Marion Co. C.E.R.T. Net on UCALL40

[mikepdx]

Sat. 3PM

Just finished listening to a roll call of C.E.R.T. units
by Marion County Emergency Management located at the
public works dept on UHF interop calling frequency
UCALL40 453.2125 MHz.

Marion Co OEM was keying up 2 repeaters at
two different sites (one tail was longer).

Units responding sounded like they were on portables
and were only keying up the stronger repeater to me.

The participants:
Salem
Keizer
Mt Angel
Woodburn
Turner
Gates
Stayton
Chinook Estates

I think that was all.

Interesting use of nationwide interop.
Who'da thunk it?

 

[sparklehorse]

Interesting find there.

Semi-related question: did you, or anyone here, happen to monitor the Salem Walmart incident yesterday? I tried to. I heard the first call of "shots fired" from one of the officers. But once things were underway I think they went to simplex for some reason on their main channel as I could not pick up a single transmission on 460.475 for hours. Usually I get a really good signal from their system from here in Portland, but during that standoff it was nada on their main channel. Thought it was odd. I was still hearing Salem's Channel 3 though, and Marion County and OSP were plenty busy with that incident, so I was able to follow some of it.

.

 

[mikepdx]

Interesting find there.

Semi-related question: did you, or anyone here, happen to monitor the Salem Walmart incident yesterday? I tried to. I heard the first call of "shots fired" from one of the officers. But once things were underway I think they went to simplex for some reason on their main channel as I could not pick up a single transmission on 460.475 for hours. Usually I get a really good signal from their system from here in Portland, but during that standoff it was nada on their main channel. Thought it was odd. I was still hearing Salem's Channel 3 though, and Marion County and OSP were plenty busy with that incident, so I was able to follow some of it.
.

Funny thing is I learned of it from PGE 153.575 MHz
warning south crews to stay away WalMart on Turner Rd.
I didn't try to monitor the incident, tho.

Incident probably on Channel 2 simplex.
Which makes sense if Channel 1 was silent.

Surprised no RR members in Salem area have reported back to us on this...

 

[Baker845]

Salem PD was on repeater for ops on that incident at walmart in salem. But i didnt get what channel it was on. the repeater ID was to fast for my ears.

 

[sparklehorse]

Salem PD was on repeater for ops on that incident at walmart in salem. But i didnt get what channel it was on. the repeater ID was to fast for my ears.

Hmm. Weird. Maybe they moved the incident to Ch 3? I was getting a good signal on Ch 3, but since most agencies move regular traffic to a different channel I didn't pay much attention to it. I was focused on trying to figure out why I wasn't receiving any traffic on Ch 1, trying to get my Yagi pointed that way to see if I could pick up simplex comms. I gave up after a while and went back to scanning my usual channels, stopping on OSP and MCSO occasionally to see what was happening.

.

 

[DarkStarPDX]

Saturday was an 8-hour drill for Cascadia Rising 2016, QuakeEX I. I'm glad to hear some CERT teams were participating. (Oregon ARES/RACES)

We have a bunch of National Interop gear here in Washington County, but nobody knows how it is supposed to be managed and used. I'll have to reach out to Marion County Emergency Management and find out how it fits into their communication plan.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Fielder3]

Marion County CERT

That sounds like something new. I know that individual team members and neighborhood team leaders use FRS radios, (Unless they are a HAM.) ** I am a member of a CERT team in my community in Marion County as well. The UCall40 must be a new usage during disasters for county coordination,.. which I thought was previously being done on HAM radio nets.