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The ARES(R) Letter
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Editor: Rick Palm, K1CE [ mailto:k1ce@arrl.net ] - December 17, 2025

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In This Issue:
?-?ARES(R) Briefs, Links
?-?The Season for Giving
?-?San Diego ARES Conducts Thanksgiving-Themed Winlink Exercise
?-?LA County Amateur Radio Volunteers Excel in Doublet Earthquake Disaster Exercise
?-?The Bear 100 Endurance Run: Utah to Idaho
?-?K1CE for a Final
?-?ARES(R) Resources
?-?Support ARES(R): Join ARRL

ARES(R) Briefs, Links

Since launching the online ARES Group Finder, ARRL Emergency Management Director Josh Johnston, KE5MHV, has been working with Section Managers to populate the platform, which is expected to attract more hams to the venerable program. Once complete, promoting it can begin.

At last month's meeting of the ARRL Executive Committee, CEO David Minster, NA2AA, highlighted an initiative aimed at future-proofing ARES, which is also expected to generate increased interest in the program.
The plan includes a dedicated ARES column for QST throughout the entire year. ARRL Atlantic Division Director Robert Famiglio, K3RF, has authored the first piece for the January 2026 issue, focusing on Starlink.
Johnston will collaborate with other strong ARES program coordinators to maintain the momentum.

Members of the Spokane County (Washington) ARES participated in a ground truth weather spotter communications event on Saturday, December 6, 2025. The on-air exercise was designed to serve as an alternate to SKYWARN(R) Recognition Day, which was cancelled this year by NOAA's National Weather Service.
Nine stations collected and relayed 40 reports with information that included location, sky conditions, and temperature as well as wind speed and direction.
Gordon Grove, WA7LNC, had the original idea for the exercise: "It was a positive experience and exercise," he said, adding that members hope SKYWARN(R) Recognition Day resumes next year.

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The Season for Giving

One of the many things that I have thoroughly enjoyed in amateur radio over the past 50 years is gifting a radio to a young person, newly licensed and excited, but with limited means. All of us have the tendency to mothball radios after procurement of a newer model. They often sit in the dust and darkness of a closet or attic. Why not give them to a new licensee instead?

The informal protocol I've practiced is as follows: contact a local or regional club officer with your plan. Ask if they know of a new ham and/or new club member, especially a youngster, who might not be able to afford a new or even used radio. Do it on an anonymous basis. Meet privately with the officer and give him/her the radio to present to the recipient.

Yes, you could put your radio up for auction on eBay and probably make a few bucks out of the sale. Always fun, exciting, and lucrative, of course. But, it pales in comparison to the thrill of putting a smile on the face of a young, newly minted radio amateur, especially if you are sitting in on the club meeting. Plus, it's an opportunity to gain a new member for your ARES group and local club!?-"K1CE

San Diego ARES Conducts Thanksgiving-Themed Winlink Exercise

How many Winlink messages are too many? How many Winlink messages can radio operators and local infrastructure handle? To answer these questions, on November 15 San Diego (California) ARES conducted a "Winlink Palooza" exercise to load-test the message-handling skills of ARES radio operators and local VARA FM and packet Winlink gateways by sending and receiving thousands of Winlink messages during a 2-hour period in an attempt to break the system.
Although the resilient Winlink system survived the onslaught of messages, needed improvements for training, procedures, and equipment in the San Diego area were identified.
Winlink is a global radio email system supported by the Amateur Radio Safety Foundation, Inc.
and dozens of international volunteers.


