On Saturday September 30, 2017 members of the Saginaw County ARES group participated in a local and State of Michigan simulated emergency exercise.
Scenario:
While the ARES group is
participating in a local Emergency Preparedness expo, the building is hit
with an un-expected power outage. Upon further investigation, it is found
that other buildings in the area are also without power.
Communication
through the local repeater is working, but limited as it is determined that
the power outage has effected a much larger area and the remote receive
sites are not functioning.
The loss of power to traffic signal
devices has now evolved into numinous accidents and calls for assistance go
unanswered as cell phone service has been interrupted as so many people are
trying to contact 911 and the power company to report the outage and other
issue.
Ham radio operators on site set up a directed net through the
local repeater to inform operators to switch to a simplex frequency and
proved relay of messages and emergency communications.
After an hour,
the EOC has been activated and command staff is asked to report via text
messages as that is the only cell operation getting through.
Our Objectives:
Pass information from scene to local operators and state authorities
- Test simplex message handling from scene to operators not at the expo
- Test simplex replay from in-county to out-county locations
- Pass 205A Communication List via DMR and VHF to SEOC
- Pass resource request message via DMR to SEOC
Also the State of Michigan department of emergency management conducted a state exercise using the communications room at the SEOC. A 205A form was passed via DMR radio and VHF to the SEOC as well as a Resource Request message via DMR. All messages were received in Lansing.
Thank you to all operators that participated in this years exercise. The objectives were accomplished and everyone had a good time.
Ron KC8YVF @ Expo center
Mike KD8MMH @ Expo center
Dave W8DW @ Expo center
Emmett NE8B @ Expo center
Dave N8ERL,
Roving
Bob N8YXR @ Home
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