News from Around the County

by Deb KK7DEB on 2018-06-18

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!

Tagged as: Field Day

HF 101 Workshop

by Robert WX5TEX on 2018-06-08

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).

June Hardware Workshop Date Change

by John KI7LYP on 2018-05-25

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.

Membership News

by Deb KK7DEB on 2018-05-20

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.

MultCoARES Field Day

by Nathan NA7EE on 2018-05-14

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!

Tagged as: Field Day

Net News

by Rachel KI7NMB on 2018-05-09

The monthly Simplex Net has moved to the second Wednesday of every month. The Traffic Handling Training Net (THTN) will be once a month on the fourth Tuesday at 8:00 PM (147.180MHz, 103.5Hz tone).

HF 101 Workshop

by Robert WX5TEX on 2018-05-04

Whether you are considering upgrading to a general class license or recently upgraded, the HF 101 workshop will help you make sense of the world below 30 MHz. This isn’t a test prep 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 Anglin (rganglin [at] gmail [dot] com).

Membership News

by Deb KK7DEB on 2018-04-26

Welcome to our newest members!

Alpha Team: Kenn KA7VQH
Bravo Team: Shawn AG7JZ and Roy KI7PKL
Charlie Team: Grant N0FFF

News from Around the County

by Deb KK7DEB on 2018-04-21

A big thanks to all who participated in Walk MS and the Spring SET! They say a picture is worth a thousand words so enjoy all the photos of MCARES in action.

We know for sure now that we will be operating for Field Day on June 23 and 24 at Willamette Park. I hope you all can come and do a little HF operating.

Skywarn Weather Spotter Training

by Robert WX5TEX on 2018-04-16

Lets face it, our weather is pretty mild here compared to the rest of the country. The northern states get feet and feet of snow, the Midwest is famous for tornadoes and large hail, and the Gulf and East coasts get pummeled by hurricanes every year. That’s not to say we don’t get severe weather and shouldn’t be prepared, especially for those who live in the eastern half of the county. Because of this, I would like to encourage everyone to become a Skywarn spotter for the National Weather Service, as we may be called upon to provide additional real-time weather updates to both the Multnomah County Office of Emergency Management and the NWS Portland office.

The NWS Portland office just released their 2018 training schedule, and while there isn’t an in-person training opportunity yet in Multnomah County, there is an online Skywarn webinar on May 2 from 18:00-19:00. For more information or to sign up, go to the Weather Spotter Training page on the NWS website. There is also a class in Washington County scheduled for Monday, May 14, and I will advertise additional classes as they become available.