1. The preseason flood workshop presented by the California Department of Water Resources and hosted by the county highlighted the necessity to be prepared for this upcoming season. Besides a tabletop exercise, plenty of information was provided. Much of this has been posted to the SJCARES.org web site. Of particular note was a information card provided by the California DWR that had a list of very good sites for flood awareness. Although it is included in the PDF, the links have been reproduced in the links area of this web site.

2. Know your zone! It is the counties effort to get residents to be aware of the evacuation zone they are in. On the notes tab to the right you will find a drop down menu with Links and there is link to page on the counties SJREADY web site. Next week when you check in and give your name and call sign, please also add your evacuation zone.

3. In keeping with the themes of the season; have you done an audit of your emergency preparedness? PGE has been turning off power to different areas around the state because of fire hazards. Do you have 3 days worth of shelf stable food in your pantry? Do you have a gallon of water per person per day for that time frame? Do you have a plan for items in your refrigerator which may include medications? A home emergency plan is a good idea and something that doesn’t take an excessive amount of time to develop. The county SJREADY website has more information in this regard but you should develop a plan tailored to you and your family. For instance, do you have a rally point if your family is dispersed and your home is no longer available to you? Obtaining a GMRS license (which is $35 but no testing) covers your whole family and can be a good way to keep in touch during an emergency. There are repeaters for GMRS but if they go down range is limited but should be sufficient in neighborhood areas. You should also determine what your GO or STAY criteria are. There are other things to consider and they will be covered in upcoming net meetings.

4. WINLINK RMS is a primary method for moving messages for our governmental partners and NGOs in an emergency situation. All ARES members should be familiar with it. In that regard all of us should download and install it on their computers. On Tuesdays, along with voice net check-ins, a WINLINK check-in is also requested. For anyone who does not yet have the ability to send it by packet or other radio means, you can send by telnet which uses the internet. This is training to become proficient with WINLINK and the various forms often used by Emergency Services. In future you may be asked to send a check in by ICS 213 form as well.

6. If you do have the ability to do packet, remember we have a packet net that happens at 18:30 hrs (6:30 PM), a half hour before this net.

1. Great Shakeout is on Thursday (10/15/2026). On the home page of SJCARES.org you will find “Did You Feel It” instructions from LAX Northeast ARES on how to fill out the Winlink form. The instructions also show you how to take a quiz and a survey as well as filling out the form. The quiz and survey can be submitted now ahead of the exercise. For the actual USGS form, you can fill that out now and just save it in drafts for sending shortly after 10:16 on Shakeout day.

2. There are changes coming to WINLINK to make it more robust and easier to use. Please see the RATPAC.us website to find the YouTube link to a presentation about these changes by one of the head developers.

3. If any of you would like to participate in WINLINK communications, please email me and I can help you get set up. If you already do FT8 at your station then you may have all the hardware you need. If not, a digirig or signalink may be all you need to add, along with a few downloads to your computer.

4. Pacificon starts on Friday and there are a number of EmComm seminars on Saturday.

5. There is currently no OES training available.

6. We will be involved with the Preseason Flood Coordination Workshop put on by the California Department of Water Resources and hosted by the San Joaquin County OES. It is scheduled for next week and I look forward to reporting on it the week after.

5. You can do Packet Net and Winlink checkins 30 minutes before this net.

7. And finally…do you know your zone? Mine is TRY4032. How do I know? I looked it up at Know Your Zone.

LAX Northeast Great ShakeOut Instructions

Thanks to Oliver, KO6LI and the ETO Group, below are comprehensive instructions for sending your Winlink “Did You Feel IT” to USGS (& optionally others) any time between October 10 00:00 UTC (i.e. now) and October 16 08:00 UTC

Remember, you can add any CC:s (your EC {N6ZDH}, DEC, other County exercises & etc.) to the “Did You Feel It” Template’s CC list in your Winlink message and the default USGS address must be left on the “To:” list

HINT #1: Cut and paste everything you can wherever there are specific instructions.

HINT #2: Have fun and learn something, then continue with the weekly ETO Winlink Thursdays instructions

There is a new RATPAC seminar showing Wednesday October 7, 2026 that is entitled “Winlink New Features & Security Enhancements and Their Impact on
Emergency Communications Services”. Remember you can watch it later when they post the YouTube link.

This is the last reminder that October 10 is the Stockton Walk to end Alzheimers; see the w6sf.org website or contact Paul n6kzw@sbcglobal.net.

The HamCram that was scheduled for October 10th has been cancelled.

Remember Pacificon is coming up next week, and there will be several EmComm presentations to take in.

No new training opportunities at the county OES at this time, but the county has submitted its plan for the coming year and if approved there will be plenty of courses to help improve our training and readiness.

There were not many replies to the question posed last week about callouts. I thank those that did respond and implore those who haven’t to please do so. If I don’t receive any response from you, I will assume that you are not able or willing to answer a callout or pass along emergency traffic.

So again, the question for the group is: If we were to receive a callout by the County OES, who would be willing and able to answer the call? Remember that these could be multi-day deployments. Please reply to me by email as to whether you would be available for a callout, or if you would prefer to be listed as providing support from your base station as in Transferring Health and Welfare messages and other emergency traffic. We will be in discussions with the county this week and want to be able to apprise them of our capabilities.

RATPAC video about Great Shake out, from LAX Northeast ARES. They show how to participate with Winlink that helps them and the USGS. They also have a quiz and survey to be done on the Great ShakeOut day where there is a chance to see how well prepared you are and perhaps learn something.

A link to the video is on the SJCARES web site in the Notes and also in a comment to the last meeting information on the main page.

A brief tutorial about how to fill out a WINLINK USGS DYFI form, (That is a “Did You Feel It” form), is on the home page of the SJCARES website.

October 10 is the Stockton Walk to end Alzheimer’s; see the w6sf.org website or contact Paul n6kzw@sbcglobal.net.

Also on October 10th, there is a Ham Cram at Dameron Hospital in Stockton. Again, more information is available at w6sf.org. If you know someone who is community minded or a family member that you would like licensed in case of emergencies; this is the chance to get that license in one day.

Remember Pacificon is coming up on the 16th of October.

No new training opportunities at the county OES at this time.

In light of the fact that this years El Nino is looking like it may be one of the most impactful in recent history; there is a greater chance that the county OES may require a callout for our group.

Question for the group: If we were to receive a callout by the County OES, who would be willing and able to answer the call? Remember that these could be multi-day deployments. Please reply to me by email as to whether you would be available for a callout, or if you would prefer to be listed as providing support from your base station as in Transferring Health and Welfare messages and other emergency traffic. We will be in discussions with the county in the near future and want to be able to apprise them of our capabilities.