The Simulated Emergency Test (SET) is October 2 . It will take place from 9am to 1pm. The simulated emergency test gives our group the opportunity to activate using the 145.350 repeater and practice our portable operating skills by deploying and setting up our portable stations where needed in the county working with our served agency. It gives us the opportunity to practice operating from our home stations to relay information if needed. 

Please sign up to participate in the set here:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0c4dadae2ca1fd0-setoctober

I will e-mail additional information to everyone that signs up.

The scenario for this years SET is as follows:

SCENARIO

A derecho will march across Ohio October 2 (Saturday) from west to east.  Behind this strong frontal system will be record-breaking cold temperatures (not a lot of snowfall.)  The -30 temps will further hamper restoration, will cause freezing and damage to buildings that are already out of power, and will require numerous warming shelters. The challenges for ARES will be loss of communication by our agencies, loss of power which brings on loss of cell and Internet service across the state.  (Other areas of the country will be functional… just in case you needed to send WinLink HF J  )  

In truth, the actual scenario really doesn’t matter… power/Internet/phone could all be destroyed by an EMP (which realistically would destroy much of us), by a cyber attack, by a unrecoverable grid-down outage such as the Texas storms. We would be reacting in much the same fashion whatever the cause in efforts to maintain critical communication.

 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Columbus Marathon.  This takes place on Sunday Oct. 17, 2021.  I’m coordinating this one, ka8rlc@columbus.rr.com.  Those of you who were at the In-Person meeting have already heard about the COVID changes that the marathon board have instituted, but for everyone else, here is a cut from their webpage: 

The Nationwide Children’s Hospital Columbus Marathon and 1/2 Marathon remains committed to the safety and health of all participants, spectators, event personnel, vendors and volunteers. Therefore, for the 2021 event, scheduled for Sunday, October 17, as well as the Health & Fitness Expo, scheduled for Friday, October 15 and Saturday, October 16, the Board of Trustees has unanimously instituted the following policy:
 

• All athletes, volunteers, event personnel and vendors in “active athlete areas” including the Health & Fitness Expo, Start/Finish areas and Fluid Stations must show proof of being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as defined by the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) or a negative COVID-19 test prior to participation in the event. 

• This includes showing proof of vaccination or a negative test result to pick up a race number and t-shirt at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Columbus Marathon & ½ Marathon Health & Fitness Expo on Friday, October 15, and Saturday, October 16. Expo hours are Noon to 7 p.m. on Friday, October 15, and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, October 16.

• Per the City of Columbus mask mandate enacted September 10, 2021, masks are required inside the Expo, taking place in Hall D of the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

• The CDC definition of fully vaccinated is as follows:

• Two weeks after a second dose in a two-dose series, such as the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or
• Two weeks after a single-dose vaccine, such as Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine

As you can see, we fall under the volunteer part.  Those of us who are in “active athlete areas” such as water stops, will need to be vaccinated or show a negative test to the area captain.  We will have assignments where you can be far enough away from an “active athlete area”, so we can work with those.  As of this time we have about 20 people(of the 60 needed) signed up.  Please go to www.columbusmarathonvolunteer.com/coares and register to work the event.

Mark, N8VJF will be net control for the DMR net on the Marysville talk group 313966 at 9pm. The net will provide the opportunity to test out DMR equipment and also DMR repeater coverage areas. The net will meet monthly on the 2nd Tuesday of the month. We look forward to hearing you on the net! 

Hey everyone! The time’s changing this weekend, and that means we at least have a valid chance to actually hear each other again!! So please let it be known that we’re starting back up with our 80 meter ARES HF net this Tuesday evening. Our startup time will be 1900 - - 7 PM straight up. And our normal frequency is 3.902 +/- QRM. We hope to hear you!

-Stan

George, KE8NIY is getting a POTA group together to activate Ohio Parks on a monthly basis for Parks on The Air https://parksontheair.com/ . Park activations may take place in an afternoon or may be a weekend camping trip. The goal is to give everyone that is interested in learning and practicing operating portable one weekend a month to do just that. A weekend camping POTA activation would provide the opportunity to test out a 2 or 3 day deployment bag/kit. Park activations would be an opportunity to try out different antennas, and over all improve portable operating skills and equipment/antenna setup. 
If you are interested in joining George, KE8NIY for Parks on the Air please send an e-mail to pota@ares.unioncountyohio.us  

Poles going up for a 160m loop antenna.

The covid infection rate has been increasing a lot. This effects when we will be able to do face to face activities.
Please let me know if you are interested in helping out with some upcoming projects at EMA Station 720 when we are able to do so.
The projects at Station 720 are as follows:

• Communications Vehicle work - The EMA has an old ambulance that we can setup and use as a communications vehicle. It will need to have radios mounted inside it, along with figuring out what we want to put in it and how we want to organize things. It will include both EMA radio equipment and amateur radio equipment
• 160m Loop antenna - Two out of 3 poles have been put up to support a 160m loop antenna. After the third pole is in place, work on the loop antenna can start. This will be a group effort between the Union County Amateur Radio Club and our ARES group.  
• Internet - Station 720 is getting a fiber internet connection. Details are being worked out to see about using it for the DMR repeater and also to add an allstar link/echolink node directly to the 145.350 repeater controller. After the internet connection is setup we will need to re-organize the radio room at Station 720. This will also be a group effort between the Union County Amateur Radio Club, EMA, and our ARES group.
• HF Beam antenna on tower - the HF beam antenna on top of the tower will need to be looked at and adjusted or repaired. This will take some coordination with the EMA, and possibly a tower climber/crew and lift.

If you are interested in helping with any of these projects, let Ed, KE8ANU know via e-mail

I have created a news letter for our ARES group using mail chimp. It will read the RSS feed from the website. Mailchimp will then generate an e-mail with new content that is put on the front page of the website and email it out to everyone for the news letter. This will make it easier to keep everyone updated about ARES related events on the website as well as e-mail.  I have added everyone I have been e-mailing about ARES related information to mailchimp. If you are not getting the news letter from Mailchimp, check your spam folder. 
I have added a signup form for the news letter on the website for anyone that would like to subscribe to the Union County ARES news letter. 

73,

Ed, KE8ANU