June 7, 2024 • 35 mins
What happens when the grid goes down? Can you stay connected and manage in a world without power? Join me, Patrick, the National Communications Coordinator for PrepperNet, as we navigate the critical T-REX readiness exercise, a three-day grid-down communications event organized by AmRRON from July 19th to 21st. This episode offers you the chance to explore different ways to participate, whether you're just monitoring or actively involved. Discover practical tips for preparing, such as testing your survival skills, turning off your power, and practicing bug-out drills. We'll also dive into the essential equipment and software you'll need to ensure seamless participation.
I’m thrilled to introduce Beth G from PrepperNet, who brings a fresh perspective as a new radio operator participating in T-REX for the first time. Beth takes us through her journey from using GMRS repeaters to earning her technician license and mastering digital communication tools like FL Digi. Listen to her riveting experiences, including managing critical communications during a medical emergency and an unexpected plane landing while traveling. Beth’s story highlights the importance of digital communication in emergency preparedness and underscores the confidence and skills that can be built through exercises like T-REX.
Finally, we reflect on the valuable lessons learned from the T-REX exercise, from overcoming technical glitches like a Raspberry Pi crash and a laptop power supply failure to understanding the intricacies of power consumption for off-grid operations. We discuss the emotional impact of providing welfare updates during crises and the importance of continuous radio monitoring for situational awareness. Plus, don’t miss our exciting announcement about the upcoming PrepperNet Radio Show and how you can become an active part of our community on the airwaves. Tune in to gain insights and prepare yourself for the unexpected!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Patrick (00:00):
Survive, thrive, stay alive.
It's time to get prepared withthe Prepping Academy podcast.
Hello everyone, I'm Patrick, theNational Communications
Coordinator for PrepperNet.
(00:21):
I've stolen Forrest's chairhere on the Prepping Academy to
tell you about a communicationsexercise coming up on July 19th
through the 21st.
It is called T-REX, whichstands for the End of the World
as we Know it, readinessExercise.
It's a three-day grid-downcommunications exercise planned
(00:43):
by Amron.
Preppernet will beparticipating directly and
indirectly with the exercise.
While I can't tell you thedetails about the exercise, I
can tell you the scenario isextremely timely given the
global state of affairs.
You get to choose the level atwhich you participate so you can
customize the experience totest your skills where they are.
(01:06):
In today's episode, I'm goingto discuss how you can
participate in T-Rex and bringon one of our esteemed
PrepperNet members that jumpedinto T-Rex in 2023 as a brand
new HF digital operator and hearabout her experience in the
exercise.
(01:27):
Here are a few ways you canparticipate in the T-Rex
exercise.
First up, you can participateon the Amron side of things by
following along with theexercise, receiving information
as the scenario progresses asthe scenario progresses, or
(01:48):
requesting to become a stationthat is assigned traffic to
inject or add to the scenario.
More details will be availableat amroncom for those wishing to
participate on that side ofthings.
If you aren't up to speed oraren't ready to jump into the
fray on the Amron side of things, preppernet will be having
their own training runningalongside the Amron exercise and
(02:08):
more specifically targeted tothe needs and goals of
PrepperNet.
If you want to participate inthe PrepperNet side of the
exercise first, you can checkinto the PrepperNet HF Digital
Nets.
That will be occurringregularly during the exercise.
A modified net schedule will beposted on the PrepperNet site
(02:31):
prior to the exercise.
If you don't understand whatany of that is, you can get on
the PrepperNetnet site and visitthe Ham Academy section and
learn more about HF DigitalRadio by monitoring the exercise
as it progresses.
You can decide how you wouldrespond to the developments if
the exercise were a realscenario or real situation.
(02:53):
Additionally, if you or any ofyour city group would like to
participate directly with theexercise, please reach out to me
, patrick, on the PrepperNetnetsite sometime during the month
of June and we can write you into the PrepperNet portion of the
scenario and provide some pieceof traffic or other inclusion
(03:16):
for you directly into theexercise so that you can test
your skills and test yourequipment.
If you have a local group andwould like to participate, t-rex
is an excellent opportunity topractice sharing information
that you have received from thenational NETs between local
group members or by practicingcommunications in your
(03:39):
neighborhood, a local park or awider area such as your county,
doing a radio scavenger hunt orpracticing any other skill that
you identify and want to improveyour group's capabilities.
If your PrepperNet City groupisn't participating, encourage
them to.
If you have enough participants, you could work together,
(03:59):
collecting, analyzing andprocessing all of the
information from the exercise ina way that would be beneficial
to your local group.
Maps, whiteboards, etc.
Could be leveraged to betterbuild an understanding of the
scope and details of thescenario in the T-Rex exercise.
If radio isn't your thing, youcould also test your bug out
(04:24):
capabilities by turning thepower off for three days or
loading up your bug out vehiclewith all your gear and taking a
test run to your bug outlocation.
Turning off the radio, internetand TV, putting the cell phone
in a Faraday bag to experiencethree days of information vacuum
, or testing out some of yoursurvival food All of these are
(04:46):
ways that you can bring T-Rex toyour own home and experience a
grid down scenario to shake thebugs out, iron out the kinks and
learn better how you mightactually perform in a grid down
situation.
If all of this sounds excitingand you want to get involved,
here is what you will need toget started.
(05:08):
If you do not have a generalclass amateur radio license or
higher, you can participate byreceiving the exercise using a
shortwave receiver or softwaredefined radio.
You will need a shortwavereceiver that is capable of
doing single sideband receive,as all digital traffic is sent
on the upper sideband, or USB,as your radio may indicate.
(05:32):
You will need an antennacapable of receiving the 80
meter band or 3.5 megahertz, the40 meter band 7 megahertz and
the 20 meter band 14 megahertz.
And, last but not least, youwill need some free software
installed on a computer that canbe connected to the radio
receiver.
The FL Digi suite, along withthe Amron custom forms, will be
(05:57):
needed to send the digitaltraffic.
Fl Digi is a free suite ofdigital radio software that can
be downloaded from the W1HKJwebsite, that is Whiskey One,
hotel, kilo, juliet, and theamroncom website, that is alpha,
(06:17):
mike, romeo, romeo, oscar,novembercom website under the
forms tab.
Additionally, some users maywant to monitor JS8 call, which
(06:39):
is an additional free softwareintended for low bandwidth and
low power communications, butthe lion's share of the traffic
during the exercise will behandled with the FL DigiSuite.
Details on setting up andconfiguring FL DigiSuite are
available in the HAM Academy onthe PrepperNetnet site.
(07:02):
If you have your general classamateur radio license and want
to participate, you will need anHF transceiver capable of being
connected to a computer withthe FO DigiSuite and an antenna
capable of operating in thedigital portion of the 80, 40,
and 20 meter bands.
