ATN at CIA 2023-05-06

Initially only the City of Marlborough EOC was planning a practice emergency drill until Ron Lahti, N1CNG, informed the City of Marlborough folks that he is putting up his trailer at the Crow Island Airport (CIA) in Stow Massachusetts. Ron's plans impacted the EOC and before we realized it the Town of Stow Fire Department, the Marlborough Fire Department and other area Emergency Communications Groups got involved. During last week the pressure was on us to set up a station despite all the rainy weather we had that delayed our efforts. Remember Electrical Equipment and Rain Water don't mix so between storms we packed and unpacked equipment hoping we could have at least one VHF/UHF station on the air that actually did put out a booming signal. Many other Hams got on the air checking into this Regional Emergency Net that was manned by several net control operators in several locations. Other than a few mobile HF rigs were able to participate on 75 and 60 meters. By Field Day we should have 3+ stations set up with band filters covering the HF bands we did not cover today.