TN Perfect Storm - SET

This past weekend we participated in the Simulated Emergency Training (SET), Tennessee Perfect Storm. I don't know why I've failed to mention this previously, but Robin (AJ4IJ), Ashby(KJ4EGJ), and me are members of Claiborne/Union County ARES here in East Tennessee. Robin and I were both appointed as Assistant Emergency Coordinators (AEC) and Robin is being groomed to be Union County's Emergency Coordinator (EC) for when we split off from Claiborne County and become our own ARES entity for the county. Previous to this, Claiborne County ARES has helped Union County as there were not enough HAMs in the county to make up its own ARES, and the previous HAM that was being trained for the EC position had to move away.

So after joining the Claiborne/Union County ARES, we were appointed AEC's and Rick (NX6R) our EC had to go out of town and left us in charge of the SET operations for our group. Well not having a clue as to what to do or how to do it, we decided to head to Sevierville's pre-set planning meeting and talking with Rick (N4JTQ), Darrell (KA4TAR) the District Emergency Coordinator (DEC) for our district.

Well needless to say, after the meeting things were a bit more clear for Robin and she had a plan to which she executed flawlessly. Our ARES group did a wonderful job in the exercise, and Robin was a true professional handling the responsibilities of NET control for our group on the 147.360 repeater. Our main goal was to get a message to the Army/Mars station to pass to Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA), and receive a message back from them. Just after Robin closed the net, she got the return message, so we declared success.

Our EC Rick, heard the reports and was pleased with how the exercise went. The rest of our group that the exercise went real well too. The other ARES groups in the surrounding counties that participated did a wonderful job as well. Overall, in the event of a disaster in the area and surrounding counties, I believe that if emergency communications are required by our different ARES groups, we will be able to step up to the plate and handle the job.

We have our ARES meeting this Thursday, tomorrow evening, at 6:30pm. If anyone is interested in joining and are located in our area of Union or Claiborne County, please join us at the education center next to the Claiborne County hospital.

Until my next entry,

73 de AJ4JD
Tim