Happy holidays to all! As we transition to a new calendar year, I am looking forward to another productive operating year with all of you. On December 14, the leadership team took an entire Sunday to review the past year and prepare for the next. Thanks to all those who put in the effort to ensure our success. I am happy to report that Brian KE7QPV will be taking over website duties with Robert WX7TEX assisting with social media efforts. Thanks to Bruce N4PDX for setting up and caretaking our online presence these past few years, and let’s all make sure to support Brian and Robert in creating content for our continuing online presence.
On January 3, we will be conducting this year’s EC’s Cup. The gist of this exercise is to use your portable/mobile VHF operating skills to collect and report clues while searching for me in inner SE Portland. I’ll be hiding rain or shine, so prep for the weather and come out and chase me down. As was the case last year, I’ll be providing a personalized trophy to the winner.
We are almost half of the way through our trailer fundraising effort. I am so impressed with the trailer committee’s efforts and results that it makes me proud to be a member of Multnomah County ARES. Please forward the short link (http://bit.ly/multnomahares) to anyone whom you think might be interested, and let’s finish the fundraising with a bang, so that we can get to the building and operating of this resource!
The fundraising team reports a total of about $3500 in cash and equipment donations so far. Many local business and corporate contacts have been made. These require patience for a response but we are hopeful. Many thanks to those members who have contributed!
Multnomah County Emergency Management is submitting a request for Citizen Corps grant money for equipment. Thanks to Stevie Bullock for his hard work in the grant process!
The raffle at the January 22 ARES meeting will be an opportunity for everyone to win one of the following:
- Kenwood 2 meter 50 watt transceiver
- Icom 2 meter 50 watt transceiver
- Portable J pole dual band antenna with tripod
- $25 gift card
- 2 nights at a 3 bedroom vacation rental near Manzanita
All proceeds will go towards the trailer project. Tickets will be available for purchase for $5 each at the meeting.
If you would like to contribute to the Trailer Project, you can do so online at or send a check to:
Portland Amateur Radio Club
PO Box 33454
Portland, OR 97292
All donations are tax deductible and would be much appreciated to fund this great resource! Every little bit helps!
It is time once again to determine who is the best radio operator in Multnomah County. Brian KE7QPV is the reigning EC’s Cup Champion, so let’s all get ready to knock him off his perch. Last year we had a VHF Contest, this year I want us to get up and moving to burn off some Holiday cookies.
On Saturday, January 3, we will conduct a geo-cache man-hunt throughout inner SE Portland for our illustrious EC. Details are in the MCARES 2015 EC’s Cup Drill Guide. All AROs are welcome. You’ll need a 2m radio and GPS (phone will do fine). This will be an active event, catch the EC if you can.
In addition, we are still collecting for the Multnomah trailer project. Although a donation is not required to participate, it would certainly be accepted. Details on that project can be found here.
The idea behind this event is to buff our map reading and tactical radio skills. This is a great opportunity for NET folks to try to claim operator supremacy, so I’m going to need ARES to represent! As usual, engraved swag to the winner courtesy of N9VCU.
Look forward to seeing you there,
Nathan Hersey, N9VCU
Multnomah County ARES Emergency Coordinator
PGE operated a net at 8 and 10 PM on 444.675 (PL 100) for checkins and to gather information on weather conditions, power outages, and down power lines. Nate informed us all of this via email. John KG7JKN gave us this: “Glad I saw this update. I was able to check in and actually get some useful information while I was deployed as a NET to keep folks away from a downed power line. Thanks for keeping the information flowing!”
Michael AE7XP also had a downed power line in his neighborhood and could not get through to PGE as their phones were overloaded. And he learned first-hand the limitations of HTs. He couldn’t hit the PGE net. So he called Deb KK7DEB who relayed his info to PGE on the net and arranged for PGE to call Michael for details. ARES, NETs and PGE all working together to get things done. Way to Go!
The Multnomah County Amateur Radio Service, in partnership with the Portland Amateur Radio Club (PARC) has kicked off a two month fundraising campaign to build a communications trailer to be used for neighborhood-level communications in the event of a major regional incident.
Please visit the fundraiser website to learn more about the project and see how you can help!
