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
A revised version of the Coachella Valley ARES Emergency Operations Plan is now available. Download it here.
We held our quarterly ARES Drill, unannounced, on Friday April 18. Our scenario was an earthquake, which had actually just happened a few days earlier. We had 15 people check in with just email, cell, and on-air alerts which I was very happy with. I am quite sure that more would have checked in had the ground actually been shaking!
Some new appointments to our ARES leadership team this month. Both Glenn WB6RLC and Tom AE6WL continue as Assistant Emergency Coordinators, now joined by Mark KD6SEC and Rick N6PSP. Also continuing in their vital roles as Net Control Manager are Steve KM6HWX and Guy KS6F. The training, experience, and expertise of all of these volunteers ensures that our club has a strong ARES program, and that we are truly well prepared.
Speaking of being well prepared, most of you know by now that we have moved all ARES activity off of the San J repeater and on to the main Desert RATS repeater at 146.940. This was because we do not own the San J repeater and therefore cannot make improvements to it. We are now moving forward with a project to improve the back-up power systems on our main repeater as well as our digital C4FM repeater, both on Edom Hill. San J will continue to be available as a back-up, and we have also made agreements with the PAPA System and the DARN System to use their Edom Hill and/or Toro repeaters off-network if our other systems all failed (our 220 repeater already has unlimited solar power back-up).
We are also in the process of making a third repeater owned by the club into a portable configuration which can be deployed anywhere. When we add all of our other assets—AREDN, Starlink, Winlink, FLDIGI, Meshtastic, Simplex—I feel pretty comfortable saying that we are a very well prepared organization.
Finally, I wanted to extend an invitation to participate in Field Day on June 28. We have booked the community room at the Cathedral City Library, and now I need people to demonstrate your unique ham radio passion! I will set you up with a table and chairs, and you can demonstrate your favorite ham radio activity. I would love to see the many aspects of our hobby represented, including voice communication, digital modes, CW, antennas, repeaters, satellites, radio propagation, email without the internet (Winlink), AREDN, Meshtastic, whatever your passion is! Let me know if you would like to participate. We will be open to the public with fairly good press, so I think there will be a good turnout.
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.
ARES Training and Resource Links
Incident Command System for On The Air Video
ARES Riverside County Emergency Operations Plan
RIVCO Riverside County Emergency Operations Plan (2024 Update)
