Great news! We have received a small grant and the City of Gresham is in the process of purchasing six laptops to increase our digital capabilities. We should receive these and get them set up in the next couple of weeks.
For the Spring SET, we will activate the Gresham EOC for two hours on Friday, April 22. Expect activation around 3:00 PM. This is a 24-hour SET, and with the Walk MS event the following day, we have decided to activate the served agencies on Friday.
In case you haven’t heard, Gresham ECC was issued our station callsign, which is WG7EOC.
We will be having an HF operator certification session at the Gresham ECC on Saturday, March 12, from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM. This is open to all ARRO certified MCARES members. To attend this session, contact Robert WX5TEX at RGAnglin [at] gmail [dot] com.
We are looking to staff several locations in the east half of Multnomah County, including several Gresham Fire stations as well as Troutdale and Fairview. If you or someone you know is interested in working on a team on the east side, contact Robert.
Have you been wishing Multnomah ARES would have a fun family social event? Have you been wanting to get your feet wet in HF operation, but don’t know where to start? Are you experienced with HF operation and ready to get your HF Operator Certification? Have you actually tried using your go-kit? On August 15 and 16, Multnomah ARES is holding our first (hopefully, annual) Radio Camp Out!
Nestled among the Douglas fir trees and flanked by the Zig Zag River, the Tollgate Campground is an easy drive, less than an hour east of Portland on Highway 26, just two miles outside of Rhododendron. We have reserved a couple of tent campsites for those who would like to make the most of the weekend and stay overnight Saturday night.
There is a $5 day-use parking fee, or $8 to stay overnight. Also be aware that there are no utilities available at this campground, but there is a beautiful river!
We will be taking our new ARES trailer up into the Mount Hood Wilderness to test its capabilities as a remote communications station. In addition to the trailer, we will have a couple of portable HF stations set up to provide HF training and certification for those who want it. We will hold training sessions on the afternoon of Saturday, August 15 and on the morning of Sunday, August 16. We will also set up a 2 meter base station so hikers can stay in touch on their HTs.
Space is limited, so if you would like to attend either one of the training sessions or camp out with us overnight, please reserve your spot soon by emailing Robert WX5TEX at RGAnglin [at] gmail [dot] com.
We think this will be a super fun weekend and hope you will make the short trip to join us! Not only will you gain valuable experience in HF operation, but this will also be a great opportunity to test out your go-kit and have some fun in the woods with fellow ARES campers!
As part of a Geology class at PSU, I finally had the pleasure of making the trip to the north side of Mount St. Helens to study the effects of the 1980 eruption. As a geology “hobbyist” and a member of ARES/RACES, my interest in the eruption is two-fold: how did the eruption occur and how did nearby communities deal with the event? As our luxurious tour bus meandered through the small town of Castle Rock, Washington, I had a moment of foreshadowing: an abandoned cinderblock shack, being overgrown by trees and blackberries with the words “REACT, CH 9″ painted in bright blue.
Our first stop of the day was the Mount St. Helens Visitor Center at Silver Lake, where our visit started off with a 15 minute video of the eruption which focused on 3 of the lives lost in the event: David Johnston, geologist; Harry Truman, resident; and Gerry Martin, ARES radio operator. Although I was exhausted from the early morning adventure, I was jolted awake.
Gerry Martin W6TQF was an amateur radio operator with ARES/RACES, volunteering for the Washington Department of Emergency Services. While geologist David Johnston was monitoring the activity from a ridge six miles to the north of Mount St. Helens on what is now Johnston Ridge, Gerry Martin was on the next ridge two miles to the north using the tactical callsign “Coldwater 2”.
“Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it!”
While David Johnston uttered those words which were never heard by the USGS office before his station went silent, Gerry Martin was able to provide a detailed report of the eruption and landslide to the WDES and stated, “The camper and the car just over to the south of me are covered, it’s going to get me too”. Then silence.
There was a second ham radio operator nearby, Reid Blackburn KA7AMF, who was also a photographer for the Vancouver Columbian, stationed on a ridge even closer to Mount St. Helens. He was never able to get a transmission out.
Throughout the eruption on May 18, a total of 300 Washington ARES volunteers passed over 3,000 messages including both health and welfare traffic and situational information as the lahar decimated the Toutle and Cowlitz river valleys.
I was very glad to see that the story of these volunteers is not forgotten and is still being told at the St. Helens Visitor Center. It also gave me an opportunity to introduce ham radio and ARES to a few classmates.
The Mount St. Helens Visitor Center is located 5 miles off I-5 on Highway 504. They are open seven days a week from 10 AM to 5 PM, and admission is $5.
I grew up in a small dusty town outside of Lubbock, Texas. Growing up out there, my dad and several other family members were on the Lubbock Fire Department and that must be where my interest in emergency response grew up. Most of my memories from growing up out there revolved around the incredible thunderstorms and tornadoes we frequently had. As a firefighter, my dad would often have to go out to give field reports as my mom and I huddled indoors. In fact, my earliest memory is of the time I was playing outside with our next door neighbor, and suddenly running inside to tell my mother that the “sky didn’t look right” only to have our house directly hit by a tornado seconds later.
A couple years later, my dad bought me an electronic experiment set, which included instructions for building your own AM receiver. To be able to put together a few parts and be able to pick up radio signals blew my mind, and I spent my teenage years trying to pick up radio signals from greater and greater distances.
Fast forward to 1997, when I started college in Dallas, Texas. My best friend and I decided we wanted to start chasing and photographing storms, particularly lightning and tornadoes. After risking our lives doing that for a couple of years, I learned about the NWS Skywarn program. I couldn’t sign up fast enough, so in 2000, I studied for two weeks and got my ham radio license and joined the South Plains Storm Spotting team. This team was unique in that we covered 19 counties in West Texas, and along with working directly with the National Weather Service, we also worked with the Severe Storm Research teams at Texas Tech, Oklahoma State University, and several local TV stations.
About a year later, after the Sept 11 terrorist attacks, a couple members of the city council came to our ham radio club and asked us to put together the first ARES group in West Texas, which I was honored to assist in doing.
Eventually, I moved up to Oregon and due to the lack of exciting storms, my activity level in ham radio drastically diminished, until last year when my schedule finally provided me the time to dedicate to the Multnomah ARES unit. I am excited and honored to be working with a team of people that are so well organized, dynamic, and awesome in order to provide the county & state with what I consider one of the top ARES teams in the US!
Outside of ham radio, I am currently trying to finish a communications degree at PSU and am in the process of restarting my photography business. I also do security consulting, risk and threat assessments, and a little executive protection. I love camping, shooting, and am excited to announce that my wife and I are expecting our first child this fall.