St. Louis Metro ARES

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service^® (ARES^®) provides emergency communications to "Served Agencies" such as fire and police departments, the American Red Cross, the National Weather Service, hospitals, and others. Many ARES^® teams also provide communications for public service events such as marathons, parades, bike riding events, and boat races. Individual ARES^® teams are organized at the county level in Missouri. This is the Web site of the ARES^® team serving St. Louis City and County, Missouri.

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service^® is a program of the American Radio Relay League. "ARES" and "Amateur Radio Emergency Service" are registered marks of and are used on this Web site by permission of the American Radio Relay League.

Emergency Communicator's Notebook

If the roads are icy...

It really doesn't matter what sort of vehicle you have. If the roads are slippery, the wisest decision you can make is not to deploy.

More hints, tips, and other tidbits about emergency communications
compiled by St. Louis Metro ARES^® Registered Volunteers

Announcements

St. Louis Metro ARES^®
Simplex Exercise Simulating an Emergency Call-Out
Saturday February 29, 2020
Starts between 9:00 AM and 9:05 AM

All licensed Amateur Radio operators are invited to participate!

When the communications infrastructure comes crashing down, our Amateur Radio repeaters might not be immune to the disaster. This exercise will test our ability to organize and bring up simplex nets in each of our four operating zones. There will be no announcement on any repeater, and each zone will operate independently. The purpose of these nets will be to find out who and what Amateur Radio resources are available should our served agencies request a deployment. This is a simulation only, and we will not actually deploy. Despite that, please give an accurate response to the net control operator's questions.

This is a "trial run" of our simplex resources net procedures, and as such things may not go smoothly. Please be patient, do the best you can, and be sure to address your thoughts and comments to the exercise director (listed below). There will be more such exercises as we learn and improve the protocols.

The exercise will have an optional component at the very end involving an ARRL Radiogram. While you do not have to participate in this part of the exercise, we urge you to do so.

Important! If you plan to participate, please print out the Exercise Directions and Documents. At a minimum, read the first page and check the map.

Contact Gary Hoffman, KB0H if you have questions.

EC-001 Introduction to Emergency Communication class (online)
FOLLOW-UP and LOCAL ORIENTATION
Saturday, March 14, 2020
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

The ARRL's Introduction to Emergency Communication course (EC-001) is now available online and is free. You can either choose the mentor-led or self-study course. To register, go to www.arrl.org/online-course-registration.

New ARES volunteers are required to take EC-001, and have one year from the time of their application to complete it. The "Follow-Up and Local Orientation" class offered locally is an 8-hour course led by local ARES leadership and ARRL Field Instructors. It will help you gain a greater understanding of how St. Louis Metro ARES is utilized by our served agencies and how we fit into "the big picture".

Registration is required.

Click here for the course flyer and instructions on how to register.

New Digital Operations Manual

Click here to see the St. Louis Metro ARES Digital Operations Manual, updated for 2020.

Join the St. Louis Metro ARES Weekly Winlink Net!
Each Wednesday.. watch for Winlink message, then follow instructions
Contact Peter Brisbine, N0MTH for details.

Winlink Express Training for
St. Louis Metro ARES
Volunteers
Saturday, May 30, 2020
9:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Click here for flyer

An Important Message from the
Emergency Coordinator

With the new ARRL ARES strategic plan now in place, specific training and basic participation is now a requirement to be a volunteer in ARES.

All three levels of membership have their training requirements listed in the ARRL ARES Task Book.

TRAINING:
Participants shall have completed the following courses: ARRL's EC-001 Introduction to Amateur Radio Emergency Communications (now a no-cost on-line class through the ARRL) and FEMA IS-100, IS-200, IS-700, and IS-800. You have a year to complete all the above training.

PARTICIPATION for Active Status with St. Louis Metro ARES:

Attend 4 Monthly Meetings. Attending the monthly meetings you get to see other volunteers and discuss issues. You can hear presentations by other ARES volunteers that may be relevant to ARES operations. Attend one Planning meeting so you give your ideas for exercises, presentations and other items related to ARES operations.
Check into the St. Louis Metro ARES Voice net and the St. Louis Metro ARES Practice Traffic net at least once a month.
Digitally equipped with Winlink. A basic Winlink training class will be given once a year to help obtain this. Check the ARES calendar of events for the official date of this class.
Participate in an exercise, and participate in our Simulated Emergency Test. Participating in our exercises and our SET will give you an idea on how we will respond when call out. Attend our Field Day event at JB park and help operate a station

If you are unable to participate in some of these activities, please contact me.

