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!
ISA Communications Exercise - 2023
Posted by Jim KN6PE, 18 Nov 2023
The scenario was a 7.2 M earthquake on the San Andreas fault south of San Francisco. What do we do? For starters, CARES performs the Infrastructure Safety Assessment (ISA) on behalf of the City of Cupertino and our Served Agencies.It started with CARES members making Mike-Mike Reports to Net Control that resulted in an overall (simulated) score of 6.5. This was more than what we needed to initiate our Initial Response Operations. Santa Clara County RACES activated their Resource Net and received our Mike-Mike summary. Cupertino Citizen Corps opened the Department Operations Center (DOC) to coordinate the volunteer response. And 16 CARES members checked in to the emergency net and accepted ISA field assignments.
With asset assignments in hand, CARES field teams deployed throughout the city to locate, check, and report on the status of critical infrastructure items including roads, city facilities, fire stations, and water supply and sanitary system infrastructure components. Over the 4 hour deployment, field responders reported the status on 57 of the 74 assets which were then passed on to and acknowledged by our Served Agency representatives. All of this was accomplished with 192 hours of volunteer time!
The exercise had several new elements including a Cold-Start (nothing was pre-staged) as well as tests of several of our tools, processes, and procedures.
Overall, we met our objectives. We also learned a lot (as usual) and will have plenty to work on in terms of tweaking our procedures. Special thanks to all the CARES members and city staff who made this exercise a success!
2023 Public Safety Forum
1 Nov 2023
On October 19, Cupertino's Office of Emergency Management (OEM) sponsored the Public Safety Forum held at the Quinlan Community Center. It's an annual event for the residents and the business community to connect with local and regional public safety officials, including the Sheriff’s office and the Fire Department. Of course, Cupertino Citizens Corps was present with CARES bringing out Comm 469.Attendees learned about volunteer opportunities, disaster preparedness, and more while enjoying light refreshments from Starbucks and Pineapple Thai. In case you missed it, a recording of the event will be available in the coming days on the City's YouTube channel and the City's website.
2023 September general meeting... In-Person?
Posted by Jim KN6PE, 8 Jul 2023
Its been more than 3 years since we had one of our traditional CARES in-person general meetings. I think we are all missing the interactions that we had with each other as well as the chance to do some live show-n-tell of the latest radio, antenna, or field technique.While I think its time to give it a try, the post-COVID hurdle is now finding a room that we can use that is relatively central to the City, and free. Ken KI6SYY is working with Cupertino Parks and Rec to see if we can secure a room in Quinlan Center in a way that does not require any night $taff. This is the current holdup. As soon as we know, we will get the word out to the group.
2023 Field Day was fantastic !
Posted by Darryl KI6LDM, 24 Jun 2023
For field day, you either have great weather or great propagation. We had great weather and what a day we had!This year’s CARES 2023 Field Day was fantastic to say the least. We did very well for the score (see below) and had a wonderful turnout from 19 CARES members who came out and helped make this year’s event a success!
We operated three HF stations using ONE hex beam antenna running on three separate bands. We also had the 2 of these HF stations logging on laptops that were networked together using the N1MM Logger+.
Along with our operations, we had over 20 community visitors and plenty of official visitors including Cupertino's OEM Emergency Manager, Cupertino City Council members, Kristen K6WX / ARRL Pacific Division Director, James NV6W / ARRL Area Section Manager, and Andreas K6OTT / SCCo Acting DEC.
Our score of 1,618 points was excellent for 5 hours of operation! In fact, this is the highest score we have seen. Nice job everyone!!
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