Events for Ham Radio Enthusiasts

Post date: Jan 7, 2018 5:40:57 PM

Happy New Year to you as a valued member of Mountain View ARES. Your participation in our on-going training and practice builds a strong and reliable team that can respond to emergencies, and generally provide community assistance through this great skill called Ham Radio.

Here’s your chance to sign up for either or both of our first two training events for 2018:

Saturday, January 13, 1000 to 1200 hours: Antenna Party

Saturday, February 24, 1000 to 1200 hours: Message Passing in a CERT/ARES Environment

On Saturday January 13th, Mountain View ARES/RACES will be holding its annual Radio and Antenna Tuneup Party. This will take place from 1000 to 1200, in the auditorium at the Police and Fire building at 1000 Villa Street. All Mountain View ARES/RACES members are encouraged to attend, and hams from other cities in our area are also welcome.

This is a great opportunity to meet other members of the ARES/RACES group, and to have your portable and mobile radios and antennas checked and measured. We'll have at least a couple of antenna analyzers for measuring resonant frequency and SWR, a power meter, and a service monitor for checking your transmitter frequency and PL tone and FM deviation levels. If you have any concerns about whether your radio is operating properly, bring it down and we'll find out!

We'll also have a supply of Anderson PowerPole connectors, and the tools needed to install them. Santa Clara County ARES/RACES groups have standardized on PowerPole connectors for radio and power supply and battery cables... they're rugged and reliable, and we encourage our hams to use them wherever practical. If you have a mobile radio or power supply with a manufacturer-specific power plug, we can remove it and install PowerPoles in its place at no cost to you.

Also, we plan to have radio-programming software and cables for most popular radios available. Our former EC Jerry Haag had developed a very complete set of channel-programming data for ARES use in the county, and we can download this data into an unused section of your radio's memory so you'll have all of the channels ready to use. If possible, please bring your radio manual with you.

On Saturday, February 24th, we’ll have our Message Passing in a CERT/ARES Environment. This training brings together both Ham and CERT members to learn what information is needed by the City from CERT, how CERTs will provide that to hams, and how Hams will transmit it to the city. We will be reinforcing all of the good on-air radio techniques that should be used by both Hams and CERT members using FRS/GMRS radios. We’ll review best practices, then you’ll get a chance to practice.

SPECS Monday Night Net: Thanks if you’re already a regular on the net, but if not, we’d encourage you to take about 20 minutes each Monday night to join the fun and stay up to date on what’s going on with your fellow Hams.

The UHF check-ins (used to be called “Early Check-Ins”) run from 1930 to 2000 on 440.8 + 100 repeater. You can wait for a break in traffic, make your call and you’re done … until:

The Main Net begins at 2000 on W6ASH 145.270 – 100 repeater, switching to our MTV tactical net of 146.535 simplex when directed.

We try to track activity and you are currently rated on your check-in activity as noted above. If your 4-month check-in average is: 1-4 = Low; 4-9 = Medium; 10+ = High. If we’ve got it wrong, please let us know. If you’d like to join the distinguished “High” category, just show up on the net!