Ecomms AAR by William Wallace

On September 11th, I attended the one day Emergency Communication class that was taught by Tango1Papa (whose blog is Wyoming Survival), in Rock Springs, Wyoming.   There were 10 attendees.

The following were some of topics that were reviewed and discussed. Frequency monitoring equipment,  multiple hand held radios (2 M & 70 cm), his preferences for tactical squad radios and discussions on antenna building.  He also taught on OTP (One Time Pad) encryption and tactical radio operations.
Tango1Papa handed out a nine page outline on the subjects to be discussed.
He started on on some basic radio theory (wavelengths and frequencies), then moved on to the HAM bands and modes (CW, SSB (USB and LSB), AM and FM.

We spent time discussing frequency monitoring and practiced with different frequency monitoring devices and the practical ranges in which they operated most effectively.   

Had a brief discussion on HF SOP and skywave propagation and different antenna systems for a variety of scenarios.

SOI (signal operating instruction) was covered along with the PACE plan.

Operating procedures were discussed keeping brevity in transmission length in mind.
Tango1Papa discussed encryption using the OTP method and we all practiced this.

Antenna design was discussed along with the formula to build the antenna to the desired frequency. We built a dipole antenna for a HF rig Tango1Papa had set up in the 40 M band and tuned into several stations broadcasting.

Encryption was discussed utilizing digital radios.  The Anytone AT-D878UV was discussed as one of the better digital radio’s since it can utilize 64 bit encryption.  

As a background, I have previously taken all of NC Scouts RTO classes.  I obtained my HAM technician license after attending the RTO classes.
Taking this class from Tango1Papa was very well worth my time.   I picked up a significant amount of information on a variety of topics from this class taught by Tango1Papa.
It was obvious to me that Tango1Papa has spent much time researching in preparation for this class and also from the variety of articles he posts on his blog, Wyoming Survival.