Members of the Pickens County Communications Group participated in a quarterly Training Session held in Columbia, SC on Februry 17 that was conducted by the South Carolina State Emergency Management Division.

17 February 2018

SC Emergency Management Division hosted EmComm groups from around the state today for a quarterly training session. The agenda included:

Palmetto EOC is a custom website being implemented which will provide emergency management officials up to the minute information about incidents to help improve operational effectiveness. It will allow quicker access to resources, forms, task assignments and much more.

The SCHEART initiative is an emergency communications network using linked repeaters connecting the state’s hospitals and ESF-8 facilities with DHEC and the SCEOC. Two new repeaters have been added to the system… a VHF analog repeater in Edgefield and a DMR repeater in Anderson. For more information about SCHEART, please visit: http://scheart.us/about-us/"

SCHEART Nets are conducted weekly on Thursday mornings at 9:00 a.m. and NCS requests that those checking in only provide the requested information… especially during an emergency. Also during an emergency, please do NOT check into the net and then leave your station. If you check in, you are making yourself available for traffic. If for some reason you need to leave the net, please check out with net control first.

The SC Local Government Radio (LGR) network is a system of 9 VHF low band repeaters specifically for use by EOC’s with direct access to the warning point at the state EOC. The Paris Mountain repeater covers the Upstate counties of Greenville, Spartanburg, Pickens, Oconee and Anderson.

SC EMD plans to include hands on training in upcoming sessions and will schedule a weekend AUXCOM training course put on by DHS.

Submitted by                    
Harry Davis N4DDS