Events for 2024 for Washington County ARES - Minnesota
.....Radiologial Emergency Preparedness (REP) Drill and Exercise completed.
...Cottage Grove Table Top - Drill completed ARES participated. VHF and Winlink P2P demo'd
.... WashCo ARES All Member Meeeting on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 at 6:30 PM in the Lake Elmo Public Library. (3537 Lake Elmo Avenue North, Lake Elmo, MN.)
..Washington County ARES will participate in the 2024 Radiological Emergency Preparedness Drill and Exercise.
Hands On Training on May 16th . . .Exercise on June 26th. Please reserve these dates in your calendar. More details coming to participants. (NOTE DATE CHANGES)
Events for 2023 for Washington County ARES - Minnesota
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Washington County ARES will participate in the 2023 Radiological Emergency Preparedness Drill on June 7 and June 28. After Action Summary under the News Tab.
The Association of Emergency Radio Organizations(AERO) is offering first level classes on Emergency Communications via Zoom. AERO 101 is Introduction to Emergency Communications for Amateur Radio on May 1st and May 3rd, 7-9 PM.
AERO 102 is Advanced Emergency Communications for Amateur Radio on May 8th and May 10th. Prerequisite is AERO 101.
To get course outline and to enroll in these classes, send an email to georgecpower@gmail.com ...
FULL WASHCO ARES GROUP MEETING ON MONDAY, MARCH 27, 2023 AT 7 PM AY WOODWINDS HOSPITAL. ENTER MAIN ENTRY DOOR AND PROCEED TO ADMIN CONFERENCE ROOM ON MAIN FLOOR. Roster update, ID cards, REP Drill info, Net info, future events and meetings, and more. Plan to attend.
Events for 2022 for Washington County ARES
....Twin Cities Marathon weekend runs Oct. 1-2. Check their web site for information. Good Practice to operate on one of the nets. Sign up as a volunteer to operate. Also check the Minnesota ARES Web site (ARESMN.ORG) for their information to operate on Net One.
....A second MN VOAD (Minnesota Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters) Exercise will be held in Bloomington on Oct. 22. Contact MN VOAD President President Ryc Lyden (KD0ZWM) if interested.
...ARES members will be exercising with MN VOAD in July. If interested, contact former EC KA0HYR for information.
...Annual Armed Forces Day Cross-Band Exercise Set for May 14, 2022, 1300 - 2200 UTC. Frequencies and Modes to be announced on or about April 1. All amateur radio operators are invited to participate.
..2022 MN ARES Conference on Zoom. Topics include key note speakers, New Skills covered: Winlink, Go Kits, MNVOAD, Tower Trailers. ALso practicing your skills through public service. More information at https://minnesotaares.org
EVENTS for Washington County ARES 2021 and prior 2020
..Twin Cities Marathon and 10K need volunteer hams to work in one of several nets on Oct. 3, 2021. You can register at Racesafe.com. You should put "Adult volunteer non medical" as your category and your call sign as your license number. There appear to be four nets that need help, as in years past. Your service would be greatly appreciated.
...Two Digital Nets operate in Minnesota for ARES practice and operations. They are (1) MN Digital ARES Net on Thursday, 2000 local on 3,583.5 KHz using Olivia 8-500 hosted by K0RGR or KC5SAM; and (2) a Winlink (only) Net hosted by N0DZQ at his Winlink address. It is a weekly check-in net. SO, Join us if you can by checking in to one or both nets.
.. DOD MARS / Amateur Radio 60 Meter Interoperability Exercises for 2021 Schedule. All exercises are on Channel 1 of 60 Meters in Continental U.S.A. No times given, so listen up and participate if you can. Dates as follows:
Feb 23-27, DOD COMEX 21-1; March 1-7, Interop Outreach; Apr 3-10, Interop Outreach; Apr 30 - May 6, DODCOMEX 21-2; May 7-8 Armed Forces Day Cross-Band Test; June 1-6, Interop Outreach; July 5-10, Interop Outreach; July 20-22, DOD COMEX 21-3; Aug 2-8, Interop Outreach; Sept 1-6, Interop Outreach; Oct 1-31, DOD COMEX 21-4. No additional details available, so listen to 60 Meters for details.
