Who Are We?
There are over 2000 amateur radio operators in Clark County Washington. About 100 belong to the local Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES/RACES) group. In a disaster, that would leave potentially 1900 Radio operators available to provide visual (eyes on the ground) reporting in areas where damages or injuries have occurred. Thus helping save lives and protect property. EYEWARN is a group of trained amateur radio volunteers, providing disaster reporting services for those Radio operators that choose to report damages or injuries.
We report what we see... from where we are.
Interested in learning more?
If you are interested in learning more about the Clark County Amateur Radio Club EYEWARN program, you can view a an informative video on the EYEWARN program here.
For more information, contact James/KE7ZAC at info@eyewarn.net.
Is it an Emergency or a Disaster?
An emergency is an urgent need for help that can be handled by the normal emergency response services. A call to 9-1-1 can get these services rolling.
A disaster is when normal emergency response services are overwhelmed. When that happens, County Emergency Managers can use our help in providing situation information observed by amateur radio operators in, and around the effected area.
The Clark County Amateur Radio Club EYEWARN net's primary purpose is to operate when a disaster occurs and provide Visual Situation Reports on what you see "out your window".
Emergency Managers at all levels have many concerns when providing emergency services during a disaster or emergency. One of the more important concerns is having a broad and accurate situational awareness of the event. The EYEWARN network addresses that concern.
For a copy of the EYEWARN Tri-fold brochure, click here.
To contact an EYEWARN official, send an email to info@eyewarn.net.
Submit an EYEWARN Report
To submit a visual situation report when the EYEWARN Net is activated for an actual event, go to the W7AIA 147.24+ (94.8) repeater and you will find the Net. If the repeater is down, go to the EYEWARN Net simplex primary frequency of 146.43.
EYEWARN Net
Submitting a visual situation report when the EYEWARN Net is activated for an actual event, report go to the W7AIA 147.24+ (94.8) repeater and you will find the Net. If the repeater is down, go to the EYEWARN Net simplex primary frequency of 146.43.
The W7AIA 443.125+ (94.8) near Yacolt is normally linked to the 147.24. During an actual emergency or disaster, it may be unlinked at any time by the Clark County ARES/RACES group who has priority use for actual or exercise emergency traffic needs.
The EYEWARN Net meets weekly on Thursday evenings at 7:00 pm on 147.24- (94.8) for training. These weekly nets will be used for net familiarization, training and practice of EYEWARN procedures.
Occasionally we will conduct the EYEWARN net on simplex to practice the loss of the repeater capability so if you don’t find us on 147.24+ (94.8), check on our primary VHF simplex 146.43, secondary simplex 146.56, or UHF simplex 445.975.
Training
EYEWARN net participants need to learn and be familiar with the net procedures. EYEWARN net control stations are trained specifically in net procedures. Although not required, EYEWARN net participants are encouraged to take Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training when available to increase their personal and family knowledge, skills and abilities to be able to operate in difficult situations.
Radio Test Session
Did you just get your license and a radio but you don’t know if it is working correctly? Did you just buy a new antenna or microphone and want to know if your audio sounds better with the new equipment? Did you get your home station to work on 6 meters or 220 MHz but you can’t find anyone on the band to get a signal report? Here is a time to test your equipment.
The EYEWARN Net Control group will be hosting a radio test session after the regularly scheduled exercise net on every third Thursday of the month. The radio test session will be hosted by our EYEWARN Net Controller and is intended to provide a casual opportunity for all Ham operators to test out their equipment to see what work and what doesn’t.
Tune into the 147.240+ repeater (94.8) at 7:00 to check-in to the EYEWARN weekly exercise and then hang around after the net closes to test your equipment. For more information, send an email to info@eyewarn.net.
The Mission
The EYEWARN network provides additional visual support and ground truth to Emergency Management Organizations like Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency (CRESA) and the Clark County Amateur Radio Emergency Service/Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (CCARES/RACES), expanding the situational awareness of each, and assisting in saving lives and protecting property. This network will not circumvent or replace the standard Clark County 9-1-1 reporting process or formal amateur radio emergency traffic networks such as those provided by CCARES/RACES.
The Concept
EYEWARN is a program sponsored by the Clark County Amateur Radio Club (CCARC) in conjunction with Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency (CRESA) and the Clark County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (CCARES/RACES). It is a group of amateur radio volunteers (many not affiliated with a recognized amateur radio emergency communications support group) throughout the county providing visual reporting of areas where damages or emergencies may exist.
This service in time of need will provide the incident Emergency Managers better visibility and situational awareness of the affected area. EYEWARN’s visually acquired information will be reported to CRESA, CCARES/RACES or other requesting agency.
