K7CEM-New

Fall has arrived and that isn’t a bad thing, especially when we remember the 110 degree temperatures this year during Field Day.  The 70 degree fall days are a welcome relief.  A person I know says “I can smell cool temperature and rain… and I love it!”.  With the arrival of September and now October, we also know we must switch gears from Red Flag training to weather related (especially flood related) training.

So our first training session in October, will put us back in the Centralia Emergency Operations Center (EOC) for a refresher course on how our community officials deal with serious flooding, windstorms, ice storms and other weather related events.  Centralia’s EOC is small compared to bigger city locations but it serves us well.  We have all the normal EOC related positions, Incident Commander, Public Information Officer, Safety, Liaison, Operations, Planning, Logistics and finance and of course Amateur Radio but it is in an intimate setting where everyone knows each other.  When our hams connected headsets, for example, to limit noise in the room, the Incident Commander asked us to remove them so he could hear what our ARES team members were reporting saying it was exactly the information he wanted to hear.  Our ARES radios are located about eight feet from the IC’s desk and as I remind our team members, everybody hears what we say over the radios.  This first training session in October directs our team’s thinking from a simple ARES team to a larger community collection of first responders all working together for the safety of our region.

Our ARES Simulated Emergency Test (SET) exercise will follow only a few days later.  Our training tends to follow a different track quite often usually dealing with specific situations related to our community and our location.  For this SET exercise, we will simulate a failure of our main repeater requiring everyone to switch operations to our alternate repeater.  With multiple location assignments, the team will spread out and pass message traffic from the very edges of our repeater’s propagation area.  Can we operate on HT’s?  If you can’t be heard, why and what can you do to make communications work?  We’ve experienced a few minor issues with this repeater and don’t exactly know how it will perform so it’s time to put it (and us) to the test.

Fall is beautiful in our area but we have experienced four “100 year floods” in the last 20 years or so, each one coming with its own issues that push our emergency operations to the limit.  So let the leaves fall and the rain come.  It’s time to get ready for whatever Mother Nature has in store for us.

The Chehalis Valley Amateur Radio Society (CVARS) has been around since at least 1973, probably longer but there are no records to be found prior to that year.  The CVARS callsign, WA7UHD, has been with the group for 48 years,  but it is time to make a little history and change that callsign.  On August 7th, the club conducted a special event station on our BawFaw Repeater.  At 11am, club President Bill Knepper, N7GWK, formally accepted our new callsign, K7PG, from Corene Litteer, N7FAO, wife of that callsign’s former owner, and now silent key, Gary Litteer.

So who was Gary Litteer?  Well, let me tell you a little about him.  A long time CVARS member, Gary held most of not all officer positions in the club.  As a teacher with a love for all things electronic, he taught new ham classes, conducted Volunteer Examiner sessions and, most importantly, became an “Elmer” to nearly everyone associated with our group. He served his country with both the U.S. Navy and the Coast Guard. He held both Canadian and US ham radio callsigns (as did Corene), and had a love of sailing and flying.  Mostly however, he loved nothing better than sitting in his ham shack talking with other hams.  His main wish was simply to leave his callsign to the Chehalis Valley Amateur Radio Society.  As a past CVARS president, I only recently found out that Gary approached every single president with his request.  When the time finally came, current president Bill Knepper and his officers made Gary’s wish come true.

Gary’s favorite saying was “such a deal I’ve got for you…”.  I don’t think any of us thought that “deal” would be worth so much to past, present and future CVARS members.  While the FCC acknowledged the callsign change back in April, CVARS members spent several wonderful hours on August 7th remembering Gary as one by one, so many folks checked into the special event with great memories. Those checking in received a Certificate of Participation and a special Gary Litteer QSL card, but those things are just paper.  Those memories of Gary Litteer, K7PG, will last forever.

Sitting with Corene in their home ham shack just off the kitchen as we conducted the special event, nobody could blame her when she choked up just a little when she told everyone over the airwaves what Gary’s favorite saying was:  “such a deal I’ve got for you…”.  Rest in peace, Gary.  We will miss you but your callsign will serve the Chehalis Valley Amateur Radio Society for many years to come.  Thank you.

This last Saturday, the Chehalis Valley Amateur Radio Society (CVARS) held its 22nd annual ham radio tailgate swap meet at the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds.  Located in an open pavilion at the fair, hams from all over the region congregated to sell their wares or find that special microphone or key they just had to have.  As the day progressed we watched a constant flow of folks heading out of the pavilion with armloads of used ham gear, and every one of them had a smile on their face.  Many of our Amateur Radio Emergency Service team members, most of which are also CVARS members, worked long and hard on Saturday taking tickets, spotting vehicles, working the auction or the information table and generally keeping the event moving.  In addition, Comm III handled the talk-in frequencies and made sure everyone could find their way to the fairgrounds.

It is amazing how many old friends you find at these swap meets.  Time to catch up on new radios or antennas purchased, hearing about new license upgrades or just reconnecting.  Many hams stopped by Comm III to chat or just look over the communications equipment inside.  Attendees from as far away as Idaho arrived early to get a good spot where they could sell and buy. By noon, things were winding down and the auction was over as everyone began to leave with their treasures.

The ham radio tailgate swap meet has been a tradition for many years in our part of Washington which will hopefully continue for many years to come.  Look for us next year.  It is never too early to start gathering those ham radio items to sell, and it never hurts to start saving up your loose change.  You know you will find something you just have to have.