Hello to all….
Boston Amateur Radio Club (BARC) members who are also a part of Eastern Massachusetts ARES participated in an exercise on the Strategic National Stockpile which is a stockpile of medications in the event of a bioterror or pandemic flu type of incident. Below is a write-up from BARC Club member and Metro Boston ARES DEC, Blake Haskell-K1BTH on that exercise:
On Sunday September 23, 2007 members of the Boston Amateur Radio Club participated in a joint Boston Public Health Commission and US Postal Service test of medicine delivery. The exercise, which teamed USPS mail carriers and Boston Police Department Officers to insure security, delivered over 20,000 sample boxes of medicines. It is the City’s goal to provide medical services to residents as quickly as possible in the event of an emergency.
BARC members participating included Blake T. Haskell, K1BTH, who also serves as EMa ARES Metro Boston DEC; Jim Clogher, N1ICN; Mark Duff, KB1EKN; Eric Falkof, K1NUN; and Paul Olivieri, N1ZKR. The USPS Emergency Operating Center was staffed along with the Boston Police Department Unified Command Center and the areas around the West Roxbury and South End Post Offices. Communications were facilitated by the W1KRU repeater system operated by the Boston EMS Amateur Radio Group. There were no problems with communications and all amateur radio operations were carried out on UHF frequencies.
Other agencies participating included the Massachusetts State Police, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, US Postal Inspectors and various other city, state and federal agencies.
The exercise was deemed a success and was completed ahead of time. Some operational difficulties were identified and are already being addressed by BARC and the City of Boston. It is expected that other joint operations will be planned and BARC looks forward to working with our emergency management partners again.
Respectfully Submitted,
Robert Macedo (KD1CY)
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator
Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator
Pager #: (508) 354-3142
Home Phone #: (508) 994-1875 (After 6 PM)
Home/Data #: (508) 997-4503 (After 6 PM)
Work Phone #: 1-800-445-2588 Ext.: 72929 (8 AM-5 PM)
Email Address: rmacedo@rcn.com
http://www.wx1box.org
http://ares.ema.arrl.org
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