A wildfire recently struck Mount Diablo in the San Francisco bay area. I heard an activation of the emergency alert system on a local AM station to announce an evacuation order. I followed the news to learn how the community was affected and how much of the fire was contained. I was also curious about the status of W6CX, a two-meter repeater owned by the Mount Diablo Amateur Radio Club.
At first, the repeater was operating normally. I heard at one point that the regular power supply was interrupted, but a backup power supply was available. I'd be curious to find out how much downtime the repeater had during this emergency.
Operators using the repeater mentioned that the Salvation Army and possibly other organizations were using the repeater to coordinate emergency activities. They stated that repeater traffic should be minimized to keep the service available for emergency purposes. On Sunday September 8, two nets that would've been held on the repeater were affected: one net was cancelled, and another was moved to a simplex frequency.
Fortunately, the Mount Diablo / Morgan fire is now 100% contained. I hope that the community can get back to normal soon.
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