Lee Co. ARES Monthly Meeting, April 21, 2024

Lee County ARES met at the Lee County EOC holding a long meeting to discuss our future services to the County. We viewed  four options to back-up radio communications for the County should the Dispatch primary and secondary system fail. Furthermore, we narrowed down EMP/CME protections of our equipment to two options. We will ask for a meeting with County Officials to propose plans of actions. We also discussed possibilities to equip the EmComm trailer with a repeater and we discussed brands, comparing them. Members initiated a discussion about digital modes of communications such as D-Star and others, valuing their pros and the cons. We decided to keep the current insurance policy on the trailer and to purchase a radar software to better conduct SKYWARN nets from the EOC and then trailer. We will prepare an inventory of improvements and additions we desire for the infrastructure we already created to then prioritize our next projects. We will also seek information on County events where we can deploy our EmComm trailer. After the formal meeting was over, we tested and trained on the equipment we installed at the EOC.