From the Montgomery County EC:
As you are all aware, we are just a few weeks away from the Total Solar Eclipse for portions of Ohio on Monday, April 8th. For the Dayton region, the partial eclipse will start at 1:53 PM EDT, with the maximum totality at 3:10 PM EDT, and the conclusion at 4:25 PM EDT.
Expect a large amount of out-of-town viewers to come into the region prior to the start of the event and a mass exodus once the eclipse concludes. Expect traffic jams and delays.
The Montgomery County Emergency Operations Center will be staffed for this event along with EMCOMM volunteers. There will be a net on the 146.640 (+) pl 123.0 K8MCA repeater during the event which may start out as an Informal Net turning into a Directed Net if the conditions warrant. We will not be deploying people to a specific location but taking reports from people wherever they happen to be, similar to a SKYWARN activation.
Some of the things the EOC would like reports about are:
1. Life Safety issues: Accidents with injuries, medical incidents, etc. particularly if cell service is disrupted in that area.
2. Traffic Congestion, especially on side roads (as ODOT will probably track the interstates pretty well). Include reports of disabled vehicles (accidents, out of gas/out of charge, mechanical issues) if they are impacting traffic flow.
3. Infrastructure items such as power outages, water main breaks, etc.
4. Any previously undefined incident that should be reported.
In the event Severe Weather moves into the area and DAYTON SKYWARN activates, the 146.640 (+) pl 123.0 K8MCA repeater will be utilized for severe weather reports. The “Eclipse Reporting Net” would then move to the alternate repeater of 444.250 (+) pl 123.0 K8MCA repeater.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via email at the email address below.
Robert M. Flory – KA5RUC
Emergency Coordinator
Montgomery County, Ohio
Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES), Inc.
Email: ka5ruc@mocoares.org