TO: ALL WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS AMATEURS
ALL NON-WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS AMATEURS
FROM: KEN HARRIS WA8LLM
WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS INCORPORATED
WV ARES BULLETIN NR 09.16 DATE: April 19, 2009
SUBJECT: VERIFY YOUR MESSAGES
A few years ago I had the opportunity to hear a couple of messages that I had originated being relayed from one Amateur to another. When I sent the messages out they each had a Check Count of 14 words.
When the station I passed them to, let's just say station AAA, picked them up, he confirmed that he had the messages. Later on he passed the messages on to another station, we'll call BBB. When station BBB took the messages, he said that he could only account for 13 words on one of the messages. Station AAA just said Okay, and didn't do anything to try to figure out what the missing word was, or how to correct the message.
The first thing wrong, was that station AAA should NOT have “ROGERED” for the message from me until he had made sure that all 14 words were there. When station AAA “ROGERED” the message, he was saying that everything was Okay when he received it.
Both stations AAA and BBB should have tried to figure out why there was a difference in Check Count, but they didn't. The messages that were sent weren't of a life or death nature, but they might have been important, and a word was lost somewhere along the way.
What would happen if the messages were relayed two or three more times, and a word was added, lost, or changed? The whole meaning of the messages may have been lost. Any time you pick up a message, be sure the amount of words in the TEXT matches the CHECK COUNT, before you ROGER for it, otherwise you may be missing some very important information, and it might be meaningless.
Ken Harris WA8LLM
Wood County WV
WV ARES Section Emergency Coordinator
WV ARES District 3 Emergency Coordinator