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Durham ARES DFMA Durham County North Carolina Amateur Radio Emergency Service
Welcome to Durham ARES
Saturday, May 17 2008 @ 03:04 PM EDT

Introduction

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES - pronounced “air-ease”) and Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) are non-profit associations of trained and licensed Amateur Radio operators who volunteer their time and equipment to assist served agencies when critical communications system failures put the public at risk. In North Carolina, ARES is organized into three branches of five districts for a total of fifteen districts. Durham County ARES is a combined ARES/RACES group located within the tenth district under the central branch.

NC ARES District Map

Durham ARES serves the residents of Durham County through the coordination and direction of the North Carolina ARES/RACES Organization and the county’s Department of Emergency Management. ARES helps support the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and National Weather Service with communications related tasks and operations. During RACES activation, the FCC can impose restrictions on Amateur Radio operations. In these instances, only the Department of Emergency Management can request ARES/RACES activation.

Every licensed amateur, regardless of membership in ARRL or any other local or national organization, is eligible for membership in the ARES/RACES. The only qualification, other than possession of an Amateur Radio license, is a sincere desire to serve. Because ARES is an amateur service, only amateurs are eligible for membership. The possession of emergency-powered equipment is desirable, but is not a requirement for membership.

Durham ARES is a Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Durham FM Association (DFMA). All Durham ARES/RACES members are encouraged to join the DFMA. Your DMFA membership helps fund the Mobile Communications Unit (MCU), repeaters, and other equipment used during emergency operations.

For more information about our organization please feel free to contact our leadership, or join our weekly net held each Sunday evening at 9:00PM on the 145.450 MHz repeater (negative offset, no CTCSS tone).

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Chinese Emergency Operations on 40m and 20m

General NewsThe Chinese IARU Member-Society, has designated the following frequencies for emergency services involved in the rescue: 14.270, 7.050 and 7.060 MHz. The ARRL encourages US amateurs to be aware of the emergency operations on those three frequencies.

For more information see: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2008/05/13/10095/
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Thank You VA Volunteers

General NewsWe really appreciate those operators who volunteered for the VA phone upgrade. Despite the early start, we had a number of operators turn out to ensure communications during the transition.
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VA Phone System Upgrade - This Weekend!

General NewsThe Veterans Administration (VA) hospital will upgrade their phone system this Saturday April 12th from 07:00 AM - 09:00 AM. Our ARES/RACES group will provide communications for key portions of their operation during the anticipated outage.
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No ARES Net Easter Sunday 3/23/08

Net ReportsWe will not conduct an ARES Net on Sunday 3/23/2008 due to the Easter holiday.
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Presentation on FEMA's Incident Command System

General NewsAt the April DFMA meeting ARES EC Lisa Armour KB9MGU will present information on FEMA's Incident Command System.
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[Postponed] Veterans Administration (VA) Phone System Upgrade

General NewsThe VA hospital has postponed their phone system upgrade. They are tentatively considering another Saturday in early April.
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Durham ARES Net report Sunday 3/16/2008

Net ReportsTwo checkins, including net control:
W4DAP
W4KSP

Duration : six minutes
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[Update] Veterans Administration (VA) Phone System Upgrade

General NewsThe VA hospital will upgrade their phone system on Saturday, March 22, 2008 from 07:00 to 10:00.

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Durham ARES Net report Sunday 3/9/2008

Net ReportsTwo checkins, including net control:
KG4FTT
KI4RAN

Duration : six minutes
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NC ARES Area 10 Net

General NewsThe recently formed NC ARES Area 10 Net is scheduled for the last Saturday of each month. The net is held at 21:00 (9:00 PM) on the W4UNC repeater (442.150 MHz - positive offset, 131.8 Hz CTCSS tone) courtesy of OCRA.