County EOC to/from City/Agency EOCs

Some cities will also conduct city-wide drills.

Test backup communications (voice and data) in the event of widespread power outage.

A coronal mass ejection recently reached the Earth, causing widespread power outages across Santa Clara County.  Repeaters and packet BBS have been on emergency back-up power.  Some of those systems are now failing.

Voice:  Simplex voice was used for the Message Net to simulate loss of power at the Message Net repeaters.  Frequencies were announced at the EC Council, on the SCC-EC Yahoo group and via packet.  Cities were encouraged to use simplex voice within their cities and to conduct simplex coverage surveys.

Data:  Alternate packet BBSs were used to simulate loss of backup power at one or more BBS sites.  Cities were required to connect to their alternate BBS and send messages to the recipient's alternate BBS.  Instructions were sent out via packet just prior to the start of the drill.

County EOC schedule:

• 13:00: Pre-drill briefing for county EOC participants
• 14:00 - 16:00: Drill activities
• 16:00: Post-drill de-briefing for county EOC participants

Cities/Agencies usually have a similar schedule.

Overall Message Traffic:

• Summary of county EOC shift supervisor's log (PDF - 55 kB)

Voice Details:

• Simplex voice contact established between county EOC and:  Mountain View, Campbell, San Jose, Los Altos, Cupertino, Milpitas, Los Altos Hills, and Palo Alto.
• South County (Morgan Hill, Gilroy) was not reachable via simplex. We will need to relay through San Jose.
• There were issues with multiple agencies using the same simplex frequencies.
  

Packet Details:

• Instructions distributed via packet (PDF - 108 kB)
• Summary of packet message traffic (PDF - 83 kB)

Hotwash:

• Notes from hotwash held on Jan 22, 2013