Frequencies and details will beavailable on the PrepperNetnet
(07:24):
site and the PrepperNet SOI,which is available on the site.
Additional guidance will bereleased prior to the exercise
on net scheduling bands andother operations during the
exercise.
If you are still with me, youmay be asking why digital?
Well, that's a common questionand the simple answer is it is
(07:48):
easier for most people to set updigital than it is for them to
learn Morse code.
Digital provides severalimportant benefits.
First, you do not need to bepresent at your computer to
receive information.
The computer can monitor allday, receiving information for
you to review later.
In fact, the T-REX exercisetypically continues all day long
(08:11):
and all night long, and we mustsleep at some point.
So having your radio able toreceive that critical piece of
information that comes in whileyou're making a sandwich can
help out in the exercise and inthe real world.
Making a sandwich can help outin the exercise and in the real
world.
Second, digital or data modesare much narrower bandwidth than
(08:33):
voice and perform much betterwith reduced power, off-grid
stations and in less than idealband conditions.
Digital also allows us to sendforward error-corrected files,
ensuring an accurate copy ofinformation from one station to
another, reducing the chance oferror in critical information.
These are only a few of thereasons why digital is superior
(08:56):
to voice or phone communicationsin our situation.
Don't forget our HF Digital Neton Sunday evening at 9 pm
Eastern, 8 pm Central.
It is an excellent opportunityto practice sending and
receiving messages using the FODigiSuite and to work the bugs
out of your communication setup.
More details on the weekly netare available on the
(09:18):
PrepperNetnet site in the eventposting.
If you are new to digital comms, no worries, we can likely walk
you through that and get youstarted.
In fact, last week we had a newstation that we were able to
get the software configured andthe radio running in the hour
prior to net begin and they wereable to check into the net and
(09:39):
participate one hour later.
Now we would like to welcomethe esteemed Beth Gee to our
podcast, preppernet's very own,to discuss her experience
participating in T-Rex for thefirst time last year as a fairly
new radio operator.
Beth, how long had you been aradio operator when you first
(10:01):
participated in T-Rex?
Beth G. (10:02):
Well, I'm still trying to get over the esteemed part,
but that's going to be hard tolive up to.
So I had been a radio operatorprobably for a couple of years,
but I had not had much digitalexperience.
I'd had my technician licensefor a long time before I got my
general and prior to that I wasplaying around with the GMRS
(10:23):
repeaters, but had not as muchHF experience and definitely not
much digital.
So how many weeks before T-Rexdid we finally get you set up
with digital?
I remember helping you, but Idon't remember how long it was.
Patrick (10:38):
Oh wow, I have such a bad concept of time.
Do you think it could have beenas long as eight weeks?
Beth G. (10:48):
I think that's probably reasonable.
Patrick (10:50):
Yeah.
Beth G. (10:50):
It hadn't been that long.
It wasn't more than a month orso.
Patrick (10:53):
Right, and then I had only had a few experiences on
the Sunday night nets.
Beth G. (10:59):
Yeah, cause you were completely new to that and you
were new to FO Digi.
You hadn't used FO Digi before,even with two meters or
anything like that.
Patrick (11:10):
No, I had never heard of it, so it was all new to me.
And same with, like JSA callwas new to me, not that we use
that in T-Rex, but the wholedigital world was new.
Beth G. (11:22):
We used JSA a little in T-Rex, but the lion's share of
the work is with FODG.
That was kind of a newexperience.
It was kind of exciting, Iimagine, but it was also a new
way of thinking.
So what did you think aboutFODG and T-Rex and the whole
concept of digital data andforms?
Patrick (11:43):
Well, once I got introduced to digital, I mean
far and away love it better thanvoice.
It solves so many problemswhere you can't hear, you can't
understand what people aresaying, it's noisy.
So I was excited when I firstgot introduced to FL Digi.
But then when you asked me todo T-Rex, I was very nervous
(12:06):
because here was this otherorganization involved, amron and
I had a lot of fears about whatif I did it wrong?
What if I named a file wrong?
What if I didn't live up?
Oh no, patrick has asked me todo this and I'm going to let him
down.
So I had a lot of anxiety kindof going into it.
So I had a lot of anxiety kindof going into it.
But that turned into, just likeyou said, more excitement and
(12:30):
you asked I don't know if I'mjumping ahead.
Beth G. (12:32):
No, you're doing great.
And the inject traffic questionwas really next, because you
have the most difficult piece oftraffic that was given to
PrepperNet by Amron for T-Rex.
It had several different peopleyou had to interact with on the
air and several pieces ofdifferent traffic that were
(12:53):
associated.
Could you tell me a little bitabout how that went?
What was it like?
Patrick (12:58):
Yeah, absolutely.
So.
When you first asked me aboutparticipating, I didn't realize
it was going to have all thosecomplexities and I thought and I
knew it was a multi-day event,but I thought my piece was just
going to be like one day, onetime inject traffic once, and
when I got the scenario it wasreally, really cool.
(13:19):
So can I describe my piece ofit just a little bit?
Beth G. (13:23):
Yes, please.
It will be great for everybodyto hear what it's like.
Patrick (13:26):
Okay, yeah.
So I got an instruction justtelling me kind of the scenario
of where I, where I fit into thewhole big puzzle and, uh, me
living in Charlotte, uh, therewas, uh, an a plane headed from,
I think, alabama to Atlantawith a critical patient on board
and a surgeon following him uphalf hour later in another plane
(13:47):
Well, the plane never made itto Atlanta with a critical
patient on board and a surgeonfollowing him up a half hour
later in another plane, well,the plane never made it to
Atlanta.
Where did the plane go?
I was well theoreticallymonitoring two meter nets and
things like that, some of theAres nets, and I picked up
information from the Charlottehospital that that plane had
taken an emergency landing inCharlotte but the surgeon was
still on the way to Atlanta.
(14:08):
So we had to reconnect thesurgeon with the patient and
time was critical because thispatient was in such critical
condition and there were notypes of comms available, no
normal traditional comms, so itwas all up to the radio
operators.
So I read this description.
I'm like, wow, this is reallycool but, like you said, it
(14:28):
involved a lot of interactionand multiple pieces of traffic
being interjected and watchingfor responses and another piece
of it that made it hard is I wastraveling that weekend.
I don't know if you rememberthat.
Beth G. (14:44):
I do.
That was not expected.
I don't know if you rememberthat I do that was not expected,
but it was a really cooladdition just to the whole
situation because it was almostlike a bug out.
Patrick (14:52):
I know right.
And, like I said, I didn'trealize my traffic was going to
be over the course of two days,and so then I'm telling you,
uh-oh, patrick, to leave becauseI'm, I'm expected, at family
members house.
So it was like bugging out andup, packed up my radio, packed
up my Jackery battery and andhit the road with my antenna.
