Welcome to Cupertino ARES/RACES
This site is operated by and for Cupertino Amateur Radio Emergency Service (CARES) members interested in emergency preparedness and amateur radio communication. Visitors are welcome to check us out.
What's News!
2019 Field Day a big hit!
Posted by Darryl KI6LDM, 23 Jun 2019
We have yet another amazing and successful 2019 Field Day because all of you helped make it happen!We combined our Field Day with the Cupertino OES Preparedness Fair. As a result, we had a lot of walk-ups who were actually interested in what we were doing. We talked up preparedness, amateur radio, and how the two play together. We had a good operational GOTA station and even had a few visitors make contacts under the guidance of Brian AG6GX. Our NVIS setup on 40 meters worked quite well and nicely complemented Kevin K6TD’s hex beam/triplexer arrangement on 15 and 20 meters.
FT8 was a new mode for us and we made several contacts. CALFIRE’s Communications Unit 1629 out of Morgan Hill also joined us this year -- thank you Lyon AI6F and team! Out information booth, staffed by Mary KI6GCX, was busy with several visitors expressing interest in CARES and other Cupertino Citizen Corps activities. We had a visit from Kristen McIntyer K6WX ARRL Vice Director who had a chance to tour the site and see how Cupertino runs field day!
Lastly, a special shout-out to Skip WA6VFD as our Safety Officer, Paul KI6DRN as event photographer, the set up and tear down crew, and all who made this event another success!
What's in your Go-Kit?
Posted by Jim KN6PE, 6 Mar 2019
Technically, a Go-Kit is a pre-identified collection of equipment and personal gear that you will need to perform your duties as an Emergency Communicator in the event of an activation.Yet, they are also a reflection of our personal style on how we respond to the field. The parts we assemble, how we store them, power them, and use them help ensure our success during a deployment. This is the topic for the March 2019 CARES meeting.
See the Go-Kit presentation for all the details.
A fresh look at generators and batteries
Posted by Jim KN6PE, 3 Jan 2019
Every so often, you attend a meeting and listen to a topic where, as you look around the room, everyone is leaning in to listen attentively to something new and exciting. This was the case at tonight’s CARES January 2019 general meeting.We had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Richard Wheeler / AI6RW discuss his work on extending the operating time of radios during electrical power blackouts after an earthquake. This topic was very relevant given that Cupertino Citizen Corps just wrapped up its 2018 Earthquake Exercise this past December.
This was not just another topic on batteries and generators. Richard walked us through his work looking at gasoline and propane generators, comparing 2 different propane generator models, generator efficiencies, Lithium generators (battery systems), solar charging, and the conclusions he reached on the combined use of low-cost propane generators with Lithium generators.
This brief introduction does not do his work justice. Instead, check out his presentation titled Goal Zero Lithium Power Stations for all the details!
Earthquake 2018 End to End Exercise
Posted by Jim KN6PE, 15 Dec 2018
CARES plans to invoke several response activities during an earthquake-related activation, including the Preliminary Safety Assessment, Infrastructure Safety Assessment, Field Operations, and EOC communications support. While each process has evolved over the years, we never ran a full end-to-end exercise that touched on them all at the same time.This was the challenge with our Earthquake 2018 exercise.
Leveraging the U.S. Geological Survey 2018 Haywired Scenario, CARES exercised all of our response activities over 2 shifts and at our Alternate EOC. The scenario was a Bay Area 7.9 earthquake on the San Andreas Fault. Twenty-five CARES and 14 CERT members responded over 2 shifts in this joint field deployment. Alternate 911 message passing was one of our key objectives (with some interesting side-benefits). Resource Management was the other big objective and the focus for a good portion of the EMCOMM management activities.
As always, a lot was learned and we now have a plenty of follow-up actions on which to work to keep us busy. See the event page for all the details!
Upcoming Activities
5 Sep 2019, General Meeting
Topic PG&E PSPS Overview. 7:30pm to 9:00pm, Social Room, Quinlan Center More Details...
14 Sep 2019, Cupertino Fall Festival
Community outreach event for CCC. Memorial Park, 10:00a to 4:00pm
28 Sep 2019, SCC RACES Quarterly Exercise
Details tbd. Edith Morley Park, Campbell, 8:00am to 2:00pm
3 Oct 2019, General Meeting
Topic TBD. 7:30pm to 9:00pm, Social Room, Quinlan Center
2 Nov 2019, Sheriff's Heroes Fun Run
Public service event and fund raiser that directly benefits children’s health services at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. City Hall, 8:00am to 12:00pm More Details...
7 Nov 2019, General Meeting
'First Look' Exercise review and prep. 7:30pm to 9:00pm, Social Room, Quinlan Center
16 Nov 2019, Field Deployment Exercise
First Look (DPW) Exercise. 7:30am to 1:00pm
5 Dec 2019, General Meeting
Topic TBD. 7:30pm to 9:00pm, Social Room, Quinlan Center