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!
2024 Field Day
Posted by Jim KN6PE, 26 Jun 2024
Congratulations to the 14 CARES members who made this year's ARRL Field Day event a success.CARES treats field day (first) as a field emergency communications exercise where *nothing* works except our own antennas, radios, power, and skills to put all necessary flavors of radios on the air. This year included HF (main and GOTA), 6 meter VHF, 2 meter VHF voice, 220 VHF packet, and 5GHz Mesh networking. And then, it's a contest (stay tuned for the results)!
Special thanks to Darryl KI6LDM for his enthusiasm and organization to make this year's event happen. We hope to see you all next year!
By the way, our submitted score was 1585!
W6TDM Repeater Update
Posted by Jim KN6PE, 7 Mar 2024
These updates address the W6TDM repeater problem that CARES has been experiencing recently.1 March 2024: Repeater and link radio are back on the standard antenna. The problem seems to be isolated to remote interference into the radio. Extensive monitoring is in progress.
8 Feb 2024: Repeater and link radio are currently running on a mag mount antenna. Coverage and output power levels may be slightly decreased. Troubleshooting continues.
After the rain comes the rainbow
Posted by Jim KN6PE, 7 Feb 2024
While doing some repeater maintenance, Davide W6DGE grabbed this picture from the roof of our repeater site. That's the W6TDM antenna off to the side.Thanks Davide for a view from the top!
ARKnet and our Hillside Neighbors
Posted by Jim KN6PE, 6 Dec 2023
Back in 2016, a group of CARES members lead by Marcel AI6MS began implementing ARKnet, a WiFi network designed to connect the ARKs throughout the city. We brought several of the planned client sites on line with the largest implementation being the central Sector Site at the Lehigh Cement Plant. This site was in the foothills about 900ft above Cupertino in a Lehigh land reclamation area.A year later, the Arbor Day Foundation named Cupertino a 2017 Tree City USA for its commitment to "effective urban forest management." And as you probably know, tall trees do not lend themselves well to line-of-site microwave WiFi transmission. That, plus Lehigh's announcement to shut down its operations, meant that our Sector Site would have to be removed. What's next is another story for another time.
In the meantime, what is interesting was the range of wildlife that co-existed near our site and so close to home. We had a camera trap at the site, more as a security measure, that also captured the wide range of the local wildlife that lives above our city. Check out this 3 minute video of our neighbors. How many different animals can you identify?
Upcoming Activities
5 Sep 2024, General Meeting
Cupertino Parks on the Air Overview, Zoom, 19:30 to 21:00
3 Oct 2024, General Meeting
Windshield Survey and Drill Prep, St Jude Parish Hall,19:30 to 21:00
19 Oct 2024, CCC Exercise
Communications Exercise using Windshield Survey and Ark Support. 08:00 to 12:00
7 Nov 2024, General Meeting
Informal Message Passing, St Jude Parish Hall,19:30 to 21:00
5 Dec 2024, General Meeting
Topic Year End Review, St Jude Parish Hall,19:30 to 21:00