FIELDSITREP

One of the most valuable services that auxiliary communication stations can offer is observation and report of "ground truth." We saw this during the DOD COMEX 22-2. Below you can see Radio KD8TTE Episode 61 on why even large organizations appreciate reliable work from small stations, even individual volunteer operators.

We have practiced requesting and reporting standardized information in BLACK SWAN exercises and operations. The SHARES HF radio service recently deprecated its SPOTREP in favor of a Field Situation Report developed by Roger Mull KD4JQJ and Virginia Enzor NC4VA. Unfortunately, the report is part of the Winlink form set and therefore tightly integrated with that system. We have implemented that message format as FIELDSITREP such that it can be transmitted either by voice with an easy-to-use template to support operators, or by print (digital) by completing an electronic version of that same template. Thus the message can be relayed from station to station using either voice or print procedure, whatever works best for each relay along the way between originator and addressee.

Download and Install the Form

Our electronic form is implemented for NBEMS, the FLMSG application. You can download FIELDSITREP (ZIP format) and install the HTML from the ZIP file in your NBEMS CUSTOM folder to begin using it with FLMSG. 

After installing the form in your NBEMS CUSTOM folder, start FLMSG and find FIELDSITREP under the Form>CUSTOM menu option. Hit the Edit Form button in FLMSG and a browser will open, and you can complete the form there. 

When to Use the Form

You might have conditions on the ground that are useful to report (for example, loss of power or Internet service). Perhaps there's a net activation that calls for information from the field, so you're making specific observations on a standing request. You might also be directed to report on some particular information. In any of these cases, use of the standardized form will allow for the information to be reported in a more consistent fashion and to be processed more easily than free-form text.

Here's what a request for specific information on the FIELDSITREP looks like.

Voice procedure:

NCS: AAA - THIS IS - NCS - I request FIELDSITREP weather radio kilo delta oscar niner four - OVER

AAA: THIS IS - AAA - ROGER - WAIT - OUT

Print procedure:

AAA DE NCS INT FIELDSITREP WX KDO-94 K

NCS DE AAA R AS AR

A request for a FIELDSITREP without specifying a particular set of information will look the same, just without the additional specification.

NCS: AAA - THIS IS - NCS - I request FIELDSITREP - OVER

AAA: THIS IS - AAA - ROGER - WAIT - OUT

Print procedure:

AAA DE NCS INT FIELDSITREP K

NCS DE AAA R AS AR

Use the Form to Prepare a Message for Transmission

Note that the form itself shows at the top how to "list" the message (indicating to net control that you have a message for transmission) in both voice and print (digital) procedure. 

Complete the form (be sure to complete that date-time group!) and hit the Submit bottom at the bottom of the form. FLMSG will have the completed form and you can save the message electronically as a file ending in "k2s."

Transmitting the Message

The form as it presents in the browser is a template that will aid an operator in a voice-only circuit for transmitting the message clearly and with proper procedure. The receiving station may copy the message into an electronic form on the receiving end or simply copy it exactly as voiced.

The k2s file can also be transmitted digitally with an application like FLAMP or FLMSG, or can be attached to a message sent through Winlink. 

Viewing the Message

The message (if in electronic k2s format) can be loaded directly into FLMSG and displayed with the "View Form" button. If sent by voice, the same "View Form" can be used to disambiguate the meaning of, for example, "Line 2" as it would have been voiced.

Agencies receiving these reports do not generally view the forms individually but pass the k2s file to software for processing, aggregation, and presentation. Click on the binoculars icons on the map below to see examples of reports submitted from the field. These reports also indicate AUXCOMM operators who can be considered Trained for Task 2320 Send FIELDSITREP.