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!


Cupertino Hazards and Risks Update

USGS Cover

1 Sep 2016

During the September General meeting, we took time out to review the various hazards that we face within the City, as well as what CARES, and Citizen Corps, has done to prepare for them.

The top city hazards include dam failure, earthquakes, power failure, terrorism/WMD, and wildland fires. Cupertino Citizen Corps has had some type of exercise in almost all of these areas to test our readiness and refine our response.

To this end, there are exercises planned for later this year -- in October, Cupertino Citizen Corps will take the lead on testing our ARK Zone Safety Assessment process. In December, CARES will use an earthquake scenario where we will open all City ARKs for a Zone Reporting/Communications exercise. See the calendar for events leading up to both drills.   More Details...


City Hall & De Anza ARKnet Sites Deployed!

City Hall Antenna Roof Rack

Posted by Marcel AI6MS, 27 Aug 2016

It's been a busy few months for the ARKnet project since the Lehigh Sector Site was deployed in February. Today, we successfully deployed the City Hall Client Site and brought the initial system online! A HUGE thanks to Ken Erickson from the City and our amazing volunteers Hella KJ6OHF, John KI6QDF, Javen KF7JO, and Paul for helping during each of these recent deployments. The De Anza ARK site was deployed on Saturday 7/16/2016 and is now our second fully off-grid solar-powered radio site and ready to be tested out in our next communications drill.

The ARKnet project network now has three functional sites which are the City Hall/EOC, De Anza ARK, and Lehigh Sector Site. With these three sites now deployed, we can start testing out the system and working with CARES and CERT to determine how we want to use the system and what our next features and sites will be.

If you want to learn more about this system, Marcel AI6MS will be giving a presentation on the ARKnet Project at the Pacificon Amateur Radio Convention on Saturday, October 15, 2016 in San Ramon. More information at www.pacificon.org.
  


Comm Outage Exercise, this time by Packet

Field Teams

Posted by Jim KN6PE, 7 May 2016

CARES hosted a second Communications Outage exercise with the support of Cupertino Citizen Corps, the big difference was passing all simulated 911 message traffic by packet. How did we do? Eleven field teams were deployed with scenarios heavily weighted toward 911 traffic. Considering the time to set up individual packet stations, and that this was a predominantly off-the-grid event, we passed more 911 traffic to County Comm in less time! And, they were all legible!

See the entire list of 911 Messages that were received by our simulated County Comm packet station as well as the event's After Action Report. Also, check out the Photo Album for a look at some of the field stations!   More Details...


Big Bunny Fun Run a hit!

Pre-event briefing

28 Mar 2016

Cupertino Citizen Corps turned out in force to support the City's 11th Annual 5K race, an event where proceeds go to "Charity: Water", an organization whose mission is to bring clean and safe drinking water to every person in the world.

Over 30 CARES, CERT, and MRC members supported the event throughout the course. Watch for the After Action Report for a summary on how it went.   


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Upcoming Activities


23 Mar 2024, CCC Hands-on Radio
Follow-on FRS/GMRS radio use, familiarization, and simple practice, Monta Vista ARK, 10:00a to 12:00p.   

30 Mar 2024, Big Bunny 5K
For this annual public service event, CARES needs net controllers, field responders and a shadow. 7:30 to 10:30 am   More Details...

4 Apr 2024, General Meeting
Topic: TBD, St Jude Parish Hall, 19:30 to 21:00   

2 May 2024, General Meeting
Topic: TBD, St Jude Parish Hall, 19:30 to 21:00   

18 May 2024, MRC Exercise
Minimal CARES participation (Field and NCO) and traffic. Location, Time TDB.   

6 Jun 2024, General Meeting
Field Day Prep, St Jude Parish Hall,19:30 to 21:00   

22 Jun 2024, ARRL Field Day
Tentative: Memorial Park | Parking lot behind Quinlan Center, 10185 N Stelling Rd. 08:00 to 17:00