Beth G. (15:16):
And, if I remember correctly, you were successful
in getting traffic when that youarrived at the family members
house, because we held anythingthat was directed to you until
we saw you again and then youwere able to collect it, respond
, and then we were able to getit to the person it was directed
to.
Patrick (15:35):
Yeah, exactly Because initially I think the first
piece of traffic when I wasstill at home, I saw someone
report that we're missing thisplane.
It hasn't arrived in Atlantic.
If anybody has any information,let us know.
And then I interjected traffic.
My first piece that I put inwas that, yes, I'm in
communication with the Aresoperator and we know he's at
(15:58):
Charlotte.
So I put that out there so thatthe people waiting on that
traffic would then know wherethe plane was.
And then we had to find DrSmith, the surgeon.
So that took another piece oftraffic.
But by then I was on the roadheading to my family member's
house.
So I got set up.
I got back on FL Digi, I letpeople know I was back on and
(16:19):
then there was traffic waitingfor me to pass on to me.
So I thought that was.
You know, that was interesting.
And I didn't know how all thesepieces played together and how,
how you look for traffic, howtraffic finds you, because
operators will work.
I have one I printed out justto remember everything where I
had um, they were trying toreach me, and one operator
(16:43):
reached out to another operatorand said please help ensure that
this message reaches me.
And so somehow that worked andit did reach me.
Beth G. (16:53):
That's so cool and that's one of the really cool
things about testing ourcommunications ability working
with other operators in anexercise like T-Rex is it gives
us the chance to see how,especially if somebody has to go
on the move, somebody's leaving, somebody has a situation,
(17:13):
other folks can look out forthings and hold it for them and
help make sure that that stuffgets where it's supposed to be.
And that's part of thecommunity of radio operators
that you build, and if somethinghappens, you really have that
community to help out.
Patrick (17:30):
Exactly.
And as that was happening and Irealized I was connecting with
the other operators, kind ofthat little bit of fear I had of
messing up or doing thingswrong just kind of went away.
The forms were easy to fill out.
It was very well explained.
Each line of the form there'san explanation that says you
know, this is what this means.
(17:50):
So I did.
Maybe you held my hand a littlebit on the first one, but after
that I gained my confidence onthe whole thing.
Beth G. (17:59):
Getting the traffic filled out for the exercise in
the exercise format takes just Alittle bit of paying attention,
but it's not hard.
So the next question I have onthe list was T-Rex what you
expected.
Patrick (18:16):
It was more interesting than I expected.
But I also wasn't sure what myexpectations were because I
didn't even listen in on T-Rexin previous years, which I would
highly encourage.
Anyone even with a receive onlykind of shortwave setup is just
to listen and watch the traffic.
So because I had never donethat, I wasn't sure what to
(18:40):
expect.
But what I loved about it isall the moving pieces and my
little piece was just one tinypiece of the big exercise and I
got to see it play into thelarger exercise and that was
just.
It kind of blew me away.
Beth G. (18:55):
It is such a good simulation of what a real world
national event might be like.
We've never really had anythingto compare it to, especially
with the technology we havetoday, but it's a great
simulation.
With that, all of us have somegreat successes, some great
(19:16):
failures.
I had a Pi crash, completelyburned.
I had to rebuild the image inthe middle of T-Rex a few years
ago.
So things happen, we learnabout our gear.
This past year I had a powersupply quit on my laptop.
Had to come up with aworkaround for that in the
middle of the exercise.
So what are some of yoursuccesses and failures during
(19:40):
this one?
What did you learn about yourgear?
Patrick (19:43):
Well, I learned that things do suck power a lot more
than I thought they did,especially actually my laptop,
lot more than I thought they did, especially actually my laptop.
And at that last year I wasusing the Microsoft Surface Pro
and I was just a littlesurprised at how quickly that
battery ran dead.
I had my Jackery but I waspowering my radio off.
(20:03):
That had to recharge theSurface Pro and then on the
drive to my family member'shouse I plugged the Jackery into
my car lighter to get there.
So I think I didn't understandpower consumption as much and
I've tried to remedy that nowover the last year and I've got
some different gear in place forthat.
Successes were, I would say.
(20:26):
The whole exercise went offfine.
I felt good at the end becauseI think JJS or someone had said
you know good job and I was likeshoo but just building.
My success is the building, isthat I've built my confidence in
the whole thing.
Beth G. (20:44):
That's great, and a number of operators did comment
that they were really impressedwith how well that you did just
as a new person and thatconfidence builder is a huge
thing.
With doing this and especiallydoing what you did Taking gear,
going to the field, not juststaying at the home station you
(21:06):
say, hey, I've done this, sothat's one less thing that I've
got to worry about.
If there is a real situation,it's not completely foreign.
I'm not trying to figure outhow to make my gear work.
I kind of have that down and Ican depend on it while I'm
worrying about all the otherthings that I haven't figured
(21:27):
out yet.
And the power thing that's ahuge thing that people
underestimate.
Being off grid forcommunications is not hard, but
a lot of people do underestimateeven not just communications
but charging batteries, runningtheir refrigerator, doing all
kinds of things just how muchpower it takes, because we're
(21:51):
used to plugging into the wall,having an unlimited supply and
we don't think about it.
Patrick (21:56):
Right, and I know you're used to having a
persistent presence and keepingyour radios on all the time, and
that was new to me because I'musually on a net and then
shortly after turn my radio off,so I was a lot more clueless on
that kind of power consumption.
Beth G. (22:12):
That's a huge thing operating 24-7.
Mm-hmm.
It takes more power.
But you also probably noticedduring T-Rex the amount of
traffic, the amount of stuffthat gets moved and for people
who are listening, that when Isay traffic I'm speaking of
messages directed, welfaretraffic, things associated with
(22:34):
the scenario, not like beingstuck in a traffic jam downtown.
So not everybody gets thatterminology, especially if
you're not a radio person.
So much stuff gets movedoutside of N of nets that you
may miss out on if you're notmonitoring all the time, because
(22:54):
even if it's not directed toyou, you may gain some
situational awareness fromhearing it, even if someone has
a scheduled window to meet withsomebody outside of a net to get
a message across.
Patrick (23:08):
Right.
In fact, in the exercise, oneof the last things we did was
the family had gotten wordthrough a radio operator that
they were trying to find out thestatus of their loved one, and
so my instructions were to tryto work with that family and
decide what means we were goingto use to communicate, let's say
, off the main channel.
(23:29):
So we could have chosen JSAcall.
We could have chosen you know,we had the leeway to choose how
we wanted to choose.
So then eventually I was ableto give them the welfare check,
tell them their loved one wasalive and had survived surgery.
And you just think in real lifehow amazing that would have
been real life.
Beth G. (23:53):
How amazing that would have been.
Absolutely we don't realizewhat it would be like not to
have any information at allabout loved ones that are away
at school, live in another state, maybe they were traveling for
work.
You know, we see all theseprepper fantasy books and movies
where it's about the personthat gets stuck away from home
(24:15):
and spends months trying to getback, and we don't really see as
much of the other side ofwhat's going on, with a family
wondering where they are.
Having that ability to, youknow, get a message within a
reasonable amount of time.
Patrick (24:33):
Right, yeah, I think my message is something like your
loved one is in good spirits anddoing well.
Beth G. (24:40):
Yeah, and that's not much, but it's enough.
Patrick (24:45):
Yes, I think, if I can add one more thing to, maybe the
difficulty is that because Ididn't really know what the
digital modes were, I had verylittle experience, so I didn't
realize that sometimes you canpass things in a different mode.
And we were having a lot ofnoise, I think, when you were
trying to get some things to meand we ended up with one of the
(25:07):
MFSK modes and we had to try acouple of different ones, and we
ended up with one of the MFSKmodes and we had to try a couple
of different ones.
That too was a learningexperience, and you just kind of
just take a deep breath andreally, you know, analyze what's
going on.
Luckily, you had the know-howto know what mode's going to
work best in this scenario.
Beth G. (25:29):
So I think as radio operators we grow in that
knowledge over time.
If I remember correctly, Ithink there was a sunbot at some
point during T-Rex.
That really made thingsdifficult.
Patrick (25:36):
I think you're right.
I do remember that, yep.
Beth G. (25:39):
I think we ended up having to use several low-speed
modes just to try to get throughSunday, trying to get the final
X sum, the executive summary ofwhat had gone on in the
exercise which was issued inIdaho, back to the East Coast,
(26:02):
and that was a challenge becausethe van conditions were so bad.
Would you do it again?
Are you planning to do it again?
Patrick (26:05):
I'm absolutely planning to do it again.
I'm looking forward to it.
I'm not traveling that weekend,so it'll be different.
I'll be able to watch for thetraffic and spend more time with
my radio on.
I'm super psyched about it.
I don't know yet if I will bepicked to interject traffic or
not, but regardless, I stillplan to watch the whole thing
(26:27):
play out.
Beth G. (26:28):
That's awesome.
Do you have your powersituation worked out or you're
still going to be rocking theJackery?
Patrick (26:34):
I have a Jackery and a Bluetti now.
Beth G. (26:38):
Cool yeah, have you tested them to make sure that
they don't cause RF noise?
Patrick (26:42):
Oh no, I have not tested the Bluetti with my radio
.
Oh my gosh, I'm so glad yousaid that.
Beth G. (26:49):
Now you have homework.
Patrick (26:50):
Okay, I'll do that.
I have until July.
Beth G. (26:55):
Yep, you got another month and a couple weeks Okay,
so would you recommend, or whowould you recommend,
participating in T-Rex?
Patrick (27:04):
Well, I recommend, even for those who are just using
shortwave radios, like I saidearlier.
Just I wished that I hadlistened in and just received
the files and watched what washappening.
So, even if you know verylittle other than how to set up
your shortwave, and we areproviding more instructions for
(27:25):
that oh and aside, we're goingto have a net coming up the
Sunday night net that you alwaysdo, and I am going to have two
different shortwave radios outin my backyard with FL Digi
testing, you know, getting thefiles that you pass on Sunday
nights.
So I definitely recommendanybody at that level or any
(27:46):
level, just just watch, watchthe action happen, or any level,
just watch.
Beth G. (27:52):
Watch the action happen .
Can we expect a report on thePrepperNetnet?
Patrick (27:57):
no-transcript.
Yes, I hope to even maybe filma little bit of it and show what
it looks like coming across thescreen, and I'm going to use a
Texan PL368 and an ATS25.
Beth G. (28:10):
Cool.
Patrick (28:11):
And you know I actually haven't.
I've used them with JSA call.
I haven't full up set them upwith FL Digi, and so I'll test
our instructions and hopefullyeverybody will be able to do
that.
Beth G. (28:24):
That's awesome.
I used my TechSun PL360 acouple years ago at Heritage
Life Skills to copy one of theAmron nets on Friday night with
an Android tablet connected toit.
Patrick (28:40):
Yes, oh.
So that brings up a good point,Patrick.
People could be preparing forthis T-Rex by listening in on
Amron Nets or PrepperNet Nets,right?
Beth G. (28:50):
That's absolutely correct.
You can check on thePrepperNetnet site in the events
section for the net times andfrequencies if you'd like to
come out and participate.
And if you're interested in theAmron nets you can check on
their website as well for netscheduling.
Patrick (29:14):
Yeah, I think that's great practice.
So you're not, so you can dosome of your learning curve
before you even hit T-Rex.
So you can do some of yourlearning curve before you even
hit T-Rex.
Beth G. (29:23):
Yeah, I wouldn't go into T-Rex unprepared,
especially on the Amarant sideof things.
They actually go dark, don'tparticipate or provide really
any help or anything.
It's truly a grid downsimulation.
We're a little less hardcore atPrepperNet as we want people to
learn, so we encourage peopleto try to do it on their own.
(29:46):
But if you have a technicalquestion then we'll try to help
you out.
Patrick (29:51):
Yeah, I want to.
I really want to emphasize thatbecause it's a very safe
learning environment and noone's going to you know, no
one's going to snap your headoff if you make a mistake.
They're going to work with you,they're going to answer your
questions.
Never make you feel stupid,never make you feel silly for
asking any question.
That's been my experience withall the PepperNet comms people
(30:14):
and my experience with T-Rex wasthat I knew Patrick was there.
I think I definitely, like Isaid, leaned on you for that
first traffic as I was a littlenervous about some of the things
in it.
But I mean, it's a very safelearning environment.
Beth G. (30:30):
Well, thank you, we try to make it that way.
We want people to feel likethey can come in and learn and
learn some skills and take themback to their family and friends
and groups and that kind ofthing and become better prepared
.
And I can't help but bring thisup.
I got to bring this up on thepodcast.
If you participate and youcatch all of the traffic, every
(30:53):
year one of our operators inNorth Carolina I will not
mention his name creates a pieceof traffic in which something
happens to Forrest.
Every year Forrest gets smokedsomehow.
Patrick (31:12):
Forrest has a very tragic life every year at T-Rex.
Yes, so if you participate,catch all the PrepperNet traffic
, you'll get to find out whatcreative way that the North
Carolina guys come up with to doaway with forest.
Beth G. (31:35):
He's a good sport about it too.
He is Well.
Thank you, beth, for giving me25 minutes or so of your time to
talk about T-Rex and yourexperience and all of that kind
of thing.
Do you have any final thoughtsor anything that you want to
give our audience before we shutit down for the day?
Patrick (31:48):
I mean, I would just hope to encourage everybody to
not only participate in T-Rex,because you're going to learn
and grow from it, but also justget more involved in PrepperNet
comms and especially after youget your general license, you
can get on the Zello comms andespecially after you get your
general license, you can get onthe Zello comms channel and you
will just you will growexponentially in your knowledge.
(32:09):
So I just don't be afraid, justjump in.
Beth G. (32:13):
Awesome.
Well, with that said, we lookforward to seeing you on the air
, hopefully before T-Rex, if notduring T-Rex.
Remember you can find moreinformation about PrepperNet
comms at the PrepperNetnet site.
If you want to learn more, youcan check out the Ham Academy on
(32:34):
PrepperNetnet and if you havequestions, there's plenty of us
there willing to help.
7-3, and we will see you on theair 73.
Patrick (32:49):
Thanks for listening to the Prepping Academy podcast.
Preppers unite atwwwpreppingacademycom.
Survive, thrive, stay alive.
It's time to get prepared withthe Prepping Academy podcast.
Hello everyone, I'm Patrick, theNational Communications
Coordinator for PrepperNet.
(00:21):
I've stolen Forrest's chairhere on the Prepping Academy to
tell you about a communicationsexercise coming up on July 19th
through the 21st.
It is called T-REX, whichstands for the End of the World
as we Know it, readinessExercise.
It's a three-day grid-downcommunications exercise planned
(00:43):
by Amron.
Preppernet will beparticipating directly and
indirectly with the exercise.
While I can't tell you thedetails about the exercise, I
can tell you the scenario isextremely timely given the
global state of affairs.
You get to choose the level atwhich you participate so you can
customize the experience totest your skills where they are.
(01:06):
In today's episode, I'm goingto discuss how you can
participate in T-Rex and bringon one of our esteemed
PrepperNet members that jumpedinto T-Rex in 2023 as a brand
new HF digital operator and hearabout her experience in the
exercise.
(01:27):
Here are a few ways you canparticipate in the T-Rex
exercise.
First up, you can participateon the Amron side of things by
following along with theexercise, receiving information
as the scenario progresses asthe scenario progresses, or
(01:48):
requesting to become a stationthat is assigned traffic to
inject or add to the scenario.
More details will be availableat amroncom for those wishing to
participate on that side ofthings.
If you aren't up to speed oraren't ready to jump into the
fray on the Amron side of things, preppernet will be having
their own training runningalongside the Amron exercise and
(02:08):
more specifically targeted tothe needs and goals of
PrepperNet.
If you want to participate inthe PrepperNet side of the
exercise first, you can checkinto the PrepperNet HF Digital
Nets.
That will be occurringregularly during the exercise.
A modified net schedule will beposted on the PrepperNet site
(02:31):
prior to the exercise.
If you don't understand whatany of that is, you can get on
the PrepperNetnet site and visitthe Ham Academy section and
learn more about HF DigitalRadio by monitoring the exercise
as it progresses.
You can decide how you wouldrespond to the developments if
the exercise were a realscenario or real situation.
(02:53):
Additionally, if you or any ofyour city group would like to
participate directly with theexercise, please reach out to me
, patrick, on the PrepperNetnetsite sometime during the month
of June and we can write you into the PrepperNet portion of the
scenario and provide some pieceof traffic or other inclusion
(03:16):
for you directly into theexercise so that you can test
your skills and test yourequipment.
If you have a local group andwould like to participate, t-rex
is an excellent opportunity topractice sharing information
that you have received from thenational NETs between local
group members or by practicingcommunications in your
(03:39):
neighborhood, a local park or awider area such as your county,
doing a radio scavenger hunt orpracticing any other skill that
you identify and want to improveyour group's capabilities.
If your PrepperNet City groupisn't participating, encourage
them to.
If you have enough participants, you could work together,
(03:59):
collecting, analyzing andprocessing all of the
information from the exercise ina way that would be beneficial
to your local group.
Maps, whiteboards, etc.
Could be leveraged to betterbuild an understanding of the
scope and details of thescenario in the T-Rex exercise.
If radio isn't your thing, youcould also test your bug out
(04:24):
capabilities by turning thepower off for three days or
loading up your bug out vehiclewith all your gear and taking a
test run to your bug outlocation.
Turning off the radio, internetand TV, putting the cell phone
in a Faraday bag to experiencethree days of information vacuum
, or testing out some of yoursurvival food All of these are
(04:46):
ways that you can bring T-Rex toyour own home and experience a
grid down scenario to shake thebugs out, iron out the kinks and
learn better how you mightactually perform in a grid down
situation.
If all of this sounds excitingand you want to get involved,
here is what you will need toget started.
(05:08):
If you do not have a generalclass amateur radio license or
higher, you can participate byreceiving the exercise using a
shortwave receiver or softwaredefined radio.
You will need a shortwavereceiver that is capable of
doing single sideband receive,as all digital traffic is sent
on the upper sideband, or USB,as your radio may indicate.
(05:32):
You will need an antennacapable of receiving the 80
meter band or 3.5 megahertz, the40 meter band 7 megahertz and
the 20 meter band 14 megahertz.
And, last but not least, youwill need some free software
installed on a computer that canbe connected to the radio
receiver.
The FL Digi suite, along withthe Amron custom forms, will be
(05:57):
needed to send the digitaltraffic.
Fl Digi is a free suite ofdigital radio software that can
be downloaded from the W1HKJwebsite, that is Whiskey One,
hotel, kilo, juliet, and theamroncom website, that is alpha,
(06:17):
mike, romeo, romeo, oscar,novembercom website under the
forms tab.
Additionally, some users maywant to monitor JS8 call, which
(06:39):
is an additional free softwareintended for low bandwidth and
low power communications, butthe lion's share of the traffic
during the exercise will behandled with the FL DigiSuite.
Details on setting up andconfiguring FL DigiSuite are
available in the HAM Academy onthe PrepperNetnet site.
(07:02):
If you have your general classamateur radio license and want
to participate, you will need anHF transceiver capable of being
connected to a computer withthe FO DigiSuite and an antenna
capable of operating in thedigital portion of the 80, 40,
and 20 meter bands.
Frequencies and details will beavailable on the PrepperNetnet
(07:24):
site and the PrepperNet SOI,which is available on the site.
Additional guidance will bereleased prior to the exercise
on net scheduling bands andother operations during the
exercise.
If you are still with me, youmay be asking why digital?
Well, that's a common questionand the simple answer is it is
(07:48):
easier for most people to set updigital than it is for them to
learn Morse code.
Digital provides severalimportant benefits.
First, you do not need to bepresent at your computer to
receive information.
The computer can monitor allday, receiving information for
you to review later.
In fact, the T-REX exercisetypically continues all day long
(08:11):
and all night long, and we mustsleep at some point.
So having your radio able toreceive that critical piece of
information that comes in whileyou're making a sandwich can
help out in the exercise and inthe real world.
Making a sandwich can help outin the exercise and in the real
world.
Second, digital or data modesare much narrower bandwidth than
(08:33):
voice and perform much betterwith reduced power, off-grid
stations and in less than idealband conditions.
Digital also allows us to sendforward error-corrected files,
ensuring an accurate copy ofinformation from one station to
another, reducing the chance oferror in critical information.
These are only a few of thereasons why digital is superior
(08:56):
to voice or phone communicationsin our situation.
Don't forget our HF Digital Neton Sunday evening at 9 pm
Eastern, 8 pm Central.
It is an excellent opportunityto practice sending and
receiving messages using the FODigiSuite and to work the bugs
out of your communication setup.
More details on the weekly netare available on the
(09:18):
PrepperNetnet site in the eventposting.
If you are new to digital comms, no worries, we can likely walk
you through that and get youstarted.
In fact, last week we had a newstation that we were able to
get the software configured andthe radio running in the hour
prior to net begin and they wereable to check into the net and
(09:39):
participate one hour later.
Now we would like to welcomethe esteemed Beth Gee to our
podcast, preppernet's very own,to discuss her experience
participating in T-Rex for thefirst time last year as a fairly
new radio operator.
Beth, how long had you been aradio operator when you first
(10:01):
participated in T-Rex?
Beth G. (10:02):
Well, I'm still trying to get over the esteemed part,
but that's going to be hard tolive up to.
So I had been a radio operatorprobably for a couple of years,
but I had not had much digitalexperience.
I'd had my technician licensefor a long time before I got my
general and prior to that I wasplaying around with the GMRS
(10:23):
repeaters, but had not as muchHF experience and definitely not
much digital.
So how many weeks before T-Rexdid we finally get you set up
with digital?
I remember helping you, but Idon't remember how long it was.
Patrick (10:38):
Oh wow, I have such a bad concept of time.
Do you think it could have beenas long as eight weeks?
Beth G. (10:48):
I think that's probably reasonable.
Patrick (10:50):
Yeah.
Beth G. (10:50):
It hadn't been that long.
It wasn't more than a month orso.
Patrick (10:53):
Right, and then I had only had a few experiences on
the Sunday night nets.
Beth G. (10:59):
Yeah, cause you were completely new to that and you
were new to FO Digi.
You hadn't used FO Digi before,even with two meters or
anything like that.
Patrick (11:10):
No, I had never heard of it, so it was all new to me.
And same with, like JSA callwas new to me, not that we use
that in T-Rex, but the wholedigital world was new.
Beth G. (11:22):
We used JSA a little in T-Rex, but the lion's share of
the work is with FODG.
That was kind of a newexperience.
It was kind of exciting, Iimagine, but it was also a new
way of thinking.
So what did you think aboutFODG and T-Rex and the whole
concept of digital data andforms?
Patrick (11:43):
Well, once I got introduced to digital, I mean
far and away love it better thanvoice.
It solves so many problemswhere you can't hear, you can't
understand what people aresaying, it's noisy.
So I was excited when I firstgot introduced to FL Digi.
But then when you asked me todo T-Rex, I was very nervous
(12:06):
because here was this otherorganization involved, amron and
I had a lot of fears about whatif I did it wrong?
What if I named a file wrong?
What if I didn't live up?
Oh no, patrick has asked me todo this and I'm going to let him
down.
So I had a lot of anxiety kindof going into it.
So I had a lot of anxiety kindof going into it.
But that turned into, just likeyou said, more excitement and
(12:30):
you asked I don't know if I'mjumping ahead.
Beth G. (12:32):
No, you're doing great.
And the inject traffic questionwas really next, because you
have the most difficult piece oftraffic that was given to
PrepperNet by Amron for T-Rex.
It had several different peopleyou had to interact with on the
air and several pieces ofdifferent traffic that were
(12:53):
associated.
Could you tell me a little bitabout how that went?
What was it like?
Patrick (12:58):
Yeah, absolutely.
So.
When you first asked me aboutparticipating, I didn't realize
it was going to have all thosecomplexities and I thought and I
knew it was a multi-day event,but I thought my piece was just
going to be like one day, onetime inject traffic once, and
when I got the scenario it wasreally, really cool.
(13:19):
So can I describe my piece ofit just a little bit?
Beth G. (13:23):
Yes, please.
It will be great for everybodyto hear what it's like.
Patrick (13:26):
Okay, yeah.
So I got an instruction justtelling me kind of the scenario
of where I, where I fit into thewhole big puzzle and, uh, me
living in Charlotte, uh, therewas, uh, an a plane headed from,
I think, alabama to Atlantawith a critical patient on board
and a surgeon following him uphalf hour later in another plane
(13:47):
Well, the plane never made itto Atlanta with a critical
patient on board and a surgeonfollowing him up a half hour
later in another plane, well,the plane never made it to
Atlanta.
Where did the plane go?
I was well theoreticallymonitoring two meter nets and
things like that, some of theAres nets, and I picked up
information from the Charlottehospital that that plane had
taken an emergency landing inCharlotte but the surgeon was
still on the way to Atlanta.
(14:08):
So we had to reconnect thesurgeon with the patient and
time was critical because thispatient was in such critical
condition and there were notypes of comms available, no
normal traditional comms, so itwas all up to the radio
operators.
So I read this description.
I'm like, wow, this is reallycool but, like you said, it
(14:28):
involved a lot of interactionand multiple pieces of traffic
being interjected and watchingfor responses and another piece
of it that made it hard is I wastraveling that weekend.
I don't know if you rememberthat.
Beth G. (14:44):
I do.
That was not expected.
I don't know if you rememberthat I do that was not expected,
but it was a really cooladdition just to the whole
situation because it was almostlike a bug out.
Patrick (14:52):
I know right.
And, like I said, I didn'trealize my traffic was going to
be over the course of two days,and so then I'm telling you,
uh-oh, patrick, to leave becauseI'm, I'm expected, at family
members house.
So it was like bugging out andup, packed up my radio, packed
up my Jackery battery and andhit the road with my antenna.
Beth G. (15:16):
And, if I remember correctly, you were successful
in getting traffic when that youarrived at the family members
house, because we held anythingthat was directed to you until
we saw you again and then youwere able to collect it, respond
, and then we were able to getit to the person it was directed
to.
Patrick (15:35):
Yeah, exactly Because initially I think the first
piece of traffic when I wasstill at home, I saw someone
report that we're missing thisplane.
It hasn't arrived in Atlantic.
If anybody has any information,let us know.
And then I interjected traffic.
My first piece that I put inwas that, yes, I'm in
communication with the Aresoperator and we know he's at
(15:58):
Charlotte.
So I put that out there so thatthe people waiting on that
traffic would then know wherethe plane was.
And then we had to find DrSmith, the surgeon.
So that took another piece oftraffic.
But by then I was on the roadheading to my family member's
house.
So I got set up.
I got back on FL Digi, I letpeople know I was back on and
(16:19):
then there was traffic waitingfor me to pass on to me.
So I thought that was.
You know, that was interesting.
And I didn't know how all thesepieces played together and how,
how you look for traffic, howtraffic finds you, because
operators will work.
I have one I printed out justto remember everything where I
had um, they were trying toreach me, and one operator
(16:43):
reached out to another operatorand said please help ensure that
this message reaches me.
And so somehow that worked andit did reach me.
Beth G. (16:53):
That's so cool and that's one of the really cool
things about testing ourcommunications ability working
with other operators in anexercise like T-Rex is it gives
us the chance to see how,especially if somebody has to go
on the move, somebody's leaving, somebody has a situation,
(17:13):
other folks can look out forthings and hold it for them and
help make sure that that stuffgets where it's supposed to be.
And that's part of thecommunity of radio operators
that you build, and if somethinghappens, you really have that
community to help out.
Patrick (17:30):
Exactly.
And as that was happening and Irealized I was connecting with
the other operators, kind ofthat little bit of fear I had of
messing up or doing thingswrong just kind of went away.
The forms were easy to fill out.
It was very well explained.
Each line of the form there'san explanation that says you
know, this is what this means.
(17:50):
So I did.
Maybe you held my hand a littlebit on the first one, but after
that I gained my confidence onthe whole thing.
Beth G. (17:59):
Getting the traffic filled out for the exercise in
the exercise format takes just Alittle bit of paying attention,
but it's not hard.
So the next question I have onthe list was T-Rex what you
expected.
Patrick (18:16):
It was more interesting than I expected.
But I also wasn't sure what myexpectations were because I
didn't even listen in on T-Rexin previous years, which I would
highly encourage.
Anyone even with a receive onlykind of shortwave setup is just
to listen and watch the traffic.
So because I had never donethat, I wasn't sure what to
(18:40):
expect.
But what I loved about it isall the moving pieces and my
little piece was just one tinypiece of the big exercise and I
got to see it play into thelarger exercise and that was
just.
It kind of blew me away.
Beth G. (18:55):
It is such a good simulation of what a real world
national event might be like.
We've never really had anythingto compare it to, especially
with the technology we havetoday, but it's a great
simulation.
With that, all of us have somegreat successes, some great
(19:16):
failures.
I had a Pi crash, completelyburned.
I had to rebuild the image inthe middle of T-Rex a few years
ago.
So things happen, we learnabout our gear.
This past year I had a powersupply quit on my laptop.
Had to come up with aworkaround for that in the
middle of the exercise.
So what are some of yoursuccesses and failures during
(19:40):
this one?
What did you learn about yourgear?
Patrick (19:43):
Well, I learned that things do suck power a lot more
than I thought they did,especially actually my laptop,
lot more than I thought they did, especially actually my laptop.
And at that last year I wasusing the Microsoft Surface Pro
and I was just a littlesurprised at how quickly that
battery ran dead.
I had my Jackery but I waspowering my radio off.
(20:03):
That had to recharge theSurface Pro and then on the
drive to my family member'shouse I plugged the Jackery into
my car lighter to get there.
So I think I didn't understandpower consumption as much and
I've tried to remedy that nowover the last year and I've got
some different gear in place forthat.
Successes were, I would say.
(20:26):
The whole exercise went offfine.
I felt good at the end becauseI think JJS or someone had said
you know good job and I was likeshoo but just building.
My success is the building, isthat I've built my confidence in
the whole thing.
Beth G. (20:44):
That's great, and a number of operators did comment
that they were really impressedwith how well that you did just
as a new person and thatconfidence builder is a huge
thing.
With doing this and especiallydoing what you did Taking gear,
going to the field, not juststaying at the home station you
(21:06):
say, hey, I've done this, sothat's one less thing that I've
got to worry about.
If there is a real situation,it's not completely foreign.
I'm not trying to figure outhow to make my gear work.
I kind of have that down and Ican depend on it while I'm
worrying about all the otherthings that I haven't figured
(21:27):
out yet.
And the power thing that's ahuge thing that people
underestimate.
Being off grid forcommunications is not hard, but
a lot of people do underestimateeven not just communications
but charging batteries, runningtheir refrigerator, doing all
kinds of things just how muchpower it takes, because we're
(21:51):
used to plugging into the wall,having an unlimited supply and
we don't think about it.
Patrick (21:56):
Right, and I know you're used to having a
persistent presence and keepingyour radios on all the time, and
that was new to me because I'musually on a net and then
shortly after turn my radio off,so I was a lot more clueless on
that kind of power consumption.
Beth G. (22:12):
That's a huge thing operating 24-7.
Mm-hmm.
It takes more power.
But you also probably noticedduring T-Rex the amount of
traffic, the amount of stuffthat gets moved and for people
who are listening, that when Isay traffic I'm speaking of
messages directed, welfaretraffic, things associated with
(22:34):
the scenario, not like beingstuck in a traffic jam downtown.
So not everybody gets thatterminology, especially if
you're not a radio person.
So much stuff gets movedoutside of N of nets that you
may miss out on if you're notmonitoring all the time, because
(22:54):
even if it's not directed toyou, you may gain some
situational awareness fromhearing it, even if someone has
a scheduled window to meet withsomebody outside of a net to get
a message across.
Patrick (23:08):
Right.
In fact, in the exercise, oneof the last things we did was
the family had gotten wordthrough a radio operator that
they were trying to find out thestatus of their loved one, and
so my instructions were to tryto work with that family and
decide what means we were goingto use to communicate, let's say
, off the main channel.
(23:29):
So we could have chosen JSAcall.
We could have chosen you know,we had the leeway to choose how
we wanted to choose.
So then eventually I was ableto give them the welfare check,
tell them their loved one wasalive and had survived surgery.
And you just think in real lifehow amazing that would have
been real life.
Beth G. (23:53):
How amazing that would have been.
Absolutely we don't realizewhat it would be like not to
have any information at allabout loved ones that are away
at school, live in another state, maybe they were traveling for
work.
You know, we see all theseprepper fantasy books and movies
where it's about the personthat gets stuck away from home
(24:15):
and spends months trying to getback, and we don't really see as
much of the other side ofwhat's going on, with a family
wondering where they are.
Having that ability to, youknow, get a message within a
reasonable amount of time.
Patrick (24:33):
Right, yeah, I think my message is something like your
loved one is in good spirits anddoing well.
Beth G. (24:40):
Yeah, and that's not much, but it's enough.
Patrick (24:45):
Yes, I think, if I can add one more thing to, maybe the
difficulty is that because Ididn't really know what the
digital modes were, I had verylittle experience, so I didn't
realize that sometimes you canpass things in a different mode.
And we were having a lot ofnoise, I think, when you were
trying to get some things to meand we ended up with one of the
(25:07):
MFSK modes and we had to try acouple of different ones, and we
ended up with one of the MFSKmodes and we had to try a couple
of different ones.
That too was a learningexperience, and you just kind of
just take a deep breath andreally, you know, analyze what's
going on.
Luckily, you had the know-howto know what mode's going to
work best in this scenario.
Beth G. (25:29):
So I think as radio operators we grow in that
knowledge over time.
If I remember correctly, Ithink there was a sunbot at some
point during T-Rex.
That really made thingsdifficult.
Patrick (25:36):
I think you're right.
I do remember that, yep.
Beth G. (25:39):
I think we ended up having to use several low-speed
modes just to try to get throughSunday, trying to get the final
X sum, the executive summary ofwhat had gone on in the
exercise which was issued inIdaho, back to the East Coast,
(26:02):
and that was a challenge becausethe van conditions were so bad.
Would you do it again?
Are you planning to do it again?
Patrick (26:05):
I'm absolutely planning to do it again.
I'm looking forward to it.
I'm not traveling that weekend,so it'll be different.
I'll be able to watch for thetraffic and spend more time with
my radio on.
I'm super psyched about it.
I don't know yet if I will bepicked to interject traffic or
not, but regardless, I stillplan to watch the whole thing
(26:27):
play out.
Beth G. (26:28):
That's awesome.
Do you have your powersituation worked out or you're
still going to be rocking theJackery?
Patrick (26:34):
I have a Jackery and a Bluetti now.
Beth G. (26:38):
Cool yeah, have you tested them to make sure that
they don't cause RF noise?
Patrick (26:42):
Oh no, I have not tested the Bluetti with my radio
.
Oh my gosh, I'm so glad yousaid that.
Beth G. (26:49):
Now you have homework.
Patrick (26:50):
Okay, I'll do that.
I have until July.
Beth G. (26:55):
Yep, you got another month and a couple weeks Okay,
so would you recommend, or whowould you recommend,
participating in T-Rex?
Patrick (27:04):
Well, I recommend, even for those who are just using
shortwave radios, like I saidearlier.
Just I wished that I hadlistened in and just received
the files and watched what washappening.
So, even if you know verylittle other than how to set up
your shortwave, and we areproviding more instructions for
(27:25):
that oh and aside, we're goingto have a net coming up the
Sunday night net that you alwaysdo, and I am going to have two
different shortwave radios outin my backyard with FL Digi
testing, you know, getting thefiles that you pass on Sunday
nights.
So I definitely recommendanybody at that level or any
(27:46):
level, just just watch, watchthe action happen, or any level,
just watch.
Beth G. (27:52):
Watch the action happen .
Can we expect a report on thePrepperNetnet?
Patrick (27:57):
no-transcript.
Yes, I hope to even maybe filma little bit of it and show what
it looks like coming across thescreen, and I'm going to use a
Texan PL368 and an ATS25.
Beth G. (28:10):
Cool.
Patrick (28:11):
And you know I actually haven't.
I've used them with JSA call.
I haven't full up set them upwith FL Digi, and so I'll test
our instructions and hopefullyeverybody will be able to do
that.
Beth G. (28:24):
That's awesome.
I used my TechSun PL360 acouple years ago at Heritage
Life Skills to copy one of theAmron nets on Friday night with
an Android tablet connected toit.
Patrick (28:40):
Yes, oh.
So that brings up a good point,Patrick.
People could be preparing forthis T-Rex by listening in on
Amron Nets or PrepperNet Nets,right?
Beth G. (28:50):
That's absolutely correct.
You can check on thePrepperNetnet site in the events
section for the net times andfrequencies if you'd like to
come out and participate.
And if you're interested in theAmron nets you can check on
their website as well for netscheduling.
Patrick (29:14):
Yeah, I think that's great practice.
So you're not, so you can dosome of your learning curve
before you even hit T-Rex.
So you can do some of yourlearning curve before you even
hit T-Rex.
Beth G. (29:23):
Yeah, I wouldn't go into T-Rex unprepared,
especially on the Amarant sideof things.
They actually go dark, don'tparticipate or provide really
any help or anything.
It's truly a grid downsimulation.
We're a little less hardcore atPrepperNet as we want people to
learn, so we encourage peopleto try to do it on their own.
(29:46):
But if you have a technicalquestion then we'll try to help
you out.
Patrick (29:51):
Yeah, I want to.
I really want to emphasize thatbecause it's a very safe
learning environment and noone's going to you know, no
one's going to snap your headoff if you make a mistake.
They're going to work with you,they're going to answer your
questions.
Never make you feel stupid,never make you feel silly for
asking any question.
That's been my experience withall the PepperNet comms people
(30:14):
and my experience with T-Rex wasthat I knew Patrick was there.
I think I definitely, like Isaid, leaned on you for that
first traffic as I was a littlenervous about some of the things
in it.
But I mean, it's a very safelearning environment.
Beth G. (30:30):
Well, thank you, we try to make it that way.
We want people to feel likethey can come in and learn and
learn some skills and take themback to their family and friends
and groups and that kind ofthing and become better prepared
.
And I can't help but bring thisup.
I got to bring this up on thepodcast.
If you participate and youcatch all of the traffic, every
(30:53):
year one of our operators inNorth Carolina I will not
mention his name creates a pieceof traffic in which something
happens to Forrest.
Every year Forrest gets smokedsomehow.
Patrick (31:12):
Forrest has a very tragic life every year at T-Rex.
Yes, so if you participate,catch all the PrepperNet traffic
, you'll get to find out whatcreative way that the North
Carolina guys come up with to doaway with forest.
Beth G. (31:35):
He's a good sport about it too.
He is Well.
Thank you, beth, for giving me25 minutes or so of your time to
talk about T-Rex and yourexperience and all of that kind
of thing.
Do you have any final thoughtsor anything that you want to
give our audience before we shutit down for the day?
Patrick (31:48):
I mean, I would just hope to encourage everybody to
not only participate in T-Rex,because you're going to learn
and grow from it, but also justget more involved in PrepperNet
comms and especially after youget your general license, you
can get on the Zello comms andespecially after you get your
general license, you can get onthe Zello comms channel and you
will just you will growexponentially in your knowledge.
(32:09):
So I just don't be afraid, justjump in.
Beth G. (32:13):
Awesome.
Well, with that said, we lookforward to seeing you on the air
, hopefully before T-Rex, if notduring T-Rex.
Remember you can find moreinformation about PrepperNet
comms at the PrepperNetnet site.
If you want to learn more, youcan check out the Ham Academy on
(32:34):
PrepperNetnet and if you havequestions, there's plenty of us
there willing to help.
7-3, and we will see you on theair 73.
Patrick (32:49):
Thanks for listening to the Prepping Academy podcast.
Preppers unite atwwwpreppingacademycom.
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