Steven J Wooten KC0QMU
Emergency Coordinator for
St. Louis Metro ARES & RACES
Assistant District EC for HARN

Weekly Practice Message Net

It is very important that amateur radio operators working emergency situations understand how to handle written messages. There are standard protocols and message forms. All of the details about handling these written messages, sometimes called "formal traffic", can be found on our Resources page or via the link below. We urge you to examine this material, then try copying messages read during our weekly practice message net.

Messages that have been read on the air

Details on the practice net

Dolores' Message Handling Tips

ARRL FSD-3: List of emergency, welfare, and standard messages (Adobe Acrobat "PDF" format¹)

FEMA ICS-213 form (Adobe Acrobat "PDF" format¹)

ARRL Radiogram (Adobe Acrobat "PDF" format¹)

ARRL FSD-244 Welfare form and instructions (Adobe Acrobat "PDF" format¹)

ARRL comprehensive description of sending Radiograms

Net Controllers needed!

The weekly practice message net has only two net control operators. If you'd like the opportunity to learn more and actually send messages, even just one time, please contact Gary Hoffman, KB0H.

Thank you.

Interested in joining ARES^®?

New online application form now available! Click here to display the form on your browser. Fill in the blanks as best you can, then click the "Submit Form" button. A copy will be emailed to us.

If your prefer, you can download, print, and fill out a paper copy. Just Click here and send us the completed form via postal service. ¹

1 - Please see the Software section of the Resources page if you do not have software necessary to read these files.

What will we do in the event of a disaster?

Click here to learn about Emergency Support Functions and the role of St. Louis Metro ARES/RACES in emergency management plans.

Check In

St. Louis Metro ARES^® holds a 2 meter net every week (see date and time listed below). All amateur radio operators are welcome to participate.

Net Control

Run the show! We will teach you what you need to know. We'll give you the opportunity to control a net and help you if you have difficulties. See out Voice Net Operations page.

St. Louis Metro ARES Repeaters

We maintain repeaters on -

145.350 MHz (-) CTCSS 123.0 Hz
442.375 MHz (+) CTCSS 141.3 Hz Temporarily off the air

Both use the call sign N0ARS.

Presentations

If you haven't been to our monthly meetings you've missed talks and demonstrations on Go-Bags, Message Handling, the Missouri Emergency Packet Network, DC Power and much more.

Help Is Available

Do you need help building a go-bag? Are you unsure about what to use for emergency power? Would you like some information about personal preparedness? We can help.

Share Your Expertise

Do you have emergency communications experience or knowledge that you'd like to share with others? Do you have some other skill or talent that could benefit the group? We'd be happy to hear from you.

Yes, We QSL

Do you monitor St. Louis Metro ARES^® activities? Write to us and we'll send you a QSL card. Click here for more information.

Next Meeting

The date and location of our next monthly meeting can be found on the Calendar of Events page, along with directions how to get there.

Field Exercises

Join us in our field exercises and develop your skills. Find out what things you do well and which areas you could improve. Help us to create a robust response team.

Yahoo Group

Click to join STLARES

Licensed amateur radio operators are invited to join the St. Louis Metro ARES^® Yahoo group.

Donations

Yes, we accept donations of stamps, cash, items to sell or raffle, items that we can distribute to our volunteers, and so forth.

St. Louis Metro ARES^® regular nets

Weekly 2 meter voice nets:
The weekly ARES^® 2 meter voice net operates on Wednesday evenings at 7:30 PM Central Time. The net is on the W0SRC repeater, frequency 146.850 (-) MHz, tone 141.3 Hz. All amateur operators are invited to participate. Next net is Wednesday, Feburary 26, 2020, 7:30 PM
Immediately following the regular voice net is the weekly ARES^® practice message / traffic net. A test message is read over the air to give you an opportunity to practice copying down formal traffic.
2 meter packet mailbox/BBS:
St. Louis Metro ARES^® maintains a 2 meter packet mailbox/BBS. This packet system is a training tool and runs 24/7 for your convenience. If you have packet radio capabilities you are enouraged to sign in on a weekly basis.
All amateur radio operators are welcome to participate.

St. Louis County Police Department
Office of Emergency Management
"Be Prepared" App

Android Users: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.quickseries.SaintLouis

Apple IOS Users: https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/app/saint-louis-county-mo-prepares/id1039072120?mt=8

Android short Link: http://bit.ly/1Kscjja

Apple IOS short Link: http://apple.co/1or2Cr1

1 - Please see the "Software" section on the Resources page if you do not have software necessary to read these files.

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