St. Louis County ARES®: Resources Main Page

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This page contains information regarding resources available to emergency communications operators.

Antennas:

Base or Field:
- Arrow Antennas - A variety of antennas and accessories
- Comet Antennas - A variety of antennas and accessories
- Diamond Antennas - A variety of antennas and accessories
- Lakeview Company / Hamstick Antennas - A variety of antennas and accessories
Field:
- Barker and Williamson - Field HF antennas
Build your own:
- Building a 2 meter quad antenna by WX9DX (Adobe Acrobat format)¹

Antenna feedline and accessories:

Cable X-Perts, Inc - Feedline, connectors, baluns, and accessories
The Original Wireman - Feedline, connectors, baluns, and accessories. The "Wirebook" manual has many tips, including how to install connectors onto coaxial cables.

Antenna masts and accessories:

Base:
- Easy-Up - Tripods and stands.
- IIX Equipment Ltd - Antenna mast accessories.
- Penninger Radio - "Tipping" antenna masts and accessories.
- Radio Shack - Antenna mast and mounting accessories.
- Ronard Equipment - Tripods and stands.
Field:
- Blue Sky Mast - Field masts and mounts.
- In The Swim - Swimming pool telepoles.. may be used as field antenna masts.
- Musician's Friend - Speaker stands may be used as field antenna mast stands.
- Penninger Radio - "Tipping" antenna masts and accessories.
- Sam's Club - Flag poles and flag pole stands.. may be used as field antenna masts and stands.

Apparel:

American Radio Relay League - ARES^® caps and vests.
Barker Specialty Company - Caps, shirts, jackets, vests.
HamThreads Caps, shirts, jackets, vests.

Bags and carrying cases:

Bass Pro Shop - All manner of bags and carryalls. (Use the site's search search feature and enter "BAG".)
Coleman - All manner of bags and carryalls. (Use the site's search search feature and enter "BAG".)
Duluth Trading Company - All manner of bags and carryalls. (Select "Organizers & Bags" from top row of buttons.)
Storm Case - Sturdy cases for sensitive equipment

Batteries, discount:

Battery Mart - Sealed Lead Acid, Gel Cell, Rechargeable, and accessories. They also sell AAA, AA, C, D, and 9 volt batteries in bulk.
Wholesale For Everyone - Packaged small batteries

Batteries, information:

Wind & Sun alternative energy site - Good information on batteries and how they work.

Cables, connectors, adaptors, etcetera:

Antenna/Feedline: (see Antenna feedline and accesories)
Data/Digital: (see Digital equipment and information: Data cables, adaptors, etcetera)
Electrical: (see Power: Cables, connectors, etcetera)

Digital equipment and information:

Pactor - Description of PACTOR
Tigertronics - Modems, soundcard interfaces, and other digital items
Deluo - GPS
Digipan - Soundcard interface freeware
Ham Radio Deluxe - Digital software
Bux Comm - Soundcard interfaces and information about digital radio
Sound Card Packet
AGW - "AGW Packet Engine" software for soundcard interfaces, "AGW Packet Pro", "AGW Term", and more.
UISS Packet - Windows Packet Program
Winlink 2000 - Winlink instructions and software
Timewave - Various digital products
Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS)
- aprs.fi - View APRS stations
- info.aprs.net - Useful information and wiki pages
- www.aprs.org - Useful information by Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, creator of APRS
- Byonics - APRS-related hardware, including trackers
- findu.com - View APRS stations
- openaprs.net - View APRS stations
- UI-View - Software to run your own APRS station
- www.wa8lmf.net - Useful information by Stephen Smith, WA8LMF
- APRS symbol chart - Chart showing the authorized APRS symbols (Adobe Acrobat format)¹
Data cables, adaptors, etcetera
- BuxComm - cables to connect soundcards and TNCs to transceivers
- Associated Radio - cables to connect soundcards and TNCs to transceivers
Narrow Band Emergency Messaging System (NBEMS)
- W0CEH's presentation - Overview of NBEMS (Adobe Acrobat format)¹
- NBEMS freeware downloads Fldigi, Flmsg and other NBEMS software components
TNCs (Terminal Node Controllers)
- Kantronics - TNCs (Terminal Node Controllers)

Electrical: (see Power)

Emergency communications:

ARRL ARES Field Resources Manual (Adobe Acrobat format)¹
Emergency communications information and advice by Bob Hejl, W2IK

Field Equipment: (Also see Personal Preparedness)

