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!
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!
Cupertino family, fun, and fireworks!
Posted by Judy KK6EWQ, 6 Jul 2018
Independence Day in Cupertino brings hundreds of families together every year to watch a great fireworks show, and it provides an opportunity for Cupertino CARES, CERT, and MRC to work side by side in partnership with Cupertino Recreation and Public Works, the County Sheriff's Office, and County Fire.This year we staffed road closures, parking lots, first aid stations, and viewing venues. We identified and reported safety issues, lost children, and illegal fireworks. We assisted the deputies with crowd movement and safety. With Comm 469 stationed next to the sheriff's command post, CARES was able to provide quick and accurate communications between the volunteers and the command post about dangerous activities, residents' concerns, crowd sizes, and crowd movements throughout the event. And finally, we all enjoyed the show!
Field Day / Preparedness Fair Mashup
Posted by Darryl KI6LDM (photos by KK6FPI), 24 Jun 2018
Field Day 2018 is now in the books. This year, we combined our Field Day with the City's Preparedness Fair which worked out quite well. We certainly did see more foot traffic this year than in previous years, with plenty of people interested in what CARES was about. Some even expressed interest in getting an amateur license, while others wanted to renew their license that had lapsed.Some of the highlights were:
--- We set up 3 HF antennas and 3 stations, a GOTA station, information table, the Comm 469 (City's Public Safety Comm van), and a MESH network.
--- We operated as K6KP, 3F SCV, making 53 contacts. Band conditions were decent for Field Day with 40 meter NVIS contacts as far as Oklahoma, Arkansas North Texas and even South Texas.
---- On 20 meters, we made contacts with Utah, Colorado, as far north as Alberta Canada, and as far west as Hawaii.
---- The MESH network was quite a hit as Sid KJ6ZKU and Sunny AG6GR demonstrated making Mesh phone calls from one IP phone to another.
---- We sent NTS traffic to the ARRL section manager and passed 14 additional NTS messages.
At the end of the day, our submitted ARRL Field Day score 1356!... not bad for a couple of hours of fun in the sun!
Thanks to the 19 CARES members who helped out with setup, operations, greeting the public, and tear down. Same time next year?
Setting the stage with a simulated wildland fire threat
Posted by Jim KN6PE, 13 May 2018
Given the incredibly tough wildland fire season that California experienced late last year and recognizing that such a risk is real given that Cupertino sits up against foothills that have not burned in over 100 years, it seemed like an obvious scenario to run as the backdrop for our Spring Field Communications Exercise.We deployed eight field teams made up of Cupertino ARES and CERT members into the field to perform a city-wide Ember/Smoke Watch. Cal Fire also deployed their COMM 1629 giving us a chance to see how we would interact with this key player in fighting wildland fires. Simulated reports of smoke and other fire threat-related events were passed into the EOC where a comprehensive SitStat was developed.
See the After Action Report for a summary of our findings. Also, special thanks to Santa Clara County Fire Department and Cal Fire for helping us develop the scenario and confirming our response assumptions.
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