CIS Flight’s ‘Wave Riders’ put in Noble Skywave effort
Testing out the tech is exactly why Noble Skywave happens every year. The opportunity to raise an antenna and make as many radio contacts as possible with teams doing exactly the same thing, around the world, is the competitive icing on the exercise.
14 Wing Greenwood’s Communications and Information Systems (CIS) Flight was in the field October 21 to 23, lugging their 50-foot mast and radio gear to the Granville Range. Lesson number one was a dark-and-early-morning packing error (some forgotten essentials at 14 Wing); lesson number two was perseverance.
It took the six-member team – the “Wave Riders” – about two hours to set up and secure their antenna, the safety perimeter and the connections back to the radio set in the range work area. Noble Skywave went live at 10 a.m. local time; the Greenwood team made some initial broadcasts and picked up a few signals in the first couple of hours, but nothing that elicited a response or acknowledgement they’d been heard. With much tech checking, including cable-swapping, connection tightening, walking lines back to the antenna base, separating potentially conflicting emissions and signals-emitting equipment, frequency scanning – even a few phone-a-friend calls and texts to other Canadian CIS flights; a midday crew swap and, finally, replacement parts, 14 Wing’s team was in full comms mode to start the competition’s Day 2.
“After more troubleshooting, along with replacing the QRT’s coupler, our team was able to begin transmitting,” said Second Lieutenant Anthony Adebayo, after the exercise. “The team that deployed at 2300 on the 22nd, going into the morning of the 23rd, gained a considerable amount of points.
“During the last phase of the competition (October 23), our team made a decent number of contacts. Our furthest contact throughout the whole competition was from Australia. We made contacts with Iraq and Peru, to name a few.”
Adebayo was tasked with managing the Wave Riders through his on-the-job training, which included pre-ex work to select several set-up sites for supervisor review, and then running with the choice, scheduling team members, organizing equipment, logistics, transport and food.
“All the details. Overall, the exercise was a success. Out of the 289 teams that participated, 14 Wing came in 85th place, despite the challenges we faced for the first two days. The participants said it was a valuable learning experience.
“Most importantly, everyone who was involved with the exercise returned to the base safely without any injuries.”
