Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Drill Kawailani ‘Ino Hawaii (Heavenly Water Storm)

Thank you to all the stations who participated in the Kawailani 'Ino Hawaii, multi-band, multi-mode COMEX. We've received the post-COMEX survey response from 77 participating stations as of 4/23/2022. The COMEX planning team is reviewing all data collected from the post-COMEX Survey as well as the ICS-309s from the COMEX collected from participating stations. The After Action Review and Improvement Plan will be posted to the HawaiiAres.Net website when it is complete.

The next Hawaii State ARES COMEX will be held in July 2022. We want to thank the hub and relay stations in each community that monitored VHF, UHF, & HF voice frequencies during the COMEX. Although not every community on each island had a local net, most did. A primary function of the hub and relay stations is to be on the defined frequencies, so they can take voice messages and relay them to their destination in real-time as needed. Many amateur operators are unable to get messages to their EOC directly, so these hub and relay stations are criticaly important should a disaster impacting traditional forms of communication occur.

Future exercises will use a similar hub/spoke system, with hub and relay stations being defined on the ICS-204 Assignment list and frequencies listed on the ICS-205 Incident Radio Communications Plan. Based on the analysis of participation so far, it is clear that ARES needs more participation from HF operators who can operate SSB on the 40, 60, and 80-meter bands statewide. Thank you again to all those who participated. All FCC licensed operators in Hawaii are invited to participate in our July 2022 exercise. Remember to join the main@hawaiiares.groups.io discussion group and visit the Hawaiiares.net website if you wish to receive information and participate in our activities.
73