even know that they had a ham radio hookup at their station. They knew of the ambulance and police radios, and initially thought we were there to test out those systems. After explaining what we were about, they were comfortable with us and very helpful.

Assortment of adapters and cables are necessary: Details of the amateur radio operating locations are being added to the PPARES Operations Manual. However, each participant in ANy exercise should have RF adapters which can accommodate practically any kind of connector combination, to or from BNC, TNC, UHF, and most other common RF connectors. Two of the three hospitals have UHF connectors, and one has an extra cable to go to a BNC antenna jack on a radio.

Mission Coordinator cannot participate as a liaison: During this exercise it was pointed out that the mission coordinator should not act as a POC to the hospital. That would not be the case during an actual emergency. However, during the planning, there were not enough volunteers to cover all of the hospitals, so Rob Roller N7LV attempted to perform as POC to Memorial. Problems would arise during an emergency if the mission coordinator was not available to deal with unexpected issues.

Members should carry PPARES Operations Manual and other info at all times: Since one never knows when a mission may arise, it's strongly encouraged that all members print out a copy of the PPARES Operations Manual and carry it with them: in their vehicle, at the office, and at home.

Security is high at some hospitals: Specifically with Memorial, since it is a city hospital, and they see all kinds of patients, security is quite high there. There is a metal detector, similar to the kind used at airports. All contact with the registration nurses is done via an intercom system, and the nurses are behind bullet-proof windows. Members are reminded NOT TO BRING ANY KIND OF KNIFE, SCISSORS, OR OTHER SHARP INSTRUMENTS into the hospital. Cameras are not allowed in hospital emergency rooms due to patient's privacy rights.

El Paso County Search and Rescue noted they would not be available to give a tour of the equipment in their parking bays due to heightened security at all levels of government.

Question about packet radio addressed: One ham asked if it were possible to set up a packet radio station along side the radio equipment. Although this would be a nice thing to have, at the time there is not a second antenna installed at any hospital. In addition, the packet radio mission would have to be defined and questions answered. Would packet serve a function at a hospital, or is packet better suited between other agencies such as the Red Cross?

How to handle missing or late Net Control Station: It was noted by one member that there was no net control station on the air when the first pages came out. The suggestion was made that the first person to check in on frequency, and not find an active NCS yet, assume the role of temporary net control. This temporary NCS would proceed to accept check-ins, then turn over the net to the "real" net control station when that person comes on frequency.

Picnic provides an excellent venue for a debriefing and critique: As a result of the picnic/debrief, there were many good comments made, not just by the staff members in the mission, but also by the general members that participated in the mission. Most of these "lessons learned" and "what went well" comments were provided at the debriefing session.