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!
Citizen Corps completes the Zone 4 Assessment
Posted by Jim KN6PE, 11 Feb 2018
Its clear that in the event of an emergency, checking on each other and our neighbors is critical to ensure the City can get the right help to those in need. This was the scenario with Lawson ARK as the target for this year's Cupertino Citizens Corps Zone Assessment exercise.Originally planned for last October (cut short due to smoke from the wildland fires), CARES, CERT, and MRC members responded and staffed several teams that were deployed throughput the surrounding neighborhood to put eyes on every residence.
The key take-aways from this event is a recognition that, with sufficient participation from all of Citizen Corps, we can perform a complete city assessment within a reasonable amount of time. And this will be just what the city will need to speed the recovery.
Cross-band repeaters... what's the opportunity?
28 Dec 2017
This was the question that came out of our December CARES meeting. Judy KK6EWQ lead the membership in a terrific discussion on the what's, how's, and when's of cross-band repeaters. See the the presentation here for the details.The aspect of the presentation that was most interesting was the live demo using a Kenwood TM-V71 in cross-band repeat mode. With one side of the room on a VHF channel and the other side on UHF, we had a chance to not only see how the mode works, but also get to hear the self-Identification feature that the V71's have built in.
So, what's the opportunity? The picture on the right says it all... CARES will include a cross-band repeater test deployment as part of its May 2018 field exercise. This should confirm for us whether we have a new tool for our toolbox.
Heroes Run -- Making a difference
Posted by SCVMC, 21 Dec 2017
Everyone needs a hero, and the annual November Heroes Run certainly provides heroes and more for kids who are cared for in Santa Clara Valley Medical Center’s children's health programs.As in past years, the run was organized by the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, Santa Clara County Fire Department, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, and the VMC foundation. This year more than 1,000 people participated and raised more than $50,000 for children's health services. Donations from the Heroes Run go to kids in our care.
Preparing for an EMP
Posted by Jim KN6PE, 2 Nov 2017
This was the topic for this month's CARES meeting. Over the years, we have spent time talking about the different risks that the City faces, and EMP -- Electromagnetic Pulse -- and Solar EMPs were only lightly touched on during our Communications Outage discussions of last year.This is not an easy topic and is further complicated by the broad spectrum of information, ranging from fact to fiction, on the web. So, the intent of this month's session was to slowly ease into the topic, describe what an EMP is, what causes them, and what, if anything, we should do to prepare for them in the event one does occur. Even here, the topic was limited to equipment preparedness.
There were plenty of good questions and discussion, with more information and references coming up over the course of the meeting. For many of us, I suspect we are only just scratching the surface, and it will take time to search out the facts and let them sink in. See the start of an EMP Resource page and the presentation here for a copy of the slides.
Upcoming Activities
1 May 2025, General Meeting
AHF Comm Drill Prep; St Jude Parish Hall,19:30 to 21:00
17 May 2025, AHF Comm Exercise
Staff Allied Health Facilities to pass SCCo Public Health Traffic. Local, 08:00 to 12:00
5 Jun 2025, General Meeting
Field Day Prep; St Jude Parish Hall,19:30 to 21:00
21 Jun 2025, ARRL Field Dsy
Tentative: Memorial Park | Parking lot behind Quinlan Center, 10185 N Stelling Rd. 08:00 to 17:00