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.
The members of the monthly Digital Modes Net have begun experimenting with Fldigi. This “Fast Light Digital” application runs on several different OS platforms and uses your sound card (e.g. a SignaLink) to send digital information over the air. No TNC is required for this mode.
The Fldigi application provides a chat interface in which text is sent as you type it, but there are additional applications that allow more sophisticated data transfers. Flmsg is one such program; it works in cooperation with Fldigi to send form data, and there is a built-in template for the ICS-213 message form as well as the ARRL radiogram. Flmsg applies a checksum to the form data to detect transmission errors. Similarly, the Flwrap application cooperates with Fldigi to send arbitrary file data, also with a checksum.
There is an overlap in functionality between Flmsg and Winlink, but one interesting difference is that whereas Winlink is more or less for communication between two stations, Flmsg can be used to send a message to multiple stations simultaneously. That’s also true for Flwrap — it might be used to send file data from the EOC to all field stations in a single transmission, for instance. The data rate is rather slow, so this might be done simplex rather than via a repeater.
Join the Digital Modes net on the first Tuesday of the month if you’d like to give it a try. Time and frequency details are on the nets page.
Tagged as:
digital modes,
fldigi
Our next general membership meeting will be on Thursday, March 23 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 and will start with general business and announcements from the Leadership team. We will then have a presentation from a guest speaker: Alice Busch, Division Chief of Operations for the Multnomah County Office of Emergency Management.
Anyone who is interested in emergency communications is encouraged to join us! Additional information about our monthly meetings can be found on the meeting page.
Welcome to our newest member, Mark KC7DTE. Mark will join the Delta Team.
Due to weather and other issues, the ARRO Basics workshop that was scheduled for February 11 had to be canceled. It will happen on February 25. The ARRO Traffic Handling and Logging workshop will be on March 18. Both workshops are from 9:30 AM to 12:00 PM at the Portland Fire & Rescue Training Center where our monthly general meetings are held. To attend these workshops you must have a membership form on file and have submitted completion certificates for the online FEMA classes IS-100, IS-200, and IS-700. Preregistration is also required to ensure there are enough trainers present to get everyone through by noon. To register, contact me at eliza [dot] pride [at] gmail [dot] com.
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 15 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.
UPDATE: Due to amazing volunteer turnout, we have been able to staff all event communications positions much earlier than expected. We have therefore decided to close volunteer registration early, on March 8. This will allow the event communications team more time to finalize position assignments and other details before the event.
2017 has already been a busy time for MCARES outreach. Here’s a quick look at what’s been happening.
Fix-It Fair
On January 28, Adam KF7LJH and I staffed a Fix-It Fair event at George Middle School. We estimate that several hundred people were in attendance!
One of the primary reasons for attending these types of events is to recruit new ARES members. We had the good fortune to be set up right next to our partners from Portland NET. There was a steady stream of folks interested in learning what we do to support Multnomah County. Conversations with a number of attendees may well lead to some new members.
We introduced two new twists to this event. Adam demonstrated a digital go-kit, which proved to be a big draw to our display. We also brought along a continuous loop slide presentation, featuring many of you at past MCARES events. Our slide presentation needs a little more work, but it provided a great source of activity at our table.
There were over 60 different organizations represented at this Fix-It Fair. Learn more about Fix-It Fairs!
PacTrust Presentation
On February 16, Joe WA7FWC, Eli W7ELI, and I made a presentation to about 35 employees of PacTrust. PacTrust is one of the Pacific Northwest’s largest real estate developers and investment property owners. We were invited to talk about the MCARES organization and how we support the emergency communications infrastructure. Joe also demonstrated both image transfer and Winlink messaging.
Looking Ahead
Our next scheduled outreach event will be on Saturday, February 25. Rolf KI4HOP, Bob N6ZKL, and I will provide a MCARES presence at the Overlook Sustainability Summit. The theme of this event is Putting Preparedness into Action. The event will run from 9:45 AM to 2:00 PM at Beach Elementary School Auditorium at 1710 N Humboldt Street in Portland. If you have some free time that day, stop by and say hello.
If you are interested in helping out at an outreach event, contact Steve W7SRH at hallstr [at] hotmail [dot] com and get on the Outreach Roster. No presentation expertise is required; just come along to learn and share your own experiences with MCARES.
Our first team exercise was last Saturday with the Charlie and Alpha teams. The Mike (ARES Trailer) team also participated as a field station for the Alpha team. The focus was on sending ICS 213 messages both by voice and Winlink, and image transfer via SSTV. Logging on the ICS 214 and ICS 309 was also a top priority. The primary planning was done by the Charlie team and they did a great job. The County ECC was activated by the Alpha team and Lewis and Clark was activated by the Charlie team. Both teams had one field team acting as shelter locations. In all we had 18 AROs active for the 2 hour exercise.
The feedback from the teams was extremely positive. Team members really appreciated the opportunity to get hands-on experience. Everyone felt this was time well spent and they learned a lot. Mother Nature was even cooperative and seemed to approve by giving us mild temperatures and clear skies. Thanks Charlie and Alpha team members for spending a few hours to sharpen your skills.
All members are strongly encouraged to participate in their team drills. The next one is March 11th with the Bravo and Echo teams.
Our February meeting is nearly here! We will have 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 and will start with general announcements, followed by a presentation on power options and expectations for field operations. The meeting will be held at the Portland Fire and Rescue training center at 4800 NE 122nd Ave in Portland.
Anyone who is interested in emergency communications is encouraged to join us! Additional information about our monthly meetings can be found on the meeting page.
Join me in welcoming our newest members, Kathi KA6TND, Barney KD2VB, and Dan N7CQR.
Our membership drive for 2016 brought us 35 new ARES members! This brings our total membership to 87. Of the 87 members we have 72 which are “Active Members”. Remember that we need to see you four times per year to retain “Active status.” We would love to continue to grow and expand our capabilities so for 2017 let’s keep the drive alive!
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. 
