The Brauer’s Freedom Festival for 2025 was on July 3rd, a hot and sultry day, at Drake’s Creek Park in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Clear skies brought lots of sunshine and with that came the heat and humidity. Just another Middle Tennessee day in July.
Sumner County ARES, in coordination with and supported by the Sumner County Amateur Radio Association, www.SCARA.net, provided additional resources and communications at the event.
The SCARA Communications trailer arrived at the park around 1230 hrs. That was not before a few started the day early. Around 0830 a crew gathered as there was some work and cleaning scheduled for the trailer before deployment. Jon, W4JDM, Mike, K4VVA, Vincent, K4OZE, Jennifer, KS4ANE, Richard, WA4YQC, Tom, W4UWO, and Brian, NG2S, all prepared the trailer for deployment later that afternoon.
Once the trailer was backed into its designated location the crew started to set things up. This included deploying the generator, hoisting up a multi-band HF antenna for the Special Event Station, setting up a 10×20 canopy with a large fan, 6’ table and chairs. The Sumner County Amateur Radio Association banner was proudly displayed as well.
As the event start time got closer, the rest of the days Sumner County ARES Team arrived. A team briefing was given by Paul, KF4VOY, as he was assigned as the Liaison between SCARES and Hendersonville PD. Once the duties for the day were conveyed the group was broken up into 2-man teams by Brian, NG2S, a SCARES Co-EC. At 1700 hrs all teams were deployed to their first assigned locations.
There were 6 locations that the Hendersonville PD requested SCARES members observe and report from. There were seven 2 man teams. Because we had an extra team a Round Robin or rotation system was employed. The teams shifted their locations every hour. The 7th team being a relief team allowed each to rotate in and out of a 1 hour break during the event. 2 golf carts with operators were providing transportation to the 2 man teams as needed around the park.
The event was very well attended with attendance estimates upwards of 18,000 people. The vendor area was filled with 110 registered Vendors and Food Trucks. Most of the Radio Operators enjoyed some of the great food trucks during their hour rest periods.
Overall the event went smoothly after a bit of confusion about how the rotations would work. Nothing that was not overcome with a few tweaks to the system. Net Control read out the next locations each team should respond to over the radio a few minutes prior to the hourly rotation. NCS also assigned the golf carts to transport any teams that required it as the park is vast and walking from some assigned posts to another was not practical.
There were a few incidents at the park that SCARES had to notify HPD about that occurred during the evening. The 1st was a report of a reckless driver that may have had an accident and was speeding in the park. That information was relayed to NCS and the Liaison notified HPD. The vehicle was located by SCARES members and a follow up notification was made to HPD. HPD Mounted and Bike Patrols responded. It turned out that vehicle in question drove over a high curd and ripped its exhaust system out from the vehicle as well as tearing a hole in its gas tank. HPD notified the Hendersonville Fire Dept to respond for the gasoline leak. The second incident was short lived. Parents had lost sight of their child in the Kids Fun Zone. Team members notified NCS and the child was located before HPD responded. The third incident was an unconscious female at the west end of the park near the train tracks. Team members notified NCS and brought the person in need to EMS located in the main Vendor Area by utilizing one of the golf carts.
Communication was facilitated on VHF and UHF simplex frequencies that were tied together with a Billy Box, sort of a cross-banding device. Meshtastic, APRS along with DMR, P25 and good old Analog technologies were used for the event.
Things went very well but that does not mean there were not any hiccups along the way. Things happen, situations arise but what separates the good from the not so good is how we handle those situations. Collectively we adapted on site as needed. Teams were shuffled around, Radio Operators were swapped in and out of Teams as needs changed. Relief was scheduled for all. If unscheduled relief was need the member contacted Net Control and relief personnel were assigned. I can not stress how a good net control operator can make or break the success of an event like this. Lot’s of changes and decisions were made on the fly. Richard, WA4YQC, was assigned as the Net Control Station and he was in constant contact with the EC on site to facilitate moves and changes.
The author’s understanding is that the HPD was very happy with the performance of the SCARES and SCARA members so much that talks had started about the next event before the night was over. Regardless of what some Public Safety Officials may say there is still a need and use for trained Amateur Radio Operators and ARES. We are lucky enough that the local Public Safety Officials see the benefits of including trained Amateur Radio Operators and ARES in their overall plan. The local officials are smart enough to realize we, ARES, can augment their abilities as they can deploy their resources elsewhere and the Radio Operators cover more of the less critical Public Safety Tasks. Observe and Report was our main task at this event and the Radio Operator Volunteers rose to the occasion and performed professionally.
However, this is not to say we did not have any lessons learned. If anyone ever tells you everything went perfect, then they were not watching closely enough. There is always room for improvement and any time an operation like this ends and something was not learned then it was a wasted opportunity. The After Action Report will be discussed at the next SCARES monthly meeting.
Here is a list, in no particular order, of the Radio Operators that shined brighter than the blazing fireworks in the sky on July 3rd 2025.
- Richard, WA4YQC – NCS
- Vincent, K4OZE – Trailer Engineer
- Jennifer, KS4ANE – Trailer Support
- Paul, KF4VOY, PD Liaison
- Tony, W1VS – Special Event Station and Relief
- Kevin, K4TNR – Team 1
- Tom, KK4WAS – Team 1
- Mike, K4VVA – Team 2
- Adam, KQ4HMH – Team 2
- Steve, KN4IHQ – Team 3
- Rick, KO4ULT – Team 3
- Jamie, AA4K – Team 4
- Tom, W4UWO – Team 4
- Jeff, W4SNY – Team 5
- David, N4RTB – Team 5
- Steve, W4STX – Team 6
- Ben, KR4DXL – Team 6
- Jon, W4JDM – Team 7
- Steve, AA8TJ – Team 7
- Brian, NG2S – Golf Cart 1
- Steve, KI4ZDF – Golf Cart 2
A big Job Well Done goes out to each of those listed above. No one person can handle all that was accomplished. It takes not only a group effort, but you need the right people in that group. We had the right people on that day and that is what made it such a success.
