Several new members have joined recently. Please welcome Eric KI7MOH, Judy KF7DBN, Dylan KF7KXT, Ken KI7EIH and Rachel KI7NMB. Also Richard KF7INQ has returned and is now an active member. We continue to grow and are expanding our abilities to serve the needs of Multnomah County and our communities.
The updated Training Plan and its summary have been posted to the website under Training. The update reflects changes at the state level. The ARRO Task List has also been updated, to be more in line with what is actually presented at the Basics Workshop.
The next ARRO workshops will be Thursdays, October 5 and 19. If you do not have your ARRO Certificate, please save these dates. Until then, be working on completing the IS-100, IS-200, and IS-700 online FEMA classes.
Please email me your completion certificates (to eliza [dot] pride [at] gmail [dot] com) as you get them so I know you are making progress. New members have one year from their join date to complete the FEMA classes and the two workshops.
Out of our 81 active members, 73 are ARRO certified. That is AWESOME! Also, 19 have Net Control certificates, 24 are HF certified, and 21 have their Packet RMS certificates.
The ARES trailer made its second appearance at Sea-Pac this month. Thanks to all of our members who joined the outreach effort. We were all certainly very busy giving trailer tours and talking with other hams. Brian’s HSMM display was also very popular. One fellow, who recently moved to Oregon from Eastern Washington, told me he wished he had moved to Multnomah County as the trailer is “really awesome.” Many other groups expressed interest because they too are working on building a mobile Communications trailer. It is so much fun to share our trailer building experience with others!
A special thanks to Multnomah County Emergency Management for funding four additional digital go-kits. The ordering is underway and once everything is gathered together we will build these new kits.
ARRL Field Day is coming on June 24 and 25. We hope everyone will stop by either Portland Amateur Radio Club at Kelly Butte in Portland or Hoodview Amateur Radio Club up on Larch Mountain. It will be a great opportunity to get on the air and make some contacts. Both of these clubs put on a great display of many different antennas and operating modes.
The City of Gresham has donated an Yaesu FT-2400 2-meter mobile radio and we have a Yaesu FT-1802 2-meter and a Panasonic ToughBook which will be raffled off at the July meeting. There may be other items in the raffle as well. If you have anything you would like to donate, contact Deb at kk7deb [at] arrl [dot] net. Raffle tickets will be on sale for $5 each at the June meeting and at the July meeting before the drawing. The proceeds will go into our trailer maintenance and operating fund.
The July 27 General meeting is our annual Go-Kit Show-And-Tell. This is a fun opportunity to see the ingenuity of our members as they bring their personal and radio go-kits and set them up. Some kits are elegantly simple while others are over the top. Bring your cool stuff, or just come get some ideas for your kit.
Thanks to all who participated in last month’s team drill. Delta Team operated from Nate’s home in North Portland. Charlie Team operated from Lewis and Clark College, one of our served agencies, in Southwest Portland. I think it’s safe to say that we all learned from the experience. After all, that’s what drills are for.
This was, by design, a very laid back exercise. Our goals included the sending of Winlink, SSTV image transfer, and voice traffic. We had no emergency scenario and no pre-written messages. We were focusing on systems practice. We made things up on the spot and sent things along.
Some of the challenges we faced were due, in part, to the introduction of some unfamiliar equipment into the mix. If you have to swap out a computer (for SSTV) that you thought was going to work fine but didn’t, for one that had an unfamiliar set of applications, the learning curve can be a challenge and cause a domino effect on the whole process of getting the image passed through the system. We had several challenges like this. A surprise development was that were unable to make VHF simplex contact between the two stations. The reason for this is not entirely clear but most likely due to line of sight issues. When the VHF Winlink set up didn’t work the way we thought it would, we switched to HF/Pactor and accessed a station on 17 meters. Good job Julie! The good news is that the teams were able to improvise and get the job done.
For me the biggest take away was realizing that things don’t always go as one expects them to. Stay focused and have confidence in the team to solve the issues.
Again, thanks to all who helped with the drill.
Participating in and running a directed net are important skills we employ in every exercise and public service event, so at this month’s meeting we’ll have our annual refresher on net protocol.
