The January VHF Contest starts at 11:00 AM on Saturday, January 19. Even a few minutes of participation will help anyone practice phonetics, become familiar with their radio, what frequencies to use, exchanges, antennas, etc. There will be LOTS of simplex activity on 2m FM (146.520, .540, .560, and .580) and some on 70cm (446.000). Even simple antennas and an HT from the kitchen table will make some contacts – higher elevations will be even better – so have some fun with it! The exchange is Grid Square with the Portland Metro Area being in CN85.
There will also be even MORE activity on SSB on 50.125, 144.200, and 432.100 MHZ if you are able.
Multnomah ARES has decided to participate in Winter Field Day this year and would love to have you join us.
Winter Field Day is similar to the big ARRL Field Day in June, but a little smaller and definitely much colder – a perfect opportunity to not only get some on-air operating experience, but to also try out your go-kit and see how ready you really are to operate in less than ideal conditions.
Winter Field Day takes place on January 26 & 27, however we will only be operating on Saturday, January 26, from 09:00 until around 17:00, depending on how many people we have on site. We will be located at the picnic shelter at the top of Scouters Mountain in Happy Valley – SE Boy Scout Lodge Rd & Southeast 147th Ave, Happy Valley, OR 97086
While this is the coldest part of the year, this will definitely be a fun event, and don’t worry, we will have tents, heaters, warm drinks, and hot chili on hand to warm you up.
Please let us know if you plan on attending, we hope to see you there!
Happy New Year, ARES!
I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday season. Now that the year has turned over, it’s time to get back into the swing of things. The leadership team has been working over the last month to put together a great plan and operating calendar for the upcoming year. To get the year off to a fast start, we will be participating in Winter Field Day as a unit for the first time.
The training at the general membership meeting on January 24 will be on Winlink, to get us ready for our next drill on Feb 9. We felt last year’s drill from home using the Winlink system was a valuable experience, so that format will be duplicated for this drill with the addition of a resource net.
The annual survey indicated you wanted more operating time so that is one of the key drivers of ARES this year. We all love to operate and doing so as often as possible is important for remaining sharp as a unit. We have forgone two-team drills this year in order to concentrate on drills as a full ARES unit. The goal will be to have some form of event members can participate in each month. This is not to say that we need everyone at every drill or event, but there should be more than enough opportunity for everyone to remain active.
Coordinating an operating event or drill for the entire unit is a big lift, planning-wise. Thanks to all those who expressed interest in this task in the survey. We’ll work on incorporating those folks as we proceed.
There are so many items I’d love to cover here, but instead I will take a large chunk of February’s general membership meeting to review continuing operating strategies and our upcoming year. For now, please review your kits, make sure your Winlink Express applications are up to date, and I look forward to seeing you all soon.
Please join me in welcoming our newest members. William (Bill) KG7GMR joins the Charlie team and Linda K7LJB joins the Bravo team.
Congratulations to MCARES for taking first place in the Statewide ARES 2018 Fall SET MacGyver task! It was a great team effort and we had 31 members help in the many roles of the relay. The grand prize was a SignaLink which we have already received. It will go to the Gresham EOC radio room.
We also completed the other elements of the SET and had many HF checkins from members at home. Robert did a fantastic job putting together a video documenting our approach to the MacGyver task. A special thanks to Adam and Carrie who were unable to attend but worked long hours on writing the drill guide to make sure we all knew what we were doing. Way to go everyone!
This was the last big exercise for the year and now we can all kick back and enjoy the holiday season. The final general membership meeting for the year will be November 29 and there will be no December meeting. The Leadership team meets on December 2 for a day-long planning session for 2019. The new training calendar will be decided as will be dates and times for special drills and events. The ARES newsletter will also resume in January.
Thanks to all our members for making 2018 one of our best. We increased our membership to 115 members and worked together to train and to become one of the best ARES units in the state!
Our annual survey should have hit the inbox of all our active members on October 29. It takes about 15 minutes to fill out and is very important to the leadership team in planning for the coming year. If you have not submitted your survey yet, please do so. If you can’t find it, email me at eliza [dot] pride [at] gmail [dot] com and I will resend it.
The first part of the survey makes sure we have up to date contact information for you. The next section wants to know what you are able to do with your own equipment at your home, with your field go kit, and on the road. Next we ask your confidence level in performing various tasks. And finally we want to know how we are doing, what changes you would like to see, and how you can contribute. We read every comment and rely on this survey to shape the coming year’s training and activities
Join me in welcoming our newest members.
Alpha Team: Evan K7FOS
Bravo Team: Laura KI7ZZQ
Charlie Team: Brian KG7QAC and Kandy KG7QAD
This brings our total active membership to 113!
There was such a huge interest in my HF-101 class I offered back in July, I’m offering it again on November 17!
The location is yet to be determined as I’m waiting to see how many people are able to make it. I usually leave the class to a very small group of 4 or 5 folks so everyone can get plenty of on-air time, but since there was such a big interest in my July class, I’m thinking this time I’ll try to get everyone in to one big session, minus the individual radio time. But don’t worry, it will still be just as fun and informative.
What is HF-101? This class is designed for people who just upgraded to a general class license or those who are interested in upgrading. This class does not prepare you to take the General class test, rather it gives you a practical understanding of how to actually operate on HF, with a big emphasis on propagation and space weather. For those studying to upgrade, it does help solidify some of the concepts on the test, but is not a substitute for studying.
Again, the class will be on Saturday, Nov 17, starting at 9:30 and going until 1:00 at the latest.
To enroll, email me at RGAnglin [at] gmail [dot] com.
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.
Thirteen members completed their ARRO training this month:
- Alpha Team: Jonathan KI7QNR and Alex KE7SIN
- Bravo Team: Shawn AG7JZ, Lee KI7QHW, and Matthew KI7RLP
- Charlie Team: Kim KI7RMK, Donna AG7MO, Eric KI7RUQ, Brian KG7QAC, and Edie W7ELC
- Delta Team: Jeff KI7TVE
- Echo Team: Cindy KD7IXZ and Scott KD7ZUH
- Supporting Member: Keith KI7VKM.
Congratulations to all!
