Normally, the first weekend of October is designated for holding the annual ARRL Simulated Emergency Test (SET). The NNY section holds its operations in October when most other sections do the same. Some NNY counties hold special nets on those days. Please contact your County Emergency Coordinator if you would like to get involved. If you can not get in touch with your EC or if your county ARES is not planning an organized SET activity, please contact NNY Section Emergency Coordinator .
The first weekend of October is designated for holding the annual ARRL Simulated Emergency Test (SET), although local and Section-level exercises may take place throughout the Fall. The SET is ARRL’s primary national emergency exercise and is designed to assess the skills and preparedness of Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) volunteers, as well as those affiliated with other organizations involved in emergency and disaster response.
The SET encourages maximum participation by all radio amateurs, partner organizations, and national, state, and local officials who typically engage in emergency or disaster response. In addition to ARES volunteers, those active in the National Traffic System (NTS), Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES), National Weather Service (NWS) SKYWARN, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), and a variety of other allied groups and public service-oriented radio amateurs are needed to fulfill important roles in this nationwide exercise.
The SET offers volunteers an opportunity to test equipment, modes, and skills under simulated emergency conditions and scenarios. Individuals can use the time to update a “go-kit” for use during deployments and to ensure their home station’s operational capability in an emergency or disaster. To get involved, contact your local ARRL Emergency Coordinator or Net Manager.
2025 NNY Section Spring SET:
This year we will be doing a spring SET on the 60 Meter band. It will be held on Saturday April 26th from 9:00AM local to 11:00AM local The frequency will be announced at a later date. This SET will be run like a net and we will exchange signal reports with all of the Emergency coordinators. The plan will be for the Emergency coordinators from each county to be on the air and if possible be at their county EOC or have someone stationed there. As individual stations check in, the NCS station will direct them to call the Emergency Coordinators and the EOC for that county if it is on the air. Stations will exchange signal reports with each Emergency Coordinator and county EOC. Net Control will keep a list of those stations and exchanged reports and build a list. We encourage all stations to do log your contacts and signal reports for future reference. We will provide a blank log sheet that you can print out here. We will also provide an Excel File for you to use if you have Excel or Open Office.
More information will be posted here soon.
Here is a link to the Chat Room on Zoom that will be active for the SET
In preparation for the SET we will be holding some Zoom training courses before the actual SET takes place. The purpose of these sessions is to help those who are not familiar with operations on the 60 meter band learn about the band and the various rules that make operation on that band different than other bands. We will dedicate the first session to radio modifications that MAY be required along with antenna requirements. We will wrap things up with a 4th session on April 21st (the week of the SET) for anyone who would like to get on the air and practice digital and do last minute testing before the SET on the 26th.
The Zoom Sessions will be:
March 31st 2025:
This session is being put on to help anyone unsure if their radio or antenna will work on or is adequate for the 60 meter band. Please feel free to join us at 7:00PM and we will do our best to help you.
Click Here To Join The Zoom Meeting at 7:00PM
April 7th 2025:
This Zoom session is designed to help you get on the air on the 60 meter band. In this session, we will talk about how the 60 meter band works. Frequency use, power limits and other topics related to 60 meters.
Click Here To Join The Zoom Meeting At 7:00PM
April 14th 2025:
In this session we will review topics already discussed in our first two sessions as well as talk about the use of digital modes on this band and if time permits, we will attempt some actual on the air conversation.
Click Here To Join The Zoom Meeting At 7:00PM
April 21st 2025:
In this session, we will get on the air to check our stations before the SET on the 26th. We will answer any last-minute questions and go over anything SET related for anyone who has any questions.
Click Here To Join The Zoom Meeting At 7:00PM
Link to the Chat Room on Zoom that will be active for the SET:
2025 SET Zoom Chat Room