PACE plan for Communications

• Primary
• Alternate
• Contingency
• Emergency

When I think about a PACE plan, I think about one side at a time (this may be a flaw in my plan). I assume the people with whom I am trying to connect are still in a "normal" world and thus have whatever communications methods they would normally have available to them. For most people, this is phone, internet apps and email. My goal is to be able to reach the people I am interested in reaching using one of those methods.

For any PACE plan to work, the receiving side must be monitoring all methods OR there must be some signal for knowing when to switch.

Primary

For me, the primary method of communication is a phone call since that provides an immediate connection with most people.

Alternate

My alternate is apps including SMS, Slack, Signal, and Facebook Messenger - these are less urgent than a phone call, but something that most people see pretty frequently.

Contingency and Emergency

Contingency and Emergency for me are blurred and which system I use depends on where I find myself. I have the Garmin inReach which I can use to send SMS messages, but it also has the SOS button which can be used to summon Emergency Personnel. I also have the ability to send e-mail using radio - WinLink. If I am in a power-outage situation at home, I can easily use this system to alert my work colleagues (and my boss). While both of these methods assume the receiving infrastructure is in place, there are a lot more everyday emergencies for which systems outside of the disaster area work fine than situations where everything is down.

Voice Radio

Notably missing from PACE plan is voice radio of any kind.

Voice radio (primarily VHF) will be inserted as my Primary (essentially shifting everything else down) when I'm going into a specific situation and coordinate with others before going off-grid or potentially off-grid - such as when I go off-roading or participating in local public service events. In those situations, my Alternate becomes the phone (if I have service) and my Contingency/Emergency remain unchanged.

Questions to be considered

• If everyone does like me and assumes that "normal" communications are available, how would I let them know when that is not the case?
• The inverse of the above, how do I know when the party I'm trying to reach is having an issue and normal comms are not available to them?