Led by the greater Bulloch County members, 14 Federally licensed radio operator’s (volunteers) from the 18-County Southeast District Amateur Radio Emergency Services (Georgia AuxComm/ARES) organization, participated in this annual exercise to sharpen their communication skills in the event of a major incident.

This annual exercise has been encouraged by EMA Director Ted Wynn as a demonstration of the capacity of volunteers to provide 24-hour communications support to the Bulloch County Emergency Operations, and other local facilities, during a major event. This group has provided this type of support through the last 2 major storms, Matthew and Irma.

These operator’s come from within our community and their backgrounds include a chaplain, educators, engineers, landscaper, nurse, military veterans, and college students. Both men and women took part and ranged in age from mid-teens to early 70’s. These volunteers are completely self reliant, beside providing their professional radio operational skills they bring their own equipment and supplies.

This radio communication exercise continued non-stop, other than a brief pause during one exceptionally violent storm. The temporary and permanent antennas were of storm-resistant design and performed well.

Over 200 contacts were made with other licensed Amateur Radio participants across many of the 50 States as well as Canada and Puerto Rico. Both voice and digital modes were tested (the latter involves a laptop computer connected to a radio transceiver (transmitter-receiver).