Author: Deb KK7DEB

Things are winding down as we begin the fall season. The Portland NET Citywide Exercise was October 14 and five of our digital go-kits were deployed around the city to demonstrate the capabilities of Winlink. A lot of our members participated either as NET or ARES radio operators. Thank you to all for a job well done!

Our focus now is preparing for the statewide ARES SET on November 8. This exercise looks like a fun and multi-faceted relay system using multiple modes and methods. Several legs of the single message journey will require our collective innovative minds. Some methods discussed are a kayak trip across the Willamette River and a bike trip to an awaiting portable digital go-kit station, just to name a few. I cannot say more as this is a competition type message relay with our other county ARES brothers and sisters, so secrecy is paramount. You can join the fun and adventure by signing up to help. Look for the recent email from Nate with a link to the Sign Up Genius.

The yearly ARES survey is being formulated so look for that coming your way soon. We really appreciate your feedback to help the leadership team plan for next year’s training, exercises and activities.

Join me in welcoming our newest members. William KI7QHW and Sam KI7YUX join the Bravo team, and Jesse KI7RQE and Eric KI7RUQ both join the Charlie team. Scott KE7PPM joins us as a supporting member. This brings our total active membership to 108.

What a fun camping trip! (Well maybe except for the rain on Sunday.) As most of you know, we met at a group campsite at Pine Point campground at Timothy Lake up on Mount Hood on Friday for a two night outing. The ARES trailer was on hand for some HF contacts and training. We put up the fan dipole antenna and had great SWR. The new slingshot antenna launcher was a big help getting high up into the trees.

In all we had 27 friends and family participate. Some stayed both nights, some only one night, and several visited during the day on Saturday. The Forest Service just lifted the campfire ban the day before our adventure so we had a rip roaring fire each night and morning. It was a bit chilly up there dipping into the upper 30s at night so the fire was a great place to warm up.

Saturday evening we all converged on the group picnic area for a potluck dinner. I somehow think camping food tastes better because of the good clean air and there was not a single dish that I tried that was not excellent. We are lucky to have such a wonderful group of folks who are great people, great hams, and great cooks, too.

Other news to report is that Ralph AG7FE has agreed to transition in as the new Alpha Team Leader! Robert WX5TEX will be training Ralph for the next few months and will take on the PIO position. A big thanks to Ralph for stepping up to fill this very important role!

Congratulations to Jim KA7AGH as he has earned his HF certification and to Ralph AG7FE who has earned his PRRO certification.

Join me in welcoming our newest member, Alex KI7ZPC, who will join the Alpha team. This brings our total active membership to 104!

Join me in welcoming our newest members. Donna AG7MO, Kim KI7RMK, William KI7YBK ,and Avi AE7ET will all be joining the Charlie Team. Jeff KI7TVE joins the Delta team, and Keith KI7VKM is a supporting member. Yay! We finally reached our 100 active members goal with a few extras bringing our membership to 103. Thanks to all our members for spreading the word! Our door is always open to new hams willing to help in an emergency. It is now time to set our sights on a new goal of 150 active members!

Summer has arrived with temperatures in the mid to upper 90s. I don’t know about you but I miss our more moderate temperatures and a little rain off and on just to keep us looking green. There is a serious fire danger again this summer as our spring rainfall was well below normal. Let’s hope we are fortunate and avoid any major forest fires.

In case you missed the last ARES meeting, we are holding our annual raffle with some great items. Tickets are $5 and support our trailer expense fund and also help pay for some of the food for our July 26 Go-Kit Show and Tell and parking lot BBQ. We will sell tickets at the event and the drawing will be later the same evening. Bring your appetite as Nate will be grilling up the beef and garden burgers, and hot dogs again this year. Feel free to bring something to share, but it is certainly not required.

We will all meet and set up in the fire station parking lot east of the usual spot. Bring your go-kits and set up your field station so we can all exchange ideas on radio go-boxes, power sources, portable antennas and masts, shelters, and more. If you don’t have a go kit, this a great way to see and hear about the different radio go-kits our very talented members have constructed, and to share ideas. The ARES trailer will be on site just in case you have not seen it yet. We will put up canopies for shade but you should bring a chair so you can sit and enjoy all the activities and food.

The July 28 Shelter in the Parks Drill is just around the corner. We know summer is a busy time for everyone and we appreciate those who have signed up to participate. We will be testing the new portable UHF repeater and continue our training with the digital go kits in the field.

Patti KB7GMM is doing a great job making sure we have some educational content on our weekly ARES net. She would love your suggestions. If you can think of a subject you would like to know more about, or one you would like to present, send her an email at KB7GMM [at] gmail [dot] com.

Join me in welcoming our newest members. Dave K7DTG and Jonathan KI7QNR both join the Alpha team, Ross K7AGA joins the Charlie team, and Scott KC7ZUH, Cindy KD7IXZ and Scott N7DOD all join the Echo team.

Good Bye and Good Luck to Bob Rosenbaum K7AAD who is moving to California to be closer to his family.

This brings our total active members to 99! We recently moved a couple of members to “inactive” as requested by team leaders, so that elusive 100 active members goal will need to wait a little longer, but not too long, I suspect.

Please join me in welcoming our newest member Nancy KI7WWD. Nancy will join the Charlie Team. This brings our total count to 96 active members:

Alpha team – 21
Bravo team – 18
Charlie team – 23
Delta team – 15
Echo team – 15
Mike Team – 4

In addition, we have 16 inactive members and 6 supporting members.