City of Santa Clara

Amateur Radio Emergency Services
Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service


About Us

We are a volunteer group of amateur radio operators that train and prepare to offer our services as emergency communicators to the City of Santa Clara. We do this through several organizations such as the civil defense RACES organization and the American Radio Relay League's ARES organization.

Meetings

We have a meeting once a month, on the fourth Wednesday of each month except November or December, due to the holidays.

The meetings typically start at 19:30 hours (7:30 pm) in training rooms 1 & 2 of Santa Clara's Fire Station 2 but not always so please check the weekly roster that is emailed out or check in to the weekly Tuesday night net for details about the monthly meeting.

Santa Clara Fire Station 2 is located at  1900 Walsh Ave, Santa Clara, CA, just east of the Walsh Ave and Scott Blvd intersection. If parking at the fire station (both at the entrance or behind the station) is taken, you may be able to park in EOC parking which is just west of the fire station or in the city's corporation yard parking to the east of the fire station.   View Map.

Nets

Weekly City Evening Net

There is a city check-in net every Tuesday night at 1930 hours on the Santa Clara tactical frequency of 147.510 MHz. During the net, this frequency is also linked to the K6SNC repeater which gives net access on 442.025 MHz +100 and on 927.7375 MHz -100. All members and visitors are encouraged to check-in using this net control script (PDF) for that process.

As part of  this net, we have incorporated a message passing exercise using the county's version of ICS form 213. This will be done once a month on the net that occurs on the first Tuesday of the month.

(Semi-) Weekly City Noon Time Net

In corporation with the Intel Radio Club, there is a noon time net that occurs (currently) on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of each month at 1215 hrs on the Santa Clara tactical frequency of 147.510 MHz. All members and visitors are encouraged to check-in.

Weekly County Packet Net

There is a packet net each Tuesday night which concludes prior to the start of the County voice net at 2000 hrs. Check in by sending a message containing your callsign, first name/handle, city (City of Santa Clara) via Outpost/PACforms (see Santa Clara County Outpost/PacFORMS for more details), addressing the message to PKTTUE and sending to  W6XSC-1 (144.900). (more details)

Weekly County Net

There is a county SVECS net done every Tuesday night at 2000 hrs (8 pm), right after our city's evening net. It is done on the W6ASH repeater at 145.270 MHz, -offset, 100pl and K6SNY repeater at 443.275 +offset, 107.2pl. This net is used to report each cities totals to the county for their record keeping. There are two net control scripts for this network - one when the net is done from one of the area hospitals and another when it is done from the Santa Clara County Public Health Department Emergency Operations Center or DEOC. Members are encouraged to listen and follow along with this net as each city will get a chance to be net control as it rotates from one city to the next each week. Santa Clara's next opportunity to be net control will be on May 29th, 2012.

Monthly Hospital Net

There is a county wide hospital net done every fourth Wednesday night of each month at 1900 (7pm). It is done on the N6NFI repeater at 145.230 MHz, -offset, 100pl. There are two scripts for this net:

And here is the most recent hospital net script, as distributed by email:
Members are encouraged to listen from home. Those member wishing to participate, please meet in the parking area on the north side of Kaiser Santa Clara, in parking lot A which is the first you lot come across when entering from Homestead Rd before the net - talk in on 147.510Mhz. View map.

Drills and Events

We just completed our biggest annual event which is being communication support for the city's annual Arts & Wine Festival which is a two day weekend event that takes places on the 2nd or 3rd weekend of September. Other events we support are the city's Easter Egg Hunt and Fourth of July celebrations.

Discussion Groups

Yahoo! Group santaclara-ares

There is a Santa Clara ARES/RACES specific group on Yahoo! Groups.

Click to join santaclara-ares

Press the button to Join

Social Networks

Facebook Group santaclara-ares

There is a Facebook group for members wishing to be connected there. If you already have an account on Facebook, follow this link to where you will be guided to a request to join the group page.

If you don't have an account but wish to access this group, go ahead and follow the link also. It bring up the login page for Facebook and from there you may register and create an account for yourself.

The major benefit of this group is help you to be connected with other members who also have Facebook accounts.

Twitter SantaClaraRACES 

You may follow the tweets of Santa Clara ARES/RACES by following "SantaClaraRACES" on Twitter.com.

Upcoming events are also viewable as favorite tweets. 

LinkedIn Group City of Santa Clara RACES

There is a LinkedIn group to connect those member who are on LinkedIn

Links to Related Sites

Membership

In order to become a member, candidate must fill out this membership application. The filled out and signed form may be either:

  • dropped off at the Ham Radio Outlet store in Sunnyvale (map), marked attention for Howard
  • dropped of at Fire Station 1, located at 777 Benton Avenue in Santa Clara, for the Santa Clara ARES/RACES group
  • or mailed to

Santa Clara ARES/RACES
777 Benton Avenue
Santa Clara, CA 95050

How to Become A License Amateur Radio Operator

To operate a radio in the amateur radio bands, one would start with getting a "Technician" level license which is obtained by passing an exam. (more details)

One way to do this is to attend what is called a "HAM CRAM" where part of the day is spent learning enough of the ins and outs of amateur radio to pass the Technician exam and then later that day, take the Technician exam.

Here are some upcoming HAM CRAMs in our area:

    Contact

    For more information, you can either join our Tuesday evening net as a visitor and ask questions then or you can send email to staff at santaclara dash ares dot org.

    Web page last updated 10/19/2012 by k6war at  santaclara-ares dot org.