Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief Team Comm Unit Training

Went over to Statesboro after breakfast this morning to participate in some familiarization training on one of the Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief Communications Units. Unit 5C is now permanently positioned at the Statesboro Airport ready to respond to provide communications support wherever the Georgia Baptist Team is called to serve. Mac-KF4LMT and I arrived at the airport just after 9:00am. We were a little bit early and the others began to show up around 10:00am. Several of the Statesboro HAMs came over after thier Saturday morning breakfast gathering. Mark-KF4MLT, Buddy-AJ4BH, Steve Hess and Doug Hess. Doug-KF4EFP also came over from Rincon. Chris Edwards-AE4XO and his wife Wendy came over from Warner Robbins. Chris is a Unit Director and provided a very good overview and training session of the Comm Unit. Everyone got a chance to get a good look at all the equipment and capabilites that the unit has. We also set up a couple of mast mounted antennas and did some comm checks on the radios. I fired up the HF rig on 40 meters and made contact with a special event station N4WIS on the battleship USS Wisconsin. We also cranked up the generator and ran it for a while and even powered the unit from it for most of the session. After everyone had a chance to get a really good look at everything, the Associational Missionary Director, Ed Johnson, fed us all pizza. Got everything powered down, stowed, and buttoned up just before 1:00pm.

Served Agency Station Testing Today

I took the opportunity today while I was out and about to stop in and test the HAM Stations that we have at a couple of our served agencies. Went downtown to the CEMA EOC first and fired up the Kenwood TS-450. Using the CEMA callsign N4CEM, I made contact with W1AW the ARRL headquarters in Newington, Connecticut. Nice bonus contact. Also tested the 2 meter radio and made contact with Matthew-KG4NKE and Greg-N4VAD.

Next, I went over to the Savannah Red Cross and fired up the Yaesu FT-857D and using the callsign K3SRC got a good check on 3975 with Greg-N4VAD. Thanks for the help Greg. Also spoke briefly on 146.970 with Doug-KF4EFP and Bob-KG6MUQ. Shut the HAM station down and brought up the SATCOM terminal and tested the satellite Internet access and Cisco Voice over IP phones. Everything worked fine. Good to go till next months test.

Technician Class Session #3

Had a great class last night. Everyone reported that they've been taking the practice exams as they prepare for the test session on Oct. 3rd. This week we covered most of Chapter 4, Communicating with other Hams. We talked about making contact on the radio, what a net is, emergency operating rules, and amateur emergency organizations. We even took the opportunity to listen in on and check in to the Chatham County ARES Net at 8:00pm. Plenty of great questions and discussion last night. A really great group of students. Next week we tackle Regulations and Radio Safety. Should have some time to do a quick review and maybe do a couple of practice tests together.