ARES/RACES

I became interested in ARES a few years ago.  While I lived in San Diego, I took various training courses, including Wildland Fire Training from the California Department of Forestry and Disaster Assessment from the American Red Cross.  Of course, when a real disaster occurred (the 2003 San Diego Cedar Fire), I had to evacuate my home and was unable to help - keeping my family safe was my first priority.  We were very fortunate - the fire stopped across the street directly behind ours.  Also while I lived in San Diego, I became interested in Winlink.  Use of the Winlink system has been endorsed by the ARRL, in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security, as "... a nationwide digital system to enhance the communications capability of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES)."  Although I am far from an expert, I was able to put together some training information for the San Diego ARES  group.  Since I have moved to Prescott, I have discovered there is some interest in Winlink here also and I have conducted some Winlink training locally for the Yavapai County ARES/RACES  organization.   Here is a link to great Winlink FAQ. 

I am currently operating a Telpac gateway, as N7CW-10, on 145.01 MHz.  It has pretty good coverage in the north central Arizona area.  You can access it through W7MOT-8 on Mt. Elden, K7YCA-1 on Mt. Union or by connecting through K7YCA-2 on 145.71 MHz, also on Mt. Union.  You can see information on my gateway here and status of my gateway here and here.  There is lots of information on VHF Telpac on the Winlink page. 

As of November 2008, I have been asked to serve as an Emergency Coordinator for Yavapai County ARES/RACES, reporting to Lloyd Halgunseth, WA6ZZJ.  I'm still learning exactly what this job entails.....

Mt. Union Repeater

This ARES/RACES repeater operates from Mt. Union, in the Bradshaw Mountains south of Prescott, on 147.260 MHz, with a PL of 103.5 Hz.  It has great coverage of north central Arizona, from Phoenix to Flagstaff.  The mountain top is about 7979 feet above sea level.  As mentioned above, we have 2 packet nodes located there also.  They regularly hear other nodes from Mt. Lemmon near Tucson, from northern Mexico and from Cedar City, UT.  Here are some photos from repair trips.

Inside the building.  There is an APRS node and a repeater used by the Jeep Posse in here also.

Lee, KC7CBK, getting ready to climb and Tom, N6LSA, getting ready to supervise.

The tower.

A too-dark photo of Lee and me on the tower.