Almost 100 radio amateurs participated in TNCAT '07, the largest and most comprehensive exercise ever conducted by the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA). The exercise, conducted over a 3 day period from June 19-21, was based on a presumed 7.7 magnitude earthquake along the New Madrid Seismic Zone. TEMA's Operations Chief Hank Koebler, Jr, N3ORX, said he was very impressed with the response from the amateur community. "I anticipated a top-notch performance from them, but they exceeded those expectations by far." Throughout the exercise, ARES and MARS continued to provide the bulk of the emergency communications. At the State Emergency Operations Center in Nashville, ARES and MARS operators were set up side-by-side to handle the communications load -- ARES handled voice on VHF/UHF and HF links into the disaster area, while MARS handled all Winlink traffic via HF. In the affected counties in West Tennessee, ARES operators performed damage assessments, provided the sole means of communications for the county Emergency Operations Centers and were the communications workhorses for TEMA's Regional Center in Jackson, Tennessee.
