2015 Portland Disaster Relief Trials Success

by Brian KE7QPV on 2015-09-13

The 2015 Portland Disaster Relief Trials event on October 17 was a stunning success, and the DRT event organizers were very pleased with the services provided by Multnomah County ARES! We had a lot of technical challenges in front of us this year, with the inclusion of not one, not two, but THREE digital modes we’ve never used before in an event, and I’m very happy to report that they all worked extremely well!

Winlink proved to be an efficient means of transmitting rider reports, and supplied the leaderboard volunteers with a constant stream of accurate rider information, while allowing the voice net to concentrate more on tactical traffic.

EasyPal worked flawlessly, providing the PBEM communications trailer with nearly two dozen high quality still images from the checkpoints. It was very exciting to be able to see, in near real-time, photos of the action out in the field. A special thank you goes out to Adam KF7LJH and Nate N9VCU for making that all happen.

The Broadband-Hamnet wireless mesh network link between checkpoint 4.1 (Water Feature) and the PBEM communications trailer worked amazingly well, and allowed us to display a real-time video feed from the checkpoint. Many thanks to Michael AE7XP for supplying the hardware and making it all work.

The event was a huge success not just because we were able to provide the rider reports needed by the DRT staff, but also because we gained valuable experience with digital modes that are new to many of us, and demonstrated their value and potential use in disaster response. Thanks to all the volunteers who made this possible. I hope you will consider volunteering for the DRT Communications Team again next year!

Brian Cochrane – KE7QPV
DRT Communications Organizer

A Well Trained Operator

by John KG7JKN on 2015-09-08

I have been exposed to ham radio since I was a child, but having only gotten my ticket a year and a half ago, I have a lot to learn and my perspective on using radios in emergency situations is still fairly fresh. As I have been learning, I have come across quite a few good articles about hams coming to the aid of others in times of trouble. Here in the Northwest, we only have to look as far as the March 2014 Oso mudslide in Washington, where hams played a crucial part in making sure that the communications network was solid and that information got where it needed to go. Of course the tragic loss of ARES/RACES members Jerry Martin W6TQF and Reid Blackburn KA7AMF (among many others) during the eruptions of Mount Saint Helens back in the spring of 1980 underscores the potential danger hams may face as well as the selflessness that is displayed by many who give their time and expertise to helping others stay connected.

Since I joined ARES a little more than a year ago, I have had some pretty interesting conversations with friends about what we do and why something as seemingly arcane as ham radio would be so important. I have heard plenty of people claim that cell phone and Internet technology makes radios more or less obsolete, especially when you consider how much data is available online. I will readily admit that the availability of early warning apps and incident emergency management software is a great achievement, but when the networks go down, radios are still your best bet.

It’s not just the radios though. It takes well-trained operators to make a system work. As ARES members, the mission is to get the message through by whatever means possible and whatever medium is employed. It is really the operators who make this such a critically important system. When we volunteer at public events, we are practicing the protocol and discipline that keeps the airwaves (and ultimately the mission) organized, clears out the confusion and perpetuates habits that may save lives when an emergency arrives.

Of course, ARES does not operate in a vacuum. No matter where or under what circumstances we deploy, we find ourselves assisting and integrating with many other organizations. In my case, besides being a member of ARES, I am the ARO (amateur radio operator) for the Beaumont-Wilshire, Alameda NET (Neighborhood Emergency Team). If you are not familiar with this group, the NET program consists of around 2000 currently active volunteers throughout the City of Portland and operates under the auspices of the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management (PBEM). Our main mission is to provide immediate assistance in our neighborhoods in the event of an emergency. We are trained to do search and rescue, first aid and to set up communications as well as prepare for the arrival of professional responders. We also deploy to assist for community events and to help operate warming and cooling shelters during extreme weather events.

As most of my team members are not hams, we depend on FRS radios as our means of radio communications for drills and deployments. For the past year, I have been running a net, prior to our monthly meetings in order to help train members on using their radios and to get them used to talking over the air. While participation has been fairly active, it is still only a 15 minute net, once a month so I have been seeking out ways to help the team learn some of the important aspects of radio use. Last year, Jeremy Van Keuren from PBEM was kind enough to send out a note from me to team leaders and AROs throughout the city, asking some questions about training and how they are overcoming issues relating to poor reception and such.

