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.

Membership News

by Deb KK7DEB on 2017-04-28

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.

I was originally licensed in Cleveland, Ohio in the early 1970’s as WN8QEB. With a Heathkit HW-101, homebrew antenna and a dipole in the attic crawl space 8 feet above me, I managed to make some contacts. After moving to Boston I charged through the license class tests up to Extra, and the call signs evolved with me, ending in K1XJ. Sing that one in Morse code if you want to get your feet tapping.

I got into the hobby because I was deep into depression, not nearly ready to come out as a transgender woman, and amateur radio was a way to get myself out into the world, and outside myself. I soon volunteered for public service, mostly ad hoc; work on parades, charity walk events or going out with fire fighters who were pumping water out of cellars in late winter. I had little training; mostly I watched what others did and tried to use my common sense.

One year for the Boston Pops July 4th concert, a family not far from me expressed alarm as some nearby youth set off small strings of firecrackers. I called in the situation to net control hoping a police officer might come over and mediate.

The Esplanade was extremely crowded. Even the walkways, which were supposed to remain open, were filled with people sitting on blankets hoping to be near the orchestra. Another ham near them began ordering the youth to stop. I called net control to report what was happening.

No police officers showed up; there were medical emergencies to take care of and the crowd was enormous and tightly packed. I then went over, empathized with the complaining family and asked the youth to wait until they went home before setting off any more firecrackers. The fireworks stopped, but it could have been because they just ran out of things to light off for all I know.

The other ham and I were both acting on our own instincts. Although I think I did the right thing at first in just reporting to net control, I believe I still went beyond my role in playing mediator, as the other ham did in playing cop, in essence. we both did the best we could with what we knew.

When I did come out, my life got very complicated. I lost paid work, had heavy health care expenses out of pocket, and a lot of people didn’t know how to react to transgender women. I forgot to renew my license in the confusion.

I got my license back in 2016 for the express purpose of participating in emergency preparations for my cohousing community, neighborhood, city and state. I studied by myself using the ARRL’s license manual and online practice tests, and the Portland Amateur Radio club made it easy to take the test.

I wasn’t sure how people would react to me, but I’ve been very blessed. The most delicious story was when I went to Ham Radio Outlet to purchase my HT. I walked in the store to see every person behind the counters busy with other customers. I slowly wandered along the counter, when a gentleman appeared from the back, tall and with a shock of white hair. “How can I help you, young lady?” he said. I hope all hams get what that meant to me. He properly gendered me as a woman at first sight; that made my heart sing by itself. But in the ham radio world YL, young lady, was a signal that he accepted me as part of the amateur radio hobby, one of the gang. That’s happened to me a couple of times since, and it is one of those small things that for me has made my life easier. Not everyone out there in the world is friendly to transgender women, and not every place is safe. To come back home to this hobby I love with that kind of greeting is wonderful.

I’ve had the privilege this time around of participating in classes held by Multnomah County ARES, and by the online nets, including the MCARES Tuesday traffic handling and digital modes training nets, and the Northwest Oregon Traffic and Training Net nightly sessions. I’ve had wonderful mentors and dedicated hams to learn from and feel grateful for all the time others have put in so that hams like myself can get up to speed, and learn the important protocols.

This is a big improvement from the first time around when I jumped into some situations with so little training or practice. I feel much more confident and ready to serve when the real disaster happens. To have a structure and solid group of mentors is, I think, an important part of making us a true resource for our communities. I hope to spend many happy hours volunteering with the good-hearted hams of the greater Portland area. Thank you.

Good traffic handling skills are key to our role as emergency communicators. For this month’s training we will have a brief review of traffic handling techniques, and then we’ll break into small groups to practice sending, copying, and logging ICS 213 and NTS Radiogram messages. Multnomah County ARES members and Portland NET radio operators are highly encouraged to attend this training.

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.

Membership News

by Deb KK7DEB on 2017-03-25

Join us in welcoming our newest members, Jim KA7AGH and Lee KF7YUO. Jim will join the Echo team and Lee the Alpha team. This brings our total membership to 76 active members.

Training News

by Eli W7ELI on 2017-03-20

Have technical questions? Call or email your team leaders! If they can’t help you, they will refer you to someone who can.

Want to get your General ticket? Hoodview Amateur Radio Club is offering General Class ham classes on May 6 and 13 with testing on the 20th. Contact Cory at ka7iug [at] frontier [dot] com or Jim at 503-702-2760.

It appears that we have a record turnout for the Walk MS event on April 15. Thanks to all of you who have volunteered to support our communications efforts. It also looks like ABJ Drones, who were at our February meeting, want to join in with a demonstration of video back to the Comms trailer. Pretty exciting stuff!

It is never a good thing when we have two events on back to back weekends but we hope you will also help out with the State Spring SET the following weekend on April 22. The exercise will focus on shelter locations throughout the County. We have 10 sites on our radar and really need a good turnout to get the job done. Adam has challenged us to “Beat Washington County” by having the most locations staffed in the whole state. This Spring SET is special to us because it was written by Multnomah County ARES leadership at the request of the Oregon Section Emergency Coordinator, and we are proud of the result. Contact your team leader if you can participate.

The March 23 ARES meeting will feature guest speaker Alice Busch, Operations Division Chief for Multnomah County Emergency Management. We are very fortunate to have a really great working relationship with the county emergency management team. A special thanks to Chris Voss and Alice Busch for funding our website fees for the next three years!

The Bravo and Echo team drill was March 11 and all who participated agreed it was a great success and learning experience. We will take a break from team drilling for April as we focus on Walk MS and the State SET. May will bring together the Delta and Charlie teams for their first exercise together.

The Echo/Bravo Team Drill on Saturday, March 11 went very well. The Bravo Team operated with three team members and Matthew, team leader, at the PBEM ECC and a three member field team simulating a shelter. Special thanks to Joe WA7FWC from the Charlie Team for heading up the field team and teaching the three Bravo team members how to operate the digital go kit.

The Echo Team had two members plus myself at the Gresham EOC and two members at Gresham Fire Station 74. This was the first time we have operated Winlink from a fire station. Joel N7LF ran net control from the trailer. All three Echo locations had some equipment difficulties but we managed to solve or work around the issues and got the job done as planned.

I was very pleased to see how well everyone did with message and station logs! Nice job! I will point out that each station should only log the messages they send or receive at that station, not every message handled in the entire drill.