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Prior to the drill, a briefing meeting was organized on May 12th where towards the end I gave some instruction on the use of the radio and communicating in general. The radios were present so that CERT members could get a feel for them. The local press was also present, which did a nice write-up. (See http://www.acorn-online.com/news/publish/redding/CERT%20redding.shtml for a copy of the article. ARES is mentioned towards the end).

During the shelter drill on May 5th I managed the internal communications, while John Ahle (W1JMA) and Bill Barrett (W1WJB) were present with a VHF/UHF and HF station. As antennas we used a VHF/UHF antenna on a tripod and an 80m NVIS antenna, both portable.

To have someone to communicate with, the Danbury and Bethel EOCs were on air during part of the drill. Danbury was manned by Harlan Ford (KB1ILY) and Tom Kimball (WA8UNS). Bethel was manned by Jim Ritterbush (KD1YV). We performed a communications analysis involving those respective EOCs and other local repeaters that could be reached, thus assessing the suitability of the Joel Barlow High School location from an Amateur Radio point of view. The Drill went smoothly and the Redding Pilot again had a nice write-up (see http://www.acorn-online.com/news/publish/redding/17765.shtml ), with several paragraphs relating to our involvement.

Both the First Selectman and the Dir of Emergency Operations were at the drill and were impressed with our capabilities. We discussed the possibilities of including Amateur Radio as part of the Town's Emergency Communications. This has always been difficult to achieve in the past as the Town's EOC is located inside the police station. It turned out, however, that on site at Joel Barlow High School, as the article mentions, there is a decommissioned Rohn 25G tower with a tri-bander on top. In days gone by, when the school had an electronics course, it also apparently had a Ham radio station. Be that what it may, the tower became a focal point for discussions with the First Selectman and the Director of Emergency Operations (an ex-ham) to see what could be done to recommission the tower for VHF/UHF and 80m/40m, especially within the light of the Town needing a backup EOC location. At the end of the drill we were talking budgets!

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