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. This is the Web site of the ARES® team serving St. Louis 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.

** UHF Exercise **
** UHF Repeater Tests **

St. Louis County ARES® will hold a UHF exercise on Thursday evening, August 28, 2008. In preparation, we will activate special nets on various UHF repeaters between now and the date of the exercise. The special nets will be simple check-in nets to give you an opportunity to test your UHF equipment. There will be a special net immediately following each regularly scheduled Wednesday ARES® net.
The schedule is -

  • Wednesday, August 13, 2008 = special net on 443.450 repeater (concluded)
  • Wednesday, August 20, 2008 = special net on 443.475 repeater (concluded)
  • Wednesday, August 27, 2008 = special net on 443.550 repeater
  • Thursday, August 28, 2008 = UHF exercise on 445.940 MHz (simplex)

** Description and instructions for the UHF simplex exercise **

Our thanks to the Northwest Amateur Radio & Electronics Association; Michael Moore, WD0EFP; and Roger Volk, K0GOB, for allowing us to perform special nets on their UHF repeaters.

Digital Nets Suspended During August

The St. Louis County ARES® Wednesday evening Digital Nets have been suspended for the rest of August. This is so that there will be no conflict with the three scheduled UHF repeater tests. The Digital Nets will resume in September.

146.850 still primary repeater
Switch to 146.910 if primary fails

St. Louis County ARES® uses the W0SRC 146.850 repeater for its voice net and primary operations. This repeater has been experiencing difficulties in recent weeks. The St. Louis and Suburban Radio Club, owner of the repeater, has granted us permission to temporarily use the 146.910 repeater as a backup should the 146.850 repeater fail during one of our nets or operations. Please note that the 146.910 repeater requires a CTCSS tone of 141.3 Hz.

Our thanks to the officers, board, trustees, and members of St. Louis and Suburban for their generosity and support.

Other Upcoming Events

St. Louis County ARES® has a number of events planned. They include -

  • A UHF exercise on August 28, 2008
  • A digital exercise on September 26-27, 2008
  • A field station demonstration and Simulated Emergency Test on October 4, 2008

Keep checking this Web site, the monthly meetings, and the weekly nets for additional details.

Do you have ideas for events or exercises? Would you like to devise, plan, or run an exercise? If so, please contact Steve Wooten, the Emergency Coordionator, at kc0qmu@arrl.net and let him know that you're interested in being part of the Planning Committee.

Check In

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

Yes, We QSL

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

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.

Emergency Communications Information

Not sure where to begin? Contact us and we will help you get started.

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.

ARES® Wallpaper

Would you like St. Louis County ARES® as your wallpaper? Click here to display our 1280 x 1024 poster then save it to your computer.

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 here to join STLARES
Click to join STLARES

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

Donations

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

Upcoming Events

See the Calendar of Events for the list of meeting dates and other ARES® related events.

Presentations at upcoming meetings

September 8, 2008 - "WinLink" by Jim Conley, N0OBG

Miss the last meeting? Click here to find out what happened.

St. Louis County ARES® regular nets

  • Weekly 2 meter voice net:
    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, September 3, 2008, 7:30 PM

  • Weekly 2 meter digital net: Digital test net
    The weekly ARES® 2 meter digital net operates on Wednesday evenings and starts immediately after the ARES® 2 meter voice net. The digital net is on 145.085 MHz simplex FM (no repeater, no tones). The purpose of this net is to give the participants an opportunity to test their digital equipment and software. The net starts in PSK31 mode. After the net has run under PSK31 for a while, the Net Controller will ask all participants to switch to 145.070 MHz simplex FM (no tones) and to use packet radio mode. Contact will be made through the Missouri Emergency Packet Network (MEPN) 'MSTL' node.
    All amateur radio operators are welcome to participate.

Interested in joining?

Please fill out an application and mail it to the Emergency Coordinator (see contacts page). If your computer cannot read Word or PDF documents, please write or email us and request an application form.

© 2008 St. Louis County ARES®

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