It’s been a few years since I participated in AmRRON’s annual exercise, but hearing this teaser on the commute home yesterday has motivated me to use this event and future T-REX exercises as my annual preparedness test.
I’m not going to chase information on their nets, but I will be leaving my radio up during the event and capturing any JS8Call traffic I can unattended once again.
I’m also hoping to install and figure out how to use their new COMSTAT software to get an overview of the conditions throughout the USA during the exercise, time permitting.
CHECK YOURSELF BEFORE YOU WRECK YOURSELF!
I remember how I could never get the wife on board to spend a weekend with the power off as a test. It’s one of the most eye-opening experiences and best prep-step one can take to access their readiness. You really need to check yourself.
Luckily, I think things through all the time and was pretty well prepared when “Snow Mageddon” hit and we had no power for two-weeks a few years ago.
That eye opener event and the fact she knows we are closer to war now than ever since WWII and a grid-attack is a highly likely scenario, lead to a quick “ok” when I told her of the plan to use the “kill-switch” on the house for the exercise this year.
PRE-EXCECISE
Tomorrow I will be prepping the genset with fuel (it’s on propane year-round) and will be testing the load carrying abilities throughout the three days with (3) freezers full of a 500+ pounds of Black Anges we just picked up. It’s a test I have not done before, but one that I need to know before there is no “shore power” to fall back on to keep them cold.
It will also be a test of my off-grid camera system using my solar generators which I only know will work perpetually in theory, not practice. Often solar calculations are not what the real world delivers and this being summer the solar performance will be nearly double the winter performance if my experiences at the current AO have taught me anything.
ALMOST LIVE VIDEO UPDATES
I was going to just film with the GoPro hat, but since my computer can’t handle editing, it’s going to be pictures only.
OFF-GRID TESTS
EcoFlow River+ Solar Generator.
Power Off-Grid Camera System.
Power water tank pumps for garden.
Genset powering house.
Fuels economy throughout weekend
RADIO
SIGNIT
AmRRON traffic on 7.110
Community HT Setup
Recharge test
Even if you don’t throw the power this event, suck it up and get everyone onboard with doing so for a weekend, you will be amazed at what you learn about your situation.