Welcome to the Washington County ARES/RACES site!

Washington County Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) exists for the purpose of providing backup emergency communications to many served agencies in Washington County, Oregon.  Those served agencies include incorporated cities, special service districts (fire districts, utilities, schools, etc.), and hospitals.  Other non governmental agencies may also be served upon request, as allowed by available staffing and training.

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New Winlink Series

[New note 11-10]   Week 1 is due by Tuesday Nov 19 by 0900 hrs.

I will send out the results and a critique. That is when I will call for the next check in.

It will work best if we have enough local participants (WashcoARES, live or work in Washington County, OR) all in sync with the lessons.

Each week may have a review of how the group did with check ins published as sent. See Winlink Training Series

If you cannot check in with a radio, we will use your internet email (let me know). Continue reading

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Next In-Person Meeting in January 2025

The next Washington County ARES General In-Person meeting will be held in January.

We will skip the in-person method for December meeting and instead will meet on-air (our usual Tuesday night net). Contact K7FRK to volunteer to host (net control) a Tuesday night net.

The November presentation will be online Wednesday 11-20 at Presentations | Washington County ARES/RACES.

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Recent Articles on Ham and Hurricanes

See the “Incidents” tab for three recent articles online and a podcast.

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Oregon Fall SET this Sat. 11-9

The Oregon Fall SET is this Saturday, 9 Nov 2024.

This is also second Saturday which we usually use for training. We are going to deviate slightly from the Oregon ARES exercise concept. Download Frequencies  below.

Our primary activations will be from home locations. This simulates an emergency that has significant travel restrictions.

Several EOC’s activated for Iron OR last week and demonstrated capabilities. If an EOC wishes to activate, it is at the station manager’s discretion. Just make sure you coordinate with your agency before showing up.

Oregon ARES Fall SET Objectives: Continue reading

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Get on HF w/ Air Force MARS! this week

AF MARS flyer pdf

The logo(s) on your Special Event certificate depends on the station contacted. Collect all 14! Go for Bronze (5), Silver (10) or Gold (14).

The Air Force Military Auxiliary Radio System (AFMARS) celebrates our service again to United States Military and Civilian government organizations during November 2024. This will be “Air Force MARS 76 Years” Special Event and will include communications on Amateur HF bands (80-6) in the General License portion of the band and in the Technician License portion of 10 meters using SSB, CW and digital modes. Continue reading

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Iron OR 24 – Shelter-1

One of our three ham radio stations was at the Elsie Stuhr Center. Below Rick, K7RDB and Mark, W7MML operate voice and Winlink.

Outside, Bob, KI7RUR, set up our antenna.

More later.

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Local Youth ARISS Contact w/ Astronauts Fri 10/18 am

*** A local youth will contact an astronaut by ham radio as the International Space Station flies overhead. ***

Amateur Radio International Space Station
>> McMinnville Friday 1128 am Free in-person to public OR on Youtube. Listen on 145.80 Mhz

This is a reminder for the ARISS Contact on October 18th. If you can’t be there physically, it will also be broadcast on YouTube. This is open to the public.

setup of actual location

Celebrate the end of Zeke KJ7NLL’s 5-year quest to communicate with an astronaut on the ISS over ham radio! Thanks to the ARISS program, on Friday, October 18, Zeke will facilitate the 11-minute ham radio call between Astronaut Sunita Williams and students from TEACH-NW charter school. We will be using our student-made antennas and rotor system to contact the ISS, and over the past several weeks we have spent many, many hours modifying and fine-tuning the equipment. Continue reading

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Alert: ICS 205s

2024-Oct-16: Please see and print out the latest ICS-205 forms which contain OR Emergency Management frequencies for when comms are out.

The latest in-person meeting notes are under the Presentations tab.

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Gaston Fire District 2024 ARES Field Station

Images from our Gaston Fire District 2024 Emergency Preparedness Fair.

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Bill, KD7EFP staffs the main table.
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Gaston P2P and Digipeat Mini-Exercise

Washco ARES members have gone out on two weekends to test propagation from Gaston to other useful points. Check back for more information. The first photos is of N9PPand antenna the first weekend. The next three are from the second weekend.

Continue reading

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