Simulated Emergency Test (SET) 2023
Operation Dark Skies: Part 1 October 14 | Part 2 October 16
Operation Dark Skies: Part 1 | Part 2 | Amateurs Needed During Solar Eclipse
This year’s Simulated Emergency Test will coincide with a celestial phenomenon: a solar eclipse!
Jason Tremblay, VE3JXT – RAC Community Services Officer

The Simulated Emergency Test (SET) is a Canada-wide exercise in emergency communications, which is administered by Radio Amateurs of Canada’s Community Services Officer and Section Managers. This year ‘s event is known as “Operation Dark Skies” and will be held in two parts as described below.

Calling All Amateurs: We Need Your Help During Solar Eclipses!
Members of the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI) will be making radio contacts during the 2023 and 2024 North American eclipses, probing the Earth’s ionosphere. It will be a fun, friendly event with a competitive element – and you’re invited to participate.

Promo for Operation Dark Skies Simulated Emergency Test showing a solar eclipse

Operation Dark Skies: Part 1
Saturday, October 14
The Simulated Emergency Test (SET) will be conducted in conjunction with actual events.

This Part will be held on October 14, 2023, for five hours, including the eclipse.

The objective is to gather information on Amateur operations before, during and after the event. All data will be reviewed for future planning of emergency events.

Radio Amateurs of Canada is looking to engage as many operators as possible and utilize all bands and modes.

CanWarn-trained individuals can also give up-to-date local weather reports and visual observations during the event. Reports will be sent to canwarn@rac.ca or on Winlink to AUXC-CAN.

Participants must sign up at set@rac.ca to be included in the online briefing which will be held on September 22 at 7 pm Eastern.

For more information on the solar eclipse visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/citizenscience/ham-radio-operators-we-need-your-help-during-solar-eclipses
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eclipses/home/
Jason Tremblay, VE3JXT
RAC Community Services Officer

Operation Dark Skies: Part 2
Monday, October 14
Part 2 of the Simulated Emergency Test  will be held on Monday, October 16  in partnership with Niagara Regional Emergency Management and the Niagara’s Community Emergency Response Team.

Full-scale deployment Exercise Dark Skies is part of the Niagara Regional preparedness for the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse.

This exercise will have multiple roles for Certified Emergency Response Training (CERT) and the Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) such as:

Field/site deployment including staging areas and demonstrations of field communications
AuxComm Support at Regional Emergency Operation Centre
Support within Regional and Municipal Operations
Radio Amateurs of Canada is looking for three teams to set up staging areas for the SET and teams that are willing to deploy for both operational and demonstration purposes for Emergency Management officials.

Team 1: Staging Area in the Burlington area; a 5-person team
Team 2: Staging Area in the North Toronto/Orangeville area; a 5-person team
Team 3: Northern Ontario field deployment for Provincial communications. More information will be announced at the September 23 meeting.
More details will be available at the training sessions which will be held on September 22, 23 and 25 at 7 pm Eastern. Please contact set@rac.ca to register.

SET Reporting will not be done this year so please attend the training sessions for more information on the reporting procedures.

Jason Tremblay, VE3JXT
RAC Community Services Officer

Calling All Amateurs: We Need Your Help During Solar Eclipses!
Members of the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI) will be making radio contacts during the 2023 and 2024 North American eclipses, probing the Earth’s ionosphere. It will be a fun, friendly event with a competitive element – and you’re invited to participate.

Both amateur and professional broadcasters have been sending and receiving radio signals around the Earth for over a century. Such communication is possible due to interactions between our Sun and the ionosphere, the ionized region of the Earth’s atmosphere located roughly 80 to 1000 km overhead.

The upcoming eclipses (October 14, 2023, and April 8, 2024) provide unique opportunities to study these interactions. As you and other HamSCI members transmit, receive, and record signals across the radio spectrum during the eclipse, you will create valuable data to test computer models of the ionosphere.

For more information, go to https://hamsci.org/festivals-eclipse-ionospheric-science

More about solar eclipses:
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eclipses/home/

NASA’s Citizen Science Program:
Learn about NASA citizen science projects
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