Greetings Fellow ARES Members,
I hope you all are enjoying this great summer weather we are having.
My thanks to all who participated in the last Served Agency Drill on August 9. We tested the Life Safety traffic with the BOEC folks and they were very pleased with the new form. Unfortunately my job needed me to work that day but I understand all went reasonably well.
I am soon off to Sisters for the State ARES Leadership weekend meeting. I hope to bring back a lot of information to share with you, on what the state has in store for us in the coming year.
As summer winds down there are still a few opportunities for field experience. Our next ARES event will be the Fall SET. I’ll let you know the date when it is available.
Hope to see you at the August 28 meeting.
The drill on August 9 went quite well over all. It did bring up several things where we could do better. I strongly encourage all who participated to attend the general meeting on Thursday, August 28 when we will go over the items we can improve upon. Thanks to the drill participants who gave us feedback on how we can better organize the drills and provide better drill documents. These were discussed at the leadership meeting and your concerns have been addressed.
The Race for the Cure is coming up and this is another great opportunity to get some operating experience. It’s also a whole lot of fun! If you want to be buddied up with a more experienced ham, let Pat know. If you are willing to be partnered with a newer ham, also let Pat know.
We are in a final push to get all our team members ARRO certified by the end of the year. We are arranging some extra workshops. If you are not yet certified, contact me and I will help you finish up.
Welcome to our newest members, Gregory KD7KBR, Will KG7LPW, and Susan KG6MJR, and congratulations to Julie KF7TAU for her upgrade to Extra Class.
Congratulations to Robert WX5TEX and Jenny on the birth of their son, Wyatt, born August 7. Robert is really enjoying his new Daddy role, as you can see in the photo here.
Multnomah County ARES vests and t-shirts are available to all our members. Contact me at dprovo [at] yahoo [dot] com if you wish to make a purchase.
My interest in ham radio began when I went to a CERT “Train the Trainer” course in the summer of 2011. Ham radio was mentioned briefly and piqued my interest, but it was not until later that winter that I decided to actually study and take the Technician exam. I remember my older brother having a ham radio in his room back in the early 70s. I remember it took up an incredible amount of table space. I also remember his call sign, KN7OAQ, as it was above his door to his bedroom.
After getting my technician license, I got involved with Multnomah County ARES and started to attend the meetings.
Somewhere along the way I was connected with Garrett AF7RF. I can’t thank him enough for taking the time to come to Lewis & Clark College, which is where I work, and help me with my hand held radio. I have had tremendous support from the Director of Campus Safety to add equipment to our readiness program. I called upon Garrett to steer me in the direction of purchasing a dual band for the college as well. In February, 2013, I upgraded to a General license. Next on the agenda was the purchase of a high frequency radio. I called upon Garrett yet again, and he suggested a good HF radio to purchase for the college and came out to install the antenna. I really enjoy the friendships I have developed through Multnomah County ARES and the learning process, which is never ending! I have since upgraded to the Extra ticket and am waiting for a new call sign.
In my spare time I am a competitive trap shooter and hold a couple of state shooting titles. My husband and I also have nationally ranked field trial dogs and compete in other American Kennel Club events as well.
Robert WX5TEX gave a very good HF 101 class at last month’s meeting: a good balance of technical info and basic how-to to keep everybody interested. Thanks, Robert!
John KF7ZWX will be presenting Electrical Safety and Grounding this month, a topic we should all know something about! Thank you, John!
All team leaders should give their team members who are not yet ARRO certified their check off sheets. This way you will all know what you have left to accomplish. Take your sheet with you whenever you work a drill or event and see if the person in charge can check you off on any of the tasks. When the sheet is complete, give it back to your team leader or to Eli either at a general meeting or you can scan and email it to eliza [dot] pride [at] gmail [dot] com.
Robert WX5TEX has completed and leadership has approved the qualifications for the High Frequency Radio Operator (HFRO) certification. The check sheet will be on the web site soon and we will have copies available at the July general meeting. Basic ARRO certification and a General class license or higher are prerequisites. This is an optional voluntary add-on certification for those who are interested. It is recommended for team members whose served agency has HF capability.
Adam KF7LJH is working on the Digital Radio Operator (DRO) certification requirements and those will be coming soon. ARRO certification is a prerequisite. This is also optional and voluntary for anyone who is interested. It is recommended for team members whose served agency has digital capability. Adam will also be giving another WinLink presentation at the September meeting.
Greetings Fellow ARES Members,
As you know, Multnomah County ARES just completed all the necessary steps to become certified by the Oregon Section ARES. My thanks to all of you for being a part of our organization and working hard to help us achieve this goal. We have finished the Basic certification and are very close to the Intermediate level. We will continue to work toward the Advance” level certification. We are so very fortunate to have a dedicated cadre of members. Your participation in meetings, training, drills, and events are what keep us sharp and prepared in the event that we are needed. Again, my thanks to each of you.
Garrett AF7RF reports that the new Life Safety form was used by ham radio operators to report an incident during the Rose Festival Parade with great success. Our next Served Agency drill will be August 9 and we will be sending more Life Safety traffic to test the newly installed Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system in the radio room at the PBEM ECC. An email with details of this drill will be coming soon. Please save the date.
Jeremy Van Keuren reports the NET team ham radio operators will soon have a new training program. Kudos to John K7TY, Michael AE7XP, and Helen KE7SCS for all their work to get this program rolling. The program will use a lot of our ARRO certification check sheet. It also standardizes ARES and NET radio operations so we can work compatibly and interchangeably.
