At 1017 hours on 17 October 2013, an Emergency Net was opened on the Mt. Hough Repeater, 145.470 Mhz for the greater Plumas County area. Plumas is located in the Northern Sierra Nevada mountains and has about 28,000 residents in 2500 square miles. The Plumas Amateur Radio Club has members in both the ARES and RACES organizations and conducts regularly scheduled networks every Tuesday evening. This Emergency Net was opened for the specific purpose of identifying the operational status of available Ham Radio volunteers. A roll call was requested and 12 local operators checked into the Net, verifying readiness and functional preparedness in response to a simulated emergency. As our local repeaters are powered by line voltage and could potentially be inoperative in an earthquake scenario, operators were directed to monitor the local Simplex frequency of 146.550. All of the responding operators have the capability of "off-line" operations with battery, generator, solar, or wind power generation. The Drill was concluded at 1029 hours, PDT.
Submitted by KI6YUK