To simulate a widespread disaster with a heavy message traffic load on Winlink operators and infrastructure, the San Diego exercise plan was designed to inject high message volume by requiring each of the 40 participants to send up to 20 messages using templates from the Winlink software, to multiply traffic volume by requesting Read Receipts (ACKs), to send messages to five simulated Medical Operations Center (MOC) addresses, by replying to ICS Form 213 messages, and by using Group Addresses (a feature in the Winlink software). To further increase message volume, hams in Los Angeles ARES, Sacramento Valley ARES, Washington State, and New Jersey contributed message traffic.
The hams deployed to simulated MOCs receiving the crushing load of messages were Dennis Yard, N1TEN; Heidi Hawley, K6AZE; Frank Parks, NB1Z; Mike Orlando, K6AMQ; Marty Latterich, AF5T; and Mooneer Salem, K6AQ. Hams deployed to the MOC locations as simulated medical staff were Candy Alvarez, KN6VNL, and Angelica Joaquin, N6LFC. Assistant SEC J. Goldberg, AF6GM, joined for the immediate after-action debrief.

Operators used a mix of high-speed Winlink modes during the exercise. Although the preferred mode was VARA FM on VHF and UHF frequencies, some operators used packet, VARA HF, and Telnet (Internet).

To liven the mood of the exercise, participants were asked to create and use Winlink tactical addresses named for their favorite Thanksgiving food.
Formatting their tactical addresses with prefix "SDG-" (the ARRL abbreviation for the San Diego Section) and taking advantage of longer tactical addresses now allowed by the Winlink system, participants selected traditional Thanksgiving fare, such as SDG-SWEETPOTATO, SDG-PUMPKINPIE, and SDG-SMOKEDTURKEY, as well as some creative names, such as SDG-IYAMWHATIYAM, SDG-LEFTOVERS, and SDG-TUMS.

Post-exercise analysis by District Emergency Coordinator (DEC) Marty Latterich, AF5T, dissected station connection logs to determine which stations and gateways were the fastest and slowest and to locate traffic bottlenecks.
Some stations were connected to gateways for as long as 20 minutes which tied up gateways and caused bottlenecks.
Latterich sees future training opportunities for gateway and client hardware choices and new locations to maximize throughput potential, VARA FM autotune, ping, and sound settings to increase performance, and gateway connection etiquette to avoid collisions.
According to his analysis, the highest performing VARA FM gateways were the gateways maintained by Roy Davis, WB9RKN, Mike Bradbury, N2DDS, the American Red Cross Disaster Services Technology (DST) Team [W6RDX], and the Club de Radio Experimentadores de Baja California [XE2BC] in Tijuana, Mexico. Additional backbone architecture for high volume traffic nodes is also being considered.

The experience of each participant varied greatly during the Winlink Palooza. Operators new to Winlink sent just one message via Telnet mode. Experienced operators sent more than 20 messages via RF modes. One operator reported spending 90 minutes debugging and uninstalling/reinstalling software.

Participants were encouraged to operate away from home which inevitably resulted in some key equipment (such as a GPS dongle and a laptop backup power supply) being left at home.

One of the takeaways was that the local ARES Winlink PACE plan requires refinement.
The Winlink PACE plan lays out the Primary, Alternate, Contingency, and Emergency (PACE) radio channels for Winlink.
Future refinements will allow flexibility to maximize message throughput or to maximize training value, depending on the situation.
During a real-world incident, in order to maximize message throughput, stations should use Telnet (Internet) whenever possible to eliminate RF gateway bottlenecks.
However, to maximize training value during exercises, planners will pose artificial restrictions to shift traffic to RF gateways keeping in mind each gateway's traffic handling limit of each gateway, which is, how many hundreds of messages can each RF gateway handle per hour.


Another takeaway is that the local frequency plan requires review due to a limited number of available VHF and UHF channels for gateways and peer-to-peer connections. Adding more gateways may increase geographic coverage of the local VARA FM infrastructure but may not increase message handling capability due to the limited number of frequency channels and possible QRM on adjacent channels.?-"Rob Freeburn, K6RJF, Assistant Section Manager, ARRL San Diego Section

LA County Amateur Radio Volunteers Excel in Doublet Earthquake Disaster Exercise

Amateur radio operators delivered critical communications support to Los Angeles County hospitals during the 2025 Annual Medical and Health Exercise (AMHE) on November 20, validating resilient, internet-independent pathways essential for regional disaster response. The exercise employed a complex Ridgecrest style earthquake doublet scenario to test health care readiness.

