I am very pleased to announce that John KI7LYP is going to assume the position of Training Manager effective December 1. John brings a good deal of technical know-how and training experience and he’s a really nice guy! I will continue to do the ARRO certification workshops, and have more time to devote to the Echo Team as team leader.
Author: Eli W7ELI
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Training & Certification News
A look ahead: The October general meeting will have a panel of the folks who went to Grant County for the Eclipse. The November meeting will have a demonstration of making a copper j-pole antenna. This will be followed up in January with a Saturday workshop. Participants will be charged a small fee for parts and will go home with an antenna.
Women’s Ham Radio Technician Class taught by women for women – six sessions: October 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, and 21. Contact Barbara Yasson at AC7UH [at] arrl [dot] net to sign up.
Hoodview ARC Technician Classes will be held November 4 and continue on November 11 from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM at Mt. Hood Community College’s Fisheries building. Testing is on November 18 at 9:00 AM. Classes are free, but the book is $22 and the VE test is $15. The textbook, “Ham Radio School” by Stu Turner, is available online. To register, email Cory at ka7iug [at] frontier [dot] com.
The October 5 ARRO Basics and October 19 Traffic Handling workshops are for MCARES members only. All active members who want a refresher are welcome to attend. Please let me know at eliza [dot] pride [at] gmail [dot] com if you plan to attend so I can have enough trainers present. New members must have completed the three online FEMA classes, IS-100, IS-700, and IS-200, prior to attending the workshops.
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How to Earn Your Net Control Certificate
Earning your Net Control and Field Operator (NCFO) certificate is a self-led process.
- Go to the Training page and print out the task list.
- Complete the FEMA online IS 800 class and send the certificate to me at eliza [dot] pride [at] gmail [dot] com.
- In some order, serve as net control for:
- A regularly scheduled weekly net – preferably our own Wednesday night net, but the D-1 or NTTN net work too. CC a copy of your net report to me
- AND Either two MCARES exercises or team drills, or an exercise/team drill and a public service event. Have the team leader or person in charge at the net control location sign off your task list for each of these net control experiences. Be sure one of them checks off the items on page two of the task list and the two items under “Knowledge.”
- Verify with your team leader that you have a complete 72 hour go kit and have them sign that off on your task list.
- Send your completed task list to me.
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Training & Certification News
The updated Training Plan and its summary have been posted to the website under Training. The update reflects changes at the state level. The ARRO Task List has also been updated, to be more in line with what is actually presented at the Basics Workshop.
The next ARRO workshops will be Thursdays, October 5 and 19. If you do not have your ARRO Certificate, please save these dates. Until then, be working on completing the IS-100, IS-200, and IS-700 online FEMA classes.
Please email me your completion certificates (to eliza [dot] pride [at] gmail [dot] com) as you get them so I know you are making progress. New members have one year from their join date to complete the FEMA classes and the two workshops.
Out of our 81 active members, 73 are ARRO certified. That is AWESOME! Also, 19 have Net Control certificates, 24 are HF certified, and 21 have their Packet RMS certificates.
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Training & Certification News
If you are or would like to be working on getting your HF, RMS Packet, or Net Control certifications, please email me at eliza [dot] pride [at] gmail [dot] com. I’ll will get you hooked up with the appropriate trainers.
The Basics and Traffic workshops in May are for those members who are not yet ARRO certified. If you have not already registered, please email me. The Amateur Radio Public Service Handbook is now available at Multnomah County Library. If you have a library card, you can go on-line and place a hold on it.
