Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES)

The purpose of our Mission is to move forward in providing aid to folks who need help because of fire, flood, tornado or another disaster. We are volunteers who help to educate others with a heart to give aid to those in need. — SK KC5YGG Bobbi Goodson

We Want You!!! — Join ARES Today!

To get involved with ARES, you merely need to fill out the application. You can start this process by clicking this link. You’ll need to select your county on the map, (hopefully Cleveland), select the VOLUNTEER position, enter some contact information, and don’t stress over the Comments section. ARES membership is available to amateur radio operators of any license class. No experience is necessary. Join today, while you’re here, and then start your online training, as you have time, as shown below.

National Weather Service Training

Each year the National Weather Service creates a severe weather training program that is a ‘must-have’ for amateurs doing weather service. The 2021 schedule should appear at the start of the year. But, take a look here, and you’ll find the 2021 training schedule when it appears.

Since the 2020 National Weather Festival was held virtually, they recorded the training sessions. The beginner and advanced training seminars are presented for your viewing pleasure. These videos may not serve as official training for your agency, but they’re the same thing presented at the NWS events. The NWS also presented a video on a weather balloon launch for the festival. Balloon data is critical to severe weather storm forecasting, so learning how they work will help your knowledge of severe weather forecasts.

2020 NWS Storm Spotter Training

2020 NWS Advanced Severe Weather Topics for Storm Spotters

2020 NWS Weather Balloon Launch

FEMA Training

One of the requirements of being an ARES member is to continue to attend online training sessions. FEMA offers many of these online, and you can access them at the FEMA Independent Study website. The following classes are the ones to start with and are the minimum requirements for ARES members.

Cleveland County ARES Presentation

Cleveland County ARES Emergency Coordinator Mark Kleine N5HZR gave a presentation on April 13th titled ARES, SKYWARN, and You. Clicking this link will let you see this presentation PowerPoint.

ARRL Communications Training

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) has many training classes, and the ones required for ARES work can be found on the ARRL Online Communications Class website.

ARES Documents

ARES Oklahoma

More information is available about Oklahoma ARES is available at http://www.aresok.org/.

Suggested Channel Layout for Cleveland County

ChannelReceiveTransmitOffsetCTCSSLabel
1147.0600147.6600+600 kHz141.3 HzSCARSM
2147.0600147.6600+600 kHz100.0 HzSCARSI
3147.0600147.0600None141.3 HzSCARSD
4146.8800146.2800-600 kHzNoneW5OU
5443.7000448.700+5 MHz141.3 HzSCARSU
6443.7000443.7000None141.3 HzSCRSUD
7444.3500449.3500+5 MHz141.3 HzN5KUK
D-STAR444.7500449.7500+5 MHzD-STARW5TC B
DMR443.8250448.8250+5 MHzDMRN5MS

Adjust the channel order and labels to suit your taste. You might also consider other options for the repeaters, such as a channel that transmits in reverse so if the repeater was down, you could communicate with someone who had only programmed their radio for regular repeater operation.