Director of Emergency Communications: Rick Collins – KU5MC
The St. Cloud Amateur Radio Club is heavily vested in Emergency Communications. We are an ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services) club. We meet the first Thursday of the month @ 7:00 pm at our clubhouse to hone our skills, refine our objectives, explore new ideas and procedures, conduct training, etc.
We encourage all Ham Radio Operators to help in time of need. Currently, we are starting with basic online FEMA training classes and will expand this training as time goes forward. To start, we ask that all interested Hams start with IS-100b, IS-200b, IS-700b, and IS-800b. These can be found at FEMA Training under Independent Study, or by simply searching Google. You will need to register for a FEMA Student ID before completing the short exam. Once you have completed the course and have your certificate, please email a copy of the .pdf to ku5mc@w0sv.club.
- Served Agencies
Stearns County, MN
City of Saint Cloud, MN
W0SV works directly with local agencies to help facilitate communications and necessary forms via HF/VHF/UHF radio when other modes of communication are unavailable. To that end, we have invested in extensive radio capabilities designed for this area in particular.
- ARES – Amateur Radio Emergency Service
District Emergency Coordinator (DEC) Central MN – Randy Welsand – WJ0L
Emergency Coordinator (EC) Stearns County MN – Rick Collins – KU5MC
Emergency Coordinator (EC) Benton County MN – Rick Collins – KU5MC
Emergency Coordinator (EC) Mille Lacs County MN – Denice Gadacz – KF0KER
Amateur radio operators use their training, skills, and equipment to provide communications during emergencies When All Else Fails®. Hams serve our communities when storms or other disasters damage critical communication infrastructure, including cell towers, and wired and wireless networks. Amateur radio can function completely independently of the internet and phone systems. An amateur radio station can be set up almost anywhere in minutes. Hams can quickly raise a wire antenna in a tree or on a mast, connect it to a radio and power source, and communicate effectively with others.
- RHC – Central MN Regional Hospital Coalition
The Central Minnesota Healthcare Preparedness Program is a healthcare coalition made up of members from Clinics, Hospitals, Long-Term Care facilities, Emergency Management, Emergency Medical Services, Local Public Health Departments, Amateur Radio Operators, and many other agencies/organizations. Currently, once a month on the first Wednesday @ 1:00 pm, we run a NET to help make sure that the coalition is able to communicate when conventional communication modes are out of service.
- CENTRAL MN SKYWARN
The Saint Cloud Amateur Radio Club is the host of the Central MN Skywarn program under W0SV and the Director of Emergency Communications. Central MN Skywarn currently serves Stearns County via the W0SV Emergency Communications Repeater and Benton County via the Benton County Emergency Services Repeater. When the National Weather Service activates Central MN Skywarn, we deploy a network of trained spotters that report their observations via radio to our Skywarn Nets located in the W0SV EOC so that we may pass possible life saving information to the National Weather Service.
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EMCOMM is far reaching to say the least. As noted above, we are busy with such. But it must also be noted that we do much more than is listed above. Emergency communications for W0SV entails Winlink, FM, HF, and Packet with numerous FM gateways as well as RMS Trimode gateways (HF). We also utilize a new communications platform, Meshtastic, and at this time, we have 40 nodes deployed. This protocol allows us to be able to text without internet or cell service. Long story short, we try to cover every aspect, knowing that this technology changes every day. We do like the technology and we change with it.