Coachella Valley ARES

About ARES

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) if the ﬁeld service organization of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), a private, non-proﬁt organization for amateur radio operators. ARES began operations in 1935 and is designed to provide emergency communications support to any agency, public or private.

ARES consists of licensed amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualiﬁcations and equipment for communications duty in the public service when disaster strikes. Every licensed amateur, regardless of membership in ARRL or any other local or national organization is eligible to apply for membership in the ARES. Training may be required or desired to participate fully in ARES. Because ARES is an Amateur Radio service, only licensed radio amateurs are eligible for membership. The possession of emergency-powered equipment is desirable, but is not a requirement for membership.

ARES members may also serve their own neighborhoods and communities as needed during a disaster. In the Coachella Valley, ARES is sponsored by the Desert RATS Club. If you would like more information or to join, please reach out to Coachella Valley ARES Emergency Coordinator Don Stouder at N1GAY@arrl.net.

Don Stouder, N1GAY Appointed ARES Emergency Coordinator

I thought this would be a good time to introduce myself and share some resources. My name is Don Stouder, N1GAY, and I have agreed to take on the role of ARES Emergency Coordinator for the Coachella Valley. I am recently retired from a 48-year career in health care, primarily as an EMT-Paramedic for the first 15 years and then as a Trauma and Hospice Chaplain. Both roles included emergency management duties, and I also served the American Red Cross very early in my career as a disaster coordinator. I am very familiar with the ICS system, having used it in situations which included hurricanes, wildfires, and school shootings. I grew up in New Jersey, moved to San Diego in 1985, and out here to the desert in 2017.

ARES News

California Great Shakeout Drill – October 17^th

Coachella Valley ARES will be taking part in the annual Great Shakeout which happens this year on October 17, 2024 at 10:17am. Millions of people around the state will participate in various ways, and in our case we will conduct the first local ARES drill in quite some time, I am told.

Our drill will be of the “tabletop” variety; no one will be leaving their QTH. Slightly after 10:17, I will activate ARES on all of our club repeaters with instructions on gathering for an information and resource net on the San J, 146.760 – 107.2 repeater. We will convene that net at 10:30am, and you can expect the drill to last less than one hour.

The objectives of this drill will be to activate a resource and information net, initiate the Incident Command System (ICS), catalog the resources of participating communicators, find out if APRS can be useful to us in tracking resources, and see if we can pass traffic out of the area. It will be fun and educational, and if we are lucky, we will all learn something.

I want to emphasize that you do not need to be a member of ARES to participate in the drill. The more the merrier. The only thing you need is an Amateur Radio license. Hit me at N1GAY@arrl.net if you have any questions. See you on the radio!

ARES Net

Coachella Valley ARES NET meets the 1st and 3rd Monday Nights of each month on 146.760 (-) PL 107.2 at 7:30 PM. This net will be run by a different ARES member. Visitors will always be welcome.

If you wish to be a NET CONTROL OPERATOR please check out this example PREAMBLE for your use by clicking on this sentence. Please keep track of check-ins on your own.

Master list of Check-ins is updated once a month and will be e-mailed out to everyone that runs the NET. All check-ins need to be reported to the NET Manager Steve KM6HWX at stevemc5123@gmail.com so that the master list can be updated.