Index of News Items
Upcoming Events
Recent Events
Upcoming Events
American Red Cross Regional Comm Drill
MCACS and ARES members are invited to participate in an upcoming Red Cross emergency communications drill on Saturday, April 19. In these exercises, participant organizations 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 this drill, some participating stations will be Amateur Radio stations and others will be 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.
MCACS and ARES will be responsible for establishing stations at one or both Red Cross facilities in Montgomery County. If you are able to participate, please send an email to ataylor@mcacs.net. There is no need to respond to Craig directly.
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 begins at 9 AM and runs approximately 3 hours. Teams at each location will work about ahead of time an arrival time so as to be ready to operate at 9. We typically allow about an hour for setup, depending on the experience of the team members.
The organizers understand that April 19 is Easter weekend, and apologize to those who are unable to participate dues to other commitments.
MCACS Annual Meeting and Election of Officers
The MCACS annual meeting and election of officers is scheduled for Tuesday, April 1, at 20:00, via Google Meet. This coincides with the data and time of our regular monthly online meeting.
The primary business at the annual meeting is the election of officers. The board is composed of seven elected members: four officers – President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer – and three at-large Directors, all of whom serve two-year terms. In addition, the director of the Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (OEMHS) may designate a representative to serve on the MCACS board in a non-voting, ex officio capacity.
A separate vote for each officer position along with a combined vote for the three at-large seats (top three vote-getters win) will be held. Only full members of MCACS (see: Membership Policy and Procedures) have the right to vote in meetings.
Nomination Procedure
Eligibility to serve as a board member is limited to full members of MCACS. You may nominate yourself or another person for a position. If there is someone in the group who you think would be a good candidate, please encourage them to step forward or nominate them with their consent. No one may stand for election unless they have agreed to serve.
Please send nominations for any position to election@mcacs.net. No later than March 18, the Bylaws obligate the MCACS president to present a slate of nominees to the members. However, nominations will be accepted up to the time of the annual meeting, and may also be made from the floor at the meeting.
2Q Hospital Drill
The Q2 hospital drill for 2025 will take place on 08 April 2025, beginning at 7 PM and 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
Winter Field Day 2025
MCACS participated in Winter Field Day on the last full weekend of January. Bruce, W3SCI, compiled comments from the participants into an after-action report, which may be viewed at the following link: https://mcacs.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/AAR-MCACS-WFD-2025.pdf
Our exchange in the exercise was “Three Oscar, Mike Delta Charlie,” meaning that we set up three HF stations in an outdoor environment, from a location in the ARRL Maryland-DC section. We made a total of 229 contacts over the 24-hours of the exercise, reaching 38 U. S. states, two provinces in Canada, and a station in Panama. Seventeen MCACS members contributed to the success of the event.
Included in the after-action report are links to photos plus the complete log in stations contacted.
1Q Hospital Drill
Our first hospital drill of 2025 was held on January 14 in conjunction with Prince Georges County ARES. Montgomery County ARES operators activated the stations at three county hospitals as well as the EOC. Winlink messages were exchanged per the exercise plan with voice coordination on the WA3YOO repeater. Participating operators included:
- Will, K3XIT at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring
- Ellen, KC3MJV at Holy Cross Germantown Hospital
- Chuck, KCeTCZand Mike, W3DCA at Medstar Montgomery Medical Center in Olney
- Fred K3CSX and Al, KN3U at the Montgomery County EOC
Won’t you join us next time?
Results: ARRL Simulated Emergency Test
Thirteen Montgomery County ARES members participated in the 2024 Simulated Emergency Test (SET) on Saturday, October 5. The exercise required participants to identify and deploy to a location near their home that might be a suitable choice for a Community Emergency Hub (e.g., a school, community center, or other customary neighborhood gathering place). Participants were directed to establish contact with the station at the Montgomery County EOC via 2 meter FM simplex, either directly or through a relay station. Some participants chose to activate multiple locations over the course of the exercise. At each location, participants were asked to send a voice message containing specific information about their location, equipment, and stations heard. Participants were also encouraged to send the same information via Winlink either from the field or upon returning home.
In addition to affording members an opportunity to practice tactical communications in a simulated emergency response environment, the exercise provided a mechanism to map out simplex coverage of the county. All participants were able to convey the requested information to the EOC, either directly or through a relay station.
Given the EOC’s location in a low-lying area of Gaithersburg and modest antenna, we expected that direct communications would not be possible with other low-lying areas of the county. To hedge our bets, we positioned the MCACS communications van, with its base station antenna on a 50′ pneumatic mast, in Damascus at a location close to the highest elevation in the county. We also arranged for the club station at the NIH main campus to be on the air, knowing that it provides good coverage of the down-county area.
Since many of the participants were using mobile rigs in the cars, it was not a surprise that stations in different parts of the county could not always hear each other. It was a surprise that almost all participants were able to communicate directly with the EOC. While a few stations were less than full-quieting, only one participant required a relay to pass their traffic. And, as we had suspected, the station in Damascus was heard by almost all participants.
The exercise plan is available for reference. Also available for your review is a spreadsheet summarizing the data gathered during the exercise.
Exercise participants include KC3UKX*, N3COB*, K3MRI, K3XIT*, N3DDS, WA2WDT, KC3MJV*, KB3SYA, and KA3IXO in the field. WA32LTJ and W3CID operated at NIH, and KN3U and K3CSX were at the EOC. Participants marked with an asterisk provided reports via Winlink.
MCACS Comm Van
At its October meeting, the MCACS board of directors voted to assume ownership of the MAIPN communications van from MAIPN, Inc. MCACS has been the primary user of the van in recent years. As of the end of October, MCACS is now the legal owner of the van. In the near future, the signage on the van will be updated to reflect that. More information about the van can be found at this link.