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.

Start with a new message in your Winlink Express application.

Then from the select template menu item, open the tree nodes until you can see the USGS nodes and choose the DYFI one.

This will bring up a web form in your default browser that you can then fill out by following the instructions. Once all filled out, you can submit it by clicking the button at the bottom.

A summary will show up and you need to submit it again.

That will bring up a filled in message box with a default “To:” filled in. You can add additional “To:” or “Cc:” addresses like SHAKEOUT;ETO-DRILL;WLNET-OE and N6ZDH. Then “Post to Outbox”.

Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drills – October 15th at 10:15. There will be an ARES net with voice reports on this repeater. Lodi ARC repeater. Reports can also or additionally be sent by Winlink RMS to N6ZDH, or by regular email to N6ZDH@winlink.org. The script for the drill can be found here.

The RATPAC web site has an EMCOM zoom presentation tomorrow at 18:00 hrs (6:00PM) entitled “2026 Amatuer Radio ShakeOut – Preparedness for Everyone”. The presenter is Oliver Dully K6OLI. There are other interesting videos of previous presentations that RATPAC keeps links to on their site. The Watch Duty video was mentioned on our zoom call last week but I would also like to point out “Is GMRS a Viable Emcomms Platform” by Dan Lundwal. I found it informative and especially the focus on our own family communication plans.

The Digital packet net will start next week on Tuesday and commence at 18:30 hours, prior to our ARES voice net. (145.070 MHz) Anyone who would like help in setting up their station should contact me by email and we can set up a time to make that happen.

Pacificon is coming up on the 16th of October and there are some presentations dealing with EmComm, including “Rethinking Amateur Radio Emergency Serivces” by Bruce Perens, K6BP and “Watch Duty: Behind the Scenes” by Sara Paul.

I will be giving a short introductory presentation on LoRa and Meshtastic at the next Lodi Club meeting on October 1st. If you have an interest in LoRa radio and what can be done with Meshtastic, please attend. Coincidentally, QST magazine had the cover story about the subject in the October edition.

Also noteworthy in the October issue is the article “Future-Proofing ARES: Collaborating with GMRS Operators”

Here is the link to the RATPAC video of the Watch Duty app: https://youtu.be/H_UsrRJe5kM&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1790026594013002&usg=AOvVaw0GZ-mwnPxodgDP_Zx3HcW9

Packet Net and Forms Net are coming. (A test will happen in the next couple of days.)

Great Shakeout is happening October 15 at 10:15 AM. You can report at the on air net, by Packet RMS via Winlink, or by sending an email to the my Winlink address at N6ZDH@winlink.org; so even if you are at work or missed the on air reporting, you can still participate.

SJCARES Notes:

  Updated 21September2023

Updated information for everyone. Check this space often for updates (last least weekly) on RATPAC presentations and URLs for the recorded presentations and activities for San Joaquin County ARES nets, drills, and learning opportunities. 

OLDER NEWS/POST

Because the local digipeaters are down for a while, I have decided to suspend the digital net for the next two months. We do have some new people and are getting them up to speed on how to implement and use the digital process.

After some discussion, the group focus for the next few months will be using the ICS Winlink’s form ICS 213 < found in Standard Templates > USA ICS Forms > ICS 213 

A Downloadable copy of the form is available. here: form-ICS213-Winlink

The drill using this form will be after the voice check-in at 1900 hours. Two different operators will read two different messages. The rest of the group is welcome to copy the messages. Afterward, send your copy of the message to me. 

This drill aims to handle voice traffic from the field and forward it to the Operation Command Center.

Mark your calendars!

• The next HamU will be on April 29. See the education section
• The Weekly Packet Radio net on the 145.030 on the BEAR03 Digipeater has been suspended for the next two months
• Voice net follows on the 147.090 repeater  with PL 114.8 with a + Offset

Here are some good links for EmComm Training

Radio Amateur Training Planning and Activities Committee

RATPAC is s group of Emcomm people across the county that have put together a large number of Video recordings of the live presentation. A List of 280 and growing  RatPAC Training Videos and the RATPAC website is Here!

WaveTalkers

WaveTalkers is a Southern California Group that has put together an extensive set of Videos and recorded presentations on how to install and implement RMS Winklink 2000: WaveTalkers

RMS Winlink 2000

Bob Officer, N6TCE
ARRL EC for SJC

Updated: 26th March, 2023 by Bob Officer, N6TCE

FEMA Online Training:

The following courses are free and online. They will give the ARES members a foundation to effectively participate in emergency communications and build SJCARES emergency capabilities.  Please save your certificates of completion as proof that you have taken these courses. Send copies to the SJCARES Emergency Coordinator N6TCE@arrl.net

Register for FEMA Student Identification Number (FEMA SID)

IS-100: Introduction to the Incident Command System
IS-200: Basic Incident Command System for Initial Response

ICS 700 An Introduction to the National Incident Management System

ICS 800 National Response Framework, An Introduction

Basic EmCom.: Introduction to Emergency Communication

http://www.arrl.org/online-course-catalog#Skywarn (online class)

Ham Cram:

To sign up and get more information, please go to http://w6sf.org/hamcram.html

Next Ham Cram:

SATURDAY, May 17, 2024

We have returned to Stockton Fire Station #2 Training Center.. Because of security concerns, pre-registration is a REQUIREMENT.

HamU- A Day of Training:

Date and Time TBA the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST LATTER-DAY SAINTS, 731 N HAM LANE, LODI, CA DOORS OPEN 7:45A