Frederick County ARES is hosting a Simulated Emergency Test (aka SET) exercise this Saturday, Oct 25, 2025. All amateur radio operators are welcome to participate. This exercise involves search and rescue simulated by a mobile fox hunt located near Emmitsburg and 4 additional foxes near Middletown, MD. The following frequencies will be active starting at 10am for two hours:
These are to be placed along the side of a road and are to be located via automobile using mobile directional antennas. If possible have two operators: one to drive and another to search! Once you find a single fox, transport it back to one of two sites (whichever is closest):
Site A: Remsberg Park, Middletown (near the pavilion what3words ///sweeper.maple.kettle): Foxes 1, 2, 3, 4 (check along Holter Road near the park, also check down Rte 17 between Middletown and Burkittsville)
Site B: Eugene Myers Park, Emmitsburg, what3words ///dodgy.bulbs.lamplight: Fox 5
Communication with sites A and B will be via 146.58 MHz simplex. Please call in when you start looking and when you find a fox. Then transport the fox to the nearest Site.
The exercise scenario is the following:
***Exercise-Excercise-Excercise***
Narrative: A massive 100m asteroid is detected headed for the MDC
region. A nuclear blast destroys the asteroid right over Middletown,
resulting in a localized EMP and many cases of temporary blindness due
to not following instructions such as: “don’t look at the nuke”. The asteroid is harmlessly vaporized but unfortunately an EMP has destroyed all local repeaters, cell phone towers, fire and police communications, the power grid and the internet within a 5-50 mile radius of Middletown. An astronomy club from Emmitsburg, MD was also observing via telescope :(. However, intrepid ham radio operators took actions beforehand to safeguard personal radio equipment against the EMP blast. Supplies and equipment from the public health department were pre-positioned at Sites A and B and radios were placed in shielded Faraday cages prior to the event. After the EMP a message was sent to all ham radio operators to bring temp-blindness victims to stand along rte-17 and Holter rd.
The Emmitsburg group was also located. Each group was given one working Baofeng radio to intermittently broadcast so hams in the area with functioning cars can radio-locate the victims. The victims are then transport to Site A or B, whichever is closest. Communication with fox hunters/Sites A and B is via crossband repeat 146.58 / 52.55 MHz. Mobile searchers should use 146.58 simplex. Shelter reports will be shared between site A and B via Fldigi if in direct contact, otherwise via winlink.
***Exercise-Excercise-Excercise***
Sandy Chesney, KB3EOF, ARRL Emergency Coordinator, Frederick County
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