PITTSBORO, NC— Chatham County Emergency Operations Department's Community Emergency Response Team in conjunction with Chatham Hams is hosting training for ham radios and mesh networks.

WHAT: Chatham County Emergency Training for Ham Radios and Mesh Networks

WHEN: Saturday, June 6, 2026, from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

WHERE: Chatham County Emergency Operations Center
112 Innovation Way
Pittsboro, NC 27312

Hurricane Helene arrived in Western North Carolina on September 25, 2024. Helene missed Chatham County by 150 miles, but the storm impacted the entire region.

This is an opportunity for Chatham community members to learn more about ham radios and mesh networks and their potential functions before the next disaster strikes.

Speakers will include:
• Zachary Thompson of Ashville, NC, was an eyewitness at the heart of Helene. He will present his experiences: “The Anatomy of a Mass Communications Outage.”
• Jonathan Bell, Chatham County Emergency Operations Systems, was one of the initial First Responders deployed to the Hurricane Helene disaster and will present “First-In.”
• Steve Newton, retired Chatham County Emergency Management Director. Prior to retirement, Newton had numerous deployments, from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017, to volcanos in Hawaii, to multiple deployments to Western NC after Helene. “What We Can Learn.”
• Terry Schmidt, Chatham County Community Emergency Response Team Coordinator will briefly update on the status of funding requests to fully deploy MESHCORE in Chatham County.
Following these presentations, “Help Desks” will be available for GMRS and for MESHCORE users.

Participants can also learn how to join Chatham County's Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) and Auxiliary Communication teams.

Questions may be directed to the Chatham County Emergency Operations Department at 919-545-8181.