so our ARES group finally got around to doing a full-scale simulated disaster exercise last Saturday and honestly I wasn't prepared for how much we'd learn from it. the scenario was a major earthquake, EOC activation, hospitals needing traffic relayed, the whole thing. we had maybe 14 operators spread across 6 sites including the hospital, two shelters and the EOC itself.

first thing that fell apart was net control. our primary net control operator got stuck in simulated traffic trying to get to his location (we were playing it semi-realistically) and nobody had really drilled on being a backup NC. there was like 10 minutes of dead air while people figured out who was going to step up. in a real event that's 10 minutes where nobody knows what's happening anywhere.

second thing, and this one stings a little, was that three of our HTs had dead or low batteries because people assumed someone else was handling that. we do a go-bag checklist but apparently not everyone actually goes through it before drills, just real events. which kind of defeats the purpose.

the good stuff was that simplex fallback actually worked really well when we lost the repeater link, and a couple of our newer operators who I wasnt sure were ready absolutely stepped up and handled traffic like pros. so not all bad news.

curious if other groups have done similar drills and what caught you off guard. we're already talking about doing another one in a few months with some of the gaps addressed but I want to make sure we're not missing anything obvious.

yeah the net control backup problem is super common and I don't think most groups take it seriously until exactly what you described happens. we had the same issue a few years back during a SET and after that we basically made a rule that every single drill, a different person runs net control. even if they're not comfortable with it yet, especially if they're not comfortable with it. that's the only way people actually learn.

the battery thing is real too. we started doing what we call a 'radio up' check at the start of every monthly meeting where everyone has to show their HT is charged and their go bag is packed. sounds a little overkill but after the second time someone showed up to a drill with a dead radio it just became the culture. takes 5 minutes and saves a lot of grief.

sounds like your simplex planning was solid though, a lot of groups completely neglect that and then when the repeater goes down everything falls apart. that's actually the most realistic part of any drill imo because repeaters absolutely will fail or get overloaded in a real event.

this is the kind of post I needed to read honestly. im just finishing my general and our EC has been talking about getting me involved in ARES stuff and I keep wondering if I have enough experience to actually be useful. reading about your newer operators stepping up is kind of reassuring. I think I always assume the experienced folks have everything figured out and theres nothing for someone like me to contribute but maybe thats not really how it works in practice.

one question - when you say simplex fallback worked, were you all on a predetermined simplex frequency you'd agreed on beforehand or did someone have to announce it on the repeater before it went down? that part confuses me about how those transitions actually happen in a real drill.