Radio Channels
Our primary radio repeater (for Greater Los Gatos-Monte Sereno area coverage) is the W6PIY-2 repeater (147.390, +offset, Tx/Rx CTCSS/PL 151.4Hz). The CTCSS/PL tone should be set for both Transmit and Receive. Receive tone is needed to avoid hearing another repeater on the same frequency that occasionally is received here. Their CTCSS/PL tone is different than ours.
W6PIY is a family of 5 co-located repeaters, linked at various times. The bands on which they operate are 6m, 2m, 1.25m, 70cm, and 23cm. We occasionally use the W6PIY-7 repeater. We use AA6BT (146.115, +, 100Hz) an alternate repeater geographically distant for greater resilience in emergencies.
Our frequencies, for Repeaters and Simplex, assigned by Santa Clara County ARES-RACES are on the frequencies page of the SCC-ARES-RACES website, along with frequencies for all other agencies within Santa Clara County. In addition, we use 441.000 as our Tac3 Simplex frequency.
Weekly (Los Gatos/Monte Sereno) "Check-ins"
Online reporting "app" to capture weekly participation <===
Weekly Net Controlled Check-ins (W6PIY-2)
- Sunday evening at 8:30p (script)
- Monday evening at 8:00p (script)
- Tuesday evening at 7:30p (script)
Weekly SVECS county-wide reporting (AA6BT, 146.115MHz, + offset, Tx PL/CTCSS 100Hz)
- Tuesday evening at 8:00p (script)
Weekly SVECS Net Reporting
Each week the 15 cities of Santa Clara County, plus NASA Ames & Stanford University report their weekly checkin counts. The 11 Central and Southern cities plus NASA Ames, report to the SVECS Net on Tuesday evenings. These are: NASA Ames, Campbell, Cupertino, Los Gatos/Monte Sereno, Milpitas, San Jose, Santa Clara, Saratoga, Sunnyvale, South County (Morgan Hill/Gilroy), San Benito County.
SVECS Net Control rotates among the 11 cities & groups each week. Los Gatos-Monte Sereno is the Net Control once every 11 weeks. Here is the schedule.
The 5 Northern SCCo cities and Stanford University report their counts to the SPECS Net on Monday evenings. The participants are Stanford University, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mt. View, Palo Alto, and Sunnyvale. (Sunnyvale reports on both Monday's SPECSnet, and Tuesday's SVECS.
Monthly SCCo Hospital Net
Each month, on the fourth Wednesday of the month at 7:00p, the 10 Hospitals that form the Santa Clara County public Hospital Net practice using the Hospital Net Emergency Radio station at each of the participating hospitals. El Camino Hospital - Los Gatos is the designated public emergency hospital for Los Gatos-Monte Sereno. Both voice and packet data check-ins are performed.
Our LG-MS Emergency Communications group operates the Emergency Radio station for Hospital Net drills and in actual emergencies. We are Net Control for Hospital Net for the May (4th Wednesday) check-in each year. Here is the complete schedule for HospitalNet. This is the HospitalNet Script.
Quarterly Exercises
Santa Clara County ARES-RACES conducts quarterly county-wide Emergency Radio exercises. Information about these Exercises are posted once the plans have been confirmed. Go to the Events page of the SCC-ARES-RACES.org website for the current list.
2Q2020 Exercise
The most recent County-wide Emergency Communications Exercise was conducted on May 16, 2020 In LG/MS the exercise was a combined CERT & ARES-RACES activity. The Complete LG/MS After Action Report and nine CERT Community participation reports are in the files folder below.
Annual Events
Joint CERT/ARES-RACES Exercise
An Annual exercise of both CERT and ARES-RACES takes place on a Saturday in mid-November. The event is to provide all Santa Clara County CERT "chapters" with an opportunity to refresh their skills in a mock setting. ARES-RACES teams from each of the cities provide radio communications to support the CERT exercise.
Children's Holiday Parade
The Annual Los Gatos Children's Holiday Parade is held on the first Saturday of December, rain or shine. Information about the parade is now posted online here.