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 custom briefcases and clipboards purchased for us by Multnomah County Emergency Management have arrived! If you missed last month’s meeting, you can get yours at the July meeting. If you are a new member and have not yet completed your training, we will save yours for you.
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.
Echo team helped Vista House at Crown Point celebrate its 100 year anniversary by holding a public outreach and training event on July 14. We had an outreach table set up in Vista House with flyers and the orange go-kit, and team members to answer questions and invite folks to tour the MCARES trailer which was in full operation in the parking lot.
The yellow digital kit was set up with another public outreach table under a tree by the river at Rooster Rock State Park just down the hill.
Everyone got a chance to try some image transfer with MMSSTV and to work gateway and peer-to-peer Winlink, so it was a great training exercise as well.
Thanks to Deb KK7DEB for bringing the trailer and handling the training there and to John KI7LYP and Patti KB7GMM for handling the Rooster Rock PR and training. Appreciation also goes to Tom KE7JTM and Ken KI7RUN for helping to coordinate with Vista House and Oregon State Parks. And thanks to all the participating Echo team members who put in a total of 42 volunteer hours on a very hot Saturday!
Our annual campout is coming up on the weekend of September 14-16. This is the highlight of the year and a reward for all our hard work through the busy spring and summer. Come for the whole weekend or just for the day on Saturday. If you like to camp, operate HF, or just relax with friends, this is the place to be. The trailer will be there and most likely another HF station or two. You may even earn your HF Operator certificate.
We will be in the group site at the Pine Point Campground on the shores of Timothy Lake. The site allows tents and RVs (no hookups) and has drinking water and vault toilets. The campground is easily accessible by car. To get there, travel east on Highway 26 for approximately 40 miles past the city of Sandy to Skyline Road/Road 42. Turn right on Skyline Road and continue south for about 9 miles. Turn right on Forest Service Road 57 and travel west for 2 miles, then turn right again at the Pine Point Campground entrance sign.
The cost is $20 per person to cover the campsite fee. Campers are expected to provide for their own breakfast and lunch. Dinner Friday and Saturday are group potluck events. Email Robert at RGAnglin [at] gmail [dot] com for reservations.
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.
Come one, come all to Field Day! For those of you unfamiliar with Field Day, from the ARRL:
Every June, more than 40,000 hams throughout North America set up temporary transmitting stations in public places to demonstrate ham radio’s science, skill and service to our communities and our nation. It combines public service, emergency preparedness, community outreach, and technical skills all in a single event. Field Day has been an annual event since 1933, and remains the most popular event in ham radio. This outing is the largest event for radio groups interested in field operations.
This will be the first year that Multnomah County ARES will be operating independently for this event. It’s a big deal for us, as it is pretty rare that we operate and perform outreach over an entire weekend.
Drop by Willamette Park at SW Macadam & SW Nebraska Street on Saturday June 23 from 11:00 AM until Sunday June 24 at 11:00 AM and experience the fun! The ARES trailer will be there with a GOTA (get on the air) station so you can give HF a try with an experienced control operator, no matter what your license class. You can visit two other on site field stations to see what HF modes they are operating and visit the outreach tent to see what they are up to. We also have the picnic shelter reserved so you can sit and enjoy a picnic and visit with other members. If you would like to join the potluck dinner, check your email for the signup sheet that was sent on May 31. We hope to see you there!
The MCARES raffle is back this year. Come to the June ARES meeting to see what we have for you. Tickets are $5 and all proceeds benefit our July “go-kit show and tell” BBQ and help purchase propane for the thirsty ARES trailer generators.
The custom briefcases and clipboards purchased for us by Multnomah County Emergency Management have arrived! We will be distributing them to our ARRO certified members at the June ARES meeting on June 28. If you are a new member and have not yet completed your training, we will save yours for you!
Whether you are considering upgrading to a general class license or recently upgraded, the HF 101 workshop on Saturday, July 7 will help you make sense of the world below 30 MHz. This isn’t a test preparation class but will give participants some hands on experience on the HF bands to help demystify many aspects of HF operation. To sign up, contact Robert WX5TEX (rganglin [at] gmail [dot] com).
A number of people have indicated they can’t attend the hardware workshop on June 2 due to a conflict with Sea-Pac. I am going to move the hardware workshop so that members can attend Sea-Pac and still be able to attend the workshop.
The hardware workshop will now be from noon until 4 PM on Saturday the 16th of June at the same location. If you would like to attend, please email me (training [at] multnomahares [dot] org). I hope this is a better date for everyone.
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.
For those unfamiliar with Field Day, the ARRL explains:
Every June, more than 40,000 hams throughout North America set up temporary transmitting stations in public places to demonstrate ham radio’s science, skill and service to our communities and our nation. It combines public service, emergency preparedness, community outreach, and technical skills all in a single event. Field Day has been an annual event since 1933, and remains the most popular event in ham radio.
This outing is the largest event for radio groups interested in field operations. This will be the first year that Multnomah ARES will be operating independently for this event. It’s a big deal for us, as it is pretty rare that we operate and perform outreach over an entire weekend. I will attempt to outline the broad plan here, especially for those who have not operated during Field Day before.
Multnomah ARES has extended an invitation to the Portland NET AROs to operate with us for this event. We will be operating from Saturday Morning on June 23 until Sunday Morning, June 24. We will need to loft the antennas and set up the stations before the operating commences. I plan on performing these actions on Saturday; no pre-staging on Friday will occur.
We will be operating from the picnic shelter at Willamette Park (off Macadam Ave). Our operating location was chosen for the large amount of foot traffic – the main goal of Field Day is outreach! I have tested Willamette Park for RF noise and skywave propagation (sufficient topographic clearance for takeoff angles). I was able to get contacts in Texas, Arizona, the East Coast, and Japan from this site, so I’m sure that our radio operations will be successful.
We will be operating two stations for points, a GOTA station, and potentially a VHF station during the event. Setup will be interesting, and require some forethought. We are not allowed to sink stakes in this location, the area is somewhat cramped for large antennas, and the parking near the picnic shelter is metered and limited. That said, there is permanent plumbing, shore power, tons of passers-by and a beautiful view of the river. We’ll work through the difficulties and leverage the positives of the park.
We will have a lot of work to do to make this event a success, but we have a ton of awesome and motivated folks in our radio unit. The leadership team will be reaching out for assistance, but many hands will make light work. Stay tuned for updates, and I hope to see everyone on June 23!