Sunday, May 3, 2015

May 3, 2015 "Operation Defender Red Bird II" COMMEX Support

Had another great communications exercise this morning in support of the Georgia National Guard and the Georgia State Defense Force.  Members of the Cobb County ARES team deployed to Clay National Guard Center at Dobbins ARB in Marietta with the emcomm unit using call sign KK4OIO.

We had the unit up and operational for VHF/UHF, DSTAR, and HF by 0900.  We were able to erect the 40 and 80 meter NVIS HF antennas and the multiband vertical HF antennas and all systems worked well today.

I had coordinated ahead of time with several operators down in Coastal Georgia near Savannah and Fort Stewart so that we could simulate moving traffic between the Guard units at Clay and at Fort Stewart.  We were able to successfully make contact with several on HF voice and HF digital using PSK31.  Made contact with NT4TH at the CRTC near Savannah International Airport, Dwight Biechler at the Liberty County EOC, and Tom Gillan in Savannah.

Thanks to all who participated today and continuing to demonstrate to the Georgia Guard our extensive capabilities to provide reliable communications for them.

Cobb County ARES members:
Guy McDonald - K4GTM
Anthony Gaito - KC0CSG
Dawn Humphries - KI5EV
Eldon Morris - N1MN
Chris Loftus - KK4LZW

Georgia State Defense Force :
Roger Shaddick - N7BU

Coastal Georgia Operators:
Todd Hargrave - NT4TH
Dwight Biechler - K4YPM
Tom Gillan - KG3Z



What our communications network looks like

Cobb County ARES EMCOMM Unit set up at the Joint Operations Center

Chris-KK4LZW operating the HF station

Anthony-KC0CSG and Chris-KK4LZW working on the HF NVIS antenna

Got all of the antennas hooked up

Chris-KK4LZW and Dawn-KI5EV erecting the VHF/UHF antenna

Anthony-KC0CSG fueling up the generator