Pauline Dunlap, an amateur radio operator, monitors a bank of ham radios as part of a simulated disaster drill which involved various portions of the United States. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
Granville Emergency Management Director Kevin Stromgren attaches a communications cable to a portable amateur radio antenna as part of an emergency communications drill in Southwick. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
SOUTHWICK – The town’s emergency management department is once again taking part in a 24-hour radio communication exercise June 28-29.
Emergency Management Director Charles H. Dunlap said this will be his 52nd year participating in the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services (RACES) exercise, which includes radio operators across the United States and Canada.
“We will use the space behind Town Hall and in the back of Prifti Park,” said Dunlap. ‘We will set up on Friday and begin at 2 p.m. Saturday.”
The exercise includes disaster simulation tests to facilitate emergency, health and welfare message communications for local, regional and national needs.
Dunlap said locally, Southwick, Granville, Blandford, Agawam, Ludlow and East Longmeadow will participate. Contact will be made to numerous states and Canada. Dunlap said during the event, the operators are not allowed to try to contact anyone outside the U.S. and Canada but they can answer if contact is initiated from outside the country.
Charles Dunlap, Southwick emergency management director, foreground, uses the emergency communications vehicle to communicate with amateur radio operators around the country in a simulated disaster drill. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
Dunlap received permission from the Board of Selectmen to use the space behind Town Hall. He sought permission from the parks and Recreation Commission Tuesday to use the rear of Prifti Park, but only two members of the commission were present at the regularly scheduled meeting.
“We cannot vote on this, but I have no problem with it,” said commission chairman Kelly Magni. “Plan on going ahead and we will vote next week.”
Dunlap said the exercise is “basically an endurance training and test.”
Members of the public are invited to observe the exercise. Three emergency command stations will be established under simulated disaster field conditions. The third station will be at the Emergency Management office at the Department of Public Works garage on College Highway.
Dunlap said the exercise includes the inclusion of the media, an elected official, and a representative of an organization the department serves, which this year will be the American Red Cross.
Dunlap said more than 3.500 similar groups will participate in the exercise to test the emergency management’s capability to provide emergency, health and welfare message needs.
