It is nearly time once again for the annual Walk MS event in Portland. Multnomah County ARES is honored to have been asked by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to provide communications support for their event again this year. In years past this event has been well regarded as a training and public service event for the Amateur Radio community.
The event takes place on Saturday, April 7 from approximately 08:00 to 14:00, and is held in downtown Portland along the Esplanade and in the World Trade Center Plaza.
To learn more, or to sign up to help, please visit the Walk MS Portland Communications Volunteer Registration Form.
Please join us for our general membership meeting on Thursday, March 22 at the Portland Fire and Rescue training center at 4800 NE 122nd Ave in Portland. There will be a Q&A session and informal gathering for new members from 18:15 to 19:00. The main meeting will run from 19:00 to 21:00. You do not need to be a member to attend – everyone is welcome!
We will meet in the main room at 19:00 for leadership updates and general business, and then break into two groups for introductory and advanced discussions about antennas. You are free to choose either session, based on your level of experience.
John KI7LYP will lead the intro session in the main room. Material will include the basic types of antennas, directional properties, polarization, and gain/losses. Nate NA7EE will lead the advanced session in the Annex, covering antennas, transmission lines, baluns, matching systems (tuners), and impedance. Material will include function, characteristics, and losses.
Additional information about our monthly meetings can be found on the meeting page.
I have been licensed since October 2017. Although I have only been licensed for a few months I have been exposed to ham radio for the past 38 years. My husband, John, has been operating since he was 13 years old. I did not have much interest in talking with Russia, etc. so my interest in amateur radio was low. My experience before this was CB and I found no real use in that. Since John joined ARES I have found my place in ham radio. ARES goes beyond talking to Russia and I embrace the Emergency Services portion of amateur radio. Looking forward to many more years of training and learning about the equipment, antennas, and operations of ARES.
An eighth-generation Oregonian, I was born and raised here in Portland. Keeping it local, I spent eight years working my way through college to graduate debt free from Portland State University. While at PSU I was introduced to Argentine tango dancing; through tango I met Kenny KF7NLF. Both Kenny and I have a passion for emergency preparedness and we became involved with CERT, NET, and then ARES.
Years ago my dad gave me an old radio, my first radio, but never told me its story. The display didn’t work, but it looked cool and had quite a few accessories so I tucked it away in my closet. Several years later when Kenny suggested I get my license I remembered the forgotten radio. Kenny worked his magic and got the display working and coaxed a few connectors into the right places so that I could operate off battery power again. With the display working we saw a call sign pop up, KC6OAM, and discovered that the radio used to belong to my grandfather! After several months of listening to chatter on the K7RPT repeater on that Kenwood TH-79A I started to study for my technician exam. Today my daily carry is a Baofeng BF-F9, and I’m looking at purchasing an affordable antenna to go with it, either a flexible HT
antenna or a mag mount for my car.
Most recently I’ve worked as a business systems analyst in an IT Finance department until December, 2016. My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer that December and I’ve been fortunate enough to have quality time with her as she’s gone through treatment. Her chemo should be wrapping up sometime in June. Currently I’m in a two-year program to become a fertility awareness educator with my internship in teaching menstrual cycle charting starting soon. I’m greatly anticipating supporting people in their journey towards body literacy, natural birth control that is 99.6% effective, and helping to optimize their fertility journey if they are trying to conceive.
Right now I’m about to start some seeds for my family’s annual vegetable garden. Nothing beats homemade marinara sauce made with homegrown tomatoes, basil, and garlic. Being vegan, I get really enthusiastic about my homegrown veggies, but I also have a weakness for chocolate; I highly recommend the salted caramel truffles from Missionary Chocolates. Other ways I spend my time include reading, knitting (my next big project will be an afghan made from alpaca yarn sourced within the Pacific Northwest Fibershed), and making my own soda from water kefir grains.
As a relatively new radio operator I’ve really enjoyed the supportive learning environment that Multnomah County ARES has created. Having so many knowledgeable people and such a robust training program is a real asset, especially when one is just getting started in radio. I’m looking forward to continuing to learn about ham radio and emergency management as I serve as your Net Manager.
Welcome to our newest members! Cory KI7RMG will join the Alpha team, Edie W7ELC joins the Charlie team, Paul KI7ADC joins the Delta team, and Ryan KI7QBR and Chris KG7ADQ both join the Echo team. This brings our total of active members to 85. WOW! Perhaps we will reach the magic number of 100 this year.