The response was encouraging and enlightening. Many teams have taken time to map their areas and determine where the weak links are, and quite a few have instituted strong communication training components into their preparedness regime. I took this information and wrote up a guide for radio use to distribute among my team. It was a great exercise for me and definitely helped my team move forward, but it also opened up some good connections between me and the ARES people who are actively training NETs in radio use (Michael AE7XP, Helen KE7SCS, and John K7TY). I have collected the various guides and trainings out there and attended an excellent training given to the Irvington NET by John K7TY.

This all points to one core point. If you are going to get good at something and commit it to that crucial “muscle memory” that we depend on in stressful times, you need good training and lots of practice. This ties in to our recent training in ICS 213 and NTS radio traffic handling. While I learned the use of both well enough to gain my ARRO certification last year, I find that spending time listening in and copying traffic on the NW Traffic and Training Net (6:05 PM every evening on the WORC repeater system) helps me to keep my skills honed. Learning how to use our radios to communicate has definitely helped our NET develop as a team and we have dedicated more time to actually getting people on air, practicing calling in and learning how to get the message across clearly and concisely. As our team is spread out quite a bit, we are also planning on taking some time to map out how our locations affect our ability to communicate. This is a work in progress and we will be on the lookout for ways to keep honing our skills so we will be ready and able to respond when the need arises.

Membership News

by Deb KK7DEB on 2015-08-28

Welcome to our newest member, Neil N6DVI and welcome back to Bob N6ZKL.

It’s been a very busy summer with lots of public service events and there is no slow down for September and October. Thanks to everybody who is out there volunteering for these events. There are a lot more opportunities to volunteer coming up. These events are the best way to gain experience and hone your communication and radio skills.

Communications for the Disaster Relief Trials on October 17 are coordinated by MCARES. Brian KE7QPV will start recruiting volunteers soon.

Training & Certification News

by Eli W7ELI on 2015-08-23

Our training at the general meeting this month will be Traffic Handling. We will split into basic and advanced groups with Michael AE7XP presenting the basics to include similarities and differences between NTS Radiograms and ICS 213s. He will cover sending and receiving protocols and how to format a simple NTS radiogram. I will present the advanced portion and cover more of the complexities of NTS traffic, book traffic, ARL numbered radiograms and how to deal with a complex emergency management form when the receiving station doesn’t have the blank form.

Our Drill from Home on September 12 will be based on this training. Participants will create an NTS radiogram message, then check into the command net. Net control will pair up AROs and send them to a simplex frequency to exchange their messages. The simplex frequencies will be monitored by an experienced traffic handler who can offer guidance and correction. AROs will report back to the command net when they have sent and received a message and then they will be dismissed.

I will be presenting another ARO Basics workshop on September 3 and a Traffic Handling workshop on September 17. These workshops are for new/provisional members to get them on their way to ARRO certification. They cover all the items on the ARRO task list. If anyone else needs a refresher, let me know and I will get you in if there is room.

News from Around the County

by Deb KK7DEB on 2015-08-20

The city of Gresham has been granted its station call sign, WG7EOC. Thanks to Robert WX5TEX for getting this accomplished.

On July 26, MCARES participated in the Sunday Parkways bike event. Matthew AF7PV and Andrew W7TKX managed traffic control at our intersection, while Steve W7SRH, Deb KK7DEB, John K7TY, Chris KE7OSH, and Bob KG7JKQ passed out information about ham radio and Multnomah County ARES. We all had a great time meeting and talking with the participants.

