Category: News

We are off to a great start to the new year with 71 folks attending the January meeting and 52 members joining in on the February 9 Winlink exercise. We also added two new members in January. A warm welcome to Greg KJ7CPK who joins the Echo team and Robert KI7VQR who joins the Bravo team.

The sign in sheet at our monthly meetings has become quite a time consuming task so we are starting a new procedure beginning at our February monthly meeting. There will be sign in sheets on the table to the left as you enter the meeting room. The sheets will list by team and all you need to do is find your team and name and initial that you are there. Pretty easy on your part but you must remember to check in. Our smiling greeter Ann KF7RBV will be there to remind you for the first few months. There will be a sheet for guests and others not assigned to a team so if you bring a friend direct them toward that sheet. We hope this change will make things easier and less distracting for our members. It will also make our bookkeeping easier.

Our February meeting will feature our EC, Nathan NA7EE, with a Multnomah County ARES overview. Our special guest, David Kidd KA7OZO, SEC and SM, will also talk to us about the State ARES and National ARRL organizations. There should be plenty of time to ask questions. We look forward to seeing you on February 28!

Please join me in welcoming our newest members. William (Bill) KG7GMR joins the Charlie team and Linda K7LJB joins the Bravo team.

Our annual survey should have hit the inbox of all our active members on October 29. It takes about 15 minutes to fill out and is very important to the leadership team in planning for the coming year. If you have not submitted your survey yet, please do so. If you can’t find it, email me at eliza [dot] pride [at] gmail [dot] com and I will resend it.

The first part of the survey makes sure we have up to date contact information for you. The next section wants to know what you are able to do with your own equipment at your home, with your field go kit, and on the road. Next we ask your confidence level in performing various tasks. And finally we want to know how we are doing, what changes you would like to see, and how you can contribute. We read every comment and rely on this survey to shape the coming year’s training and activities

Join me in welcoming our newest members.

Alpha Team: Evan K7FOS
Bravo Team: Laura KI7ZZQ
Charlie Team: Brian KG7QAC and Kandy KG7QAD

This brings our total active membership to 113!

Things are winding down as we begin the fall season. The Portland NET Citywide Exercise was October 14 and five of our digital go-kits were deployed around the city to demonstrate the capabilities of Winlink. A lot of our members participated either as NET or ARES radio operators. Thank you to all for a job well done!

Our focus now is preparing for the statewide ARES SET on November 8. This exercise looks like a fun and multi-faceted relay system using multiple modes and methods. Several legs of the single message journey will require our collective innovative minds. Some methods discussed are a kayak trip across the Willamette River and a bike trip to an awaiting portable digital go-kit station, just to name a few. I cannot say more as this is a competition type message relay with our other county ARES brothers and sisters, so secrecy is paramount. You can join the fun and adventure by signing up to help. Look for the recent email from Nate with a link to the Sign Up Genius.

The yearly ARES survey is being formulated so look for that coming your way soon. We really appreciate your feedback to help the leadership team plan for next year’s training, exercises and activities.

Join me in welcoming our newest members. William KI7QHW and Sam KI7YUX join the Bravo team, and Jesse KI7RQE and Eric KI7RUQ both join the Charlie team. Scott KE7PPM joins us as a supporting member. This brings our total active membership to 108.

What a fun camping trip! (Well maybe except for the rain on Sunday.) As most of you know, we met at a group campsite at Pine Point campground at Timothy Lake up on Mount Hood on Friday for a two night outing. The ARES trailer was on hand for some HF contacts and training. We put up the fan dipole antenna and had great SWR. The new slingshot antenna launcher was a big help getting high up into the trees.

In all we had 27 friends and family participate. Some stayed both nights, some only one night, and several visited during the day on Saturday. The Forest Service just lifted the campfire ban the day before our adventure so we had a rip roaring fire each night and morning. It was a bit chilly up there dipping into the upper 30s at night so the fire was a great place to warm up.

Saturday evening we all converged on the group picnic area for a potluck dinner. I somehow think camping food tastes better because of the good clean air and there was not a single dish that I tried that was not excellent. We are lucky to have such a wonderful group of folks who are great people, great hams, and great cooks, too.

Other news to report is that Ralph AG7FE has agreed to transition in as the new Alpha Team Leader! Robert WX5TEX will be training Ralph for the next few months and will take on the PIO position. A big thanks to Ralph for stepping up to fill this very important role!

Congratulations to Jim KA7AGH as he has earned his HF certification and to Ralph AG7FE who has earned his PRRO certification.