Canopies, Shelters, Tents: (Coming soon)

Field Stations:

Information on building your own deployable field station

Formal Traffic: (see Message handling and Forms)

Forms:

Contact log sheet (Word format)¹
ARES net log sheet (Word format)¹
Message handling log sheet by W0CMR (Word format)¹
ARRL Radiogram form (Adobe Acrobat format)¹
ARRL Radiogram form (Excel Spreadsheet format)¹
ARRL Radiogram modified for WORD format (Word format)¹ (written by Jim Yuen, WH6GS)
FEMA ICS-213 message form and instructions (Adobe Acrobat format)¹
Some guidelines for using the ICS-213 form by W3EOC, the Chester County, Pennsylvania ARES/RACES group
ARRL Disaster Welfare Message Form and Instructions (FSD-244) (Adobe Acrobat format)¹
ARRL Disaster Welfare Message Form and Instructions (FSD-244) (not downloadable)

Frequencies:

St. Louis County ARES^®
Primary repeater = 146.850 MHz (-)(141.3 Hz) W0SRC
Secondary repeater = 146.910 MHz (-)(141.3 Hz) N0TYZ
Digital (packet) net = 145.070 MHz (Missouri Emergency Packet Network)
For tactical simplex frequencies see "Registered Volunteers Only" section.
Local area emergency nets
Missouri Section ARES^® Interoperability plan

Go-bags:

KC0NRK's Go-Bag Web page
KC0NRK's Go-Bag presentation (Powerpoint format)¹
KC0NRK's Go-Bag presentation handout (Word format)¹
AB2NM's Go-Bag suggestions
KB0HAE's Go-Bag suggestions

Manuals, Transceiver:

Icom IC-2720H 2m/70cm transceiver operating manual (installed at VAMC sites) (Adobe Acrobat format)¹
Kenwood TM-V71A 2m/70cm transceiver operating manual (installed in numerous local hospitals) (Adobe Acrobat format)¹
Kenwood TS-480 HF transceiver operating manual (installed in some local hospitals) (Adobe Acrobat format)¹

Maps:

Message handling: (also see Forms)

ARRL message handling guide (Adobe Acrobat format)¹
Overview of traffic handling, by K9HDX
Ohio Amateur Radio Traffic System Common Text Messages

Mobile installations:

ARRL: Mobile installation information from auto manufacturers
General Motors Radio Telephone - Mobile Radio Installation Guidelines
Chrysler Motors Mobile Radio Installation Guidelines (Adobe Acrobat format)¹
HF Mobile - A San Diego Mobile -- by KA6WKE
Automotive Noise Elimination -- by Stuart Downs, WY6EE (Adobe Acrobat format)¹
ARRL: Solving Ignition Noise RFI
ARRL: Automobile Articles
NX7U Mobile Pages
Alan Applegate, K0BG Many articles on mobile installations
Pro.Fit International Mounting hardware for transceivers, control heads, GPS devices and so forth
Ram Mounts Mounting hardware for transceivers, control heads, GPS devices and so forth

Personal Preparedness:

Photon Light - Key chain LED flashlights
Coghlan's Disposable Hand Warmers
Toasti Toes Foot Warmers for Boots or Shoes

Power:

Batteries: (see separate Batteries listing above)

Cables, connectors, etcetera:
- Powerwerx - Electrical cables, Anderson Powerpoles and other connectors, fuses, batteries, etcetera
- Powerpole description by Orange County RACES

Conversion:
- PowerStream automobile to laptop power converters

Q-signals:

Net Q-signals

Radio Repairs:
Sorry, there is nothing in the immediate area. Radio manufacturers usually have a repair facility somewhere in the continental United States. Check the manufacturer's Web site.
In addition, the following independent repair shop in South Dakota has a reasonably good reputation.

Burghardt Amateur Center

Repeaters:

Repeater guide for the greater St. Louis area

Software:
- Adobe Acrobat Reader reads PDF files.
- Depiction map reader displays maps created by the Depiction program.
- OpenOffice is a free suite of office programs which can read Word, Excel, and Powerpoint documents.
- Microsoft Powerpoint Viewer lets you view Powerpoint presentations
1 - Please see the "Software" section on this page if you do not have software necessary to read these files.
Thank you to all of the folks who contributed to this page.
Much of the mobile installation information was contributed by Robbie Goodwin, WD5GEE
© 2012 St. Louis County ARES^®
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