Brownwood is preparing for a mock disaster coming up in June. Brown County Emergency Management Coordinator Brent Bush said that a communications readiness test is scheduled later this month to help prepare for the upcoming training event.

Beginning about 8:00 AM on April 15th, citizens with scanners may be hearing what sounds like an actually disaster situation in progress, complete with injuries and fatalities, but Bush emphasizes that it’s just a test. He says they will occasionally end each call with a phrase like “SIMULATED EMERGENCY” or something similar to try to alert the public that it’s not an actual emergency. It’s called a (SET) for Simulated Emergency Test. Bush says they’ll test the preparedness of emergency communications beginning with the Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES), when the area Ham Radio Operators take over the local and long-distance communications.

The Amateur (Ham) radio operators have on-air ARES training sessions on the third Thursday of each month at 9:00 PM using the Bangs VHF ham radio repeater system, which is owned, operated, and licensed to Kevin Templeton. The Brownwood repeater frequency is 146.940 and is owned, operated, and licensed to the Brownwood Amateur Radio Club. Those with scanners can listen in by programming the 147.000 and 146.940 frequencies into your scanner. These frequencies are also used by the area Skywarn Weather Spotters during inclement weather.

The communications readiness test will be a precursor to the full mock disaster coming in June that will involve all emergency response agencies in the area.