SET - Simulated Emergency Test - Oct. 23rd

Saturday, October 23, 2021 from 8:00am until Noon. Join our team at the McAvoy Center (part of Muscatine Community College) right off Park Avenue in Muscatine as the Muscatine, Louisa and Cedar County ARES Teams participate in the Iowa SET - Simulated Emergency Test. This scenario is a Cyber Attack that takes out all internet service across the state of Iowa.

ARES members and teams all across the state will be participating. Traffic will be moved locally as well as state-wide using voice, morse code and digital communications modes. The bulk of that traffic will be in the form of FEMA ICS forms moved across the state over HF radio frequencies.

This exercise teaches new team members how to efficiently move messages and information to where it is needed. In a true Cyber Attack, other means of communications will not be operable. In this technical age we all depend on our cell phones and internet. If those go down, it's the amateur radio operators that will save the day. Even public service has gone to mostly internet-based radio systems that will not work in the event the internet is lost.

Our team participates in exercises like this to make sure we are able to handle the information and get it where it is needed. Some of our team members will be operating out of EmComm1, the communications trailer that the Muscatine County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) will have stationed at MCC, while other members of the team will be operating their own equipment from their home stations.

The Muscatine ARES new AREDN network will be used to move traffic in the Muscatine area. This AREDN network is a project that Muscatine ARES has been developing and building for approximately a year. AREDN means the Amateur Radio Emergency Disaster Network. The hub for this system is 263' up the tower at MCC and speaks to nodes in the MCARES EmComm trailer as well as team members personal radio rooms (Ham Shacks) allowing computer networking without internet. Services available to amateur radio operators through this system include video phone, file transfer, keyboard to keyboard chat, and about anything else you can do on the internet.

ARES provides emergency communications for groups such as the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, local nursing homes, and even does weather spotting for the National Weather Service. Interested in radio, or becoming an amateur radio operator? Spot out and see what you are missing. It's a lot easier to do than you might think. 73, de Scott - NØMRZ

(email EC@MuscatineARES.org, or call 563-506-0304 to learn more.)