June 28-29, 11 am Saturday through 1:59 pm Sunday, City of Beaverton Emergency Operations Center (EOC,) corner of 5th and Hall

Ham radio organizations have dedicated themselves and their personal equipment to provide emergency services to the government agencies in the event of a disaster. Annually, they mobilize in the “real world scenario” of an emergency, and set up ham radio communications to reach out to the ham radio community to practice connectivity in case of a real emergency. The Washington County group is setting up in the parking lot of the Beaverton Emergency Management facility, and will operate on power other than power from the electrical grid.

Washington County Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) is a County-sanctioned Organization, comprised of volunteer members of almost all ages, and from all walks of life. The membership body includes current and retired professionals from healthcare, emergency management, law enforcement, fire service, high-technology, aviation, and more. They all however, have two things in common: they are all federally-licensed by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to operate a multitude of radio equipment and on various frequency bands, and they all share an operational perspective known to most emergency managers—that one day, the immense communications infrastructure that most of us take for granted every day will fail. As such, they continually train for such an event, but rarely on a scale clearly visible to the public.

Spectators are invited to visit, ask questions, and witness the professionalism that is normally “behind the scenes,” during a real-world, non-exercise deployment.

More information about the group is available on its website: washcoares.org.