On March 16, 2024, McHenry County EMA/ARES/RACES volunteers took to the Moraine Hills State Park to participate in a statewide Illinois ARES Exercise with the goal of passing messages from southern Illinois to northern Illinois using voice 2-meter simplex relay. In addition to the exercise, we took advantage of the unique opportunity to practice a full deployment of our Command Trailer, HF transceiver, and an off-center multi-band dipole antenna. In order to fully test our equipment, we enjoyed taking turns making contacts on 20 meters for POTA (Parks on the Air). Although this was our group’s first time activating a park, everyone seemed to have fun and look forward to doing it again in the near future.