A hearty congratulations to the trailer committee on their excellent and successful efforts thus far! I hope you all have heard from Adam KF7LJH that the trailer for the communications trailer project has been acquired, and we get to move on to the difficult work of fitting out our new resource. None too soon either, as the results from our February drill demonstrate the need for our command and control to be supported with a centralized operating hub. Anyone who can make themselves available to help is encouraged to contact the team at trailer [at] multnomahares [dot] org.

Speaking of the February Deployment Drill, a great thanks to all those who participated. We had well over 80% turnout, including a fair number of NET compatriots. As a reminder, our cardinal rule is that we don’t self-deploy. ARES members must sit tight until you receive and acknowledge a deployment order from the EC or my representative!

I look forward to seeing all of you at our February general membership meeting, which will be a hands on demonstration of equipment you are likely to find in our Served Agency Stations.

Finally, thanks to all those who have contributed to our trailer and operating success, and let’s continue on the path of another great year!

Hoodview Amateur Radio Club is offering a Technician licensing class March 7 & 14, and a General license upgrade class on the same dates. Contact Ed Clulow at 503-257- 4822 or n7tl [at] comcast [dot] net.

March 19 will be another Third Thursday Workshop on traffic handling at 6:30 PM at Fire Station 2. This is open to anyone who needs to get checked off on traffic handling and ICS 309 Communication Log for their ARRO certification. Space permitting, others who just want more practice with ICS 213 and NTS radiogram traffic are welcome. Please register by contacting me at eliza [dot] pride [at] gmail [dot] com.

I grew up during World War II and the interest in radio was popular even in grade school. In the first year of cub scouts you built a crystal set and in the third year you could even build a two tube battery powered “Bread Board” radio that really worked well. My paper route money went to the local radio repair shop.

I became aware of amateur radio in high school and got my Novice in 1953 and upgraded to General January, 1954. I had the advantage of never having much money and had to build my station equipment.

I joined the Naval Reserve when I was in high school and was taking the Electronic Technician 3rd Correspondent class. But when they found that I was a ham, they sent me to a shortened Radioman school saying that the Navy needs RMs more than ETs. Then the Naval Security Group offered an even better job and I became a CT(M). I was in the Naval Reserve for eight years but they weren’t keeping me employed enough and I wasn’t getting enough part time at the Union Pacific. I started looking for a better job and eventually went to work at Pacific Bell in Portland and found a lot of ham friends there.

When the FCC changed the classes and I had a commercial 1st class phone, I just went right away to the FCC and took the Advanced test (and passed), because the Extra had the 20 wpm telegraph test and my code was rusty and I couldn’t print fast enough. A suggestion was to use cursive but engineering classes required printing so I had to learn it all over again. Finally in 1979 I got my Extra.

My wife one day said, “Do you think I could learn the stuff to get a license?” She had retired from a Telco technical job to be a stay-at-home mom. I was certain she could because she was pretty good at her job and the company had begged her to stay. She and another wife in the Hoodview club took the Novice class and passed. Without telling anyone they started working on upgrading and not only passed the Technician but passed the code test for General. She got her Advanced and was active on the bands until her passing in 1990.

Jeff, my oldest, got his Novice giving him the Radio merit badge. Kenn, my youngest, got his Novice and at the Jubilee at Gettysburg missed Tech by one question. Later he got his Technician and later upgraded to General and has been active in Washington County ARES.

I retired in May of 1999 from US West and it allowed me to travel to Arizona to visit family and go on Ham radio social events and be active in my church. It also let me get to build the station I had dreamed of.

I enjoy various modes and HF contesting, supporting the Hoodview club and, because we lived in the unincorporated area for many years, supporting the East County and City of Gresham even though I now live in Portland.

Activation Drill

by Nathan NA7EE on 2015-01-22

On February 7, 2015, Multnomah County ARES/RACES will execute a drill from 09:00 to approximately 12:00, to test our activation, deployment, and deactivation procedures. All available Multnomah County ARES/RACES members are asked to participate. Please see the 2015-02-07 Drill Guide for complete drill information.

Membership News

by Deb KK7DEB on 2015-01-16

Congratulations to Marino KG7EMV and Paul N7NTW on their license upgrades to General class. Welcome to our newest member Ross KD7TUR. Ross comes to us with a great deal of ham radio experience.

Michael AE7XP has been promoted to team leader of the Rover team. Now that the training program has been if effect for one year, the Rover team will consist of those who have their ARRO certification. Eli and I will work with any member seeking certification. There are several who are very close to this goal.

Many thanks to all who have helped to make the trailer project a reality. Your donations will create an awesome tool for new member recruitment and promotion of amateur radio as well as a portable net control station. I am looking forward to the next step of purchasing and equipping this great resource.

Welcome to the New Year!

I am looking forward to a productive year, both training- and preparation-wise. As you all know, we are currently fundraising for a communications trailer project. Between the hard work of the trailer committee and the support of our community, I am expecting a successful push for funding. Toward the end of this month we can steer that project toward the planning and building stage. If you haven’t had the opportunity yet, please consider contributing as you are able to the trailer project.

The drilling and training prospects for this year are already in process. Eli W7ELI will be coordinating with our partners in County emergency management to ensure that we have the most effective training regime possible. Our first training will be at this month’s general membership meeting, with a drill to follow on February 7. Overall, the goal of our activities this year is to reinforce our current operating skills, and grow our ability to operate the Winlink system. Let’s start the year off with a bang. I am looking forward to seeing everyone at the January general membership meeting.

Local ham Garrett Dow KD6KPC has recently completed a new online repeater book. He was frustrated by the ARRL Repeater Book being out of date before it was even published.

This is a living document and he has recruited hams throughout the country to insure that the information is kept up to date. You can access it at www.repeaterbook.com. The site has many really cool features including an app for your phone or tablet. Registration is free and gives you access to even more features.

Oregon ARES/RACES has a new website and email system that is open to all. To find out what is happening on a statewide basis and get news on training opportunities, SETs, the Oregon ARES Digital Network, the annual leadership meeting, administrative policies, and to look at the photo gallery, just check out www.oregonaresraces.org.

We now have nearly 100 people registered from all over the state. From La Grande to Astoria, south to the California border, and east to Burns, ARES members statewide are getting connected and you’re invited! Just register on the website and sign up for ARES Email. Welcome aboard!

John Core KX7YT

Membership News

by Deb KK7DEB on 2014-12-25

Join me in welcoming our newest members, Allan KG7EMU, Dylan W7KEF, and Jason KD7YNA. We are looking forward to their participation and Eli W7ELI and I will be working with them to get them certified.

The membership forms update has been moved to January. I will work with John K7TY to produce a survey type form so we do not require quite as much information to be repeated. We want to make sure we have the most current info for our records.

Thanks to all for a great year for MCARES! I am looking forward to 2015 and to continue to hone our operating skills. It feels like we are making huge strides and your support and participation are the reasons why we continue to grow and evolve to be one of the best ARES units in the state.

Best of Holiday Wishes to everyone!

Thanks to the 31 people who responded to our survey. We appreciate all the positive feedback and the suggestions for improvement. The anonymous responders who indicated you wanted to get more involved or to help out in various ways need to let us know who you are. We welcome your help and participation.

In response to your survey comments, we will have more hands-on workshop type training at our monthly meetings in 2015. We will also be much more visible on social media with Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter. For those of you who are not into social media, you will still get all the information you need from email, the website, the newsletter, and attending monthly meetings.

Looking forward to and wishing you all a fabulous new year!