committee is dedicated to helping neighbors make our neighborhood a safer place.

POEM ⌠

Fire Station Centers (supported by ARES) ⌠

NETs – HAMS ⌠

Field NETs using FRS radios

Three primary radio types:

CERT training materials are available for download from the Citizen Corps Council website.

Additional resource information may be found on the Pacific NW Earthquake Resource Page.

Following a major disaster, such as an earthquake, severe weather or terrorist attack, the first responders are usually untrained citizens. Depending on the scope of the disaster, professional responders may not be able to make it to the scene for hours, days or even longer. In times like these, people naturally pull together and try to help one another. Unfortunately, many untrained rescuers end up losing their own lives trying to help others. With basic training, injury and loss of life can be significantly reduced, more people can be rescued, and the aid rendered can be more effective.

We have been talking about NET Redistricting for a few months now. Here is an update on the latest planning which has emerged from the All-hands NET Gathering in August, and the September Emergency Preparedness meeting, going into the Team Leader meeting in late October.

http://www.multnomahares.org is the new URL for Multnomah County ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services), the organization of volunteer amateur radio operators who will connect NET teams back to fire stations if conventional coomunications fail. You can also find us by going to the Portland Amateur Radio Club site http://ww.w7lt.org and selecting ARES/RACES.Please consider using us as an information resource for your internal communication planning, for we practice weekly and have broad experience with using radio all over the City. We meet monthly at Fire Station No. 2, 4800 NE 122 Ave (just north of Sandy) on the 4th Thursday of the month at 7PM.

Lawrence has given us the green-light to implement the redistricting of our NETs around topographical boundaries rather than around the rigid political boundaries of neighborhood associations. This will do away with inane situations where some people must travel a couple miles to get to their staging location while another NET is literally operating across the street!

This is a major change and will likely impact every NET. Some NETs may be merged (or divided). Some people will change NETs, so your team may grow or shrink. In the end, however, our NETs will be more efficient and serve their areas better.

Everything is open for discussion at this point, but the preliminary idea it to redefine our NETs around

Citizen Emergency Teams (e.g. NET, CERT, NERT).

The links below are local resource and information pages which the SW Portland NETs are compiling. They cover issues concerning the operation and preparedness of our local NETs. Some of the information is specific to SW Portland, Oregon, while other pages are more generic may be a useful reference for any NET, CERT or NERT program in other areas.

The Southwest Emergency Preparedness Group is working on a communications plan to formulate “best practices” for communication between NET team members within a NET team and communication between neighboring NETs.SW NET Communication Plan. The basis for this document is the extensive work already done by the Multnomah NET, and in particular Chris Vardas and Gary St. Hilaire who shared what they have done to date.

Perhaps we should consider a test with different NETs in the area. I think this would be very valuable. And the only way we can do that is by testing some simplex frequencies since the repeaters may not be functional after a Cascadia quake. However it's wise to have some established repeaters to use and check on in the event of Cascadia just in case they are working.<!--break-->