Next Thursday, October 15, 2026, an international earthquake safety drill called The Great ShakeOut 2026 will simulate an earthquake and promote emergency preparedness & safety education.
This annual event invites everyone to get involved at 10:15 local time, or at a time and date convenient for you.
During the drill, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collects “Did you feel it” (DYFI) earthquake reports from all over the world.
A simulated net in response to an earthquake might sound something like this...
Break! Calling all stations to report your status.
(Receive Report from KD7PUF, standing by on EchoLink)
KD7PUF/KQ4LWP - Acknowledged - Thank you for your report.
So...that was an example of an operator submitting a DYFI report.
Usually, ham radio operators submit DYFI reports using Winlink. When the Winlink DYFI template is used, Winlink automatically addresses the email to dyfi_reports_automated@usgs.gov.
Operators send their reports via Telnet or an RMS station.
R3EMCOMM has 4 members who are also members of the Emcomm Direct Messaging Group (EDM). They are KN4GDX, KQ4LWP, K4DND, KG4NXT. During the EDM P2P DYFI Earthquake Net, KN4GDX will serve as 1 of the 5 P2P Net Control Stations scattered across the US.
EDM group members will send DYFI reports to EDM Target Net Control Stations via Vara HF P2P session, and the EDM will forward all received reports to USGS. Only EDM members may participate in this net, but if you have Winlink, you can fill out your own DYFI report and send it to the USGS email address.
For more info & to register: www.shakeout.org.
Even if you don’t submit an official DYFI report, you can get involved by reviewing the safety recommendations with your family & holding an earthquake drill.
The drill organizers created a PowerPoint, available on the R3EMCOMM website under EMCOMM Briefings. The website is r3emcomm.org.
If you would like to learn more about EDM, I have included a link to their site as well: https://groups.io/g/EDM-Target-Stations.
Globally, over 68.9 million participants registered to participate on October 15, and over 16.9 million will be in the US. Will you be one of them?
Thank you for the opportunity to share the EMCOMM briefing tonight. I’ll be on frequency after the net, if anyone wants to discuss this further.
Please let us know if you would like to present an EMCOMM Briefing or request a topic to be shared. It is easy to do!
EMCOMM Briefing Presentation or Request Form
KQ4LPW, back to net control.
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Read all about it - click on the link below to share the PowerPoint PDF with family and friends!