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Upcoming Events
Recent Events
Upcoming Events
2025 Regional Field Emcomm Station Meet
As many of you know, we have been planning a gathering of field emcomm stations for several months. A while back, Montgomery County ARES did this on a small scale for our members at Seneca Creek State Park. That event was a great success, and we wanted to do it again with participation from across the region.
We were very fortunate to have the JHU/APL Amateur Radio Club agree to host the event at a beautiful site roughly midway between Baltimore and DC. We have also reached out to Howard County ARES/RACES to help support the event, since the APL main campus is on their home turf. We have partnered with Ham Community set up a website with information about the event and a registration form.
Amateur Radio operators and organizations from the greater DC/Baltimore region and beyond are invited to exhibit their portable emcomm stations to demonstrate different approaches to providing emergency communications following a disaster or major incident. Participants are also invited to show how they have configured their personal sustainment kits. Amateur Radio operators and members of the public at large who are interested in emergency and disaster communications are invited to attend and gather ideas for constructing their own portable emcomm stations and sustainment kits (commonly referred to as go-kits).
The event will be held on Saturday, September 27 (rain date: October 11) on the grounds of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, MD, in cooperation with the JHU/APL Amateur Radio Club. There is ample space for exhibitors to set up their stations, including full-size HF antennas. The site has plenty of parking for attendees, and we will have access to rest rooms in an adjacent building.
As MCACS is a co-sponsor of the event, we will be asking our members at a later date for volunteers to help with traffic control and other logistical support. In the meantime, for information and to register, please visit https://ham.community/emcomm-2025.
American Red Cross Regional Comm Drill
The regional office of the American Red Cross periodically conducts communications exercises with support from amateur radio organizations. Montgomery County ARES and MCACS are regular participants. In these exercises, participants set up portable HF stations at various Red Cross facilities throughout the National Capital and Greater Chesapeake region and exchange messages using Winlink, simulating an regional Internet outage. The region encompasses Northern Virginia and central and southern Maryland, including the Greater Washington and Baltimore metropolitan areas, as well as the entire tri-state area of the Delmarva Peninsula. A map of the region can be viewed at: https://maps.redcross.org/website/Maps/Images/DC/RCDCDEMDVA_REG_CO.pdf.
In these drills, some participating stations are Amateur Radio stations and others are SHARES stations operating on U. S. government frequencies. Each station will operate under the rules and regulations governing its authorization. Amateur and SHARES stations will never be directly communicating with one another, but there are no restrictions regarding exchanging messages via Winlink. This is a good example of how we seamlessly transition from our role as ARES operators to MCACS communicators.
The next exercise has not been scheduled. MCACS members will be notified via the member-list when a date is announced.
No experience is necessary; in fact, this is a good opportunity for mew members to get involved in our activities. Of course, we encourage our more experienced members to get out, practice using the equipment and software, share your knowledge with others, and demonstrate our commitment and capabilities to our served organizations.
The on-air portion of the drill typically begins at 9 AM and runs approximately 3 hours. Teams at each location will choose a suitable arrival time so as to be ready to operate at 9. We typically allow an hour or more for setup, depending on the experience of the team members.
Q3 Hospital Drill
The Q3 hospital drill for 2025 will take place on 14 October 2025, beginning at 7 PM. The drill normally runs under two hours. This drill will be conducted between the stations listed below. You’ll probably want to arrive a half-hour before net time to sign in with security and get set up. We are seeking 2 to 3 Montgomery County MCACS volunteers to staff each of the stations at:
* Holy Cross Hospital – Silver Spring [1500 Forest Glen Road]
* Holy Cross Hospital – Germantown [19801 Observation Drive]
* MedStar Montgomery Hospital – Olney [18101 Prince Philip Drive]
* Montgomery County EOC – Gaithersburg [100 Edison Park Drive]
We encourage MCACS members to participate in these quarterly exercises and to get acquainted with the setups at one or more county hospitals. For this exercise, we also encourage participation from home-based Winlink stations, so if you want to participate from home, let us know.
Please RSVP to hospital-coord@mcacs.net, indicating which hospital or hospitals you would be willing to visit (and order of preference, if any). If you would like to participate from home, tell us that. Also, let us know if you are able to bring a Winlink Express-capable laptop configured with the VARA FM and UZ7HO softmodem software. We need at least one such member at each hospital.
As with our Red Cross drills, these quarterly drills are a great opportunity for our new members to see what we do and get involved.
— v/r,
Chuck (KC3TCZ)
Recent Events
2025 NCI Emergency Preparedness Fair
The National Cancer Institute held its annual Emergency Preparedness Fair on Wednesday, August 20. Montgomery County ARES members, along with members from the NIH Radio Amateur Club (NIHRAC) demonstrated amateur radio communications capabilities from HF to microwave frequencies.
The MCACS van was on display with its complement of HF/VHF/UHF equipment. We set up a broadband NVIS HF antenna and deployed a 2m/1.25m/70cm base station antenna atop the van’s 50-foot pneumatic mast. We also demonstrated the van’s VoIP telephone system and streamed live video from a remote camera to the van via a broadband microwave link.
We interacted with members of the public as well as representatives on other agencies and organizations active in disasters response and recovery. A few visitors expressed interest in obtaining an amateur radio license and we directed them to resources in the community. There was even at least one local elected official in attendance.
Even without an audience from members of the public, this annual event provides a good opportunity for our members to practice setting up and using the resources of the van.
Participants included (in no particular order) W3DCA, AC3N, KC3MIX, AA3IL, KC3CK, K3MRI, WA2WDT, K3XIT, and KN3U.