After Action Report - Monitoring Disaster Communications During The July 4th Storms in Northwest Connecticut

I did extensive communications monitoring during the heavy weather over the weekend of July 4th, 2026. Started monitoring Thursday night, stopped sometime Sunday afternoon. The following equipment was used:

Radio Equipment: Whistler WS1040 Radio Shack PRO-95 Tytera DM-380 (UHF) with MD380 Tools firmware Quansheng UV-K5R with Egzumer firmware

The Fourth of July traditionally sees more emergency calls than normal due to the holiday’s combination of alcohol, fireworks, and stupid bad decisions. The weather helped reduce those types of calls, but the damage left by the storm provided almost more radio traffic than even an experienced monitor could handle.