ARES

Our first mountain top Simplex net was a great success along with the lessons learned. The idea of relocating our weekly Simplex net to a mountain top came up on our Simplex net and within two weeks, Kaleb’s Wish Foundation generously offered to make their Emergency Communications Trailer available for our use. The goal of this Simplex net was the bridge the gap between the Northern Shenandoah Valley and Northern Virginia using Simplex in case of a repeater outage. For this event, we choose Snickers Gap on Route 7 near Bluemont, Virginia as it provided easy trailer access and we believed would be fairly accessible in the event of a real activation.

Purpose: To extend simplex coverage over the mountain and simulate interoperability between emergency communications groups in the Shenandoah Valley, Northern Virginia, and parts of West Virginia and Maryland. This will give operators an opportunity to practice net procedures without using a repeater and get an idea of Simplex coverage in the event of a repeater outage. You do not have to be a member of WINFRED ARES or any other emergency communications group, all radio amateurs are welcome to participate.

When: August 4, 2026 - 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Where: Lake Frederick, Snowden Bridge - Frederick County, Virginia

WINFRED ARES will be having a table at two county National Night Out locations this year, one at Lake Frederick and Snowden Bridge. Come out to see what other local groups in the community are doing as well as stop by our tables to get an idea of what the local ARES group is doing for the community.