The drill simulated a large solar flare, shutting down the power grid for several days. As EC, I planned a drill in conjunction with the SET for our local ARES members, especially to practice their Wnlink skills we recently practiced at a local club meeting.
During the SET, I asked operators to deploy to local school campuses and report on the status, including the number of cars in the parking lot. This "real world" metric was helpful, giving operators something to actually observe instead of simply "making up" a status report.
As each operator relayed in the their reports via Winlink, I printed off a copy to give to our agency, which, in this case was the Office of Emergency Management. The printers worked well, operating on battery power and producing a readable report on paper.
The SET was a success and our local ARES members got a chance to put their skills to the test!
