Mon July 24 thru Thurs July 27

Listen at 3pm and 6 pm local time

• o KB1AEV linked system (UHF & VHF)
• o DMR CT ARES Statewide talkgroup
• o 5.3305 Mhz USB (60 meter ch 1)
• When asked, respond with your
•  City, state
• County (Fairfield, Hartford, Litchfield, Middlesex, New Haven, New London, Tolland, or Windham)
• date/time DDHHmm
• Electric Power
• Water
• Sanitation
• Medical Facility
• Communication
• Transportation
• Source of your information
• Detail for any answer not "yes"

Please give REAL WORLD DATA. Do not make stuff up.  Answer "YES" for any item where nothing is wrong.

Time is limited, please don't give long-winded explanations. The MARS members need to consolidate many, many reports.

ARES is the Amateur Radio Emergency Service, the field arm of the American Radio Relay League. 

Our special focus is the use of Amateur Radio for emergency communications, and the recruiting and training of a pool of skilled radio operators to be available in times of emergency.

ARES in Connecticut partners with state and municipal governments, public health entities, and non-profit providers such as the Red Cross and Salvation Army. 

ARES members have their own radios and many can respond from their homes and vehicles, allowing ad hoc ARES nets to form using operators who are already in place when a disaster wipes out communications infrastructure. This means ARES functions even when the roads are blocked and the electric and telecom grids are jammed or down.

Amateur radio can be used to

• pass welfare traffic ("Aunt Minnie made it safely to the community shelter"),
• forward requests from stranded facilities ("the XYZ nursing home urgently needs oxygen bottles"),
• Pass status messages from outlying hospitals to the central reporting agency ("hospital A has 23 beds available"),
• Digitally convey sitreps, ICS forms, maps and photos to an incident command post
• Act as an email gateway to a functioning part of the Internet via long-distance HF radio to another state or country.

To keep our operators trained and equipment working, we provide Public Service communications at no charge.  ARES members volunteer for service at charity races, runs, walks, parades, and other large events.  Operators man checkpoints, observe along the course, circulate in large venues.  They contribute to public safety, guiding first responders to where they are needed, clearing the way for emergency vehicles, and reporting incidents to the Unified Command post.

Our radios work where cell phones can't get dial tone or coverage, and are interoperable where the specialized public safety and commercial radios are not.

For a  detailed list of training available, see the training page of the state ARES web site, CTARES.ORG.

IMPORTANT!  Whenever there is an ARES activation, leadership will notify and assign tasks ONLY to those who have current records in the ARES member database.  Go to www.ctares.org and update your record now!

Use your radio for science

• August 21 there will be a total eclipse of the sun that will travel across the continental US from Oregon to South Carolina over a 90 minute window.  During that time it is likely that the D and E layers of the ionosphere will be affected by the change in sunlight.  A citizen science group called HAMSCI will use the results of an ARRL QSO party and the Reverse Beacon Network to gather propagation data, which will hopefully tell us more about the effect of the eclipse.  Please go to their website, HAMSCI.ORG for details on how you can participate.