Category: Exercises

  • News from Around the County

    Thanks to all who participated in the annual Team Field exercise on September 6! It is important that we test the go kits and train on how to use them on a regular basis. For the most part this exercise went well and we will flush out a few issues that we found with the Bravo team kit. It was also great that the Alpha team operated from the county EOC to introduce a few new members of the operations there.

    The new 2025 Oregon Regional VHF/UHF template is now published on our website. You can access it here. There are no changes to the Multnomah County frequencies however there are changes for our neighbor counties. Please program your radios to match the new 2025 template.

    We are looking forward to meeting in person at Portland Community College southeast Campus/Community Hall on September 25 at 7:00 PM. This meeting will be a hybrid with Zoom available to those who are unable to attend in person. The Ultra Marathon planning team will be giving an overview of this season’s events. Joe, WA7FWC, will be on site to program go kit radios. Bring your radio or handheld and programming cable!

  • News from Around the County

    This month’s meeting will be in person at Portland Community College, SE 82nd Ave and SE Division St, in the Community Hall meeting room. This will be the last in person meeting for the year.

    We will switch to Zoom for the November 16 (one week early), January, and February meetings. We do not have a December membership meeting, however the Leadership team meets for planning for next year. The holidays are a busy time for us all. Eli and Dylan will be teaming up to give us a refresher traffic handling and forms course for the October meeting.

    We hope you will join us for the Shakeout exercise on October 19 and the AREDN/mesh demo on the 21st. See your email for details on both of these events. We have been contacted by the Portland office of the National Weather Service (NWS) to help again this year with their SkyWarn 2023 event. We are working on details and it looks like this will be December 2 unless there is a government shutdown happening at that time. Please save the date as this was really fun last year and very much appreciated by our local NWS folks.

    Fall has definitely arrived! It is a good time to check your go kit and include colder weather gear and rain protection. Check your batteries to make sure they are fully charged or perhaps needing replacement.

  • News from Around the County

    Winter Field Day was at Scouters Mountain on January 28 and it was great fun. We braved the chilly weather and set up two stations. Joe had his awesome Yaesu FT DX 10 for voice, and Bob and Ken brought their Elecraft stations for CW. Propagation was very good and we were able to make contacts as far away as Nova Scotia and southern Florida, and many places in between. We appreciate all who visited and helped out. A special thanks to Joe for submitting our logs to the WFD organization. The chili dogs were consumed at a very high rate!

    We are super excited to have a new meeting location at Portland Community College’s Southeast campus (SE Division and 82nd Ave). Our March 23 meeting will be there as will all other in-person meetings. We will send building details and parking instructions prior to the March meeting.

    We are planning a Winlink exercise from home for Sunday, February 26 at 10:00am. Please save the date. The drill guide will be sent via email soon. Time to dust off the equipment and practice, practice, and practice!

    The early planning has begun for the three Ultra Marathons this summer. Take a look at the dates and try to save a few to your calendar.

    • June 24: Wy’East Wander Mt. Hood near Parkdale
    • July 15-16: Mt. Hood Trail Run
    • Aug 5-6: Volcanic near Mt St. Helens

    We will need your help to staff the various needed positions.

  • News from Around the County

    We have a few new and exciting changes for 2023!

    We are looking for a new meeting location – somewhere closer in town – and hope to have that nailed down soon. We will keep you posted on the progress.

    Multnomah County Emergency Management just announced their new EOC will be located on the 2nd floor of the Multnomah building. We hear a new radio room will be a priority.

    We have been contacted by Todd Janssen from Go Beyond Racing and asked if we can volunteer for a couple more of their ultra-marathon events this summer. Leadership has agreed to add the following races:

    • June 24: Wy’East Wander Mt. Hood near Parkdale
    • July 15-16: Mt. Hood Trail Run
    • Aug 5-6: Volcanic near Mt St. Helens

    Please save the dates as we will need as many members as possible to support these events.

    Multnomah County Emergency Management is in the planning stages of a statewide Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquake Exercise in June. This is a large, full-scale, multi-agency event. Jeff KI7TVE is representing MCARES in the planning process. The last Cascadia exercise was in 2016 and we are looking forward to providing emergency communications on June 13 and possibly June 14.

    The January 26 MCARES meeting will be online via Zoom. Bruce AA7PB and I will be presenting on the new MCARES Power Kits. We will talk about uses, safety, how to start the generator, and a video presentation.

  • News from Around the County

    The November 17 MCARES meeting will be in-person at Portland Fire & Rescue Station 2 at 4800 NE 122nd Ave. Jeff WX7OR will be presenting “Winlink Beyond the Basics.” The parking lot gate closes at 7PM sharp so plan to arrive a little early.

    I am pleased to announce that Phyllis W7ZM has been chosen to be our new net manager. We are looking forward to working with Phyllis to keep our weekly nets running smoothly.

    Carrie K7CAC has resigned as Charlie team Leader and AEC. The Charlie team is our largest team and Carrie has done a great job and will be missed. We are looking for a new team leader and will keep you posted on the search.

    We have been asked by the Portland office of the National Weather Service to participate in their Skywarn Recognition Day on December 3. Steve W7SRH and Adam KF7LJH are working on the details. This is a great opportunity for the ARES trailer, and our members will have an opportunity to participate. Stay tuned for more details coming soon.