Volunteers were widely complimented for their professionalism, skill and enthusiasm throughout the large-scale event. The massive Los Angeles County health infrastructure includes approximately 70 911 receiving hospitals. The 2025 exercise focused on testing key operational capabilities across this system.

Doublet Scenario Triggers Surge and Evacuation

The scenario featured a two-part event: a magnitude 6.3 earthquake on the Palos Verdes fault, followed hours later by a magnitude 6.8 quake along the Newport-Inglewood fault. This doublet scenario required facilities across the county to engage in simultaneous, high-stress operations:
?-?Hospitals in the highly impacted southern part of LA County were practicing patient evacuations due to simulated structural damage. The exercise specifically aimed to evaluate the principles defined in the Hospital Relocation/Evacuation policy.
?-?Other facilities practiced surge management and patient transfers, responding to multi-casualty incidents (MCI) and a patient surge equivalent to 10% of their licensed bed capacity. Hospitals used the amateur radio network to transmit crucial information like HAvBED reports and timely patient transfer documentation.

Realistic USGS Data Enhances Preparedness

ARES LAX Northeast District Emergency Coordinator Oliver Dully, K6OLI, liaised between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the LA County EMS Agency to develop the realistic earthquake scenarios used in the exercise. "The comprehensive and realistic earthquake scenarios created by the USGS in partnership with LA County EMS are equally useful for those planning the upcoming World Cup and Olympics in Los Angeles County," Dully said. "Their value extends far beyond this exercise."

The USGS was complimented for providing scientifically-based in-depth earthquake scenarios. These provided data-rich simulations that included detailed ShakeMaps, PAGER reports, landslide and liquefaction estimates, and "Did you feel it?" web forms and maps. This wealth of information made the simulations among the most comprehensive and valuable earthquake planning tools available, adding significantly to the operational realism.

High-Volume Digital Traffic Confirms Network Reliability

Amateur radio operators provided voice and digital networks for continuous situational awareness, successfully sending updates and resource requests when conventional systems were simulated as impaired. Overall, 39 ARES LAX radio operators supported 13 hospitals in LA County and the LA County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Agency Medical Alert Center (MAC). They successfully achieved all three objectives laid out for ARES by the LA County EMS Agency exercise plan.

The Medical Alert Center (MAC) successfully received, processed, and logged a total of 139 digital messages. This included 134 messages via Winlink and five messages via Vara Chat.

Digital modes employed included:
?-?Winlink: This email-over-radio system enabled the transmission of critical documents, including HAvBED reports, Resource Requests, and ICS-213 forms, to the MAC.
?-?Vara Chat: This peer-to-peer system was used as an alternative digital system for local message exchange and file transfer.
?-?APRS (VARA FM APRS): Operators routinely transmitted color-coded hospital service levels via this packet-based reporting system, which maintained a centralized common operating picture for the MAC.

The positive outcome of effective multi-operator team deployments was demonstrated at several locations, where teams successfully split responsibilities (voice, digital, scribe), which prevented operator overload and increased overall mission effectiveness.

Dully stressed the collaborative and community-focused nature of the effort: "Amateur radio is a small part of a very large LA County EMS response. The Eaton Fire in our ARES district earlier this year demonstrated yet again how critical communications are during disasters. We are grateful to be working with LA County EMS, the hospitals in LA County and USGS to prepare and support our communities."

At the conclusion of the exercise, Richard Tadeo, LA County EMS Agency Director, recognized the professionalism of the volunteer operators, expressing sincere appreciation for their vital role in regional disaster preparedness and acknowledging that in a real crisis, their efforts would be essential.

