ARES LogoMilwaukee/Waukesha
ARES / RACES

W9WK   147.165 +  MHz 127.3 PL

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Our next meeting will be held on Tuesday August 5th, 2008 7pm at the Milwaukee Chapter of the Red Cross located at 26th and Wisconsin Ave.

Note there will be no meeting in July as usual.

National Homeland Security Knowledgebase

 

Our Mission

  • To promote Amateur Radio to include training in communications proficiency.

  • To provide emergency communications to all Governmental Agencies in times of disaster or whenever needed.

  • To provide communications to any and all activities where there is the possibility of personal injury and/or property damage.

What is Milwaukee/Waukesha ARES / RACES?

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) / Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES), consists of licensed amateur radio operators (hams) who have voluntarily registered qualifications and equipment for communications duty in the public service during disasters. ARES / RACES is committed to protect life and property during an emergency.

Membership is not required to attend meetings or to participate in many public service events. Due to requirements of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), State ARES / RACES mandates National Incident Management System (NIMS) training by members and leadership and must be completed. Membership in the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) or any other organization is not required, just a valid Amateur Radio license.

The American Radio Relay League administers ARES. Any member can activate the ARES / RACES group. ARES / RACES provides emergency radio communications to a number of client groups, including local government and the American Red Cross.

The Milwaukee/Waukesha ARES / RACES is supported financially by the Amateur Radio Emergency Corp. Inc. (AREC).

 

Staff

     Milwaukee Emergency Coordinator: Ken Hahn WK9H

     Milwaukee County Assistant Emergency Coordinators:
     Deputy of Operations                   Paul Gruettner WB9ODQ
     Public Information Officer             Mark Wojnowiak AC9US
     Communication & Technology      Steve Sundquist N9FSE
     Education & Training                    Gary Grant N9MGJ

 

     Waukesha Emergency Coordinator: Larry Noldan NZ9I

     Waukesha County Assistant Emergency Coordinators:
     WI SEC Training Officer              Skip Sharpe, W9REL
     Communication & Technology      David Shank, KA9WXN

 

 

ARES Meetings

The Milwaukee/Waukesha ARES / RACES holds its meetings on the first Tuesday of most months. Meetings are usually held at the Milwaukee Red Cross building located at 26th Street and Wisconsin Avenue. The meetings start at 7:00 PM. Everyone is invited to attend. Be sure to confirm the meeting location before going to the Red Cross building, check often for updates.

After most meetings many of us go out to Balistreri's Italian-American Ristorante (on 68th St.) for Pizza.

 

Nets

The Milwaukee/Waukesha ARES / RACES sponsors a weekly net on Monday evenings at 9:00 PM local time. The net is held on the 147.165+ repeater. The weekly net is open to all amateur operators and simulates communications for training under controlled conditions as well as providing news and announcements of general interest to the group. Join us in the web chat during the Monday evening net. 

Wisconsin ARES/RACES holds a HF net Sunday nights at 6:00PM local time. The primary frequency is 3977.5 KHz with 3975 KHz as a secondary or depending on band conditions 7250 KHz Primary and 7245 KHz secondary. All are welcome to listen and amateurs general class or higher are invited to check in.

 

Mailing lists

There are mailing lists at YAHOO! groups to keep our members connected via email.

Milwaukee ARES / RACES


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Waukesha ARES / RACES

Waukesha ARES/RACES members should contact Waukesha Emergency Coordinator Larry Noldan NZ9I for an invitation


 

Wisconsin ARES/RACES has a group you may want to consider the Wisconsin ARES YAHOO! group. Currently the Yahoo! group is not used. Currently evolving is the E•Sponder site see the Wisconsin ARES/RACES site for more information.

 

ARRL Audio News

The ARRL Audio News is provided as a service to local amateurs by the Milwaukee/Waukesha ARES / RACES. The news is usually played twice a week on Sunday morning at 9:45 am and on Monday nights before the weekly net at 8:45 pm local time in Milwaukee on the 147.165 repeater. Audio news will not be played if there is an event or emergency in progress.

ARRL E-Letter

ARES news and information from the ARRL, can be viewed on the web or if you are an ARRL member you can receive it by email.