Please join us for our general membership meeting on Thursday, June 28 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. Everyone is welcome!
Additional information about our monthly meetings can be found on the meeting page.
Winlink is quickly becoming our most used mode for passing formal traffic for our served agencies, and it is crucial that all members are comfortable and proficient with this mode. This month’s training will include a review of the Winlink system and some hands-on practice in small groups. We will have several Winlink stations set up in the meeting room, so everyone will have a chance to send and receive a few messages.
Please join us for our May general membership meeting on Thursday, May 25 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. Everyone is welcome!
Additional information about our monthly meetings can be found on the meeting page.
Welcome to our newest member Ralph AG7FE. Ralph will join the Alpha team. A big congratulations to Leslie KG7VGL and Pete KG7MRZ who were recently married! Steve W7SRH tells us his wife, Elaine, recently passed the technician test and is now KI7LAF.
If you are or would like to be working on getting your HF, RMS Packet, or Net Control certifications, please email me at eliza [dot] pride [at] gmail [dot] com. I’ll will get you hooked up with the appropriate trainers.
The Basics and Traffic workshops in May are for those members who are not yet ARRO certified. If you have not already registered, please email me. The Amateur Radio Public Service Handbook is now available at Multnomah County Library. If you have a library card, you can go on-line and place a hold on it.
General Licenses Classes through Hoodview Amateur Radio Club
Hoodview Amateur Radio Club provides structured classes so that it becomes easy for you to pass your General class exam. We have had great success in helping students with the Technician material and now we are starting a General class. General classes will start on May 6 and will continue on May 13, with testing on May 18 at Mt. Hood Community College’s Fisheries building. Classes are from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. We will have a VE session on the last day at 9:00 AM. Classes are free, but the book is $22 and the VE test is $15. Textbook: “Ham Radio School” by Stu Turner (available online; be sure to get the General book). A limited number of books are available from Cory. Call 503-781-9095 to get your book prior to class. To register, call or email Cory (ka7iug [at] frontier [dot] com).
What a beautiful Spring day we had for the 2017 Walk MS. Thanks to all who participated for another successful public service event. The event organizers really appreciate our eyes and ears along the course to keep everyone safe. Multnomah County ARES thanks you too for keeping your radio skills sharp.
This year Tom Mynes from ABJ Drones was able to demonstrate the benefits of streaming live video to the ARES trailer from the drone flying above the Willamette River. We hope to add some of the video and pictures to the ARES website soon. As you can imagine, this has sparked a renewed interest in having an ARES drone. Adam has his thinking cap on to figure a way to raise funds.
We did have several visitors at the communications trailer and all were very impressed with the live APRS tracking map on one large screen and live drone video on the other. Several ARES members stopped by for their first peek at the trailer.
The Antenna Build Workshop on March 25 was a booming success! We built 30 ladder-line J-pole antennas in under three hours and each participant took one home. It’s great to know that many of our members now have a workable portable 2-meter antenna to add to their go-kits. Thanks to those who offered their technical skill and expertise to make this fun event successful.
The Sea-Pac organizers have approved our request, so the trailer will be on display again this year. We are looking forward to showing the completed project this time and hopefully we can rustle up a few new members with our promotional materials. Contact Steve W7SRH (hallstr [at] hotmail [dot] com) if you would like to join the outreach team.
Robert has been in touch with the BLM folks about reserving Aquila Vista for our yearly HF Campout on July 28 and 29. Aquila Vista is available for overnight group camping. The site is located in the heart of the forest next to a large beaver pond. There is plenty of hiking and natural beauty to be seen at Aquila Vista including a small water fall. Amenities include restrooms, a group picnic shelter with multiple picnic tables and a metal fire ring. There is no running water at Aquila Vista, so ensure that you bring plenty of drinking, cooking, and sanitation water. There is no firewood at the site or firewood collection allowed; please bring your own firewood if you wish to have a fire. The campsite is nestled next to a large beaver pond so there can be mosquitoes in the summer – don’t forget bug repellent. Dust off your tent and sleeping bag and join in on the fun.