Club News
Everything was covered with ice.
Nobody could move. Wires were
down, power was off.
April Fool Joke? Nope! An EMA tabletop
exercise!
Delaware ARES was invited to participate as a
partner with the Delaware HS/EMA for a full scale
tabletop exercise last month. The scenario centered
around a paralyzing ice storm, and presented
county responders and officials with a number of
problems to overcome. (Think 2012 when it really
did freeze over!)
ARES teams went to work early in the month to
prepare- we wanted to make sure digital
transmission using fldigi over VHF was working, and
MESH teams moved a reflector (read: post office) on
the MESH system to the Red Cross, where it would
relay messages over our MESH nodes. Several hours
went into the preparation. The county presented a
form it is using for tracking status, based on an ICS
format. Joe K8MP and others conned…er…convinced
both fldigi and WinLink gurus across the country to
construct this form for use. We got it in time, and it
worked very well.
Stan, N8BHL and Bob, W8ERD manned the County
Control Station at the Red Cross. Joe, K8MP and
Randy, AC8VM were the ARES contingent at the EOC.
And Jamie, KE8JLG, set up a portable operation at
the YMCA (used as a warming shelter) in order to do
both voice and fldigi. Much of the traffic was on
simplex, some more was on the 145.19 repeater.
Kudos also to Joe Hussey, W8RIC who worked up the
radio facilities inside the EOC.
That was a nice experience today. Did everything
perfectly, heck no. Did I get frustrated, nope, just got
to work.
Never tried digital mode from a mobile set up
before and frankly I was surprised the mobile
antenna did so well. My car is kinda small on the
inside and was quite awkward having all the
necessary equipment in such a compact area. But
made it work.
I used the 2M with the Signalink into the laptop with
the magnetmount. I did bring the pole antenna but
had no cause to use it. I also brought along a
portable power source to keep the laptop charged.
It has a built in inverter and worked flawlessly. I had
it in the trunk and just plugged the laptops power
cord into it and it reached the front seats with plenty
of cord.
I did have the issue that digital mode could transmit
but would not receive and decode. Stan and I tried
brainstorming it and that wasn't working. Just as I
was about to give up on it I noticed there was a
extra selection in the sound card settings so I
opened it to find additional settings so I chose the
'Correct' settings and gave it a try. I contacted Stan
to try a new transmission and it worked perfectly.
Whew ...
Its dry runs like today that you work out the bugs.
KE8JLG Jamie
Holiday Party 2019
(Click picture for larger view)