Degraded Communication Exercise

Division 7's contingency plans for degraded communications of Station Portland's AOR, has been developed and approved by USCG Station Portland. The contingency plan could be activated for many reason such as: system repairs, disasters, terrorism, storms, and much more. This plan uses Auxiliary Communication Units (ACU), both fixed land and land mobile. The plan allows the auxiliary to cover Station Portland's Area of Responsibility (AOR) until an active duty relief unit take over or Rescue 21 is operational. If or when the plan is activated the auxiliary would be the eyes, ears and the voice of the Coast Guard. Some things the auxiliary might do are, provide radio guards for Coast Guard resources, transmit notice to mariners and maintain a channel 16 watch for vessels in distress.

A pre-brief of the plan, followed by a Q&A session, will be held on 13 October 2010 from 1900 to 2200 on MSU Portland (the former Sector Portland) Training Deck. The plan's presentation will cover the basic operations as an ACU and a short refresher of ICS. It is requested that all qualified (AUXCOM and TCO) members who are interested in participating in the call out exercise with their ACU be at the presentation. In addition, members who are not qualified as TCO but would like to join in the exercise are encouraged to attend.

The exercise will take place on Saturday 16 October 2010. This exercise is a full scale exercise of the contingency plan. This means the call out will occur at a random time Saturday morning. The exercise could last the better part of the day and will be followed with a hot wash at MSU Portland's training deck. Therefore, your ACU should be prepared for a full day event with food, water and any other needs.

The presentation will cover all information regarding job duties, expectations and responsibilities. All ACU and AUXCOM/TC qualified members are requested to participate in the exercise, since the division has not held an exercise of this type for an extended time and many of us are dusty when it comes to using our ACU's.

If you have any questions about the prebrief or the exercise, send me an email.

Jonathan James, SO-CM