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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.

The monthly Skywarn test net is scheduled
to take place tonight at 7:00 PM on the 146.910 (-)(141.3 Hz) repeater
Weather spotters are urged to participate. All Amateur Radio operators are welcome.

Note: The monthly net will be cancelled and replaced by an alert net if there is severe weather in the area.

www.stlskywarn.org

* * * Severe weather in the area * * *

St. Louis City and County Weather Spotters
please monitor 146.910 MHz (-)(141.3 Hz)

There is NO severe weather in the area

This is a test message only

Emergency Communicator's Notebook

Test your deployment rig

You bought a new transceiver a while back and retired your old transceiver to your emergency go-kit. Pull out that old rig at least once a year and test it. It will probably work, but doing the test will be a good way to refresh your memory on how to operate it, what its quirks are, and so forth. Update the frequencies in its memories as necessary, and be sure that you still know how to plug in new frequencies in a hurry.

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

Announcements

Field Day
Saturday June 26, 2021 1:00 PM CDT to
Sunday June 27, 2021 1:00 PM CDT

St. Louis Metro ARES will now join the St. Louis and Suburban Radio Club, Inc. (SLSRC), for Field Day. We will have our ARES communication trailer to demonstrate digital modes and show how we will be able to respond to communication emergencies. The SLSRC Field Day will be at James S McDonnell County Park (2961 Adie Rd) from 1 pm Saturday, June 26 to 1 pm Sunday, June 27.
Link to SLSRC Field Day site

St. Louis Metro ARES will do a presentation on ARES in general, Digital modes, Message Traffic Handling and Skywarn starting at 2 pm. Please join us and the SLSRC for Field Day activities.

Steve Wooten KCØQMU
Emergency Coordinator (EC) for
St. Louis Metro ARES / RACES
Assistant District EC for HARN
MESN Net Manager


Get Involved

There is a vast amount of work involved in maintaining and improving the St. Louis Metro ARES organization. You can help in the following ways:

Vacant Officer / Assistant Emergency Coordinator Positions
  • Training Coordinator

If you are interested or just want more details, please contact Steve Wooten, KC0QMU at [email protected]

Net Control Operators

This is an excellent training opportunity. There is no telling what might happen during a call-out. You may be the first person on the air, the one most people can reach, or simply the one with the coolest head. Who knows? As such, you might be in the best position to keep exeryone calm and try to get them organized. In short, you've become the Net Control Coperator.

If you'd like to try running a net, you are always welcome to be the Net Control Operator for one of the two weekly St. Louis Metro ARES weekly nets. Do it just once. If you find the experience to be useful or enjoyable, you can always come back and do it again.

If you are interested or just want more details, please contact Gary Hoffman, KB0H at [email protected]

