Members of the Cobb County and Chatham County ARES programs
participated in Operation Patriot Redbird II on March 3rd at Clay National
Guard Center on Dobbins ARB. This communications exercise was the second
such drill where Georgia ARES teams were requested to work alongside Georgia
National Guard and Georgia State Defense Forces to demonstrate communications
capabilities between two major military facilities in the state. The Cobb
County team of Dawn Humphries-KI5EV, Tony Gaito-KC0CSG, Ernie Braxton-KJ4VUX,
Chris Loftus-KK4LZW, and Guy McDonald-K4GTM arrived at Clay National Guard
Center on Sunday morning as the snow flurries fell in the 30 degree air.
Unusual weather for March in Atlanta! The team had the Cobb ARES
comm trailer set up and operational well ahead of schedule. During set up
and testing it was noted that the 80 meter NVIS antenna arrangement was
presenting a very high SWR. Tony put the antenna analyzer inline and
determined that we had an issue with the balun or the antenna itself. Fortunately
the unit also has a multiband vertical HF antenna which tuned up just fine.
Tony performed comm checks with the VHF and UHF radios on the local
designated repeater frequencies.
I had coordinated
ahead of time for members of the Chatham County ARES program to participate
with us near the military installations of Hunter Army Airfield and Fort
Stewart. The team consisted of Paul Ecker-KC2NYU, Greg Tillman-N4VAD, and
Mark Bolton-KA4CID. Just before 1000, using the new Cobb ARES call sign
of KK4OIO, we established voice contact with all three stations on 7.268 MHz.
Plenty of noise on the band but with headsets and a little tweaking of
the "nerd knobs" on the Kenwood TS-480, we were able to maintain
solid voice contact throughout the drill. The vertical antenna was not as
ideal as the NVIS antenna might have been but the path between Marietta and
Savannah held for the full duration of the exercise. Around 1100 we
decided to try to establish a digital data link between the two locations.
We stayed on 7.268 MHz, changed the mode to USB, turned the power down to
20 watts, opened the DM-780 digital program on the station computer, selected
PSK-31 as our protocol and typed the first message from KK4OIO to KC2NYU.
Paul, in the Savannah area near Hunter Army Airfield acknowledged our
message right away and gave us a 599 signal report. Paul’s signal was
booming in and the digital traffic was solid copy. We sent several test
messages and practiced for the better part of an hour. Signals were so
strong that we even backed the output power down to 5 watts and held solid
contact between the two stations. We also established digital data
contact with Cobb County ARES member, Randy DeLuco-K4JTT in Woodstock.
Randy was also able to communicate with Paul in Savannah from his
location in Woodstock. We wrapped up the digital comm just before noon
and Paul, Greg, and Mark signed off. Sure appreciate those guys working
with us.
Things couldn't
have gone better from a communications objectives perspective. We once
again were able to show how quickly an ARES team can set up a fully functional,
multiband, multimode, radio station and communicate with other units in the
state. We also had the opportunity to brief several groups of officers of
the National Guard and State Defense Force about the capabilities that we are
able to bring to our served agencies. Everyone seemed very impressed with
the ARES program, our capabilities, and our commitment to public service thru
amateur radio. We are building some great credibility and more
importantly some great relationships with the National Guard and the State
Defense Force. The next commex is being planned for some time in May and
we've been asked to participate again and perhaps even broaden the drill to
several other facilities across the state. We'll start planning as soon
as we have the details!
Just after noon,
LTC. Boan and LTC. Olive invited us to join them for chow with the other
soldiers in the unit. It's was great to get out of the cold and have a
nice meal. Well, it was chow hall food but hey the lasagna was tasty and
the soup was nice and hot! After chow, we got a brief tour of the Joint
Operation Center (JOC). Then back outside to break down the unit and pack
everything away. We had everything stowed and we all departed around
1300. Great exercise and great job by the Cobb and Chatham County ARES
teams.
Guy McDonald,
K4GTM
ADEC Metro Atlanta
ARES
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| The HF station inside the comm trailer |
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| Dawn-KI5EV getting things powered up |
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| Dawn-KI5EV, Chris-KK4LZW, Tony-KC0CSG, and Ernie-KJ4VUX troubleshooting antenna issue |
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| The team troubleshooting the 80 meter NVIS antenna |
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| LTC Olive and other soldiers inside the Cobb ARES Unit |
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| Chow time |
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| Chris-KK4LZW in the chow hall |
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| View from the rear of the unit |
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| That's what it's all about |
