Empire Challenge is an annual Civil Support Operations interoperability exercise inclusive of New York Guard State Defense Force, New York Naval Militia, Army and Air Force Military Auxiliary Radio System, New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, Department of Homeland Security SHARES (Shared Resources HF Radio Program), and Civil Air Patrol.
The 2024 scenario was widespread wildfires in northern New York, similar to the Canadian wildfires of last year.
HF operations were conducted under DHS SHARES, using voice and data communications. Data comms (messages) were exchanged using VARA CHAT. A primary objective was to obtain county status information from every Region 2 (NY and NJ) county.
The Amateur Radio community was included in this exercise for the first time. Hams were requested provide county status information on 60 meters or by sending an ICS-213-formatted message via Winlink.
If you are seriously interested in providing emergency communications when the need arises, I strongly suggest you develop 60 meter transmit capability, as well as Winlink, VARA HF CHAT, and NBEMS digital capability, if you don't already have it, and practice regularly. The time to learn or troubleshoot problems is not when there is an emergency.
If you are interested in going beyond Amateur Radio emergency communications and getting involved in a well-organized and well-supported at the federal level volunteer radio communications organization, I strongly encourage you to consider joining MARS (and by extension SHARES). Please contact me if you are interested.