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Collin County ARES Conducts Simulated Emergency Test (SET)
By Doug "Mac" MacDonald, W4FH

Members of the Collin County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) conducted a Simulated Emergency Test (SET) on Saturday October 4, 2003 from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. This exercise simulated commercial power outage over the entire county for an extended period of twelve hours. High temperatures and poor pollution levels were also factors. According to Bruce Dingman, N5BYL, Collin County Emergency Coordinator, the exercise had three main objectives:

  • To exercise Staging Coordination. Staging requires members to respond to an assigned area just outside of the area in need of assistance. It gives them an opportunity to understand how amateurs are organized to respond to an emergency. Staging also provides an opportunity for members to review their personal preparation for a situation that may require them to be self-sustaining for a period of time.
  • To practice Traffic handling. There are a variety of agencies that Collin County ARES supports, and each has their own type of message with which members must become familiar. This kind of exercise helps operators understand how flexible they need to be when multiple agencies are working together to respond to an emergency.
  • To practice procedures for conducting coordinated communications on several different frequencies simultaneously.
  • Once they were successfully checked-in, SET players were reassigned to various served agencies throughout Collin County. In this exercise some of the agencies included American Red Cross headquarters offices in McKinney, the Collin County Emergency Operations Center, the McKinney Fire Department, the Allen Emergency Operations Center, the Plano Emergency Operations Center, and the Plano Volunteer Emergency Coordination Center (EVRC). Some agencies provided officials who also participated in the exercise to add an important level of realism. ARES members used five area VHF and UHF repeaters as well as simplex frequencies to conduct coor-dinated communications throughout Collin County and the surrounding area. In addi-tion, they generated message traffic to be transmitted out of the immediate area using the ARRL's National Traffic System.

    • Keith Berry, KE0FV, one of the county's Alternate Net Control Stations, served as overall Net Control for the exercise on the Plano repeater, 147.18 MHz. Other key players included Dave Dunbar, N0RQ, net control station on the Mckinney repeater 146.74 MHz; John Beadles, N5OOM, Staging Coordinator; Pete Loveall, AE5PL, Assistant Emergency Coordinator (AEC) assigned liaison responsibility to the Collin County American Red Cross; Dave Piekarski, N5EEN, AEC liaison to the city of McKinney; Bill Fell, KK5PB, AEC liaison to Collin County EOC; Wayne Alsabrook, WB5TX, AEC liaison to the city of Allen; Fred Varian, WD5ERD, AEC liaison to city of Plano EOC; Tony Campell, W5ADC, ARES team leader for the Plano EVRC; Ted Best, KD5JEO, AEC for weather liaison, who provided weather updates throughout the drill; Shel Fisher, N5CAE, who was our valued "observer and scribe"; and Art Dunkle, KD5YIL, Collin County's liaison to the National Traffic System, who provided traffic handling into the National Traffic System.

    The following members of the ARES Leadership Core group planned the October exercise: Fred Varian, WD5ERD; Bill Fell, KK5PB; Shel Fisher,N5CAE; Tony Campbell, W5ADC; Pete Loveall, AE5PL; David Piekarski, K5EEN; Wayne Alsa-brook, WB5TX; Ted Best, KD5JEO; Keith Barry, KE0FV.

    The following local amateurs participated in the 2003 Collin County ARES Simulated Emergency Test:

    • AD5CC  William S Westphal
    • AD5NR  Robert E Davis
    • AE5PL  Peter S Loveall
    • K5EEN  David T Piekarski
    • K5SRL  Stanley R Liljekvist
    • K5TOE  Andrew J Vrabel
    • KB5YBQ Richard M Phillips, Sr
    • KC5QNJ Justin L Williams
    • KD5JEO Ted R Best
    • KD5MFE Ernest D Brouwer
    • KD5PGJ Andrew M Duckworth
    • KD5PGM Dale A Phillips
    • KD5PQA Kevin L Sims, Jr
    • KD5QXF William T Hardin
    • KD5UMO Chadwick M Stelzl
    • KD5VSY William E Davis
    • KD5VYK Bobette Mauck
    • KD5YBN William F Ice
    • KD5YIL Arthur M Dunkle
    • KD5YVL Kevin L Sims, Sr
    • KE0FV  Keith O Berry
    • KK5PB  William J Fell
    • N500M  John T Beadles
    • N5BYL  Bruce Dingman
    • N5CAE  Sheldon Fisher
    • N5FED  Jason A Norwood
    • NORQ David J Dunbar
    • W5ADC  Anthony D Campbell
    • WA5KXX Barry A Goldblatt
    • WB5TX  Charles W Alsabrook
    • WD5ERD Frederick R Varian
  • Several amateurs who supported the October 4th Simulated Emergency Test are members of area clubs such as the McKinney Amateur Radio Club (MARC) and the Plano Amateur Radio Club (P.A.R.K.). N5BYL noted, however, that there is no requirement to be a member of Collin County ARES or any other local organization to participate in the Simulated Emergency Test. Collin County hams having an interest in emergency communications are encouraged to sign up for ARES so that they can be included in training and through that participation learn the principles and procedures used in emergency communications.

    • It has been a period time since Collin County ARES has had a SET, and it identified areas for additional work as well as meeting all original objectives. Overall, Bruce Dingman, N5BYL, is pleased with the results of the exercise and hopes to be able to conduct similar exercises in the near future.

    Story prepared by Doug MacDonald, W4FH, based on information provided by Bruce Dingman, N5BYL, and Barry A. Goldblatt, WA5KXX.

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