In an emergency, it is important to know who you can reach out to and if they will be able to hear you. Working closely with Cumberland County, the South Mountain Radio Amateurs (SMRA) recently upgraded their repeater antenna sites. On Thursday, July 16, the SMRA EmComm Group held a club-wide net to test two of the those repeaters and the club’s simplex frequencies. The goal was to see how the range of the repeaters had improved and to test individual club members’ ability to make contact on the simplex frequencies.
Club vice president Jeff (W3JWK), with president Ed (W3ETO) supporting him, opened the net at 7 p.m. starting with the club’s South Mountain repeater. Using the check-in list from the first repeater, the net moved on through the Three Square Hollow repeater and the four club simplex frequencies on the 2m and 70cm bands. In total, twenty-two amateur radio operators from Adams, Cumberland, and York counties participated in the net. Their contact logs will be turned into maps showing the club’s coverage over the area, providing a visual tool to assist emergency managers in their communications planning.
Further nets are planned for the future to test connectivity from the headquarters of the various Cumberland County municipalities and the capabilities of the digital mobile radio (DMR) network SMRA is currently testing. Keep an eye on Groups.io for updates on when the next net will be!