The first annual MCARES HF Campout was held August 15-16. Adam KF7LJH brought his 40-foot mast and strung two antennas from it. Nate N9VCU was a crack shot with his bow and arrow, getting lines over the trees to run another antenna. Robert conducted his HF training and certified three new HF operators. Congratulations to Carrie KG7NZP, Kiri K7KAH, and Ann KF7RBV! In all we had eleven MCARES members, some “significant others” and one-year-old baby Wyatt. Contacts were made with Maryland and Illinois and with a Navajo code talker. The NTTN (Northwest Oregon Traffic and Training Net) was run from our campsite with Marino as net control. It was loads of fun, the setting was beautiful, and we all decided we must do this every year for TWO nights. Hope you will join us next year!

Featured Member Profile: Steve W7SRH

by Steve W7SRH on 2015-07-23

I have been an active member of MCARES since January, 2014. What I most enjoy about ARES is the chance to learn from other members. Manuals only get you so far. Working with more experienced operators speeds the learning process and, frankly, makes it fun. I also enjoy the opportunities to participate in community events and to serve as part of the amateur radio community to plan to meet emergency needs.

I am a member of the MCARES Red Cross served agency team. I have completed the MCARES ARRO certification and am currently working on my Net Control certification. I am also a member of the Portland Amateur Radio Club. I have supported the MS Walk, the Reach the Beach ride, the Portland Bridge Peddle ride, and the Portland Marathon. I lend my radio capabilities to my local Neighborhood Emergency Team serving as the Communications Lead/ARO for the Multnomah Village NET.

I also volunteer with the American Red Cross and the Columbia Slough Watershed Council. Boating has been a life-long avocation, and I draw on this to help the Watershed Council with their canoe excursions on the Slough. You may also encounter me out kayaking our local rivers and lakes.

I hail from Petoskey, Michigan and still visit frequently to see friends and family. Before moving to the Portland area, I lived in Houston, Texas where I worked for Baylor College of Medicine, Memorial Care System, and St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in the Texas Medical Center. I retired a few years ago from Kaiser Permanente where I worked in Human Resources for nearly 20 years.

Just recently, I agreed to serve MCARES as the Public Information Officer and to contribute articles to our monthly newsletter.

Training & Certification News

by Eli W7ELI on 2015-07-15

The July meeting is one of our most popular. It’s an informal time to socialize and see everyone’s latest go kits from the humblest HT to the most robust of portable radio gear. Our trailer will be there for all to check out as well. Also I know some of our members have some great personal survival gear from tents to cookware to meals, so bring the items that are interesting and fun to share. If you missed Field Day, this is the next best thing.

Thanks to Steve W7SRH and John KG7JKN for volunteering to write feature articles for our newsletter. They will alternate months with Steve giving us a great Field Day piece this month.

Membership News

by Deb KK7DEB on 2015-07-12

Welcome to our newest member, Andrew W7TKX.

Many thanks to all of our ARES members who attended Field Day on Kelly Butte.

We are hoping to have an ARES information and recruiting booth at the Sunday Parkways event on July 26 in NE Portland. There are two more of these events happening this year: August 23 in SE Portland and September 27 in SW Portland. If you would like to meet your neighbors and promote Multnomah County ARES, contact our PIO, Steve W7SRH, at hallstr [at] hotmail [dot] com.

We are making progress on the state ARES Red Cards. It is our hope to have cards for all of our eligible members by the end of the year. You must be an active, ARRO certified member and pass a background check. I may be contacting you for a new background check authorization form.

Field Day 2015

by Steve W7SRH on 2015-07-06

I have been a licensed ham for nearly twenty years but this is the first year I participated in Field Day. But hey… thanks to the folks at the Portland Amateur Radio Club (PARC), I’m already looking forward to next year.

I sat down with Pete W7PR, Secretary and Treasurer of PARC, a few days after Field Day to get his perspective on this year’s event. According to Pete, this was the first year MCARES officially partnered with PARC in the Field Day contest. And yes, it is a contest – one of about 19 contests sponsored by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) each year.

The real purpose of Field Day, along with being a contest and having fun, is to practice and demonstrate ham radio capabilities for emergency situations. The objective, according to the ARRL web site, is “To work as many stations as possible on any and all amateur bands (some exceptions) and to learn to operate in abnormal situations in less than optimal conditions.” Field Day is regularly scheduled the fourth full weekend in June; it begins at 11:00 AM Saturday and runs through 11:00 AM Sunday, local time.