Hope to see some of you at the Disaster Relief Trials and all of you at the July 24 monthly meeting.
My ham adventures began in December 2012 when I passed my tech exam with an initial goal of getting on the air to do HF. I passed my General ticket the very next month and shortly thereafter made my first DX contact to Lithuania. Not too long after I received my call sign I was in an EMCOM class at PCC and James Bryant came in to give a talk about ARES. I went to the next monthly meeting and the rest is history.
I’ve been on again off again with electronics in general since I was a wee one, but got back into circuits and things back in 2002ish when I started working on some interactive art projects. Ham radio seemed like a natural progression.
Aside from participating in ARES activities, I like to do Summits on the Air, surf the HF bands when I have the time, and try out all the digital modes I can figure out. I also carry my 2m handheld everywhere, and enjoy making contacts on the road and trails. My goals for the summer are to upgrade to Extra class, and actually design and mail out some contact postcards.
I grew up in the Chicago burbs, and have been in PDX since 2005 after moving here from Brooklyn, NY. After 10 years in web production, web start up life and a short stint as an aquatic ecologist, I’ve been freelancing in web production and print design for the past 7-odd years.
Last year I returned to school full time. Currently I’m a post-BACC student in Geology with minor in mathematics at PSU and an Emergency Management Cert student at PCC. I originally returned to school to focus on volcanology and volcanic hazard & landslide mitigation, but I recently fell down a geodynamics worm hole, so who knows where I’ll end up next.
Aside from school, I’m also a staff member of the Experimental Film Fest Portland. We just put on our 3rd successful festival and were awarded a Precipice grant this year from PICA and the Andy Warhol Foundation. In the minuscule amount of free time I have left I do experimental animation, hike, camp, bicycle and otherwise enjoy adventure time in the land between art and science. I’ve lived off rapidly changing NE Alberta Street for the past seven years with my partner and our two cats. As you may imagine the weed jungle around our house is substantial!
A big thanks to John KF7ZWX for his soldering classes. Hopefully he will do a repeat later in the year. Thanks also to Robert WX5TEX for the HF training at this month’s meeting.
The May go kits in the parking lot meeting was a huge success. The weather was great and we had fun setting up and showing our gear, sharing ideas, and socializing.
The mini orange go kit and traffic handling workshop went very well. I will be scheduling another one soon. Watch your email. I hope you all are working toward your basic ARRO certification. If you need help contact your team leader or me at eliza [dot] pride [at] gmail [dot] com.
Hello Fellow ARES Members,
Summer is fast approaching and many ham activities are on the horizon. I hope you will join in on Field Day activities with Portland Amateur Radio Club at Kelly Butte or Hoodview Amateur Radio Club up at Larch Mountain on June 28.
Planning and recruiting for the Disaster Relief Trials, July 19, are under way. Please let me know if you can help.
August is taking shape with our Served Agency drill on the 9th. Providence Hospital hams have asked to be included and we will practice more Life Safety messages with the folks at BOEC in the 911 call center.
Many of the NET hams have told me that they would like more air time, so on August 16 we will host a field exercise at Pier Park. It should be a lot of fun. Let me know if you want to help.
The County ECC radio room is undergoing a planned remodel. The RMS gateway will be down for a while during construction. Hopefully the new design will improve our ability to operate in the small space. This month we will be completing our Oregon ARES Basic Unit Certification. There are currently only five other counties that have achieved this and we are proud to join their ranks.
I hope to see you at the June 26 meeting.
I’m the guy on the trike. Bicycling and ham radio are my things.
My radio career began when my high school shop teacher started a radio club back in 1965. We had to pass the Novice ticket to get an A in the class. This was also the high time of Heathkit. I learned how to solder building an HW-8 and an SB-line station once I upgraded to General. I rarely operated since I couldn’t put up much of an antenna at home but I built and built and built. I convinced a lot of the neighbors and relatives to get Heathkit stereos which I built for them (for a small fee, of course). After high school, all this led to a couple of electrical engineering degrees (and an Extra ticket) and lots and lots of operating at university club stations when I really should have been studying. Back then I operated mostly low power QRP CW.
After graduation, a job with Intel got me to the west coast. Easy access to microprocessor chips (8080 and 8048 families) with cosmetic defects allowed me to build some of the first microprocessor-based RTTY and CW equipment (all in assembly language). When CPM (an early microprocessor operating system) came out I jumped into programming. This led to a job in Intel’s microprocessor group in the 8086 days right before IBM announced the IBM PC. In the late 70s I volunteered for a 2-year European assignment in Brussels. It was fun being on the other end of pile-ups for a change (as an ON8). The job meant a lot of traveling all over Europe so I didn’t operate as much as I would have liked.
After Europe came Portland (the weather is similar). I operated the digital modes (RTTY and packet) almost exclusively and wrote a number of packet-based database applications such as a SwapNet BBS system. Then kids happened. And I went back to school for a teaching degree, taught for a couple of years and then started an Internet business. Ham radio went to the back burner. Even so, there was always a VHF radio in the car, an HF radio on the desk and a handheld in the back pack. Fast-forward 15 years and semi-retirement allowed me to blow the dust out of the old radios. An interest in emergency communication led to an intersection of ARES and Red Cross. Current projects are getting the radio shack off the grid, improving the bicycle mobile setup and getting everyone in the house licensed.
