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!
Field Day at Home
Posted by Jim KN6PE, 26 Jun 2021
This is the 2nd year that CARES participated in the annual ARRL Field Day, once again by Zoom. Darryl KI6LDM did another nice job organizing the event providing yet another opportunity for folks who have not tried Field Day to get on the air... even it it was from home!We had visits from Cupertino's Mayor Paul, Council Member Moore, our Emergency Services Coordinator Tom Chin KN6JVG, Citizens Corps Coordinator Ken Ericksen KI6SYY, SCV Section Manager James Armstrong NV6W, and ARRL Pacific Division Director Kristen McIntyer K6WX. We fielded some pretty good questions from our City visitors about amateur radio who left with a better appreciation about who Cupertino ARES is, what we do, and how we do it.
While Field Day'ing from home allowed more folks get on the air, we do miss the camaraderie of actually holding Field Day... in a field! Looking forward to next year's event!
ISA Redo... Better than expected
Posted by Jim KN6PE, 27 May 2021
The Spring CARES Field Exercise was a revisit of the Infrastructure Safety Assessment (ISA) process with a twist. Following the November 2020 First Look Area (FLA) exercise, the amount of overlap of the different assessment areas became clear and doing both would be an inefficient use of everyone's time.Our test would be managed under City activation CUP-21-24T. The ISA Assets were merged in with not only the list of FLA critical roads, but also our City and County Fire facilities. As a result, the new assignment structure worked well with 7 teams covering 10 of the 11 assignment-sets in about 2.0 hours. This was more than twice the number of assets surveyed during the 2017 ISA Exercise using the original survey approach with 5 ISA teams. CARES member message passing helped make this exercise go smoothly.
With the results in, there are several things on which to work including processes, forms, and improved data collection tools; this will definitely keep us busy for a while! Thanks to all members who participated and make this exercise a success.
CV19 -- Finally turned the corner?
Posted by Jim KN6PE, 14 Mar 2021
updated: 3/14/2021. After the much-anticipated surge over the last few months, do we now see the downward trend in County Covid-19 infections? The Santa Clara County Covid-19 Cases Dashboard seems to point in that direction. That is indeed good news. That, along with reports from some CARES members that they are starting to get appointments for the vaccine, or have received the shorts already, puts us all on the road back to a sense of normalcy.However, this will not change our operations immediately. We are still operating under the IDR Plan Protocol for responding during an infectious disease. We will still use zoom, possibly through the end of the year. And we will continue to look for ways to exercise safely.
Lightning Watch; Bay Area Fires
Posted by Jim KN6PE, 26 Aug 2020
After the multitude of files triggered by lightning the weekend of 16-August, and given our proximity to the foothills, the City of Cupertino requested CARES to staff a lightning watch this past weekend. Fortunately, there were no strikes either within or in the surrounding ares of the City.In the meantime, the Bay Area continues to have fires burning on almost all sides. Track the progress and conditions on our Wildland Fire Resource page.
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