This winter we expect to hold at least one Winter Storm Net, either because a storm is forecast or just for practice. More details will be provided when we announce the Winter Storm Net.
Goals of Winter Storm Nets
- Supporting fellow MCARES members when weather or other conditions make the situation potentially dangerous or normal communications difficult.
- Providing a social connection when we’re housebound during or after a winter storm or something similar.
- Collecting informal situation reports to get a better handle on the scope of the situation.
The Winter Storm Net may be activated if the weather forecast includes features that may create power outages or loss of internet or cell phone service, such as:
- High winds
- Freezing rain
- Heavy snow
- Infrastructure issues like grid power outages, interruption of cellular
phone or internet service, low water pressure, low natural gas
pressure, flooded roads, or road closures.
If these conditions occur by surprise, (were not forecasted), the Winter Storm Net may also be activated.
MCARES leadership will determine, based on the above criteria, when a Winter Storm Net will be activated. They will assign net control operators and email MCARES members announcing when a net is planned. Winter Storm Nets will be held on the MC-3 (147.180 + offset, tone 103.5) repeater at 10:00 AM, 2:00 PM, and 8:00 PM unless otherwise stated in the email. A backup repeater or a simplex frequency may be included.
This month’s monthly meeting will be one week early, on Thursday, November 20 at 7:00 PM because of the Thanksgiving holiday. This month’s meeting will be a Winlink review with Dylan, N4LYD. We are transitioning to online Zoom meetings for the next several months. We will not have a December meeting.
The Leadership Team meets for a planning session for 2026 and review of 2025. We would welcome your comments and suggestions for possible training topics! You can email leadership [at] multnomahares [dot] org.
I hope you have a great Thanksgiving with friends and family!
Well, it seems official that we have fallen into Fall. Brrr! There are some pretty chilly mornings of late.
Thanks to all who participated in the Great Shakeout Winlink exercise on October 16!
We are looking forward to meeting in person at Portland Community College Southeast Campus Community Hall this Thursday, October 23, at 7:00 PM. This meeting will be a hybrid with Zoom available to those who are unable to attend in person. This will be the last in person meeting until Spring. This month’s meeting will be our annual message handling and forms refresher course with Eli W7ELI.
Thanks to all who participated in the annual Team Field exercise on September 6! It is important that we test the go kits and train on how to use them on a regular basis. For the most part this exercise went well and we will flush out a few issues that we found with the Bravo team kit. It was also great that the Alpha team operated from the county EOC to introduce a few new members of the operations there.
The new 2025 Oregon Regional VHF/UHF template is now published on our website. You can access it here. There are no changes to the Multnomah County frequencies however there are changes for our neighbor counties. Please program your radios to match the new 2025 template.
We are looking forward to meeting in person at Portland Community College southeast Campus/Community Hall on September 25 at 7:00 PM. This meeting will be a hybrid with Zoom available to those who are unable to attend in person. The Ultra Marathon planning team will be giving an overview of this season’s events. Joe, WA7FWC, will be on site to program go kit radios. Bring your radio or handheld and programming cable!
The new 2025 frequency templates have been posted to the website (Resources > Frequency Lists).
Please reprogram your radios soon!
We will not have our usual 4th Thursday meeting on August 28! Instead, we will have a Go Kit Show and Tell on Saturday, August 23 from 10 AM until 12 PM at the Portland Fire & Rescue Training Center at 4800 NE 122nd Avenue.
We are very excited to have both of our ARES trailers at this event. Many of you have not seen the west side “Red” trailer and now is your chance to see the amazing transformation by Joe and other Charlie team members. Please try to stop by for a tour of both trailers and bring and share your go kit design. If you are still planning to build one this is a great place to get a few ideas from your fellow members.
We have completed our summer 2025 Ultra Marathon race season. Thanks to all who helped out and a special thanks to our planning team: Jeff, Robert T., and Phyllis. The three races that we provided communications for seemed to go quite smoothly this year thanks to their oversight and planning! We hope to encourage more of our members to participate next year.
The GPS food drive this past weekend sure was fun and we were able to collect lots of much needed food items to donate to the Snowcap food pantry. I know the need is even greater this year with the lack of funding. Thank you to all who participated and helped us collect 235 pounds of food!
We are planning to be back at PCC Community Hall for our September and October meetings. Please plan on participating in our annual team field exercise on Saturday, September 6. Details will be coming soon.
This Saturday is our annual Member Appreciation Picnic! We hope you will join us at Wilshire Park, NE 33rd Avenue and NE Skidmore Street in Portland, at Picnic Area A, from 11:30 AM until 3:00 PM. We will be cooking up burgers and hot dogs, and will have plenty of cold drinks. Bring the family and a side dish or dessert to share if you would like. The weather is looking good for a mid-day gathering!
Thanks to all who helped out at the Mt. Hood Ultra-marathon this past weekend!
We will not be holding a General Meeting in July.
Happy summer (almost)!
Thanks to everyone who signed up to help out at the summer Ultra Marathons. The first event is this month at Mt. Hood near Parkdale. The WY’ East Wonder happens to fall on Field Day weekend.
If you are not joining us at Mt. Hood, we hope you all have a chance to join either Portland Amateur Radio Club (PARC) or Hoodview Amateur Radio Club (HARC) at their weekend events.
PARC will be at 32355 NW Beach Rd. in Hillsboro and HARC will be at Larch Mountain, east of Corbett.
Our monthly meeting will feature Bob W7JNM giving a presentation about SSTV. This is a hybrid meeting and we hope you can join us at Portland Community College SE campus, Community Hall or online with Zoom.
This month’s meeting will be online via Zoom and is one week early, on Thursday, November 16. We do not have a December membership meeting, however the Leadership team will meet to plan for next year. If you have suggestions for trainings for 2024, please email leadership [at] multnomahares [dot] org. We value your input!
We hope you will join us for the SKYWARN Recognition Day on December 2 at the Portland National Weather Service office.
Multnomah and Clackamas County ARES have been asked to partner in supporting the National Weather Service (NWS) SKYWARN Recognition Day. Last year we had a fun time, and the NWS staff are great to work with. The tour of their facility is really interesting. The event is scheduled to take place Saturday, December 2 at the Portland Weather Service office located at 5241 NE 122nd Avenue in Portland.
Operations will start at 8:00 AM and end at 4:00 PM. The Multnomah ARES Mobile Communications Unit will be set up in the parking area for operations, so you will be warm and dry. The goal is to make contacts with other participating NWS offices and SKYWARN members. Contacts will be made using HF, VHF, and Winlink. It is anticipated that two local repeaters will be used during the event.
Each 2.5 hour shift will include a radio operator and a logger. The operator and logger may switch off during their shift. Volunteers will also be needed to help with set up and take down before and after operating hours. Tours of the NWS office will take place at scheduled times during the day.
Members are encouraged to sign up for shifts.
We hope you can join us. Let’s show our support for the NWS SKYWARN program!