The recent ‘bat­tery only’ pow­er train­ing exer­cise in Malaysia, aimed at pass­ing mes­sages and test­ing day-time prop­a­ga­tion paths, involved around 30 radio ama­teurs who were assist­ed by five short­wave listeners.

IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mit­tee’s John­ny Tan 9M8DB not­ed that some drove 800km from Kuch­ing to Miri for the exer­cise that test­ed paths between west to east Malaysia, and most cer­tain­ly pre­pared every­one involved for dis­as­ter communications.

The emcomm mes­sage han­dling exer­cise on voice was a suc­cess. Due to some miss­ing con­nec­tors lost in trans­porta­tion the use of PSK31 had to be post­poned to a lat­er date.

How­ev­er John­ny 9M8DB said an offi­cer from the Malaysian Com­mis­sion for Multimedia
and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions (MCMC) Gidah Menon 9W2GM was very impressed with the ability
to con­duct the train­ing and to achieve the results.

Prop­a­ga­tion between West Malaysia and East Malaysia proved to be best on 20 metres, but not as good on 40 metres and 15 metres. The Near Ver­ti­cal Inci­dence Sky­wave (NVIS) exer­cise proved to be a great suc­cess with the low slung wire antennas.

The three bat­tery-oper­at­ed remote sites were about 50km away by road from the Miri Oper­a­tions Cen­tre which was oper­at­ing on 5 watts PEP and using NVIS antennas. 

The event asses­sors, the MCMC offi­cer and two senior Malaysia Ama­teur Radio Trans­mit­ters’ Soci­ety (MARTS) mem­bers gave the exer­cise high marks overall.

This was based on the speed at which the three teams locat­ed and accessed their remote sites giv­en GPS coor­di­nates only, instal­la­tion of the anten­nas, gen­er­al sta­tion set­up and the effi­cien­cy of mes­sage handling.

More exer­cis­es will be organ­ised giv­ing more peo­ple the chance to be involved with spe­cial empha­sis on the effi­cien­cy of mes­sage handling.

Those involved were:

In Miri, Sha­heedan Bin Abdul Wahab 9M8MBB, Iqbal Abdol­lah 9W8IQA, Rolan Noel Brooke 9W8ICE and John­ny Tan 9M8DB. They were sup­port­ed by SWLs Amri Bin Hj. Azmi, Ahmad Maulana Bin Mohamed Jadit, Empari Hong, Leitim Bin­ti Andau, and Sylvester Anak Rendah.

In Kuch­ing, Liew Chung Haw 9W8CH, Alan Ming Addie 9M8MA, Pung Tiong Seng 9W8PTS, Kei­th Kong 9W8KIF, Sai­mi Bin Haji Suhaili 9M8MET, Daniel Vong Wei Liang 9W8VWL, All­pa Mohamed 9M8ADX, Aldrin 9M8WAT, Wong Kong Fui 9W8WKF.

In West Malaysia at the MARTS 9M4CMN Club­house, Sega­mat, Johor, using a Kenwood
TS450, Triband beam, mono band 15m 2‑element home­brew, NVIS dipole, and equipment
such as a gen­er­a­tor and bat­tery on stand­by, were:

Chai Chuan Tat 9M2VAV, Choy Chee Keong 9W2PCK, and Abu Zuhair Abu Hani­pah 9W2ZSJ. 

At Pan­tai Seri Tujuh, Tumpat, Kelan­tan, an IC706Mk11g, FT817ND fed a delta-loop on 15m and NVIS on 40m, involved:

Wan Abd Rahim Bin Wan Ibrahim 9M2ART, Azud­din Bin Ab Rah­man 9M2CIO, Ahmad
Azam Bin Muham­mad 9W2AEC, Zulkhar­naim Bin Zahari 9W2CZK, Mohd Aswari Bin
Lah@Abdullah 9W2BW, Ivan Leow Hun Lin 9W2IVA, Ng Seng Thong 9W2KZT, Ab.Llah
Bin Hamat 9W2AKL, Zawawi Bin Ismail 9W2TWI, Muhamad Hel­mi Bin Abdul­lah 9W2GBD.

From MARTS were: Hj. Aris Benawi 9M2IR, Deen Atan 9M2DA, Ahmad Sabri Saad 9W2SQ, Hj. Zul­fad­zli Hj Ahmad 9W2ZF.