Saw that GA ARES had voice and digital traffic nets activated for Hurricane Helene until September 27th. They were running multiple frequencies including 80m primary on 3.975 MHz, secondary on 3.982.500, plus 40m and Winlink operations. Impressive coordination with simultaneous net control on both 80m and 40m using P2P digital modes. For those who participated in Helene activations in other states, what worked well for your groups? Any new procedures or equipment that proved valuable during this event?

We had similar multi-band operations in North Carolina. The big lesson was having established channels like phone trees and digital messaging for initial activation - when the storm hit, traditional notification methods failed fast. Modern ARES equipment designed for rapid deployment really showed its value.

Cross-trained units capable of handling communication outages, power loss, and network disruptions made all the difference. Our group had practiced switching between HF voice, digital modes, and even packet when needed. The redundancy planning from our quarterly exercises paid off big time.

Having essential communication support and staying connected, prepared, and resilient no matter what challenges arise is exactly what we train for. Helene was a good reminder that amateur radio provides communication "when all else fails" - saw this firsthand when cell towers went down but our repeater network kept running on backup power.