Members of the Clearfield County Amateur Radio Club participated in a Simulated Emergency Test, or SET, on Saturday October 7th 2023. The SET was was an extension of the larger Western Pennsylvania SET. Centre County ARES was active as well as the Philipsburg EmComm team with separate scenarios. CCARC, as well as the Treasure Lake EmComm Team, played a supporting role PARA SET, relaying traffic and providing situational awareness.
At the Clearfield County EMA CCRAC radio operators activated the EMA’s amateur radio facility. In addition the Clearfield County Director of the county’s Emergency Management Agency, Scott Mignot, participated providing traffic and requests which were injected into the exercise. The radio operators at the Clearfield County EMA were Mike WB3EQW and John N3SPW. The EMA operated under the call sign W3CPA and used the tactical call “Clearfield EOC”.
At the beginning of the SET Mike WB3EQW checked into the Western PA ARES SET Net on 3.803 KHz SSB voice. After all Western PA counties were called for check in, the net announced specifics for the drill and included a message for the ARRL’s Western PA Section Manager, Mr. Joe Shupienis W3BC. Following the HF net the individual exercises started. Locally CCARC used the Clearfield County 147.255 MHz 2 meter band amateur radio repeater as well as the Clearfield County Amateur Radio Club’s new GMRS band 462.675 MHz repeater.
The exercise concluded at noon with all participants agreeing that there were lessons learned. Exercises like this help the amateur radio community prepare for actual events where communications assistance may be requested from local emergency management agencies as well as other organizations like the Red Cross. CCARC is thankful for having the opportunity to participate and become better prepared.