Greetings Fellow ARES Members,
I hope you are all staying warm in this recent cold snap. Our weather here in the Pacific Northwest can be challenging at times. Thanks to those of you who have volunteered to help staff the warming shelters being set up throughout the city.
The Portland Amateur Radio Club has elected new officers and I would like to congratulate Aaron KD7VDG, President; John KD7BCY, Vice President; Pete W7PR, Treasurer; and Adam KF7LJH, Recording Secretary. It is really great to see some of our ARES members becoming involved in other aspects of ham radio beyond emergency communications. Way to go, guys!
The state-wide ARES AshEX SET is next Saturday and the leadership team has been working fast and furious to organize our county participation. The exercise simulates a Mt. St. Helens eruption with ashfall disrupting transportation, communication, and power. Winlink digital messaging is emphasized and we will be learning the processing of digital traffic to and from served agencies. All participants need to attend the briefing at our November 20 meeting. See you there!
Watch your email for a survey we would like all members to fill out. We need and value your thoughts on how we can improve MCARES, as well as what training topics you want, and any other suggestions for how we can make 2015 truly awesome. Please get it back to us no later than December 13 so we can incorporate your ideas into our 2015 planning. Have a safe and warm Thanksgiving!
Hello. My name is Bruce Harris and I am the Web Manager and Public Information Officer for Multnomah County ARES.
I have lived in Portland for 36 years. I live with my wife and daughter in NE Portland with our pup, Beau. We are all avid Timbers Fans and I like to ski, hike, travel and cook. I am a life long Buddhist. I own my own business in graphic arts and it has kept me very busy. In the last year I have had to reduce my volunteer activities.
It looks like I will be able to start to resume my ARES activities in the next month and I am looking forward to that very much. I come from a family of volunteers. I have been a volunteer Firefighter and EMT and eight members of my family are now or have been involved with volunteer first response for 35 years.
I started my ECOMM path back in 2003 when I took the City of Portland Neighborhood Emergency Team training. After taking the training I worked with my neighborhood team and another neighborhood team on using FRS/GMRS radios within our neighborhoods. It become apparent that we needed a way to communicate outside of neighborhoods.
At about that time I was involved in CERT-NET Rodeo (skills drill) sponsored by Washington County. During the drills all of the communications were going through Washington County ARES volunteer radio operators and I approached them and asked how to get involved. They said the first thing I needed to do was get my Amateur Radio license. So I went to Powell’s and bought the Technician study book and in 3 weeks of self study I was ready to take the test for my license.
About a month after that I found out about Multnomah County ARES and attended my first meeting. During the first year I received my General license. We were a pretty small group of people, then about six years ago the group really started to grow with the hard work of our leadership. My main interest in ARES is field work. I like to be outside using my radio. I also am very interested in the use of digital over radio communications applied to tactical uses. I have volunteered in pretty much every local event from the Portland Marathon to Hood to Coast. In that first year, I took the FEMA Public Information Officer class. At the time only 12 ARES County Public Information Officers in the country had taken the training. I also have taken the ARRL Public Information Officer Training. The Public Information Officer for any ARES group has two main responsibilities. The first, to convey any and all necessary information to the Public in a concise, accurate and timely manner so that the EC, leadership, and volunteers can spend their time fulfilling their duties. And second, to promote awareness of ARES in the community and its mission of citizen emergency communicators helping our served agencies fulfilling their response in any event.
Welcome to our newest member, Doug KG7MJJ.
As some of you may have noticed, Julie KF7TAU is now Julie W7OW. Julie reports that Lewis and Clark now has their HF Pactor station up and running, thanks to the technical assistance of Adam KF7LJH.
In December, I will be sending out a new membership form to all members. These must be filled out annually to be sure our records are accurate.
Wow! We now have 41 ARRO certified members! Of those, 13 are also NCFO certified and 8 are HFO certified. At least five more are very close to completion of their ARRO certification. I sincerely appreciate the effort and dedication you have all shown is getting this done!
The ARRO certificate is required of all active members and is a prerequisite for the optional NCFO (Net Control and Field Operator), HFO (High Frequency Operator) and the soon to be launched DRO (Digital Radio Operator) certifications. You can find the check sheets on the website under the DOCS tab. Be sure to let me know if you are working on an optional certificate so we can be sure to assign you for drills and events to get you the experience you need.
