The Kent Communications Support Team (KCST), a dedicated community group of more than 25 amateur radio operators, is an activity of the Kent Emergency Management Department.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The group is tasked with providing emergency communications support for the city of Kent in the event of a natural or man-made disaster.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
As part of its continuing training, KCST members recently participated in a national amateur radio event, Field Day. The purpose of the event was to prepare and operate an amateur radio site under simulated emergency conditions.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The group assembled a multi-operator station at the Kent Department of Public Works site at 245th Avenue and 224th Street. There were three voice (single sideband-SSB) and one Morse Code (CW) tents, each running 100 watts of power \u2013 all powered by gasoline generators and using antennas specially erected on site.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The 24-hour exercise was successful and resulted in 262 phone and 114 CW contacts from Hawaii to Newfoundland.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
KCST, which has been in operation for four years, has set a high standard for membership. Each member must hold a current amateur radio license, have taken a 16-hour emergency communications course, successfully completed CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training, have passed ICS 100 and 700, and received specialized community training.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Members meet monthly and also actively participate in regional and state-wide exercises on a quarterly basis. A VHF communications net, K7CST is activated weekly to test the reliability of individual member communication systems.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In addition, two members have been assigned to each Kent Regional Fire Authority Station to augment each site’s emergency communications capabilities.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The KCST Emergency Communications Center is co-located at the Kent Regional Fire Authority Training Center at 116th Street, Kent.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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