Repeater Info (147.165+) CTCSS Tone 127.3Hz  

The Milwaukee 147.165 (+) offset repeater is located 525 feet above Milwaukee Wisconsin. All users are welcome. All equipment in the repeater system is of commercial quality. To improve coverage, the repeater has a system of remote receiver antenna sites in the area.

The system is currently being rebuilt in order to keep serving our needs in the future. Phase one of the system upgrade has been completed. The new hub was placed into operation on November 10, 2002, previous to that the Vilet site was upgraded, and after that date additional programming to the controller was done. A frequency change to 147.165 (+) offset occurred on March 6th  2005.Our ARES / RACES group had used the frequency of 146.67 since 1967 we moved to have the benefits of a clearer frequency.

More work will continue to occur with additional controller programming to be the most noticeable.

To help stations that cross-band the repeater system only encodes tone while there is a active receiver.

There are site IDs that are sent when stations un-key. the site that is most voted is sent in MCW. Currently they are E, D, and V  E is the East Side, D is Downtown, and V is Vilet. Other sites when added will get their own ID. The site IDs are sent after a station un-keys and during that time is normally not tone encoded, so in order to hear the ID you must be listening with your tone decoder turned off.

If you use a cross-band repeater to access the system please be sure that it is operating properly as there have been some instances of malfunctioning cross-band users tying up the system due to DX, or other issues affecting an individuals cross-bander.

Cross-band repeaters can be a major asset during emergencies or events but only if they are operating properly, when they malfunction they become a liability in the worst way, don't be part of a problem.

 

D-Star

Milwaukee has a new Digital Voice user group Milwaukee Area Digital Users Group (MADOG), the group has a club call of KC9LKZ for the repeater.

In May 2007 a 1.2Ghz voice and data machine was installed and running at the community site at 600 feet. The frequency for the 23cm digital voice is 1290.050 DV/R (-) offset.

The D-Star Data repeater is at 1298.000 DD/S simplex. Plans are in the works to have an internet connection to the repeater hopefully by June 2007 for internet data followed by its gateway.

The 2m repeater will be on 145.455 DV/R (-) offset. 

Simplex operations are generally held on 145.670.

The UHF machine up and running as of July 7, 2007. It's frequency is 442.46875 (+) offset and the cross-banding feature on the 1.2 Ghz machine works well.
MADOG plans on doing some more tests and plotting coverage as time permits.

The MADOG Yahoo! group is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kc9lkz/join

Check the ARES Links for digital mode internet links of interest.

 

Packet Radio

Milwaukee and Waukesha ARES / RACES operate several packet nodes in Southeastern Wisconsin, and are part of the ARES packet network. Packet node ARMKE  / W9WK-9 was returned to service on June 26, 2002 after a year’s hiatus and is currently located at the Milwaukee Red Cross building. ARWSH W9WK-4, is located at Waukesha Memorial Hospital (currently off the air), which is under repair. UESARC / W9WK-3 is located at the Waukesha Red Cross building and was put into service on February 26, 2003. Both nodes operate on 145.610 MHz, which is allocated for statewide ARES use.  

An affiliated Node WIMKE / KB9MMC-2, and BBS. MLARES / KB9MMC, is home to the Milwaukee and Waukesha ARES Packet BBS and can be accessed on 145.610 MHz at 1200 Baud. The BBS automatically forwards packet mail to Racine County ARES BBS:  WIRACA / KB9MMA; Ozaukee County ARES BBS: OZARES / N9PBY; Sullivan National Weather Service: WX9MKX, and Wisconsin Emergency Management in Madison: WC9AAG. In addition to automatic mail forwarding the BBS has the latest ARRL and AMSAT Bulletins, along with several databases, including a QRZ callsign database.

Telpac Node KB9MMC-10 is available on 144.930 MHz for messaging

Check the Winlink 2000 website for more information.

 

ATV

Currently under construction is an ATV repeater system there will be two inputs one  on 1253.250MHz AM and another input on 2.4GHz FM on a exact frequency to be determined, the output will be 421.250MHz AM which is the same channel as Cable TV channel 57, running 10W into a Sinclair 10 Db antenna at 1100' above ground.

 

Send updates and comments on the  web pages to KA9TGN

Last updated June 16, 2008

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