General Licenses Classes through Hoodview Amateur Radio Club
Hoodview Amateur Radio Club provides structured classes so that it becomes easy for you to pass your General class exam. We have had great success in helping students with the Technician material and now we are starting a General class. General classes will start on May 6 and will continue on May 13, with testing on May 18 at Mt. Hood Community College’s Fisheries building. Classes are from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. We will have a VE session on the last day at 9:00 AM. Classes are free, but the book is $22 and the VE test is $15. Textbook: “Ham Radio School” by Stu Turner (available online; be sure to get the General book). A limited number of books are available from Cory. Call 503-781-9095 to get your book prior to class. To register, call or email Cory (ka7iug [at] frontier [dot] com). -
Training News
Have technical questions? Call or email your team leaders! If they can’t help you, they will refer you to someone who can.
Want to get your General ticket? Hoodview Amateur Radio Club is offering General Class ham classes on May 6 and 13 with testing on the 20th. Contact Cory at ka7iug [at] frontier [dot] com or Jim at 503-702-2760.
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Echo/Bravo Team Drill Recap
The Echo/Bravo Team Drill on Saturday, March 11 went very well. The Bravo Team operated with three team members and Matthew, team leader, at the PBEM ECC and a three member field team simulating a shelter. Special thanks to Joe WA7FWC from the Charlie Team for heading up the field team and teaching the three Bravo team members how to operate the digital go kit.
The Echo Team had two members plus myself at the Gresham EOC and two members at Gresham Fire Station 74. This was the first time we have operated Winlink from a fire station. Joel N7LF ran net control from the trailer. All three Echo locations had some equipment difficulties but we managed to solve or work around the issues and got the job done as planned.
I was very pleased to see how well everyone did with message and station logs! Nice job! I will point out that each station should only log the messages they send or receive at that station, not every message handled in the entire drill.
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Training & Certification News
Due to weather and other issues, the ARRO Basics workshop that was scheduled for February 11 had to be canceled. It will happen on February 25. The ARRO Traffic Handling and Logging workshop will be on March 18. Both workshops are from 9:30 AM to 12:00 PM at the Portland Fire & Rescue Training Center where our monthly general meetings are held. To attend these workshops you must have a membership form on file and have submitted completion certificates for the online FEMA classes IS-100, IS-200, and IS-700. Preregistration is also required to ensure there are enough trainers present to get everyone through by noon. To register, contact me at eliza [dot] pride [at] gmail [dot] com.
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Training News
Steve AF7DD is stepping back from the Training Manager position, so once again I am filing that role. Thanks to Steve for all his service and hard work this past year. Steve will still be around and has some other projects he will continue to work on.
This year’s training calendar has been built around the needs of the county and the requests of our membership from the fall survey. We are only including training subjects pertinent to our ARES mission and so some of the requests have not been addressed. We do not use D-Star, IRLP, or Echolink. Those interested in these modes can seek information of these subjects from the local clubs, Google, YouTube, and the many ARRL publications and online resources.
Portland Bureau of Emergency Management has many excellent resources on their website regarding personal, family and neighborhood disaster preparedness. It is each ARES member’s responsibility to be as prepared as is possible and reasonable so that you and your family will be safe, and you will be able to serve when needed.
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New Traffic Handling Training Net
As of October 25, MCARES now hosts a semi-monthly Traffic Handling Training Net (THTN). The net meets the second and fourth Tuesday of every month at 20:00 on the Portland Amateur Radio Club (PARC) 147.180 MHz (103.5 Hz Tone) repeater. This is not one of the standard MC# repeaters so you will need to program this new frequency and tone into your radio. Eli, W7ELI, is the net manager and net members will be encouraged to volunteer for net control. This is a practice net only. Messages will not go beyond this net and will not be delivered.
We will practice sending by voice ICS 213 messages as well as NTS formatted messages, and we will practice logging these messages on the ICS 309 form. The net will include discussion of voice traffic handling and suggestions for improving one’s traffic sending and message formatting. Questions are encouraged and mistakes are simply a learning opportunity.
You can make up your own messages to send on the net, but we also have some sample messages available. Traffic handling guides and information can be found in the Traffic Handling section of our Training page. ICS 213 and 309 forms can be found on the Docs page.
