Saturday, March 1, 2025, the Houston County W4DHN ARES Club conducted our first Communications Drill.  At 0900 hours 11 Ham Operators manned 6 strategic locations around the Dothan area (American Red Cross Building, Dothan EOC, Farm Center, Westgate Rec Center, Southeast Health, and First Baptist Church) to test the efficacy of the 2M FM Repeater in the Houston County Alabama area as well as the Simplex capabilities of these operators spread throughout the Dothan area.

There were a few glitches in getting started but once underway most signals were 5/9 with few exceptions.  Operators followed the Script of the Drill making the connections as prescribed.  Handhelds with rubber ducky antennas could hear others but did not have the transmitting ability to connect to others consistently especially on Simplex.  Of note, the Southeast Hospital operator reported that from his vehicle (the adverse condition location) seemed to have a clearer signal than when in the building on the taller antenna.  There were a few issues with radios jumping stations or squelch issues, but on the whole the drill ran very smoothly. We did have one outside contact from Troy, Alabama during the 2M FM Repeater part of the drill.  We concluded the drill by 0948 hours.

During the Hot Wash session at the Golden Corral in Dothan afterwards, comments and experiences were shared.  It was agreed that the ARES group conduct another Drill within the next 6 months with a few tweaks and possibly some other locations added.

Thank you to all the operators who came out and participated today!  Great Job

A few of the operators took selfies:

January 4, 2025 ARES had an antenna building workshop.  There were demonstrations  on building a portable 6 meter antenna, a J-pole antenna using Faraday Tape and ribbon and a handheld directional 2 meter/70cm tape measure antenna.

It was a fascinating day with great information and great camaraderie.  And,… some of the ladies were on hand to brighten up the event.

On Saturday, March 8th, ARES members meet at the American Red Cross Building at 0900 along with the New and Not So New Hams Workshop crowd to learn about Anderson Power Poles.  They are a great time saver (as well as frustration reliever) in connecting electronic “gadgets” together.  The demonstration was easy to understand and even with all the jibs from the spectators, our presenter performed a flawless connection.  Job well done