Category: Exercises

  • Delta/Charlie Team Drill Recap

    Thanks to all who participated in last month’s team drill. Delta Team operated from Nate’s home in North Portland. Charlie Team operated from Lewis and Clark College, one of our served agencies, in Southwest Portland. I think it’s safe to say that we all learned from the experience. After all, that’s what drills are for.

    This was, by design, a very laid back exercise. Our goals included the sending of Winlink, SSTV image transfer, and voice traffic. We had no emergency scenario and no pre-written messages. We were focusing on systems practice. We made things up on the spot and sent things along.

    Some of the challenges we faced were due, in part, to the introduction of some unfamiliar equipment into the mix. If you have to swap out a computer (for SSTV) that you thought was going to work fine but didn’t, for one that had an unfamiliar set of applications, the learning curve can be a challenge and cause a domino effect on the whole process of getting the image passed through the system. We had several challenges like this. A surprise development was that were unable to make VHF simplex contact between the two stations. The reason for this is not entirely clear but most likely due to line of sight issues. When the VHF Winlink set up didn’t work the way we thought it would, we switched to HF/Pactor and accessed a station on 17 meters. Good job Julie! The good news is that the teams were able to improvise and get the job done.

    For me the biggest take away was realizing that things don’t always go as one expects them to. Stay focused and have confidence in the team to solve the issues.

    Again, thanks to all who helped with the drill.

  • Echo/Bravo Team Drill Recap

    The Echo/Bravo Team Drill on Saturday, March 11 went very well. The Bravo Team operated with three team members and Matthew, team leader, at the PBEM ECC and a three member field team simulating a shelter. Special thanks to Joe WA7FWC from the Charlie Team for heading up the field team and teaching the three Bravo team members how to operate the digital go kit.

    The Echo Team had two members plus myself at the Gresham EOC and two members at Gresham Fire Station 74. This was the first time we have operated Winlink from a fire station. Joel N7LF ran net control from the trailer. All three Echo locations had some equipment difficulties but we managed to solve or work around the issues and got the job done as planned.

    I was very pleased to see how well everyone did with message and station logs! Nice job! I will point out that each station should only log the messages they send or receive at that station, not every message handled in the entire drill.

  • Charlie/Alpha Team Drill Recap

    Our first team exercise was last Saturday with the Charlie and Alpha teams. The Mike (ARES Trailer) team also participated as a field station for the Alpha team. The focus was on sending ICS 213 messages both by voice and Winlink, and image transfer via SSTV. Logging on the ICS 214 and ICS 309 was also a top priority. The primary planning was done by the Charlie team and they did a great job. The County ECC was activated by the Alpha team and Lewis and Clark was activated by the Charlie team. Both teams had one field team acting as shelter locations. In all we had 18 AROs active for the 2 hour exercise.

    The feedback from the teams was extremely positive. Team members really appreciated the opportunity to get hands-on experience. Everyone felt this was time well spent and they learned a lot. Mother Nature was even cooperative and seemed to approve by giving us mild temperatures and clear skies. Thanks Charlie and Alpha team members for spending a few hours to sharpen your skills.

    All members are strongly encouraged to participate in their team drills. The next one is March 11 with the Bravo and Echo teams.

  • News from Around the County

    Cascadia Rising is now behind us and a big thanks to all who participated to make this a successful ARES/County/City exercise. Winlink again proved to be an efficient way to move messages to the State OEM and around the county. In all we had 24 of our members active during the three-day exercise and over 90 messages moved from here to there and back again.

    Sea-Pac was June 4 and 5. Several of our members were there to show and tell the mostly completed Mobile Communications Unit (MCU). There was a lot of interest from area hams on the build and design and it is a wonder that Adam KF7LJH still has a voice left as he was a busy fellow giving tours. Brian KE7QPV had a display of a working HSMM Mesh node that also was very popular. Brian will be bringing his display and making an HSMM presentation at our June 23 ARES meeting. Steve W7SRH was also there promoting MCARES and is hopeful that we may add a few new members.

    Field Day is coming! Mark your calendar for June 25 and 26. Multnomah County ARES has been invited to partner with the Portland Amateur Radio Club for field operations at Kelly Butte Park located at SE 103rd Avenue in Portland – turn south from Division and follow the road up the hill to the end. The ARES MCU will be operating there too. You can also join our east county friends at Hoodview Amateur Radio Club at their field operations up at Larch Mountain; follow Historic Columbia Hwy to Larch Mt. Road. Field Day is a great opportunity to meet and visit with other hams, see multi-mode field operations, and get on the air!

  • October 10 Exercise Scaled Back; Marathon and DRT Prevail

    It was decided at the leadership meeting that we will minimize our participation in the statewide exercise on October 10. We will only activate and staff the County ECC for this exercise. The team will handle the Winlink traffic from the State ARES/OEM. The ECC team will be contacted by team leader Deb to staff this.

    The exercise activities requested by the state ARES leadership involve field deployment, which we have done already fairly extensively this year. We feel it is too much to ask of you to devote three weekends in a row to ARES. It is more important and more valuable to your training and to the community that we put our effort into providing communications for the Portland Marathon the week before the exercise and the Disaster Relief Trials the week after.

    The Portland Amateur Radio Club coordinates communications for the Marathon and Multnomah ARES coordinates communications for the Disaster Relief Trials. This is where we need to concentrate our efforts and our volunteer hours in October. Both of these events are fun to work and provide very different communications and radio experiences. We will be using interesting technologies for the DRT with APRS, EasyPal (Photos), HSMM (high-speed data), and field VHF Winlink.

    Please sign up for one or both of these public service events. We need your help!

  • Activation Drill

    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.