Developing a PACE Plan
When first getting into comms, I heard a lot of mention about a PACE plan, but very little detail about what that is. A lot of the guys out there who are teaching about this topic are prior military, and sometimes their acronyms are second nature to them, but seem like a whole separate language to those of us without that background.
PACE stands for Primary, Alternate, Contingency, and Emergency and is a method of establishing a plan for communications for a set time frame. I’ve included an image from my Field Guide (which is a work in progress) that is an example PACE plan. I’ll not only cover the what and why of this particular example, but walk you through how to use it. In order to do that, though, we need to lay out some background information.
In this particular scenario, let’s assume that I’ve headed off to some national forest for a week long hunting trip. I plan on camping while I’m there, and don’t know exactly what cell coverage will look like when I get there. Let’s also assume that my intended contact is my wife, that I’ve provided her with a printed out map showing where I intend to camp, and provided her an outline of when she can expect to hear from me and when I expect to return. We’ll also lay out some preparations and equipment that I’ll have covered before I leave.
First, let’s make sure that my wife is registered with the APRS and Winlink SMS gateway, and that I’ve assigned her an alias so that I’m not sending her cell phone number in the clear to anyone listening. I’ll also make sure that she has a copy of the PACE plan above and understands how to use it, and that we’ve conducted a test run of the methods indicated before I leave. Second, I’ll have packed my FT3D and some spare batteries, a roll up J-Pole antenna for extra reach, and my field HF radio kit which includes batteries, solar panel, radio and computer. Before I leave I will have also updated my Winlink nodes on my field computer to ensure I can find a good connection if I need it. Finally, my wife will understand what actions to take should she not hear from me within a predetermined length of time.
Alright, so now we can take a look at the PACE Plan. As noted above, this is an acronym where the P stands for Primary. In this plan, my primary mode of communications is my cell phone. I figure that I may very well have coverage where I plan on being, and if I don’t I figure there is a good likelihood that I’ll run to town anyway for lunch and/or dinner at least some nights.
If I’m wrong about cell coverage at my campsite, or the weather gets bad or the hunting gets too good to head to town, I have the Alternate method that forms the A in PACE. That method takes the form of an APRS to SMS text message, and the SMS gateway allows for SMS text messages to be retransmitted back to radio as well, provided that there is an APRS Digipeater or IGate within listening distance. If you noted the roll up J-Pole antenna in my kit above, this is where that antenna comes into play, giving my FT3D HT a better chance of getting out to another APRS station. APRS is nice because it provides my location and takes place on a frequency that is standardized across the US, so I don’t have to fiddle around with figuring out what frequency I’ll find a gateway on like I do with Winlink. Additionally, for those of us who may have an APRS-capable mobile radio in the truck, we have the potential to reach out considerably farther with it when back at camp, or we can drive to somewhere with a higher elevation to try to reach out even farther than our HT with an external antenna can do.
If there is absolutely no APRS coverage in the area I will be in, I can accomplish the same task with Winlink. Now, Winlink is often done with VHF just like APRS is, but it can also be done via HF which gives me far greater reach to get my message out. Like APRS to SMS, I can accomplish two way comms with my wife over Winlink.
Finally, we get to the E, or Emergency part of our PACE Plan. If my wife hasn’t heard from me for two days, she has a map where my campsite is and written instructions to provide to the local authorities. If I am injured or otherwise incapacitated, the plan is for me to use the blaze orange signal panel that I always carry with me in the woods to mark my location.
Note that for the Alternate and Contingency methods of communication, we’ve moved away from the traditional cell phone to a hybrid of radio and Internet-based comms to accomplish the task at hand. It’s important to note that your Primary, Alternate, and Contingency plans should not rely on the same band or method to work. In this case, our Alternate method relies on the APRS network while our Contingency relies on Winlink. Also note that this example is not appropriate for a nationwide, grid-down SHTF situation, and that’s okay! If our radio comms are only relevant in the ultimate worst case scenarios, we won’t practice them or be familiar with them when it counts. Finally, the Emergency method of a PACE Plan tends to consist of a visual marking system. Other possibilities include blasts on a whistle, the use of a blaze orange hunting vest, smoke signals, flares, SOS scratched into the sand on a beach, or anything else that will draw the attention of your rescuers. It is meant to be a last ditch effort to be found should all other methods fail and someone is sent to find you. In this case, she’s been provided with the number of local emergency services and instructed to contact them if I’ve not been heard from for two days. Yes, two days is a long time to be missing, but you can survive for two days with what you carry on your person when in the backcountry, right? Perhaps that’ll be a topic for another time.
Hopefully this has given you enough of a background on the topic to start making some PACE Plans of your own. Once you have a few, get outside and try them. You’ll be glad you did.