Saturday October 28, 2023 Nevada County ARES will activate the Nevada County Emergency Operations Center (NC EOC) for the annual Simulated Emergency Test with the assistance of Nevada County Office of Emergency Services (NC OES). All amateur radio operators are invited to check-in with the ARES Net starting at approximately 08:45 PDT. The Net is hosted on NC ARC repeater system: 147.285+ (136.5 or 151.4).

The SET begins at 08:00 PDT with call-up of ARES members. The simulated event is a heavy snow fall that disrupts normal cell phone communication and utility power. ARES members and other amateur radio operators in Nevada County should monitor the repeater. One of the first elements of the SET will be a request from Net Control to send a Winlink message via radio or telnet with an attached Winlink GIS-Mapping Form – Situation Report.txt indicating simulated conditions at their QTH. Message is addressed to tactical address NCOES. ARES members AND ALL Nevada County based stations may participate by sending a Winlink Sit Rep message to NCOES.

For the first time, members of the Nevada County Neighborhood Radio Watch program will be participating in the SET. Messages will be sent to and from neighborhoods using the General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS).

The SET will include a contact with an ARMY MARS station as part of the 2023 SET-DOD Interop Exercise. Last year over 1,400 amateur radio operators were part of the exercise. This year N6ERL will setup a portable HF station at Nevada County Airport on 40M (NVIS) and will contact a MARS station in Coulterville, CA using Vara HF.

For more information, contact N6ERL@arrl.net