For more information, please see the 2025 AMHE exercise video summary, infographic, and resources [ https://www.laxnortheast.org/exercises/la-county/2025-amhe ] . --Oliver Dully, K6OLI, LAXNORTHEAST ARES

The Bear 100 Endurance Run: Utah to Idaho

Each fall, the Bridgerland Amateur Radio Club (BARC) of northern Utah, along with Utah's Cache County ARES, and Idaho's Franklin County and Bear Lake County ARES groups also in Idaho, provide vital communications support for one of the region's most demanding endurance events: the Bear 100, a 100-mile ultramarathon that begins in Logan, Utah, and finishes in Fish Haven, Idaho.
Known for its breathtaking autumn scenery, the course winds through golden aspens, red maples, and dense pine forests.
With over 22,000 feet of elevation gain and a maximum altitude exceeding 9,000 feet, it tests both physical endurance and logistical support capabilities.
Roughly 350 runners take part in this rugged 36-hour challenge, which crosses paved roads only twice.

The event involves about 75 amateur radio operators running 12 aid stations, the data team, serving as overs, and at the start and finish lines.
Due to the remote terrain, amateur radio is the primary communications method. Public service radio and adding Star Link satellite internet for this year's event has enhanced communications.
Ham participants spend many hours preparing for this event.
Because of the location of many of the aid stations being off road in areas where a high clearance vehicle is needed, planning is very important.

Radio operators are responsible for runner accountability?-"tracking arrival and departure times at each aid station.
This critical data ensures no runner goes missing or unaccounted for before closing down each aid station.
To ensure this, a software program has been developed that is used to enter each runner's bib number in as they reach the aid station and then again as they leave.
The info is sent to the data team, which ensures that the data is correct and everyone gets accounted for, then upload it to the internet for the public to observe.
This past year, a complete rewrite of the logging software made data entry easier and would expedite knowledge of errors ahead of time.
It also made sending the file much easier.
This software team was headed up by Russ Leikis, KE7VFI, and Brandon Tibbits, KD7IIW.

Getting the runner information out to the data team at first was quite a chore and the only way was to read each entry over the radio one a time. Needing to report about 7254 data points and taking about 7 seconds per item, it averaged about 14 hours of one-way communications and left very little time for voice traffic, especially emergency or priority traffic.

There are four repeaters that can be accessed on the course but a better plan was needed.
We planned to use Winlink because we could send attachments with an email.
The first few years, all traffic went through one digipeater and back to a gateway in the valley, but we soon recognized that system was failing because of all the traffic going through that one gateway.
Plus, having a digipeater in the mix was doubling the time it took to send the message.
That is when we started making a plan to put portable gateways up on mountain tops that already had internet access or use a cellular hot spot to send the data.
It is still required by aid stations to keep a paper log along with the computer log.

In the last race this past fall, we facilitated four Winlink gateways: three on mountain tops and the original one back in the valley accessible by digipeater. And this year with the usage of VARA-FM, we brought the speed of sending data up to a more reasonable level. Also many of the aid stations had personal Star Link satellite systems that greatly sped up data transfer.

Using Winlink and sending only .csv files made for shorter transmissions. Attaching a spreadsheet or other document, which included too much overhead, really slowed down the system. Spread sheets and pictures are discouraged unless absolutely necessary.

The data team also sends emails with attachments that include DNS (did not start), DNF (did not finish), and other important data to the teams but would always send that data out as plain text or as a .csv file.

Every aid station except one must have its own power, be it battery, solar or generator. All equipment needed to be able to run on those power sources. That includes at least two radios, preferably dual banders: one for voice and one for data. The preferred data radio is the Kenwood TH-D710: The built-in TNC works well for Winlink.

Weather is an important factor because this race is held in the fall. This time of year it can be just like summer or just like winter. A few years ago we had a sudden winter storm that made it necessary to run the race to about the halfway point and turn around and run back the same route.

Preparing for bad weather is part of our training. This year also had an uptick in lost runners. All of them turned out to have left the race and gone back to their motels without reporting they had dropped out or the report was not communicated correctly by the ham radio team. After that year, there were forms that were put into place that must be filled out when anyone dropped out of the race. The form had to be filled out by and signed by the runner and radio operator.

