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.
Have you been wanting to build your own radio go-kit, but aren’t sure where to start? Join us at our September meeting and get some ideas! Robert WX5TEX will host a presentation on radio go-kit construction and design, and will also introduce the new Multnomah County ARES digital go-kit.
The general meeting and training will be held on Thursday, September 22, from 19:00 to 20:30 at the Portland Fire & Rescue Training Center at 4800 NE 122nd Avenue in Portland.
From 18:30 to 19:00, we will host a discussion for new members and those who want to brush up on some of the basics. Come with your questions!
We are now one month away from our annual HF Campout, to be held at Fort Stevens on the Oregon Coast this year!
The HF Campout was originally designed to help newer operators get their feet wet in HF radio operation, and to become a certified HF Operator if they desire. This year, our camping trip coincides with the National Parks On The Air event, which we will also be participating in, so all Multnomah County ARES members are welcome, whether you have never operated HF or are a seasoned veteran.
You do not need to have your General class license to join us. If you currently hold a Technician license, there will be plenty of control operators available to help get you on the air! HF operation is very different than the VHF/UHF operating we do locally, and it’s very addicting!
Our group is taking over the majority of Loop G At Fort Stevens State Park for this event, and there are quite a few spaces still available on this loop if you would like to join us. The spots are $29 per night, and you’re welcome to join us for both nights or just one.These spots will all accommodate an RV and have electrical hookups. So far, spots G-264 through G-269 have been reserved by our members if you would like to camp near us. There are about a dozen spaces remaining on this loop, so we would encourage you to reserve quickly if you are planning to join us.
This link should take you to the correct reservation page; just enter the date range (we will be camping September 23 and 24) and select “Loop G”. If you have any questions or would like to join us, please email Robert at RGAnglin [at] gmail [dot] com.