**SHARES EXERCISE 07-03**

**"Dark Crystal"**

**EXERCISE DARK CRYSTAL:** To be held on 28 December 07 from 1500Z to
2100Z on authorized SHARES owned frequencies.

**PURPOSE:** The primary purpose of this SHARES exercise is to provide
all SHARES stations the opportunity to train in the following areas:
creating voice SHARES message traffic, passing SHARES messages via HF
radio on all regional nets, regional net control procedures, copying of
MT63 message traffic on HF radio, downloading of SHARES messages via the
SHARES BBS Gateway system.

**SITUATION:** Due to a massive solar flare, all internet and phone
services have been disrupted and are unusable. The only means of
communications available for this exercise is high frequency (HF) radio.

**DETAILS**: There will be no administrative net prior to this exercise.
At precisely 1500Z, all SHARES regional nets will activate and begin
their procedures to account for all available SHARES stations within
their regions.

1\. Checking-in: All SHARES stations will check into their respect
regional nets at 1500Z. If a station cannot hear their regional net,
they are then authorized to check into another region. Just checking
into a net **[will not]{.underline}** give you credit for participating
in the exercise. Only passing actual traffic will give you credit.

2\. Net Controls: The purpose of the check-ins is to give the net
controls information on who is available to pass traffic within a given
region. These "checking-in's" do not give a station credit for the
exercise. For a station to get credit for participating in "Dark
Crystal", they must pass two pieces of SHARES traffic at least 30
minutes apart. The receiving stations will then notify the net control
that he has received SHARES traffic from a station (please give callsign
and the DTG of that message). Once a station has been reported as
transmitting two pieces of SHARES traffic, the net control will take
note of that station completing the requirement and only then be given
credit for participating in the exercise. Regional Net Controls will
then forward a copy of eligible participating SHARES stations to the
SHARES Program Office for final credit. **Net controls should not send
us a list of those stations that have checked in, but did not send the
required two pieces of traffic**. The SHARES Program Office does not
need a list of those station who just "check in" for this exercise.

3\. Message Traffic: All SHARES stations will generate two separate
SHARES messages, following the message template given in both the SHARES
book and CD. Messages should be only one or two sentences long and be
generic in nature. Typical message traffic could consist of weather,
local news, station equipment, etc. Once this traffic is passed to
another SHARES station in your region, who will also be the station
addressed in your "TO LINE", that station receiving your traffic will
report to net control your callsign and the DTG (date, time, group) of
your message and verify to the net control that you indeed passed a
proper SHARES message. All SHARES traffic will be

passed *using HF radio only*. At no time will telephones or internet be
allowed to send or retransmit any part of a SHARES message. The only two
exceptions will be for a message to be forwarded to the SPO that was
downloaded via a BBS or to the MT63 team who are verifying reception of
MT63 transmissions. Any other use of the internet will nullify and void
out that piece of traffic for credit.

4\. SHARES BBS Messages: A SHARES station can be given credit for
participating in the exercise if they connect to two different SHARES
BBS Gateway stations and complete the following minimum requirements: 1)
Uploading to a BBS node a self-generated SHARES Exercise messages on two
different BBS Gateway Stations; plus.... 2) Downloading the SHARES
Exercise message from two different BBS Gateway Stations. The window
frequency for the SHARES BBS Gateway stations is 13.852.5MHz. Please
make any necessary radio/TNC adjustments for your system depending on
the type of system you are using. Once these two downloads have been
completed, a copy of the two downloads will then need to be sent to
<hfmail@shareshf.com> for verification. Once verified, the receiving
station will be given credit for participating in "Dark Crystal".

5\. MT63: Transmissions will occur every 15 minutes through out the
exercise on window frequency 14.487 MHz. Every hour, the message
transmitted will change. A SHARES station that receives a minimum of two
different MT63 messages can receive credit for participating in this
exercise. Once a MT63 transmission is received, a copy should be sent to
the MT63 confirmation team at <NNN0KUL@navymars.org> [and]{.underline}
<NNN0BCI@navymars.org>. The team will confirm / consolidate the two
messages you submit and then forward a summary list of all eligible
stations to the SHARES office.

6\. OTHER DIGITAL MODES: Other digital modes (Clover, Packet, RTTY,
etc.) to transmit SHARES traffic between two manned stations, within a
region, is authorized as long as it does not involve the phone or
internet and follows the same message traffic guidelines and
accountability set forth in paragraph 3 above, "Message Traffic".

7\. FREQUENCIES: The frequencies used for this exercise will be those
indicated on page 1-5 of NCSH 3-3-1, dated 15 January 2007, unless
otherwise noted in this CONOPS or via other communication sent to
regional/national net controls.

**REPORTS**: At the end of the exercise, summary reports are requested
to be submitted from all regional net controls, BBS Gateway Stations and
MT63 Coordination POC's by 31 December 2007. The various reports will
include:

> \- BBS Gateway Stations: Will report which stations connected to their
> individual nodes and transmitted/saved a correctly formatted message
> on their node.
>
> \- BBS Stations (receiving): Stations downloading the SHARES Exercise
> message from the two different SHARES BBS nodes, should email a copy
> of what they download to hfmail@shareshf.com
>
> \- Net Controls: Net Controls will report to the SPO which stations
> passed at least two SHARES messages using HF radio within their
> regions. Do not report which stations just checked into the net and
> did not pass the required SHARES traffic.
>
> \- MT63 Team: Report which SHARES stations copied at least two
> different MT63 transmissions during the exercise.

The SHARES exercise will terminate promptly at 2100Z on 28 December
2007. No termination message will be sent from this office. Should
anyone have questions regarding the exercise tomorrow, they should send
their question to <hfmail@shareshf.com> or contact the NCS Radio Room at
703-235-5261. Should any net control or station wish to deviate from
this operations plan, they must first contact the SHARES Program Manager
for approval.

Regards,

John E. Peterson

SHARES Program Manager