On Thursday 13th of July 2016 an exercise for testing radio amateurs’ response capability in emergency situations took place between 13.00 and 16.00 UTC. The whole action was
conducted in collaboration with the National Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (ISU) and the Romanian Civil Aviation Academy. The radio amateur unit implicated in the
exercise used an ultra light Cessna 172 S aircraft. The crew was made up of Adrian YO3HOT (captain and operator), Mihai Malanca YO9BPX (radio operator), Mihai
Marius YO9HAR (radio operator and representative of the National Inspectorate for Emergency Situations- ISU) and Constantin Petrescu (representative of the
Romanian Civil Aviation Academy).
The purpose of the exercise was to observe and assess the emergency situation (as they would in case of a real emergency) from the aircraft and transmit key information to radio
amateur ground command which was located at the National Children’s Palace Radio Club YO3KPA. The main ground operators were Marius YO3CZW and Florin
YO3GOD accompanied by two young operators YO3JAL and YO3GRU. Normally, ground command would pass regular updates and information to the National Inspectorate
for Emergency Situations, helping the authorities deal with the crisis.
During the AM (Aero-Mobile) exercise the call sign used was YO3KAA/AM a total number of 330 QSO’s was made: 211 in the VHF 2m band (145.225 MHz) and 119 in the HF
80m band (3705.0 kHz). The equipment used on board of the aircraft was made up of a Yaesu FT400DR transceiver and a Maldol Exceed EX905 antenna.
The route took the aircraft above several Romanian counties, and flew over the following significant settlements: Strejnic, Baicoi, Campina, Comarnic, Pucioasa, Targoviste, Titu,
Bolintin Vale, Clinceni, Jilava, Fundulea, Urziceni, Buzau, Mizil, Valenii de Munte, Baicoi, Ploiesti, Strejnic.