Participating radio amateurs may or may not be part of CCARES/RACES or CCARC but can report events from their current location when needed. Although we will schedule and conduct training events, we will not self-activate in an actual event until officially requested. Radio amateurs are to report from their current location and are not mobilized, nor should they self-mobilize to look for damages.
There are about 2000 licensed radio amateurs in Clark County. Around five hundred (500) licensed amateurs are members of CCARC and fewer than one hundred (100) belong to CCARES/RACES. We need all amateur radio operators to participate to make this an effective program to support disaster situation reporting in Clark County.
The EYEWARN program encourages any licensed amateur radio operator to provide additional visual situation reporting to Emergency Managers through a trained net control station in time of a disaster or emergency.
EYEWARN Net Control Stations
We are always looking for Clark County hams that are interested in becoming EYEWARN Net Control Stations (NCS). There are a few station requirements and a training program for the position as the EYEWARN net is a unique net in that it does not use social, traffic or other traditional amateur radio net procedures.
If you are interested in becoming a NCS, please contact us at eyewarn@eyewarn.net for more information.
EYEWARN Net Control Documents
The following Net Control Station (NCS) documents support the weekly exercise and actual event repeater or simplex Nets:
EYEWARN Net Control Training
The following Net Control Station (NCS) training documents and videos are available for download:
| NCS Training Presentation (PDF) | NCS Training Basic v2.0 (PPT) |
| NCS Training Video |
NCS Logging Procedures Video |
| NCS SITREP Procedures [coming soon] |
EYEWARN Net Control Station Schedule
| Net Date | Net Control Station | Net Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| FEB 1 | Jason/K7BPM | |
| FEB 8 | Dave/K7DES | |
| FEB 15 | Barbara/AC7UH | Simplex 146.430 (IWARN 2) |
| FEB 22 | Mike/W7ZTI | Radio Check |
| FEB 29 | Marc/WA7PXW | |
| MAR 7 | Marc/WA7PXW | |
| MAR 14 | Stan/KF7OJA | Radio Check |
| MAR 21 | James/KE7ZAC | Simplex 445.975 (IWARN4) |
| MAR 28 | Ken/WA7KJ | |
| APR 4 | Phil/K6HSV | |
| APR 11 | Dave/K7DES | Radio Check |
| APR 18 | Mike/W7ZTI | Simplex 146.430 (IWARN2) |
| APR 25 | Barbara/AC7UH |
EYEWARN Frequencies
Repeater:
| Name/Mode | Frequency | Channel |
|---|---|---|
| W7AIA Vancouver VHF | 147.24+ PL 94.8 | IWARN 1 |
Simplex:
| Name/Mode | Frequency | Channel |
|---|---|---|
| VHF Primary | 146.430 | IWARN 2 |
| VHF Secondary | 146.560 | IWARN 3 |
| UHF Primary | 445.975 | IWARN 4 |
EYEWARN Participant Guide
All amateur radio operators in Clark County, whether or not you are a member of the Clark County Amateur Radio Club or the Clark County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) group, are encouraged to become familiar with the existence of the Clark County EYEWARN information gathering net capability and it’s protocols to be used in the time of need.
The following information is provided to help you become familiar with the EYEWARN net procedures before you check in.
When activated, the net operates in one of two modes. The two modes are “actual event” and “exercise”. The Thursday nets are normally operated in the exercise mode and the red text in brackets below is used. The net opens with the following statement:
QST....QST....QST: This is [___call sign & name___] net control for the Clark County Amateur Radio Club EYEWARN Disaster Information Gathering Net. This net is an actual event [exercise] net.
The purpose of this net is to collect information from [simulated] visual situation reports [and provide a training opportunity] for the Clark County EYEWARN information gathering Net. This net operates on the 147.240 repeater and [is/is not] linked to the [frequency] repeater(s).
If there is an actual emergency, call 9-1-1.
The Clark County EYEWARN net is now open for an actual event [exercise activity].
Once the net is opened there is a call for previously identified and trained EYEWARN net control stations (NCS) that are available. Following the call for EYEWARN NCS stations and the assignment of an alternate, or backup, NCS then calls Clark County zip codes for any amateur with visual situation reports they can give. There is usually specific information that is requested and check-ins should use the following procedure to check into the net when their zip code is called. Report from the zip code you are in which may be different than your QTH.
When you check in... give your Zip Code, your call sign phonetically, then the answers to the questions. Simply answer the questions in the order they are asked. For example... yes, yes, or yes, no.
The NCS may call the zip codes again. The zip code list may be shortened if CRESA wants a more focused picture of an event to a specific area. After all the desired information is gathered, the net will be closed.
With no further business listed, I will be closing the Clark County EYEWARN information gathering net. We would like to thank everyone for their participation in the net.
Thank you for your interest in learning about the Clark County EYEWARN net and hope to hear you check in with a report on Thursday evenings at 7:00pm or, more importantly, during an actual event.