Over the last two weeks, R1D5 ARES supported both the Douglas County Fair & Rodeo and the Elbert County Fair. The communications support R1D5 provided was over 800 MHz public safety talkgroups; ham frequencies were not used. The Douglas County Fair & Rodeo spanned across the last two weekends and the Elbert County Fair spanned four days over this weekend.
During the Douglas County Fair, twelve R1D5 radio operators worked 14 shifts across seven days and served a total of 88 hours. During the Elbert County Fair, R1D5 radio operators worked 8 shifts across four days, and served a total of 52 hours. All totaled, R1D5 ARES worked a total of 140 hours supporting law and fire/EMS communications.
In addition to this activity, R1D5 also participated in Saturday’s mini-SET and tested DMR talkgroups from three locations, none of which were involved with our county fairs. We had operators at the Douglas County EOC, at Parker Adventist Hospital, and at Sky Ridge Hospital in Lone Tree. We found this a valuable exercise as it helped us to better understand what repeaters and DMR talkgroups worked with as little as 5 watts from an HT, or which needed the added power a mobile radio could provide. Admittedly, it was not easy to support a mini-SET during with what was already a busy weekend for R1D5, but to our credit we got it all done.