Just in case you missed it, at the October general meeting our Emergency Manager, Chris Voss, presented us with the Oregon Emergency Management Association award for innovation! Congratulations to all Multnomah County ARES members for your contributions and support of the trailer project. The plaque we received is proudly displayed inside the trailer.
Thanks to all who participated in the Fall SET. We had 40 members check in, which was a really great response. County Emergency Management was kind enough to let us use their Everbridge system for the text notification. Adam did a great job in figuring out how to use it as it did not come with an owner’s manual. Sorry to those who received more than one text; we are still figuring out the function boxes. But next time we will know better. If you did not receive a text or voice message, please let me know so we can update our records with your correct phone number. Send an email to Deb at dprovo [at] yahoo [dot] com. Congratulations to the Bravo team for having the best percentage of member check-ins!
John K7TY is preparing the yearly membership survey. Your input is greatly appreciated to help guide us into 2017. There will not be a general membership meeting in December, however the leadership team will meet for an all-day planning session to set the training schedule and goals for the New Year.
Thanks to every one for a great year!
With the build complete, the next phase is developing policy about the trailer’s use; developing a user manual on how to move it, set it up, and run it; and training.
Now that we have it, we need to maintain it. There are ongoing expenses, including keeping the propane tanks full, insurance, and over time there are sure to be maintenance issues. To that end, we will have a Trailer donation box by the door at every meeting. Drop a dollar or two in there when you can. If you need a tax deductible receipt, PARC is still handling those contributions. Send a check to PARC, P.O. Box 33454, Portland, OR 97292-3454. Write “ARES Trailer Fund” on the memo line of your check. Thank you!
Our November general membership meeting will be one week early due to the Thanksgiving Holiday. Adam KF7LJH will give an introduction to mapping using online tools.
The meeting will be held on Thursday, November 17, from 7:00PM to 8:30PM at the Portland Fire & Rescue Training Center at 4800 NE 122nd Avenue in Portland.
As of October 25, MCARES now hosts a semi-monthly Traffic Handling Training Net (THTN). The net meets the second and fourth Tuesday of every month at 20:00 on the Portland Amateur Radio Club (PARC) 147.180 MHz (103.5 Hz Tone) repeater. This is not one of the standard MC# repeaters so you will need to program this new frequency and tone into your radio. Eli, W7ELI, is the net manager and net members will be encouraged to volunteer for net control. This is a practice net only. Messages will not go beyond this net and will not be delivered.
We will practice sending by voice ICS 213 messages as well as NTS formatted messages, and we will practice logging these messages on the ICS 309 form. The net will include discussion of voice traffic handling and suggestions for improving one’s traffic sending and message formatting. Questions are encouraged and mistakes are simply a learning opportunity.
You can make up your own messages to send on the net, but we also have some sample messages available. Traffic handling guides and information can be found in the Traffic Handling section of our Training page. ICS 213 and 309 forms can be found on the Docs page.
Please join us in welcoming our new members, John KH6XG and Bob K7ENA. This brings our total for the year to 30 new members. Way to go everyone for putting in so much effort to grow our membership!!!
Get the credit you deserve! If you worked communications for the Portland Marathon, Hood to Coast, the Airshow or any public service event, please let me know and include your assignment or tactical callsign. There is a minimum amount of participation that must be met to maintain your active membership status, and for some of you, getting credit for working these events may be the deciding factor.
It has been a busy few months with public service events and ARES activities. Thanks to all who have participated to keep their radio operating skills sharp and provide valued service to the community.
A special thanks to Peter KH6CTQ for his donation of equipment to Multnomah County ARES. Among the many items donated were 2 military antenna masts which will enhance the Mobile Comms field capabilities. Thanks also to John KH6XG for getting in touch with us to arrange the donation.
