The Benicia Amateur Radio Club conducted a 10 hour drill on Oct 15th, 2009 as part of the "Great California Shakeout." Launched at 1015 hrs, stations from Solano, Contra Costa and San Francisco counties checked in hourly simulating their availability. As directed by the Auxiliary Communication Service (ACS) of Solano County OES, Amateur Radio Operators are not to self-deploy but rather, to check in on their ACS repeaters and await assignments. This drill was intended to provide a resource list of such available stations.

The initial activation of the Benicia EOC Amateur Radio room began just after 1000 hrs with two Division Fire Chief observing. A total of eleven "nets" were conducted. Newspaper coverage announced the planned event for some very positive coverage.

Averaging 18 to 20 operators each hour resulted in a total of over 200 check-ins operating from batteries, vehicles and generators indicating that loss of commercial power would not present a problem as 100% of the participants were using alternative power sources. The drill concluded at 2008 hrs.

Participants included members of Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (Satern), Mt Diablo Amateur Radio Club (MDARC), Benicia CERT (BERT), Solano County Auxiliary Radio Service (Solano ACS, also sometimes called RACES) and the Benicia Amateur Radio Club (BARC).

Art Mayoff, ACS Team Leader