Net Purpose

To prepare radio amateurs for communications in the event of an emergency and to provide those with a common interest an opportunity to meet.

 

Emergency Protocol

If an event (Earthquake, Flood, Fire, Tornado, etc.) occurs in the area serviced by our net, and your home and family are secure, net members should monitor our Net Frequency (7.208 MHz +/- 5 KHz) for a 30 minute period several times during the day for emergency traffic, announcing your availability and willingness to handle traffic into or out of the effected area.

 

Net Schedule

Saturday mornings at 8:30am Mountain Time on 7.208 MHz.

Net Rollcall begins at the top of the alphabet (A thru Z—callsign suffix) on the first, third & fifth weeks, and at end of the alphabet (Z thru A) on the second & fourth weeks.

 

Net Protocol

Our Net takes approximately 40 minutes to complete.

If you need to be excused from a future Net Rollcall please advise any of the NCSs and they will accept your request.

The NCS pauses the Net midway through the rollcall, and at the end of rollcall to checkin, via “relay”, any late member stations, or member stations unable to hear the NCS during the Net Rollcall.

 

Membership

All licensed amateurs with the appropriate station class are invited to check in to this net. Check in three out of 4 consecutive weeks and you can be placed on the roster and can stay on the roster by checking in a least 3 times in 4 weeks thereafter.

 

Organization Information

AK6E  Ray Stevens  lyndasquilting@hotmail.com  (442) 218-5644  Net Control Station

KM7TJ  Ken Krutsch  km6tj@yahoo.com  (801) 360-8517  Net Control Station

W7VZ  Kent Angell  w7vz.kent@gmail.com (801) 589-5134  Net Control Station

K7WLH  Laine Hendrix  lundchief@gmail.com  (775) 296-0709  Net Control Station

K7VB  Carl Rieck  carl@canyonmedia.net  (435) 467-2275  Net Manager

 

Emergency Communication History

 

In 1976 the Teton Dam (Idaho) incident occurred. The LDS Church found it very difficult to contact PH Leadership to determine the emergency needs of the Church members affected by the incident. As a result, Boyd K. Packer, an Apostle of the LDS Church and his son, Allan (WA7BKD) felt the need for emergency communication with PH Leaders during and following an emergency event. It was felt that the Amateur Radio Service could provide such a communication link. Thus, the MARA (Mercury Amateur Association) emergency communication network was formed. Initially it was a rather loose organization comprising Ham Stations from Utah and Idaho

 

About 1980 or 81 I was living in So, California, serving on the Newport Beach Stake High Council. One night, following our HC meetings, the Stake President asked me to meet with him in his office. The President advised me that he had received a letter from the brethren in SLC that I should be released from the HC asap because they had another calling they wanted to extend to me.

 

Not long thereafter, I received an invitation to attend a meeting at the Church offices behind the Los Angeles Temple. The meeting was conducted by a counselor to President Lorin C. Dunn. Brother Dunn was serving, at that time, as President of the N.W. Section of the Church. He had received instructions to provide an Emergency Communication Network for the LDS Church in Southern California. The meeting was for that purpose.

 

We gathered in a semi-circle in front of President’s Dunn’s counselor.  All the brethren were Stake Presidents except me. They were all CEOs or heads of law firms. I was seated in the middle of these very successful men. Following our individual introductions, the counselor asked that I stand again. He said, “This brother is responsible for establishing an emergency communication network to 81 of your stakes, to be known as the ERRS (Emergency Response Radio System). He will be meeting with you at your Quarterly Welfare Committee meetings to introduce the stake presidents to the ERRS Network and discuss how they could connect their stakes to the Network.

 

To begin I established 2m and 40m stations at each Bishop’s Storehouse (BSH) from San Diego to Ventura. These stations would receive emergency data from each stake they serve. That info would be transmitted to the Santa Ana Bishops’ Storehouse (BSH) which then transmit the information to the Colton, CA BSH. The Colton BSH was well equipped to communicate with the Welfare Services station at the top of the Joseph Smith Building in downtown SLC.

 

Once the Network was established, I tested it on the Saturday morning following General Conference in April and October. Before the test I sent letters to 81 stake presidents with following sample messages: 

 

               *Fulltime Missionaries safe and accounted for

               *How many members are injured or deceased

               *Are Ward Cultural Halls being used for homeless

               * Need for Food, Water & Medical Supplies

 

Thus, ERRS in So. California replaced MARA and continued for 2+ years, until the Church’s Welfare Services Department decided that Satellite Telephones and Computers were more effective and reliable than amateur radio.

In 2007 we moved from Southern California to Utah. When I got my station operational again, I began checking into the local Mesa, AZ Bishops’ Storehouse net (the Az/Nv/Nm Mercury net) on 80m.  I then formed the Mercury Western Net (MWN) as the Net Manager, selected NCS’s and sent out updated rollcalls each week. The rest is history.