MRC Procedures
Objectives
The relay message and relay message reply will be sent simultaneously at Noon, Australian Eastern Daylight Time (UTC 01:00) from the stations at opposite ends of the MRC Station List on the MRC 2023 page. Take note of your position in this list. Your local objective is to establish contact with your immediate neighbours or failing that any other station on the list. Your immediate neighbours are the stations directly above and below you on the MRC Station List.
Remember that the overall objective is to complete the relay on the HF (27MHz) or UHF CBRS bands and to do so using direct-wave (line of sight) propagation. So only use skip and/or employ the help of non-MRC stations if you are not able to establish contact any other way.
Calling
Establishing relay contacts: Please monitor and transmit on the call channels per the schedule in the Summary Sheet PDF on the MRC 2023 page. Do so until you have established contact with your immediate neighbours or failing that any other MRC Stations.
Maintaining contact: Check in with these contacts no less than once every half hour to reconfirm, and do so until you have relayed or shared both the message and reply with them. Conditions and circumstances change, so you may find that who you can contact will change throughout the event, so do not delay in sharing the relay message or reply with your immediate neighbours.
Bypassing neighbours: If you cannot establish contact with an immediate neighbour please be patient, especially at the start of the event when it may take longer than anticipated to reach a mountain due to localised weather conditions or road closures. But eventually it will become clear that a neighbour is unreachable and must be bypassed to keep the message moving. Re-establish contacts if you have to, and let your contacts know about the unreachable neighbour at check-in and also let the organisers know on the Zello channel.
Relay on another channel: Please avoid using the call channels (27MHz Ch 26 LSB or UHF Ch 26 FM) for the actual message relay. Ask the sender or receiver to change to a clear channel first.
Completion: When the message and reply have been successfully relayed by every MRC station the global objective has been achieved. If you are shutting down your station and leaving your mountain please call your contacts to let them know and report your status on the Zello channel.
Night Operation: Some stations are camping on the Saturday night when direct-wave conditions can be more favourable. If you were unable to relay using direct-wave earlier in the day you may now be able to. So if you plan to stay late do try and make contact again and let the organisers know on Zello so that they can help coordinate with other stations. If you are not staying late you may also make contact with camping stations while travelling or back at home. This is not just for fun or for safety. You may even discover that signals improve en-route and so establish a great new location that can be used in a future MRC.
Record Keeping
Write down both the message and reply exactly as received (i.e. make every effort to make no error yourself but do not correct any spelling, punctuation or grammar) as well as the callsign of the sending station along with signal report information and the time of receipt. Share this information with the organisers after the event. We don't only care about the distance of the relay but also the quality of the relay. We do this by measuring the errors accumulated in the message and the message reply and which links the errors occurred on.
Zello
Install Zello and join the MRC2023 Zello channel. There you will find the MRC organisers and many of the MRC Stations. Zello works well on older devices and under marginal mobile network coverage and has proven itself at previous MRC events as a reliable method of sharing operational status, reporting progress of the relay, doing troubleshooting, coordination with neighbouring stations and for getting general technical advice.
Listen For
Feel free to involve people on the listen for list if required and invite them to call in to other MRC stations. Last year's listen-fors might be next year's new MRC recruits. Alternatively they might be previous MRC participants with a pool of event knowledge and experience to share. Encourage other local stations you contact during the event to call other MRC stations, keeping in mind the need to minimise chatter during actual message relay.
Amateur Radio
Do let other stations know if you are a licensed amateur and which amateur bands you are capable of operating on from your mountain. Although this capability will not be used for the actual relay it may be useful for coordination with other MRC stations with amateur capability and for emergency communications.
Objectives
The relay message and relay message reply will be sent simultaneously at Noon, Australian Eastern Daylight Time (UTC 01:00) from the stations at opposite ends of the MRC Station List on the MRC 2023 page. Take note of your position in this list. Your local objective is to establish contact with your immediate neighbours or failing that any other station on the list. Your immediate neighbours are the stations directly above and below you on the MRC Station List.
Remember that the overall objective is to complete the relay on the HF (27MHz) or UHF CBRS bands and to do so using direct-wave (line of sight) propagation. So only use skip and/or employ the help of non-MRC stations if you are not able to establish contact any other way.
Calling
Establishing relay contacts: Please monitor and transmit on the call channels per the schedule in the Summary Sheet PDF on the MRC 2023 page. Do so until you have established contact with your immediate neighbours or failing that any other MRC Stations.
Maintaining contact: Check in with these contacts no less than once every half hour to reconfirm, and do so until you have relayed or shared both the message and reply with them. Conditions and circumstances change, so you may find that who you can contact will change throughout the event, so do not delay in sharing the relay message or reply with your immediate neighbours.
Bypassing neighbours: If you cannot establish contact with an immediate neighbour please be patient, especially at the start of the event when it may take longer than anticipated to reach a mountain due to localised weather conditions or road closures. But eventually it will become clear that a neighbour is unreachable and must be bypassed to keep the message moving. Re-establish contacts if you have to, and let your contacts know about the unreachable neighbour at check-in and also let the organisers know on the Zello channel.
Relay on another channel: Please avoid using the call channels (27MHz Ch 26 LSB or UHF Ch 26 FM) for the actual message relay. Ask the sender or receiver to change to a clear channel first.
Completion: When the message and reply have been successfully relayed by every MRC station the global objective has been achieved. If you are shutting down your station and leaving your mountain please call your contacts to let them know and report your status on the Zello channel.
Night Operation: Some stations are camping on the Saturday night when direct-wave conditions can be more favourable. If you were unable to relay using direct-wave earlier in the day you may now be able to. So if you plan to stay late do try and make contact again and let the organisers know on Zello so that they can help coordinate with other stations. If you are not staying late you may also make contact with camping stations while travelling or back at home. This is not just for fun or for safety. You may even discover that signals improve en-route and so establish a great new location that can be used in a future MRC.
Record Keeping
Write down both the message and reply exactly as received (i.e. make every effort to make no error yourself but do not correct any spelling, punctuation or grammar) as well as the callsign of the sending station along with signal report information and the time of receipt. Share this information with the organisers after the event. We don't only care about the distance of the relay but also the quality of the relay. We do this by measuring the errors accumulated in the message and the message reply and which links the errors occurred on.
Zello
Install Zello and join the MRC2023 Zello channel. There you will find the MRC organisers and many of the MRC Stations. Zello works well on older devices and under marginal mobile network coverage and has proven itself at previous MRC events as a reliable method of sharing operational status, reporting progress of the relay, doing troubleshooting, coordination with neighbouring stations and for getting general technical advice.
Listen For
Feel free to involve people on the listen for list if required and invite them to call in to other MRC stations. Last year's listen-fors might be next year's new MRC recruits. Alternatively they might be previous MRC participants with a pool of event knowledge and experience to share. Encourage other local stations you contact during the event to call other MRC stations, keeping in mind the need to minimise chatter during actual message relay.
Amateur Radio
Do let other stations know if you are a licensed amateur and which amateur bands you are capable of operating on from your mountain. Although this capability will not be used for the actual relay it may be useful for coordination with other MRC stations with amateur capability and for emergency communications.