Washington County ARES/RACES

RSVP: AJ7CS, KD7ISA

The field operation portion will likely extend past noon especially for those that setup an HF antenna.

We will focus on HF (high frequency) OPERATION during May and June. You do NOT need to have an HF radio. Just bring yourself. Or bring your complete HF station (radio, laptop, coax, antenna). Or anything in-between.

No need for camping tents, fuel generators, other camping equipment. You may wish to bring a radio table, chair, computer shade or pop up canopy. Bring drinking water and sunshade.

May: This coming Saturday May 10th (08300 we will meet at the Public Safety Training Center in Hillsboro. You may arrive as early as 0830. Bring your task book for possible task completion sign-off from 0830 to 0900. Otherwise we will get down to business.

First, a brief lecture / orientation. Then we travel a short distance to the East to Dairy Creek Park to set up some HF radio stations complete with a radio and Winlink laptop.

Public Safety Training Center
600 SW Walnut St Rm #3 (access to outside patio)
Hillsboro, OR 97126
Map: Public Safety Training Center

Map of travel to the park 

Dairy Creek Park (located behind Winco and dangerously close to Harbor Freight)
515 SW 17th Avenue
Hillsboro, OR 97123

Map Dairy Creek
Dairy Creek Park

June offers HF operation at an Aurora airfield and at Field Day.

Hillsboro Air Show volunteer signups (Ham and CERT) have started.

Net Control     This position is for one person or team familiar with Amateur Radio Operations. Note: As of Wednesday eve, there is a need for several Net Control operators (Sat am, Sat pm, Sun pm).

Roamer (CERT or Ham) one CERT member and one amateur radio operator team up and roam the area to help with lost children, directions, medical needs, and anything else that may arise. If you have a person who would like to be paired with, please include their name in the comments. As of Wednesdat eve, there is a need for roaming ham operators (Fri pm, Sat pm, Sun am, Sun pm).

** If none of the positions in CERT work for you, and you would still like to volunteer, let Catherine Amerson know.

Additional details are available on your washcoares.org  email or through the sig up links in the table above.

Positions Open

Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue Emergency Operations Center
• Station Manager
• Operators
• Tigard Area (OR-217 & Hwy 99)
• Emergency Manager asked ARES to re-activate this station by request of TVF&R.
• Equipment is still in-place from pre-COVID
• TVF&R staff have been keeping equipment ‘warm’
• Needs to be experienced operators.

Web Administrator
• This is the technical side of the web site
• Keep everything running
• Web posts and editing continue under Paul with Mike Stevens joining him

Membership Manager
• Pat is moving to Beaverton Station Manager
• Doug plans on retiring as Station Manager latter this year

Duties
• Responsible for new member intro and application process
• Collects required ICS certificates for the Emergency Manager
• Works with the Emergency Manager to get background checks approved
• Works with Chris Arnesen to get email assigned
• Deals with any membership tasks assigned

Oregon DART is Oregon Disaster Airlift Response Team (ODART info). “A local DART is an airport-centered group of pilots, aircraft, and supporting functions that are trained and prepared to provide an airlift response to a disaster.” The Emergency Communications part includes amateur radio operators. In Oregon there are four local DARTS in: Aurora (KUAO), Bend (KBDN), Albany (S12) and Creswell (77S).

They hold exercises each summer. The plan from lats summer is located at ODART WR25.

Whale Run 2025 (WR25) exercise is:
• June 7th (aerial windshield surveys) – no comms (except limited DMR support at KUAO for the Thunder Run exercise in Washington).

• June 14th (cargo delivery flights) – The closest to our county are at Aurora and Albany. The amateur radio equipment used includes HF radios with an NVIS antenna for distance communication and VHF/UHF radios for local communication.

Send a Radiogram

One way to introduce people to a ham radio Radiograms is to offer to send their message from your outreach booth. If you are not yet set up to do this but have internet access, you can go to the web site above. The person can craft and send their message. A volunteer ham radio operator will pick it up.

Old TV Weather Guys calling for freezing rain, sleet, 0.2″ ice, 1-3″ of snow on the valley floor starting about 0800L, Thursday.

Old TV Weather Guys expect up to 4″ in West Hills and outside the metro areas by Saturday.

Schools going on delayed starts already. Continue reading →

Sim(ulation) City Feb 8, 2025