Field Day operations were set up at Kelly Butte in Southeast Portland, just off I-205. Pete told me that years back, PARC used to hold their regular meetings up at OMSI when it was at the zoo. This was also the site for Field Day. Along with being a good operating site, it also provided good public exposure for amateur radio.

For those of you who are history buffs, Kelly Butte is named after pioneer Clinton Kelly who, according to Wikipedia, settled the area east of the Willamette River, in what’s now Southeast Portland, in 1848. It is a natural area, maintained by Portland Parks and Recreation, and covers an area of about 23 acres. Pete told me that there are still descendants of Mr. Kelly in the area, and a couple of years ago one of the family members attended the PARC Field Day. The Butte was once the site of a civil defense emergency operations center, built in 1955. The bunker is no longer in use and has been sealed. In the past the Butte was also home to a sixty-bed municipal hospital, a quarry, and a ten-million gallon water tank, replaced by the Mt. Tabor reservoirs.

My Field Day actually started on Friday. Along with about a dozen other volunteers we met mid-morning to prepare the site and set the lines which would be used to raise the antennas on Saturday morning. Pete uses what I would refer to as a mini spud-gun. This is an ingenious contraption made out of PVC pipe fitted with some valves and a pressure tank that is charged by a small, portable compressor. Pete uses the gun to launch a tennis ball which is attached to fishing reel and line. The ball is launched over the huge fir trees on the site. Then, stronger support line is attached and is then used to support the actual antennas. My hat is off to Pete and the rest of the antenna crew. Knowing where to locate the antenna and stringing it up is as much art as science.

On Field Day Saturday morning I met MCARES members John K7TY and Ross KD7TUR at the “Texas Hydro-Park” near Multnomah Village here in Portland. It is close to where I live and at an elevation of about 600 ft. The three of us set up QRP stations and operated for several hours with only minimal success. John and Ross both used Elecraft units and I set up a Yaesu FT-817. By the way, John biked all the way from his home in North Portland pulling his gear in a mini bike trailer. That’s dedication to both ham radio and biking.

Saturday afternoon, I made my way over to Kelly Butte to join the PARC/MCARES Field Day operations. I partnered with several other operators using an Elecraft HF unit owned by Adam KF7LJH, on 20 and 80 meters. We took turns at the radio and entering contacts in the logging software. Sorting out some of those pile-ups was a real challenge. But when you finally make the contact… that’s a great feeling. For those who haven’t experienced it, it’s quite addictive. I remember thinking, “I’ve got to get this one.”

At the PARC Field Day site, we operated as W7LT, category 4A (four stations, club, battery power), Oregon section. This category limits transmit power to 5 watts. One of the reasons to operate low power (QRP) according to Pete, is that each contact is worth more points than if you were operating at, say, 100 watts.

MCARES played a prominent role in this year’s event by locating the comms trailer on the site. Numerous MCARES members participated on air or visited the site. Many contributed food and beverages for the event. I especially enjoyed the fried chicken!

According to Pete, Lea AL7W, who was essentially the only CW operator, made approximately 175 contacts on 20, 40, and 80 meters. Lea was operating a vintage ICOM radio. Other equipment used included the Elecraft K3, an ICOM 7100, and a Yaesu FT-857. The antenna included a ZL special wire beam, a 40 meter horizontal loop, and an 80 meter dipole as well as a Buddipole. Official results from the contest are still being tabulated and will be published in the December issue of QST Magazine.

I asked Pete how this year compared to previous PARC Field Day events. He indicated that he thought attendance was up, in part due to the joint participation of PARC and MCARES. He anticipated that the number of contacts would be about average compared to previous years and that PARC would once again place in the top five finishers in the Field Day contest, nation-wide.