Join a Planning & Development sub-committee

Financial ** needs volunteers **
Work under EC
A sub-committee member should handle one or more of the following tasks:
- Propose methods of obtaining operating funds, such as grants, donations and so forth. (Funds themselves will be handled by EC and STLCARES.)
    Membership coordination ** needs volunteers **
    Work under EC & PIO
    A sub-committee member should handle one or more of the following tasks:
    - Recruitment
    - Stay in regular contact. Ask for suggestions and comments.
    - Keep database up to date
    - Keep participation lists up to date
    • Bill Switzer, K0OMD
    Public Information & Publicity -- can use more assistance --
    Work under PIO
    A sub-committee member should handle one or more of the following tasks:
    - Have promo kits, make sure material is at all events. This would include our event schedule flyers.
    - Take EC-015
    - Be able to make presentations to clubs or outside groups n absence of EC or PIO
    • Dolores Guittar, KD0CIV
    • Jeff Lloyd, KD0WVJ
    Exercise Planning & Development ** needs volunteers **
    Work under AEC - Exercises
    A sub-committee member should handle one or more of the following tasks:
    - Help find sites.
    - Suggest various exercises and help develop those that are chosen.
    - Help find other needed resources.
    - Create and send certificates to participants
    • Ed Berkel, AE0EB
    Asset Management ** needs volunteers **
    Work under EC
    A sub-committee member should handle one or more of the following tasks:
    - Keep track of assets (database space will be provided).
    - Store or find storage for assets.
    - Work with EC to determine which assets to keep and which to sell.
    - Make sure salable assets get to hamfests. Any that are sold should be noted as such in database.
    - Make sure that unsold items are returned to storage.
    • Jeff Greenwood, N0JSG
    HF Operations
    Work under AEC - Operation
    A sub-committee member should handle one or more of the following tasks:
    - Help develop HF operations plans.
    - Help develop regular HF nets.
    - Develop regular regional HF contacts.
    - Help develop Metro area intra-zone HF plan
    • George Siede, KD0PMW
    • Gary Hoffman, KB0H
    • Joe Fleagle, W0FY
    • Art Lewis, K8ALL
    • Jeffrey Jacks, AD0XX
    • Pete Fornek, WH7IR
    • Robert Evans, AA9FQ
    • Ed Berkel, AE0EB
    • James Cline, KC0DTD
    • Eric Johnson, AE0JE
    • Dwayne Young, K0DY
    • Louis Harken, W0TQ
    • Jeff Greenwood, N0JSG
    Archives Team ** needs volunteers **
    Work under EC & AECs
    A sub-committee member should handle one or more of the following tasks:
    - Act as recording secretary for meetings. Put minutes taken into on-line archives.
    - Make sure event photos are archived on-line.
    - Make sure exercise and event materials are archived on-line.
    - Make sure received QSL cards are archived on-line
    • Gary Hoffman, KB0H
    Repeater Team -- can use more assistance --
    Work under EC
    A sub-committee member should handle one or more of the following tasks:
    - Maintain the group's repeaters. Repair, replace, improve as needed.
    • Joe Fleagle, W0FY
    • Eric Johnson, AE0JE
    Mobile Assets Team -- can use more assistance --
    Work under EC
    A sub-committee member should handle one or more of the following tasks:
    - Clean up and assemble a working communication center from available asset(s) (currently a trailer).
    - Maintain the mobile assets (gas up, charge batteries, test equipment, etcetera).
    - Help transport asset(s) to events or deployment sites.
    • Bill Switzer, K0OMD
    • Art Lewis, K8ALL
    Digital Team -- can use more assistance --
    Work under AEC - Digital Operations
    A sub-committee member should handle one or more of the following tasks:
    - Assist in build-out of digital networks.
    - Help maintain existing digital infrastructure (such as APRS or Winlink RMS sites).
    - Help install and maintain MEPN MSTL node.
    - Keep abreast of local and regional digital efforts and help determine which may be of interest to us (such as AREDN, VARA FM).
    • Eric Johnson, AE0JE
    • George Siede, KD0PMW
    • Dwayne Young, K0DY
    Message & Traffic Handling Team ** needs volunteers **
    Work under EC
    A sub-committee member should handle one or more of the following tasks:
    - Along with training coordinator and net managers, help develop protocols, training, and schedules for handling formal traffic.
    - Handle formal traffic received by St. Louis Metro ARES.
    • Eric Johnson, AE0JE
    • Dolores Guittar, KD0CIV
    Website ** needs volunteers **
    Work under AEC - Operations
    A sub-committee member should handle one or more of the following tasks:
    - Create new website pages using HTML, PHP, Javascript and/or Perl
    - Maintain or update pages using the same code as above
    - Maintain the St. Louis Metro ARES database using MySQL
    - Periodically scan the web pages and note obsolete or incorrect information and broken links
    • Art Lewis, K8ALL
    • Gary Hoffman, KB0H

    Please contact Steve Wooten, KC0QMU if you are interested or have questions.

    ARES, RACES, SKYWARN, HARN and MESN
    Who's on first? (What's on second?)

    Please click here to for an explanation of these various organizations and their relationship with each other.

    Weekly Practice Message Net

    Radiogram logo

    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

    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)

    RRI 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.

    ARES icon Interested in joining ARES®? ARES icon

    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?

    ARES logo

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

    Field Station

    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

    NCS

    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

    antenna icon

    We maintain repeaters on -
    • 145.350 MHz (-) CTCSS 123.0 Hz
    • 442.375 MHz (+) CTCSS 141.3 Hz
    Both use the call sign N0ARS.
    Presentations

    N0OBG

    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

    coax bag

    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

    Powerpole install

    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

    QSL card

    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

    Map to BJWCH

    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

    KC0QMU at R.E.T.

    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.
    Social Media

    Facebook icon
    Click here to go to the St. Louis Metro ARES Facebook page.

    Twitter icon
    Click here to go to the St. Louis Metro ARES Twitter page.
    Donations

    microwave dishes

    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

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

    OEM logo

    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.

    © 2021 St. Louis Metro ARES®

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