June 2021 Belmont CERT Meeting

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The topics of discussion during this month’s Zoom meeting were:

• With the State reopening and lifting most pandemic restrictions, many events are filling the calendar
• Consideration for consolidating Skills Day into a one day event on Saturday, awaiting approval from SMCFD
• Foster City will not be having a 4th of July celebration
• National Night Out will be Aug 3, locations in Belmont are still TBD
• Red Cross “Sound The Alarm” smoke detector event 8/14 in all three cities
• Chili Cookoff in San Mateo Central Park on 8/28, CERT will have a chili booth in the competition
• Disaster Preparedness Day 9/18 at the SM Event Center
• Citizen’s Academy shows on the calendar for 9/22, stay tuned for more details
• Ham Radio Licensing Class 9/25 (see flyer)
• SFO Emergency Drill is 9/29, TBA if volunteers will be used this time
• Fire Prevention Week is 10/2, CERT will be participating
• Waterdog Run is 10/9, TBA if CERT support will be requested
• Monthly CERT ham radio nets
• The Tim Wong funds must be spent by end of the year, email Pat with your suggestions
• The large 2200V generators provided by the FTSI grant were replaced with smaller more manageable (& trailer friendly) 1000V models

COVID-19 Vaccination Pop-Up Activation

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Last week SMCFD CERT was activated to distribute information on a vaccination pop-up held at San Mateo High School. Similar to the legacy Silver Dragon exercises of years past, teams delivered flyers to over 1,000 homes in a three hour period. The effort focused on neighborhoods that were adjacent to the High School.

The ICP was located at the Martin Luther King Park, equipped with a portable ham radio base station to maintain communications with teams in the field. A worthwhile opportunity to help the community, practice ham radio skills, fill out CERT paperwork, and stretch our pandemic legs with a few miles of walking. Thanks to SMCFD Battalion Chief Bill Euchner for the on-site support.

March SMC Fire CERT HAM Radio Nets

SMCFD CERT members who are also licensed Amateur Radio Operators (HAMs) should participate in our monthly CERT HAM Nets.

These will be simplex radio nets conducted  in San Mateo, Foster City and Belmont. We will take a city roll call from the list created from previous SMC Fire CERT Nets.  Terrain in Belmont and San Mateo is hilly, so everyone should expect to act as a relay as needed.

• Belmont:          147.090 MHz PL 100 + offset
  • First Thursday of each Month at  7:00 PM    (Thursday, March 4th)
• Foster City:      147.570 MHz PL 114.8
  • First Wednesday of each Month at  7:00 PM    (Wednesday, March 3rd)
• San Mateo:      146.550 MHz PL 114.8
  • First Thursday of each Month at  6:30 PM    (Thursday, March 4th)

Net will start at the noted times with Net Control operators assigned from each city.  The plan will be to rotate Net Control duties among each city’s CERT radio operators. There will be an opportunity for CERTs who are not on the roll call to check in, as well as visitors.

Santa Cruz CERT and Amateur Radio Emergency Service

A Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Office photo of Santa Cruz County CERT and Santa Cruz County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) volunteers mobilizing at Pescadero Middle/High School as part of last week’s pre-storm evacuation activity.

HAM Radio Licensing Class

If you’re looking to get your Amateur Radio Operators (HAM) license, there is a free class being offered on Zoom in February. It prepares you for the test, and then tells you how to register for the test (which has a fee).

Space is limited! If you’re interested in enrolling in the free 2-day class (Feb 20 & 27), please email: w6haclass@w6ha.com right away. Tell them SMCFD CERT sent you!

October SMC Fire CERT HAM Radio Nets

SMCFD CERT members who are also licensed Amateur Radio Operators (HAMs) should participate in our monthly CERT HAM Nets.

These will be simplex radio nets conducted  in San Mateo, Foster City and Belmont. We will take a city roll call from the list created from previous SMC Fire CERT Nets.  Terrain in Belmont and San Mateo is hilly, so everyone should expect to act as a relay as needed.

• Belmont:          147.090 MHz PL 100 + offset
  • First Thursday of each Month at  7:00 PM    (TOMORROW, October 1st)
• Foster City:      147.570 MHz PL 114.8
  • First Wednesday of each Month at  7:00 PM    (next Wednesday, October 7th)
• San Mateo:      146.550 MHz PL 114.8
  • First Thursday of each Month at  6:30 PM    (TOMORROW, October 1st)

Net will start at the noted times with Net Control operators assigned from each city.  The plan will be to rotate Net Control duties among each city’s CERT radio operators. There will be an opportunity for CERTs who are not on the roll call to check in, as well as visitors.

SMC Fire CERT Door Hanger Distribution Exercise

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An exercise was conducted this morning to distribute door hangers in the Bowie Estate neighborhood of San Mateo. Four teams, communicating via Ham radio, successfully delivered 1,000 door hangers to residents. A big thanks to all those that showed up to work this exercise, hopefully it was worthwhile and educational for all involved. Thanks to Sandra for organizing this and to Cindy for handling comms at the Incident Command Post.

The photos above, and more, have been uploaded to our CERT photo Album.

Ham Radio Classes

With the ongoing pandemic, I was pleasantly surprised that some one-day amateur radio licensing (ham cram) classes are being offered.

CERT is always looking for more radio operators and this is a great way to get your license and add to your skillset. Ham radios start at $25 so it’s not expensive to get on the air.

Benicia Class
Date: 10/03/2020
Time: 7:30 AM – 5:00 PM
Class levels: Technician & General
Learn More

Petaluma Class
Dates: 10/10/2020
Time: 9 AM
Class level: Technician & General
Learn More

Petaluma Class
Dates: 11/14/2020
Time: 9 AM
Class level: Technician & General
Learn More

August SMC Fire CERT HAM Radio Net

SMCFD CERT members who are also licensed Amateur Radio Operators (HAMs) should participate in our monthly CERT HAM Nets.  The next one will be on Thursday, August 6th at 1900 hours  (7 PM).  We will take a roll call from the list created over the past two Nets.  If you have NOT been on the roll call, please email Sandra with your name, call sign, city, and neighborhood or ERD.

We will be using the Belmont repeater frequency of 147.090 MHz with a PL of 100 with a + offset.  Net will start at 1900 hours.  There will be an opportunity for CERTs who are not on the roll call to check in, as well as visitors.

CERT Ham Radio Net

Thank you to those who participated in the inaugural SMC Fire CERT HAM Net on June 11th that Sandra (KM6MYW) conducted as Net Control.  We had 30 check-ins from CERT members in all three cities, out of 34 on the list.

A few of those were “relays”  –  meaning that Net Control couldn’t hear them, but someone else did and relayed that info to Net Control . . . which is how it’s supposed to work.  This will help determine if there are areas that are any coverage gaps, or if there might be an issue with individual radios.

The purpose of this Net was to test our communications capability, as well as to dust off some of our radios!  Sandra also wanted to see how well she could reach CERT HAMs in our three cities from her home in South San Francisco – and how well you could all hear one another.  The radio net exercise was a success in that regard.  In an emergency, you should turn on your HAM radio to one of the frequencies on our CERT Activation Protocol.  That is one way you may receive a notice of activation by SMCFD.

Sandra will hold another Net on Thursday, July 2nd at 1900 hours.  She will transmit from another location, and we might use another frequency, so we get to test all the primary frequencies of our cities.