We had a great time at Fort Stevens State Park, part of the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park. We operated under the event callsign W7A for National Parks On The Air, a year-long event celebrating the 100th birthday of our National Parks service. We were able to make many contacts as far away as South Carolina. The weather, the food, and the camaraderie made for a very fun weekend. Congratulations to Brian KE7QPV, Eli W7ELI, and Bill KG7UPR for earning their HF operator certificates. Nathan’s son, Dimitri, age 7, made his first HF contact with the USS Hornet Amateur Radio Club, NB6GC.
We hope you will attend what promises to be a very interesting ARES general meeting on October 27. Guest speaker Scott Honaker (N7SS – Snohomish County, WA) will be making a first person report of his participation in the Oso, Washington landslide tragedy of March 22, 2014. Scott was the lead for six radio operators during the incident.
Chris Voss and Alice Busch from Multnomah County Emergency Management will also be attending to present a special award.
Nate Hersey, Multnomah County ARES Emergency Coordinator, will give an overview of the team reorganization and an update on the November 5 statewide ARES Simulated Emergency Test.
The meeting will be held on Thursday, October 27, from 19:00 to 20:30 at the Portland Fire & Rescue Training Center at 4800 NE 122nd Avenue in Portland.
The September 10 ARES Exercise was a great success. We had served agency and field stations scattered around the county sending digital images via SSTV to the county ECC. The two new digital go-kits were tested and worked as planned. Thanks to the 21 ARES members who participated and to Multnomah County Emergency Management staff – Chris Voss, Alice, and Chris from IT – for being on hand to see our testing of this awesome technology. They were quite impressed.
One of the digital kits will be on display at our September 22 meeting so come and take a look.
The September meeting training has been changed to “Building a Go-Kit” and Robert WX5TEX will guide you through the process and equipment needs. He will discuss the basics and show examples of the complex and simple designs that anyone can make. We strongly advise all of our members to have a radio go-kit.
Brian KE7QPV has sent the invitation to participate in the Disaster Relief Trials on October 22. Like Walk MS in the Spring, communications for this event is coordinated by MCARES and we are hoping for a large turn out from our members. This is by far the most fun event to watch as the bike riders have very interesting ways of transporting their cargo. The DRT organizers are very appreciative of our abilities to send field reports back to the finish line so they can keep their scoreboard up to date.
ARES leadership is discussing some changes to our existing team concept. We feel it is important, as we grow, to be innovative in how best to serve our members and the county. Stay tuned for more information that will be coming soon. One change that is very soon to be implemented is a rewrite of the weekly net script. Expect a much shorter, less time consuming check-in process within the next few weeks.
Hallelujah! The ARES trailer now has exterior graphics. This is the final step in the design/build process and we are all thrilled with the result.
On we go to the training segment of the trailer project. Stay tuned for the plan to unfold. We want to make sure all of our members have an opportunity to learn how to set up, operate, and take down our mobile communications unit.
Multnomah County ARES is proud to provide radio communications services for the Disaster Relief Trials Portland for the fifth year in a row. This exciting event is a mixture of bike race, disaster relief exercise, and emergency preparedness fair. The event takes place on Saturday, October 22 from approximately 08:00 to 17:00. The main event will be held at the University Place Hotel in downtown Portland, and there will be several checkpoints scattered around the city.
We would love to have your help with this event! We will need radio operators for net control and logging in the communications trailer, and reporting rider arrival times from the checkpoints. We will be pairing up less experienced operators with more seasoned volunteers, so don’t worry if you haven’t worked many (or any) events before.
If you would like to participate, please fill out and submit the volunteer registration form so that the communications organizers can best staff the available positions.
UPDATE: Volunteer registration is now closed, to allow the event communications team sufficient time to finalize position assignments and other details before the event.
Just in case you missed it, at the October general meeting our Emergency Manager, Chris Voss, presented us with the Oregon Emergency Management Association award for innovation! Congratulations to all Multnomah County ARES members for your contributions and support of the trailer project. The plaque we received is proudly displayed inside the trailer.
