Please join me in welcoming our newest members, Mark KE7NKZ, Rich (no callsign yet), and Owana, supporting member.
Congratulations to Rolf KI4HOP, Steve W7SRH, Kent K7YXZ, Monte KG2RS, and Jeff N7TTQ who have earned their HF Operator certificates.
One of our 2016 goals is to expand our membership. If you know another ham, please encourage them to join us. If everyone brings one new member, we will be able to staff all our served agencies and field teams.
It has been a very busy month for the leadership team. Our PIO Steve W7SRH has arranged public service radio interviews with KKPZ and KINK; great fun and a wonderful way to spread the word about ARES and ham radio.
Planning for Walk MS and the Spring Statewide ARES SET (April 22 and 23) is in full swing. Both events being on the same weekend poses a challenge and an opportunity. The PBEM trailer will be the net control hub for Walk MS and the ARES trailer will handle the many needs for the SET. We are going to be operating a full 24 hours around the clock, from 13:00 Friday to 13:00 Saturday with constant HF voice contact with OEM in Salem. Some of the local voice and Winlink contacts will be Friday, with Winlink HF Pactor and more local contacts on Saturday. This will be the first operations test for the fully equipped ARES trailer. Our West Side Relay Team will be deployed both days to set up a crossband repeater and a digipeater from Council Crest.
We have a big turnout of volunteers for Walk MS, thanks to everyone who has signed up to help!
Planning has also started for the June 8 and 9 Cascadia Rising exercise. Multnomah County Emergency Management has invited us to join them in the planning process. We are hoping to start recruitment for this event at the beginning of May so stay tuned.
Please join me in welcoming our ten new members, Dez K7DEZ, Steven KG7VAS, Pat KA6PAT, Ian K6IBX, Pavel KG7LZB, Dan KD7OOB, Nick KG7ZEA, Joe WA7FWC, Dennis KG7VXJ, and Eugene KG7LYQ. Please reach out and greet them at the February meeting.
One of our 2016 goals is to expand our membership. If you know another ham, please encourage them to join us. Tell them how awesome we are and all the fun we are going to have this year. We are calling this the “Each One Reach One” campaign.
Another way we can increase our operational capacity is to expand our supporting member numbers with those who are interested but do not have their license yet. They can join now and be our loggers. This is also for those who do not ever want to get on the air but do want to support our cause. We will do a logging training just for these folks, so bring in your friends and relatives.
DO NOT LET YOUR ACTIVE MEMBERSHIP LAPSE! There are some members who are perilously close to losing their active status and some who already have. If you want to reactivate, let us know and make it your new year’s resolution to stay active. To maintain or reactivate your active status and stay on a team, you need to do six activities per year. This can be any combination of attending general meetings, participating in our drills and SETs, participating in any public service event as a radio operator, or being net control for a session of our weekly MCARES net. Remember, it is your responsibility to let us know if you participate in a public service event. Reactivating may be as simple as letting us know which events you participated in last year. If you are not sure what your status is, ask your team leader or email me at dprovo [at] yahoo [dot] com.
Chris Voss, Emergency Manager, and Alice Busch, Operations Chief, attended our January general meeting and were impressed with our attendance of 74, a new record. They have expressed a willingness to procure for us six field digital go-kits and a drone! 2016 looks more and more exciting as we expand our knowledge and capabilities.
We are working on plans to issue county ID cards for all our active members. More details coming soon.
Our County EM, Chris Voss, has requested that we develop mobile response teams with digital capability to serve various county communication needs. We also need to strengthen our served agency teams. This will require a focus on recruiting this year. Steve W7SRH, our PIO, and I will work together in this new recruitment effort and we will need everyone’s help.
Our vision is to have geographical teams of three to four operators that can be rapidly deployed. Let me know if you are interested in being on one of these teams. The first pilot team is the West County Mobile Team with Steve W7SRH as team leader. We hope to expand to other areas as our membership grows.
We hope to have the trailer finished in early 2016 and plan to put it to work in our recruitment effort. If you know of an emergency preparedness event that could be a recruitment opportunity, please let Steve or me know.
Welcome to our new members, Kirk KG7WXN, Bill KG7SEU, Lily KG7WYG, Leslie KG7VGL, Pete KG7MRZ, Lou KG7SUF, and Herman KG7ZBI. Please reach out and greet them at the January meeting.
Welcome to our newest members Eric KG7GCQ and Matthew K7MWS.
Thank you to all who have filled out the Member Survey and John K7TY for putting it together. New this year all who fill it out can view all the replies. There is still time to reply if you have not had a chance yet. This information will help the leadership team plan for the future and prepare the 2016 training schedule.
We are all very excited about the progress on the trailer project. The air conditioning unit has been purchased and installed in the ceiling. Interior cabinet building is under way, thanks to Will KG7LPW and his crew. The desk and bench are completed and the electrical and IT cabinets will be started next week. We expect the equipment grant to be funded in the next thirty days. Woohoo!
Welcome to our newest members, Jeff N7TTQ, Ron KE7WJI, James KG7ULF, and Sue KG7FYB. We are very excited about our membership growth. Steve W7SRH, our PIO, has been busy getting the word out to the community about MCARES, and will be at the amateur radio public relations table at the Race for the Cure this Sunday.
Welcome to our newest member, Neil N6DVI and welcome back to Bob N6ZKL.
It’s been a very busy summer with lots of public service events and there is no slow down for September and October. Thanks to everybody who is out there volunteering for these events. There are a lot more opportunities to volunteer coming up. These events are the best way to gain experience and hone your communication and radio skills.
Communications for the Disaster Relief Trials on October 17 are coordinated by MCARES. Brian KE7QPV will start recruiting volunteers soon.
The city of Gresham has been granted its station call sign, WG7EOC. Thanks to Robert WX5TEX for getting this accomplished.
On July 26, MCARES participated in the Sunday Parkways bike event. Matthew AF7PV and Andrew W7TKX managed traffic control at our intersection, while Steve W7SRH, Deb KK7DEB, John K7TY, Chris KE7OSH, and Bob KG7JKQ passed out information about ham radio and Multnomah County ARES. We all had a great time meeting and talking with the participants.
The first annual MCARES HF Campout was held August 15-16. Adam KF7LJH brought his 40-foot mast and strung two antennas from it. Nate N9VCU was a crack shot with his bow and arrow, getting lines over the trees to run another antenna. Robert conducted his HF training and certified three new HF operators. Congratulations to Carrie KG7NZP, Kiri K7KAH, and Ann KF7RBV! In all we had eleven MCARES members, some “significant others” and one-year-old baby Wyatt. Contacts were made with Maryland and Illinois and with a Navajo code talker. The NTTN (Northwest Oregon Traffic and Training Net) was run from our campsite with Marino as net control. It was loads of fun, the setting was beautiful, and we all decided we must do this every year for TWO nights. Hope you will join us next year!