Bend, Ore. – Local emergency officials participated in the “Oregon Section Amateur Radio Emergency Service Section Emergency Test” over the weekend.
A total of 16 ham radio operators staffed radio stations at St. Charles Medical Centers at Bend and Redmond, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, and the Redmond Fire Department.
Participants were not given details of the simulated emergency until just before the drill began early Saturday morning. As part of the drill, the Oregon Office of Emergency Management notified local officials about steam and ash eruptions at St. Helens and reported a collapse of the crater dome was imminent. A major ash eruption was predicted to occur within 48 hours.
The main purpose of the drill was to exercise the communication systems used by local agencies during major disasters.
The assumption in this drill was that local agencies lost their day-to-day communications and needed the ham radio operators to relay messages.
The State of Oregon, Deschutes County, and the local ham radio operators have created a system where the hams can take digital messages from local agencies and transmit them by radio to other parts of the country where the internet is still working and put those messages onto the net.
An interesting twist to this drill: The ham radio station at St. Charles Bend is undergoing remodeling…so HIDARG must completely construct a ham radio station outdoors next to the hospital.
Local Agencies Participating:
Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office
Deschutes County Office of Emergency Management
Deschutes County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (DCARES)
High Desert Amateur Radio Group (HIDARG)
St. Charles Medical Center Bend
St. Charles Medical Center Redmond
Redmond Fire and Rescue
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