SET

Two different Amateur radio groups made the news--locally, but with the Internet, all news is simultaneously local and global--during the recent Simulated Emergency Test.

First, from the West Seattle Blog:

The drill before the storm: They’ll be there when all else fails
Inside Olympic Hall Room 101 at the south end of South Seattle Community College on Puget Ridge, those ham-radio operators and others spent several hours Saturday morning making sure they’re ready for something they hope to never have to do: Relaying emergency help needs, status information, and more to the city Emergency Operations Center when all other means of communication are out of commission. Coincidentally, the test, which was meant to simulate “a major catastrophic winter wind storm,” happened just a few hours before the first hint of fall wind blew through the area. Involved were two trained ham-radio communications teams, all volunteers, from the Seattle Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) that serves the city’s Office of Emergency Management, and the Seattle Sub-Group of the Western Washington Medical Services Team. From outside Olympic Hall, these portable antennas hinted at what was going on inside:

More.

Next, the Highline Times reports on an even closer-to-home group:

Pineapple Express simulated by Hams

Sunday, October 05, 2008

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service Team from the city of Normandy Park participated in the annual Simulated Emergency Test (SET) sponsored each year in the fall by the Amateur Radio Relay League.
The test occurred on Oct. 4. It was held to exercise, test, and demonstrate the capabilities of the community's amateur radio operators (Hams) to provide backup communications capabilities for the city and public safety personnel in emergency situations.
This year the test simulated a "Pineapple Express" winter storm that occurs in the middle of the Thanksgiving weekend.
The local amateur radio operators testified their ability to communicate with neighboring jurisdictions as well as with the State Emergency Operations Center at Camp Murray.
They exercised their activation protocol, ability to send formal message traffic, and ability to send e-mail by amateur radio into the Internet in case the local Internet gateways were inoperative.
They also practiced reporting damages and problems within Normandy Park to the county and state emergency operations centers.

As noted in the comments section on the web site, the reported has the Amateur Radio Emergency Service and the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service confused, although locally the two are usually identical. That is, AREA supports non-governmental organizations, and RACES supports local governments up to county or regional. (Usually not direct support to states.)

Here is the Wikipedia article on the Pineapple Express, for anyone not familiar with the phrase. Anyone who lives near the Left Coast knows that it can be pretty nasty...

Pineapple Express (also known as Pineapple Connection) is a non-technical, shorthand term popular in the news media for a meteorological phenomenon which is characterized by a strong and persistent flow of atmospheric moisture and associated heavy rainfall from the waters adjacent to the Hawaiian Islands and extending to any location along the Pacific coast of North America. The Pineapple Express is driven by a strong, southern branch of the Polar jetstream and is usually marked by the presence of a surface frontal boundary which is typically either slow or stationary, with waves of low pressure traveling along its axis. Each of these low pressure systems brings enhanced rainfall.
...
The Puget Sound region from Olympia, Washington to Vancouver, BC received several inches of rain per day in November 2006 from a series of successive Pineapple Express storms that caused massive flooding in all major regional rivers and mudslides which closed the mountain passes. These storms included heavy winds which are not usually associated with the phenomenon. Regional dams opened their spillways to 100% as they had reached full capacity due to rain and snowmelt. Officials referred to the storm system as "the worst in a decade" on November 8, 2006. Portions of Oregon were also affected, including over 14 inches (350 mm) in one day at Lee's Camp in the Coast Range, while the normally arid and sheltered Interior of British Columbia received heavy coastal-style rains.

Anyway. Pretty cool to see Amateur Radio in the news, especially during preparation/training for an event, not during one.