Conclusions

The Bear 100 is more than just a race?-"it's a full-scale emergency communications deployment exercise.
Operators adapt to changing conditions, handle real-time logistics, provide emergency coordination, and deliver critical updates to race officials and public viewers.
The integration of amateur radio, voice and digital communication, and real-world readiness makes the Bear 100 a premier example of ham radio's capabilities in high-stakes, remote environments, and being able to do all this on the fly in case of changes to the weather, course changes or communications infrastructure failure.

The use of Winlink and all the portable gateways make it possible to get all the runner data out of the back country in a timely fashion. Public service 700 MHz and VHF radios keep us in contact with emergency services and public safety. Many of the amateurs participating are associated with search and rescue or public safety and have the availability of the public service equipment needed. GMRS is also used quite heavily, with mountain-top repeaters to enhance these systems.

APRS will probably be included beginning next year to help keep track of the medical teams that are not amateur radio operators. They will also be carrying GMRS radios in their vehicles. --Tyler Griffiths, N7UWX, Utah Section Assistant Traffic Manager; Cache County AEC.

K1CE for a Final

If you'll indulge me for a moment, I'd like to thank my home team of the Columbia County, ARRL Northern Florida Section, ARES organization for its dedication and professionalism with Brad Swartz, N5CBP, serving superbly as Emergency Coordinator.
I'd also like to thank the Northern Florida HF ARES and Phone Net managers and net controls Leo Nadeau, N4MRJ, and Harry Gentes, KN4SVY, who inspire net members with just the right tone of community, camaraderie and personality on the morning and evening nets.

Happy Holidays from the editorial, production and advertising staffs of The ARES Letter that saw its twentieth year of production in 2025. ?-"Rick Palm, K1CE

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ARES(R) Resources

?-?ARES Field Resources Manual [PDF] [ http://www.arrl.org/files/file/ARES_FR_Manual.pdf?utm_source=Informz&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=ARRL ]
?-?ARES Standardized Training Plan Task Book [Fillable PDF] [ https://arrl.informz.net/arrl/data/images/ARES Letter/ARES Taskbook July 2024.pdf ]
?-?ARES Standardized Training Plan Task Book [Word] [ https://arrl.informz.net/arrl/data/images/ARES Letter/ARES Taskbook July 2024.doc ]
?-?ARES Plan [ https://arrl.informz.net/arrl/data/images/ARES Letter/ARES PLAN 24(2).pdf ]
?-?ARES Group Registration [ https://www.arrl.org/register-an-ares-group?utm_source=Informz&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=ARRL ]
?-?Emergency Communications Training [ http://www.arrl.org/emergency-communications-training?utm_source=Informz&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=ARRL ]

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service(R) (ARES) consists of licensed amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment with their local ARES leadership, for communications duty in the public service when disaster strikes.
Every licensed amateur, regardless of membership in ARRL or any other local or national organization is eligible to apply for membership in ARES.
Training may be required or desired to participate fully in ARES.
Please inquire at the local level for specific information.
Because ARES is an amateur radio program, only licensed radio amateurs are eligible for membership.
The possession of emergency-powered equipment is desirable, but is not a requirement for membership.

How to Get Involved in ARES: Fill out the ARES Registration form [ http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Public Service/fsd98.pdf ] and submit it to your local Emergency Coordinator.

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ARES(R) is a program of ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio(R) [ https://www.arrl.org/?utm_source=Informz&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=ARRL ] . No other organization works harder than ARRL to promote and protect amateur radio! ARRL members enjoy many benefits and services including digital magazines, e-newsletters, online learning (learn.arrl.org [ https://learn.arrl.org/ ] ), and technical support.
Membership also supports programs for radio clubs, on-air contests, Logbook of The World(R), ARRL Field Day, and the all-volunteer ARRL Field Organization.

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