Our January 25 General Meeting had a record attendance of 74 people! What a great way to start the
New Year.
The Winlink training was well received and prepared us for the Saturday Drill from Home on January 27. We were burning up the air waves with Winlink traffic all around the county. We were very interested to see how the Winlink email forwarding would work from the ARES trailer. The messages sent to Nathan through the N7MCU gateway were held and then forwarded via Pactor to HF gateways in Nevada and Utah. This demonstrates our ability to get the messages out if no local Internet is available. Thanks to everyone who participated and a special thanks to our team leaders and shelter leaders who had their hands full replying to all the traffic. In all we had 45 members working from home and in the
field.
The next weekend, Saturday, February 3, was the copper J-pole build held by our training manager, John KI7LYP. In all, 14 people went home with a new antenna all tuned and ready to go. There was much excitement as everyone learned to cut and solder simple copper pipe into a nifty new antenna ready to boost their radio signal. We hope to hear these new antennas in our next simplex test. If you missed out on the February build session, John is keeping a list of interested folks for another weekend workshop. You can contact him at training [at] multnomahares [dot] org.
Finally we have received all the materials for the repeater kits and the build process has started. There will be one full-on portable UHF repeater and two portable VHF/UHF kits that can either cross-band repeat or be digipeaters. These kits have robust power options with big 105 amp-hour batteries, solar charging, and propane converted Honda inverter generators. The antenna and mast systems are also robust with Diamond X50 antennas and tripod masts that can reach over 30 feet in height. Testing with these kits should start this Spring.
On Saturday, February 24 from 12:00 to 16:00, I will be conducting a Hardware Workshop. This will be a show and tell type session with plenty of hardware to touch and talk about! There will be a presentation about many of the different types of hardware used in ham radio stations, what they do, and when you need or don’t need them. Some of the items will include antenna tuners, TNCs, antenna switches, SWR meters, amplifiers, keyers, antenna analyzers, and many more.
After the presentation, there will be a Q&A session, then some additional time to actually see various pieces of equipment.
Attendance will be limited to 20 attendees with priority given to active MCARES members although all hams or interested parties are invited if space permits. Contact training [at] multnomahares [dot] org to sign up and get location details.
This session will be repeated on June 2.
Please join us for our general membership meeting on Thursday, February 22 at the Portland Fire and Rescue training center at 4800 NE 122nd Ave in Portland. There will be a Q&A session and informal gathering for new members from 18:15 to 19:00. The main meeting will run from 19:00 to 21:00. You do not need to be a member to attend – everyone is welcome!
We will meet in the main room at 19:00 for leadership updates and general business, and then break into two groups for introductory and advanced discussions of radio operations. You are free to choose either session, based on your level of experience.
John KI7LYP will lead the intro session in the main room, where he will cover the basics of operating VHF and UHF FM using local repeaters and simplex. Robert WX5TEX will lead the advanced session in the Annex. He will discuss HF operations, focusing on propagation and MUF, SSB operations, and a brief mention of digital modes in use on HF.
Additional information about our monthly meetings can be found on the meeting page.
Join me in welcoming our newest members. Nick KI7PTT has joined the Bravo team, Barbara KI7QLC has joined the Charlie team, Ken KI7RUN has joined the Echo team, and Ed KI7QID has joined the Charlie team. Jeremy W7BIO has also joined and is an employee with Multnomah County; he will be listed as a Supporting member.
Originally licensed as WN7ULT when I was 13, I have always had an interest in radios and electronics. My hobby and ham radio lead me through school and into a career in the US Navy working on communications and radar equipment. My entry into the Navy was busy with boot camp, dating and marrying my wife Patti KB7GMM, but then things settled and I returned to ham radio with my new Tech license WH6AVQ.
I finally worked up my CW speed and upgraded to General class (KH6XG) and, with the new privileges and also a Navy MARS license, I spent many hours, both on ships and ashore, running phone patches for sailors all over the Pacific as well as working the DX stations and acquiring quite a collection of QSL cards from all over the world (my favorites are still my QSL cards from the islands of Vanuatu and Naru).
After retiring from the Navy, I continued to work in computers and electronics and to this day, I still enjoy finding and repairing old communications equipment.
In late 2015, I was recruited into the Multnomah County ARES group, and I finally gave up my well used Hawaiian call and went back to a 7 district call, KI7LYP.
