On Saturday, August 29th, there were a few of us who got up when the chickens did, to get our radios and portable antennas ready for a South Texas Hurricane Drill. Some operators chose locations that were pre-set up and air conditioned, others like me chose to “rough it” in the great outdoors without any AC. Fortunately for us, the weather cooperated and it didn’t storm on us, nor did it get as hot as recent days. My van’s thermometer (sitting out there in the sun on black asphalt) got up to 102, but it wasn’t that hot inside our very shaded shelter area. We should have brought a box fan with us, but we didn’t think about that until we were already there and set up.
Hill Country REACT Team was tasked with staffing the state rest area located on west bound IH-10 at the 619 mile marker. To convert that description into plain English, this was the last major rest stop on IH-10 for folks coming west from Houston or the coast, prior to Seguin or even San Antonio, TX. This rest stop has been used in previous (actual) evacuations to monitor traffic flow on the interstate, so that emergency officials (primarly in San Antonio) could be given advance notice of mass arrivals. We only truly needed to run 2 meters VHF capability here, but we experimented with a couple of HF antennas as well.
Today, three members (Lee N5NTG, Gary K5GST, Ray KE5KHN) of our REACT Team set up as part of a much larger drill, a drill that saw at least 2 ARES groups, our REACT Team, the Bexar Operators Group, South TX Navy-Marine Corps MARS, an Army MARS station, 2 National Weather Service Offices, multiple county EOC’s both near SA and down by the coast, etc.
Two additional REACT members (Wade W5ERX, Louis K1STX) were at the National Weather Service in New Braufels, while another REACT member (Joe W4CTH) wore multiple hats by running the EOC in Seguin. Joe is also a member of Guadalupe Co ARES and the sponsoring club, Chaparral ARC.
This drill was a shining example of multi-agency / group cooperation, with nary a complaint heard on the radio all day. We didn’t even experience any radio interference on the local 2 meter or HF nets either.
A full detailed multi-agency report will be posted later. This posting is to share some of the photos that I took during this event. More photos and possibly short videos will follow:
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- On the way to IH-10 WB Rest Stop 619
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- On the way to IH-10 WB Rest Stop 619
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- Entering IH-10 WB Rest Stop 619
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- Entering IH-10 WB Rest Stop 619
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- Ray KE5KHN and Gary K5GST set up NVIS Antenna
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- Home away from home… Ray KE5KHN taking a break
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- View of shelter used for hurricane drill
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- View of shelter used for hurricane drill
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- View of shelter used for hurricane drill
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- View of shelter used for hurricane drill
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- View of shelter used for hurricane drill
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- View of antennas used for hurricane drill
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- Ray KE5KHN prepares lunch
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- View of shelter used for hurricane drill, we added the flags
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- View of shelter used for hurricane drill, we added the flags
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- Parking was not a problem today
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- Parking was not a problem today
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- View of shelter, taken from walkway behind it.
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- View of shelter, taken from walkway behind it.
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- View of shelter, taken from walkway behind it.
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- View of shelter, taken from walkway behind it.
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- View of shelter, taken from walkway nearby.
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- View of shelter used during the hurricane drill, 2 mtr antenna on tripod used
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- Vertical HF and NVIS antennas mounted behind shelter
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- Seguin EMS responded to a real call, same time as we put in a call as part of the drill.
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- Seguin EMS responded to a real call, same time as we put in a call as part of the drill.
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- Seguin EMS responded to a real call, same time as we put in a call as part of the drill.
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- Seguin EMS responded to a real call, same time as we put in a call as part of the drill.
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- 9 vehicle pile-up – used as inspiration for an incident we called in to net control
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- 9 vehicle pile-up – used as inspiration for an incident we called in to net control
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- Gary K5GST listens as Ray KE5KHN reports 9 vehicle pile-up at our location
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- Vertical HF antenna mounted to trash can, got trashy results because it was too close to metal roof of shelter perhaps
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- Ray KE5KHN putting some equipment away
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- Ray KE5KHN putting some equipment away, Gary K5GST assisting
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- Ray KE5KHN putting some equipment away, Gary K5GST assisting
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- Gary K5GST and Ray KE5KHN resting after station was shut down and packed up
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- Shelter nice and clean now, no radios, antennas, trash or caution tape remains
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- It started sprinkling nearby as we were leaving, the only ‘rain’ we saw all day
