Emergency Preparedness

Members of W7VMI provide communications during Island emergencies, disasters, and drills through the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and the Auxiliary Communication Service (ACS). Communications services are provided to other Island emergency preparedness organizations, including the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), Neighborhood Emergency Response Organizations (NERO), and the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). Services include providing field radio operators to deploy with teams, maintaining and manning the EOC radio room, and providing the Club radio trailer as a communications hub and command post during larger deployments.

If you would like to get involved with emergency communications, you can email the leaders of the club ACS committee at ACS@vashonbeprepared.org.

Emergency Operations Center

We are lucky to have a strong partnership with Vashon Fire and Rescue and VashonBePrepared.

We maintain a radio room at the Vashon EOC inside the Penny Farcy Memorial Training Center, across from the Main Firestation, Station 55, and located at 10019 SW BANK RD. We conduct periodic drills and training events using the radio room in an effort to stay prepared in the event of a real emergency. We have HF/UHF/VHF/Marine capability as well as Winlink and Internet from this location, and use these communications resources both to talk to field teams and other Island fire stations, as well as to communicate with the County, State, and other EOCs in the region. The site is backed up by a generator.

Winlink (Email over Ham Radio)

We use the Winlink system to communicate via email. The user interface is very similar to standard email clients. The system connects to local and remote Winlink nodes via HF/VHF/UHF around the region and around the world. Email is especially powerful in an emergency when we may need to send long messages. Having the ability to do this without a local or regional Internet connection is a great tool in our emergency preparedness toolbox. Digital modes Digital Plan Emergency Prep Digital Plan 

How to user RMS Express to send email over Ham Radio RMS Express how to in PDF format 

How to use RMS express from W7MVI LACC radio caches in pdf format

Standard Equipment and Resources for CERT

Frequency List and Chirp Images (Baofeng)

This directory contains the current list of radio frequencies programmed into Baofeng radios used by ACS. It also contains an image suitable for upload into many UV-5R radios. WARNING programming your radio with the wrong image can brick your radio. No warranty or guarantee of compatibility with your radio is expressed or implied. Use at your own risk.

Equipment

Baofeng UV-5R
Baofeng Spare Battery
Battery eliminator (so you can use your vehicle's power)
After market antenna
Speaker mike
Mag mount, dual band (2metres/7cms) antenna
Reverse SMA to "PL-259" Adapter Cable (to connect the mag mount to the radio)
Headphones

Many W7VMI club member's own the Yeasu FT-7800 or FT-7900 radio. Ask on the reflector for programming help. We have cables and software.