On January 10, 2021, I had the opportunity to participate in the Santa Cruz County ARES Scavenge Around Field Exercise with my family and we had an excellent time. A radio scavenge around exercise is a fun activity designed to maintain safe social distancing while improving participant's amateur radio skills and knowledge of local County geography and repeater coverage.
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| Santa Cruz County FEMA Map |
The scavenge around exercise was a three-hour event. It started with participants checking into a SAFE Resource Net and being assigned a SAFE tactical net from one of three other area repeaters. Participants then changed frequency to their assigned tactical net and checked in for tasks.
The tasks involved driving to a location which was either an intersection or a address and answering a question that was given as part of the task regarding what you observe at the location. The task assignments often involved the participant driving to a distant and possibly unfamiliar part of the County. This made the task interesting for participants.
After completing a task, the tactical net control operator would ask each participant if they would like another task assignment. Toward the end of the exercise, participants checking into their tactical nets would be asked to contact the resource net control to demobilize. After demobilizing, the final check-in was when the participant had arrived home safely.
It was a beautiful day for driving and our family enjoyed this activity very much. We are all licensed hams though we only used one call sign for the check-in and tasks since we were travelling together in one vehicle.
Good job Santa Cruz County ARES! We are looking forward to joining in another ARES Scavenger Around Field Exercise again soon.
Good DX and 73,
NJ2X