In years past, Pete indicated that the club had erected towers, with beams and rotators making set-up more complicated and frankly more dangerous. Safety is much less of an issue with the all-wire antenna set-up. The Butte has plenty of space for other antenna set-ups. PARC has more types of antennas available in the tool bag and Pete said if there is interest, the club would be willing help with the construction of other antenna types if they are not currently available. He is hopeful that future events will include satellite communications with other ground stations via orbiting satellites and with the International Space Station. Satellite contacts garner big points! Pete said in coming years he would like to see more CW operators, for two reasons. First, it would help to keep the discipline alive, and second, there is also a point multiplier when CW contacts are made, helping to increase the overall contest score.

I left Kelly Butte at about 10:30 PM Saturday evening and returned at about 9 AM Sunday. A number of PARC and MCARES members staffed the stations all night. The event concluded at 11 AM And then it was time to take down the antennas, stow the pop-up canopies and button up the MCARES trailer. As you can imagine, this entails a lot of work but thanks to the efforts of the many volunteers who helped, the take-down seemed to go smoothly.

I want to say thanks to those seasoned hams who helped me enjoy my first Field Day. I appreciated the opportunity to see how the event is set up and to experience the real satisfaction of making those contacts, helping to rack-up what will hopefully be sufficient points to once again place PARC in the top Field Day contest finishers in the country!

Tagged as: Field Day

Featured Member Profile: John KG7JKN

by John KG7JKN on 2015-06-26

Hello everyone! I’m John (KG7JKN). I am 52 and live in NE Portland with my wife, son, dog, and a 16 year old cat who somehow just found her way into our lives. I’m currently a graduate student of public administration at USC. I am also actively pursuing coursework and work experience that will lead to my becoming a Certified Emergency Manager.

I am originally from the east coast and moved here to Oregon from Woodstock, NY with my family about 15 years ago. Workwise, I have had a wide and interesting (to me at least) array of experience. My first real job was building mixing boards for Dallas Music Industries, who are the same people who made the legendary “Mellotron” tape loop keyboard. A lot of bands in the 60s and 70s used them, including David Bowie, Yes, and Heart. From there, I went on to be a baker, short order cook, construction contractor, heavy suspension mechanic, and (my favorite job) industrial blacksmith. After years of blacksmithing, my back couldn’t take it anymore, so I ended up going to college at age 34, earning associate degrees in design and geology. In 1998, I met a guy with a great idea for selling independent musicians’ music online, so ended up taking a long break from college to help him build that business. We moved the business out here to Portland in the year 2000 and I eventually went back to school, getting a BS in social science and liberal studies. I began my studies at USC in 2013 and left the business shortly after to pursue my MPA and emergency management studies.

My connection to Ham radio comes from when I was very young. My older brother, Mike KA2MSL, and I “discovered” shortwave radio when we were kids. I remember being fascinated with hearing voices from the far reaches of the planet. Mike went on to become an openly obsessed electronics and radio aficionado and while I would help him out by climbing trees and towers to string up his latest antenna array, I decided to follow a different path, learning to play guitar and playing in various rock bands up into my 30s. When I began taking FEMA courses online and eventually came across information about Portland NET, I also started noticing that old familiar standby, ham radio, waiting in the background and realized I was in familiar territory. I finally signed up for the NET classes in winter of 2014 and ended up becoming friends with Marino KG7EMV who was in the same class. He encouraged me to at least get my ham ticket and to consider looking into ARES if I really wanted to learn more about radio and emergency communications. On Marino’s suggestion, I purchased an inexpensive Baofeng HT and tested for my technician’s license. After some nudging from Adam KF7LJH who is a member of my NET team, I finally came into an ARES meeting. As others have said, the spread of skills and personalities in this group is impressive if not intimidating at times and I am really happy to be a part of it.

At this point, I am an ARO for the Beaumont-Alameda/Wilshire NET, the Portland NET representative to the LEPC (Local Emergency Planning Committee), and I am just taking over the duties as information coordinator for the LEPC. I am also looking for other paid and volunteer opportunities in the EM field to enhance and bolster my education. I love being able to help people out and I consider the work ARES does as a critical part of our overall security. While I hope we never have to face a large earthquake or other devastating disaster, having experienced the impact of tornadoes and hurricanes I am confident that when all else fails, the excellent training and support we receive as ARES/RACES members will help us as we help others make it through the storm.