Despite poor weath­er and bad prop­a­ga­tion pre­vail­ing in Malaysia, there were
lessons learned dur­ing the recent sim­u­lat­ed exer­cise on Sep­tem­ber 27, centred
on Sarawak in East Malaysia 9M8, which test­ed Ama­teur Radio’s preparations
for a real disaster. 

The exer­cise, with a sce­nario of mas­sive pow­er fail­ure trig­gered by an abnormal
solar flare that also knocked out all tele­phones, was asked for by the Malaysian
Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Mul­ti­me­dia Com­mis­sion (MCMC).

Poor prop­a­ga­tion ham­pered the effec­tive use of 7.110 MHz using near vertical
inci­dence sky­wave prop­a­ga­tion (NVIS), empha­sis­ing the PSK31 dig­i­tal mode. 

The exer­cise was to test the effec­tive­ness of the Malaysian Ama­teur Radio
Trans­mit­ters’ Soci­ety (MARTS) and Ama­teur Radio Club Sarawak (ARCS) in setting
up local, and east to west Malaysia communications. 

It was designed to show the val­ue of 40 metres for QRP emer­gency communications,
but the results this time were less than ideal. 

Coor­di­na­tor John­ny Tan 9M8DB said all Sarawak sta­tions adhered strict­ly to
the 5W out­put lim­it. The exer­cise fur­ther proved that, espe­cial­ly for PSK31,
and in spite of QRN, that was more than sufficient. 

John­ny 9M8DB said, the robust­ness of PSK31 under dif­fi­cult con­di­tions is
unde­ni­able. Through prac­tice, many more will be thor­ough­ly con­ver­sant in
this dig­i­tal text mode, espe­cial­ly when vol­un­teer­ing for emcomm duties. 

He said some sta­tions need­ed to re-think their anten­nas, make their portable
sta­tions safe dur­ing light­ning and rain, but remain at the ready for the
next exer­cise or disaster. 

Prop­a­ga­tion was very poor between East and West Malaysia. John­ny Tan 9M8DB
said, “While the test failed to some West Malaysian sta­tions, we did hear
9M4CMN quite well and also 9M4MIA but obvi­ous­ly, recep­tion was not equally
good in both directions. 

“We also tried 40m, 20m, 15m but failed to a major extent or, sig­nals were
well into the noise to be able to have any reli­able copy.” 

In the past 40 metres has been found suit­able for state wide cov­er­age in
Sarawak, but poor prop­a­ga­tion at the time is sus­pect­ed to be due to storms
caus­ing high atmos­pher­ic noise. 

The worth of the pos­si­ble future 5 MHz allo­ca­tion on the 60 metre band was
dis­cussed, and it was agreed it should more use­able for NVIS propagation. 

MARTS claimed the exer­cise fur­ther rein­forced its request that 40 metre access
be giv­en to the coun­try’s Class B licences to great­ly increase the human
radio ama­teur resources for emer­gency communications. 

It was expect­ed to dis­cuss the issue with the Malaysian Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and
Mul­ti­me­dia Com­mis­sion, which was to mon­i­tor the exercise. 

On the whole, the exer­cise showed what worked well, and where some further
improve­ment is needed. 

John­ny 9M8DB will send a detailed report to those involved as they prepare
for the next sim­u­lat­ed emer­gency test. 

— Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee.