P-  Noise levels can get pretty high in the radio room 
S- Headsets are critical!

P- Simplex coverage was not sufficient for all agencies to talk 
S -Simplex coverage test for Washington County served agencies.  Use of relays might be helpful.  Pre-event practice and testing is critical.  Also, need to share simplex frequencies on a non-interference basis.

P- Use of phonetics for call signs on the net was cumbersome and time consuming 
S- Use tactical call signs for most communications, using club station or personal call signs only as required by FCC regulations.  Use club station call signs, where appropriate, for packet.  (Use of phonetics is the standard for many of our nets, so this becomes a training issue!) 

P- Using net control to talk intra-agency was cumbersome for served agencies with multiple locations. 
S- Assigning frequencies for use by served agencies with heavy traffic or multiple sites would help cut down on the burden of net control

P- Some pre-positioned, agency-provided equipment was missing, broken, batteries dead, etc. S - Station managers must be assigned for each location and regular visits to the station are necessary to ensure all is well when needed.  Also, bring lots of stuff, including adaptors/connectors, manuals, and fuses! 

P- Bottleneck of traffic at WCCCA 
S- Some division of labor might have eased the problem.  Also, adding a 2-meter port to the WCCCA packet BBS would spread traffic over two frequencies instead of one.  Use of bulletins instead of “all station” messages would have eased traffic. 

P- We need a better idea of which agencies will be communicating and with whom.  Also need to know  other tactical call signs used by served agencies 
S- Work with served agencies to get this information.  Verify it when you arrive to support them. 

P-  It is difficult to monitor more than one frequency at a time
S- Have more operators

P -  “Red (orange) outlet” doesn’t always equal emergency power! 
S- Find out ahead of time what that means (e.g., emergency power versus surge suppressor) and if you might be a victim of a computerized load shedding.  Also find out which repeaters operate under emergency power and which don’t.  Also, after interruption between commercial power and generator power, all radios don’t come back up on the same frequency to which they were set when they powered down.  (Check your preferences!)

P- All packet traffic wasn’t picked up by the intended stations because they didn’t know it was there. 
S - Training issue – both sender and receiver need to know where to put/retrieve messages.  Also, as long as you are connected to send a message, check your own mailbox and whether messages you sent previously were read.  You can use a script for this process, and set it up on a time schedule to automate it.  You can also call another agency on voice and tell them to retrieve their messages.

P - Registering packet systems and reading help files during the exercise bogged down the system Register prior to the exercise. 
S -Put a list of call signs to be responded to in a text file; everyone else will get a “denial of service” response. 

P - The media is not prepared to monitor our voice frequencies to pick up press releases. 
S - Media needs to be educated beforehand that they are welcome to listen on scanners.  We are only allowed to directly support them under very specific circumstances and as outlined in the FCC regulations. 
 

P - “Served agency” people moving freely in and out of the radio room increased the chaos factor Bar the door!  
S-Place a “gatekeeper” at the door to provide service to the users without allowing them to enter the radio room 

P - Messages not necessarily going through best amateur radio mode 
S- Recognize length, content, and destination and send messages through appropriate mode (e.g., packet for longer messages)

P - Message prioritization was inconsistent, and some were prioritized incorrectly  
S- Message prioritization needs to be done by a knowledgeable person from the served agency
  
P - Messages weren’t being distributed to and from the radio room in a timely manner  
S - Served agency should provide a runner (as part of the message center function)

P - Radio operators were not familiar with all the positions/tactical call signs of served agencies
S - Station manager for each served agency should collect a list of positions/tactical call signs and keep multiple copies with the radio station documentation

P-  Served agencies didn’t all know who had what  amateur radio communications capability and who doesn’t 
S - Net control needs to pass the information periodically to all participants (as a packet bulletin?).  Net control could also do an “all call” and all stations copy the list of participants 

P - Logistics support to amateur radio operations wasn’t in evidence!  
S - Implementing message center procedures could have solved many of the organizational problems they were experiencing.  Logistics needs to keep closer tabs on the operations of the radio room as a message center.  A message center supervisor could have alleviated many of the organizational problems.  

P - Served agencies didn’t always understand how amateur radio operates (especially who can talk to whom) and their capabilities/modes  Educational challenge!  
S - Need to get that information out quickly – while the interest is high

P - Noise level was high in the radio room, even with the use of headsets.  There were too many operators in too small a space. 
S - Hopefully, the new storage arrangements will help