    Multnomah County Emergency Management is in the planning stages of a statewide Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquake Exercise in June of 2023. This is a large full-scale multi-agency event. Jeff KI7TVE is representing MCARES in the planning process. The last Cascadia exercise was in 2016 and we are looking forward to providing emergency communications again next year.

    Please note there will not be a December membership meeting. The leadership team will be holding its annual planning session. If you have ideas or input for 2023 please send them to leadership [at] multnomahares [dot] org.

  • News from Around the County

    The October 27 MCARES meeting will be online using Zoom. We will send the link for the meeting a few days before the meeting. Non-members can contact Leadership [at] MultnomahARES [dot] org to receive a link to the meeting. Dylan N4LYD will be presenting “Forms and Logging”.

    A reminder that the November MCARES meeting will be one week earlier because of the Thanksgiving holiday – that means November 17. This meeting will likely be in person at PF&R Station #2. Jeff WX7OR will be presenting “Winlink – Beyond the basics”.

    The fall statewide ARES SET is coming soon on Saturday, October 29. The guidance from the state ARES folks was rather late so our county plan is still being worked on. We hope to have the drill guide out to you later this week. Stay tuned.

    We are sad to announce that Rachel KI7NMB is stepping down as our net manager. She has done a fantastic job and she will be missed for sure! Our sincere thanks to Rachel for her many years of service.

  • News from Around the County

    Thanks to our 42 members who joined in the “Sizzling Summer Setup” field exercise! Team Leaders report that we all learned a lot and fun was had by everyone. The team go kits were put to use as cross-band repeaters and digipeater,s and everyone had a chance to practice these skills. It was great to be out in the park on a beautiful summer morning with our fellow team members.

    Our August 25 meeting is the annual BBQ, go kit show-and-tell, and raffle drawing. Bring your go kit and show others your unique design. If you are thinking about building a kit, this is the best place to see what others have done and get ideas. Burgers, hot dogs, and cold drinks will be provided, and feel free to bring a picnic item to share if you would like. We hope you can join us at Sellwood Park!

    We will do the raffle drawing (Donation/Prize Extravaganza) at the BBQ so there is still time to get your tickets. Watch your email for the signup form and tickets will also be on sale at the picnic. This is our annual fundraising event and helps us pay for the BBQ food and needed expenses during the coming year.

  • News from Around the County

    I hope you are enjoying our somewhat mellow summer weather. No massive extreme weather so far is certainly good news. Let’s hope we can continue on this path.

    We are working on our annual fund raising raffle as we collect donations from our members. You should be seeing more about this soon.

    We have scheduled our August field exercise for the morning of Saturday the 13th . We will have each of our teams out with their team go kit practicing set up and learning the process of cross-band repeating and digipeating. Stay tuned for more information as we work on the drill plan.

    Field Day was really fun up at Larch Mt. The weather was great and we had a really good antenna up high in the trees. A few of our members made the trek up the hill and Robert Quinn, our Multnomah County Emergency Management liaison, rode his bike up from Corbett. Way to go Robert!

    The Hoodview Amateur Radio Club had several members onsite and we all enjoyed meeting new folks. Unfortunately the HF bands were not very friendly and our contacts were mostly on the western side of the US and Canada.

  • News from Around the County

    The April monthly meeting will be online via Zoom. We are planning for the May meeting to be in person at Portland Fire station 2 training center. After two long years it will be great to meet in person again! Stay tuned as these plans are somewhat fluid as we monitor the COVID situation.

    The safety of our members is always our highest priority. We have added new speakers to some of our meetings and we will be back on Zoom for the June meeting. We have scheduled David W7DAO, who is located in Seattle, to talk about propagation and the ionosphere. This is great subject matter prior to Field Day the following weekend.

    Spring and Summer MCARES activities are taking shape with WALK MS on May 21 and the new Mt. Hood ultra-marathon on July 8 and 9. (Members: Check your email for the sign up.) We have also scheduled our annual GPS Food Drive for June 11. Unfortunately the spring statewide ARES SET (Simulated Emergency Test) has been canceled.

    Several of our members have been asking for MCARES apparel such as t-shirts, polos, sweatshirts, and callsign name badges. We are working with our suppliers on updating prices and will be offering an online order form very soon.

  • News from Around the County

    It is certainly fantastic to see the number of COVID-19 cases dropping in Oregon. The indoor mask mandate has been lifted and we are looking into meeting in person sometime soon. We have scheduled a few speakers for our monthly meetings who live far away and only do their presentations online so we will need to take that into consideration as we proceed. Stay tuned!

    The Saturday SSTV exercise went very well and many great pictures were sent in. Thanks to everyone who participated. We had 37 members willing to spend a few hours to help with this drill. This is one of the many skills that makes ham radio so much fun as there is a lot more that we can do than just talk on the radio. If you have not yet had a chance to look into Slow Scan TV you should talk with your team leader for a demonstration and ask what equipment is needed. All of our MCARES go kits have the needed components.

    The Walk MS volunteer sign up form has a whopping 27 members signed up so far. We appreciate that you are so willing to help out with this public service event. May 21 is a ways off so we will keep you updated on the progress of this event.

    I think Spring is my favorite time of year as we see the plants and trees come back to life after a cold and gray winter. The return of the warm sunshine is especially appreciated by my 2 cats who just love to bask in the rays coming through the windows. With COVID-19 winding down it feels like Spring takes on a new meaning.