..Next ARC/ARES Drill is scheduled for May 8th. This is expected to be a Winlink operations drill, so get registered at Winlink.org and practice prior to the drill.
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. ARC/ARES Drill completed on November 14, 2020. We had 9 participants in this drill from our ARES group. Tentative date for the next drill is May 8, 2021. Stay tuned.
SET Date is Oct. 1-3. Summary Results: THIS IS A DRILL.... Text Alert and Metro District ARES Net held Oct 1. MN Digital ARES Net participation held Oct. 1. CW message passed via NTS Oct. 1-2. News Release passed to media organs. . . Saturday Oct 3 completed a Resource Net voice check in on 147.180, PL 100 and 74.4 8-9 am; ID Credential check completed. Corrections to be made. Formal written traffic passed on Traffic Net 9-10 AM on 147.180, PL 74.4 and 100, Back up repeater Magic repeater 145.170, PL 100 used for additional communication. (All are Emergency Powered repeaters.) Sample messages posted under News Tab this site and forms posted this web site under Files Tab. More details in email from EC KA0HYR earlier.
Oct. 10 Training for ARC/ARES Drill using Winlink and FL msg. Drill date is Nov. 14 using Red Cross forms and ICS forms. Contact EC KA0HYR if you are interested.
May 30: WashCo ARES members completed the ARC ARES May 30 2020 drill. The drill scenario was the loss of power and internet after a successful hacker attack. ARES provided communications on behalf of a shelter using Red Cross and ICS forms. Other members checked in and provided infrastructure reports using the FEMA format. An aggregated report was forwarded to Metro DEC Foster and North Central Region leaders. The drill was conducted from home QTH stations. Repeaters, Simplex, and Winlink comms worked well. The drill was successful and many reported learning additional procedures and radio methods. Thanks to all who were able to participate.
May 30: WashCoARES plans to participate in the Red Cross Communications Exercise pending further details. AM portion will be local and PM portion will be national. When we get details we will pass them to ARES members.
March 16: All ARES Members Meeting at Lakeview Hospital, is CANCELLED.
FL Digi and Winlink Hook-up Day originally scheduled for April is cancelled. Check the ARRL E-Letter at ARRL .ORG , March 18, 2020, edition for a listing of videos on how to set up Winlink for your station.
Feb 22, 9 am - 1 pm at Woodbury High School, AERO 101Introductory Course dealing with radio and net operations and ICS Forms.
Apr 25, 9 am - 1 pm at Woodbury High School, AERO 102, Follow-up Course focusing on Effective communications support and procedures and Communications Unit procedures.
Late Monday in March, Washington County ARES will have its spring meeting, final date TBD so stay tuned.
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October 6: Twin Cities Marathon; individual ARES members may volunteer to provide communications support.
September 18-21: Simulated Emergency Test (SET) completed Sept. 18 - 21.
July 20: Mobile and Go-Kit Picnic. WashCo ARES Hosts this year. Hope to see you there.
June 19: REP Drill at our regular site. Take part in web training and Hands On Training.
May 22: Hands On Training for June REP Drill
March 18: ALL ARES Member Meeting, Woodwinds Hospital, 6:30 PM
April 17, Weather Preparation Drill - Regular Net time
May 22, Hands-On Training for REP Drill
June 19, REP Relocation Drill, 5 PM, Park HS, Cottage Grove
July 20, Mobile and Go-Kit Show-N-Tell and BBQ, Edgewater Park, Woodbury
June - October, Marathons, parades, and other public service events, on your own schedule and sign-up
Sept. 21, MNWASHCOARES Simulated Emergency Test (SET), focus on digital messaging and message handling
Each First Thursday at 12:30 PM, Metro District ARES Net, 146.700, PL 127.3; Check in as a hospital, ARES Unit, or general check-in
Other Nets as above in "Our Nets" or "Other Nets"