ICS-213

This issue continues to intrigue me.  I don’t mean to come across in some weird / brainy / over-thinking-it sort of way but this ICS-213 thing is, I think, going to end up making me a way better Traffic Handler than what I might have otherwise become.  It became very clear to me tonight on the 75 Meter Interstate Sideband Net.

The hard-core reality of what Voice Traffic Handling is all about became all too real tonight.  I realize that the formal structure of the NTS is violated by an Independent Net such as the 75 ISBN, but I also realize that when the schummer hits the fan and I need to get a message to my kids in Missouri, I am going to use whatever Net can get the job done. If that means that an Independent Net can put me within 35 miles of my kids in a single jump, the choice is going to be a very simple one indeed.  However, this is what tonight’s experience confirmed to me once again.

Band conditions started out bad and turned to worse.  As each minute passed it became more and more of a challenge.  I hate to admit it, but I was moments away from QTAing my Florida traffic (something that I am loath to do), when a station in Missouri (I’m in Detroit) suddenly became available between me and Florida.  KC0M turned on his linear and a game changer had come to play!  As conditions worsened a station in Illinois stepped in to help.  We were all running power and everyone was in it to win it.  What we had was what I would call a quad-station relay going on… and it was a blast.  Every word became a challenge.  Every successful fill was a feel-good victory.  We were moving the ball down the field.

What I learned was this:  If I am ever called upon to move emergency traffic (and I don’t care if the sender is my next door neighbor or FEMA or my SEOC), and the message has to get to its destination rapidly and accurately, and I’ve got 6 properly formatted 25 words-or-less Radiograms and a 150 word ICS-213, the winner is going to be the Radiograms.  All other things being equal, (that is to say, message precedence being equal) it is a very easy choice.  Six messages or one; which will I choose?  The answer is obvious.  I’m going to smile and tell the person with the ICS-213 novella, “Thank you very much”, and then I’m quietly going to move them to the bottom of the pile.  

There is probably someone out there that is going to tell me that is not the way the system works, and you my be correct.  But this is where my heart is tonight, so please indulge me.  Thanks….

Those who think that it makes any sense whatsoever, when band conditions are what they were tonight, to move 1 message when I can move 6, they are going to have to be a really good salesman to get me to buy it.  The bottom line is this, and I suspect that Traffic Handlers that long ago became SKs probably knew very well, message brevity is at the very heart of what makes us successful.