Category: Training & Certification

Both Adam KF7LJH and John K7TY have been preparing for our next general meeting. The topic for April is Winlink: Packet, Pactor, P2P, attaching files, templates, etc.

The WinLink Webinar for those of you who need assistance in installing and configuring the WinLink software on your computer, (no radio or TNC required) will be on Thursday, May 5.

MCARES has been busy creating and delivering opportunities for our membership to improve skills and knowledge. Some items under consideration include adding value to our weekly net meetings, new member orientations at the beginning of our monthly general meetings, and broadening our reach in the community.

Our weekly nets now include a brief topic of interest to ARO’s. These are 8-10 minute “knowledge drops” after all checkins and before we close out the net. We had Jeff Sperley discuss the MARS system recently. Other future topics include how the Forest Service operates in emergencies, how a hospital participates in relaying communications in an event, and basic radio operation. If you have ideas that you would like to see addressed please send me an email with a topic. If you have something you are passionate about and are interested in bringing that topic to the net, please contact me.

We have a standing meeting at 6:30 PM (before our general meeting starting at 7:00 PM) for all new or renewing members. We are here to answer questions and solve problems for all associate members as well.

Both Steve W7SRH and I have been working with Portland Public Schools to begin a new ham club. There will be an initial meeting on April 17 to introduce MCARES, to introduce membership, and also to help them get started with their first licensing event. See me with your training needs or ideas at our next monthly general meeting on Thursday, April 28 or email me at training [at] multnomahares [dot] org.

A new year brings new opportunities to improve communication skills and have some fun along the way. We completed our January General Meeting with 74 in attendance, including some who were there to express interest in becoming a member of ARES.

Some of the areas the organization will focus on this year include building on our excellent General Meeting training experiences. In addition, we will soon be announcing new content and material in response to the year-end surveys you have completed.

Recruiting is a second area leadership will focus on during the year. Steve W7SRH is leading a small group and is currently assembling a tactical plan to achieve an additional 30 members this year. This may include a licensing class for those seeking to become a ham and an ARES member.

We currently have over 15 people who have completed the Net Control workshop, and they are getting scheduled through Marino KG7EMV to run their first MCARES Weekly Net.

Our February General Meeting focuses on ICS forms and logging (ICS 309, 213, and 214). Eli W7ELI and I will team teach this meeting.

Our March General Meeting focuses on Net Control and Net Protocol. Guest speaker Hal KC7ZZB will be our lead for this meeting. Hal is Net Manager for the D1 Net, assistant manager for the NTTN and has years of experience as net control for the Race for the Cure and other public service events as well as some actual disaster radio experience. This should be an entertaining and informative meeting.

Remember that resistance is not futile. It’s voltage divided by current.

Your leadership Team got together for an all-day workshop to lay out the plan for the coming year. We went over the survey responses and tried to incorporate as many of the suggestions as were workable. The calendar of training and events that resulted is at the end of this newsletter. Many of you requested more hands-on training, and we attempted to address that need. The BEST way to get hands-on training is to participate in SETs, exercises, and public service events. We will let you know about as many of these as we can via the website, the newsletter, and announcements at our monthly meetings.

At the request of our County Emergency Manager, Chris Voss, we will also be putting a strong emphasis on digital radio communications. We are launching our Packet RMS Radio Operator Certification. Look for the task list on the MCARES website under the Training tab. We encourage all ARROs to get this certification.

The Portland NET program is about to launch their own ARO training program! It is modeled after our own ARRO training and is tailored to the specific needs of the NET program. For those NET hams who would like to be more involved with emergency amateur radio communications, becoming a member of MCARES, joining the Rover team, and participating in our meetings, exercises, and public events is encouraged.

I will be conducting three sets of ARRO workshops in the coming year. All new provisional members should attend these workshops after completing the FEMA IS-100, IS-200, and IS-700 on-line courses. This is a slight change from the past in that we are asking all members who are not yet ARRO certified to attend these workshops, and the ICS classes must be completed before attending the workshops.

The Drill from Home on September 12 went very well. Several participants have said it was a valuable experience and should be repeated. There’s a good chance we’ll be doing it again next year. Everyone did very well formatting and sending their NTS messages, going off frequency to exchange messages and dealing with the scratchy signals encountered on simplex. Thank you to all who participated and a special thanks to the simplex frequency monitors who gave valuable feedback and suggestions to the message handlers and to net control (me).

We will be doing a year-end member survey again this year. It will be shorter than last year, just asking for any contact info changes and finding out what we did right and where we can improve. Watch for it probably in November and please take the time to fill it out.