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ARRL at 100: A Century of Ham Radio

Sussex County ARES is comprised of FCC licensed operators who volunteer their time providing emergency communications to Sussex County, Delaware, when needed. Sussex County ARES provides back up emergency communications to several served agencies in Sussex County.

 

Sussex County ARES staff consists of the Emergency Coordinator (EC), Assistant Emergency Coordinators (AEC’s), Skywarn Coordinator and any specifically designated operator(s) which will provide liaison services for the ARES group. The ARES organization is not subdivided into local municipalities to allow maximum flexibility in response. It is also NOT divided along “club boundaries” for the same reason.

 

Sussex County ARES holds regularly scheduled net sessions. The purpose of the net is to provide training, test emergency center radio equipment and to provide information about ARES activities in and around Sussex County.

 

The Sussex ARES Nets are held on first and third Wednesdays on Even Months and the first Wednesday of odd months. Net are held at 7:00 p.m. local time, on the ARES Primary Repeater 147.090 MHz (PL 156.7). Additional area NETS can be found on the NETS page. The second net that used to take place in the odd months has been replaced with an Online Training Zoom as noted below.

Upcoming 2026 Training Nets, Zoom Training Meetings, and Events

January  7 - Pre Drill Zoom in prep for January 10 1Q Hospital Drill

January 7 - Bimonthly 2m Training Net - 7pm, 147.090 Repeater, Steven KC3DSO, NCS

January 10 - Sussex ARES 1Q Hospital Drill

January 21 - Sussex ARES Zoom Training - covering 1Q Drill After Action, templates, communications

January 25-25 - Winter Field Day, ARES personnel will attend several WFD sites throughout the county

 

February 4 -  Bimonthly 2m Training Net - 7pm, 147.090 Repeater, Mike, N3MRM, NCS

February 11 - Sussex ARES Monthly Hybrid Meeting, Arena's Restaurant at the Airport in Georgetown. Training Topics and Hurricane Watch net Speaker 

February 18 - Bimonthly 2m Training Net - 7pm, 147.090 Repeater, Pat, KW3Z, NCS

 

March 4 - Bimonthly 2m Training Net - 7pm, 147.090 Repeater

March 18 - Sussex ARES Zoom Training - Hospital Communications with WinLink Best Practices

 

Sussex County ARES has chosen new Hybrid Meeting Location

Due to great feedback, Sussex County ARES will continue having their Hybrid In Person/Zoom meeting at Arena's Restaurant at the Airport in Georgetown. 21553 Rudder Lane. We will be using Arena's meeting room which is on the left as you enter the building. We will have Wifi, TV and of course, order off the menu. It's half price sandwiches on Wednesday so there will be something for everyone.  Agendas are sent out to all ARES members. Want to get on the notification list for Sussex ARES? Join the SussexCountyARES.groups.io forum as noted below. We are eliminating the old email style of notifications.

 

Invites sent to Sussex ARES Members to join SussexCountyARES groups.io forum

A group email was sent to all past and current ARES members asking them to join the new SussexCountyARES groups.io forum. Starting the in spring of 2026 this will be our only mode of group communications. The email list will not be used. Until the final change I will be cross posting data to both groups. I apologize for the double data you will get but I want to ensure members get all ARES updates.  Know of somone not on the list that should get an invite? Tell them to visit The Sussex ARES (SussexCountyARES@ARRLDelawareSection.groups.io.) forum. An online zoom training session for navigating the groups.io forums can be setup if there is interest but it's pretty intuitive. The Members Manual can be found online and a Members Getting Started page is availalbe also. Any questions let me know. After that, only the SussexCountyARES will be used. Any questions contact Steven, KC3DSO, kc3dso@gmail.com. 

 

Sussex County ARES NET Control openings have been sent out for 2026

Sussex County ARES will continue with our current NET and training schedule into 2026. Even months have a hybrid meeting (second Wednesday) and will continue to have two nets; first and third Wednesday. Odd months used to have two Net's on the first and third Wednesday but we replaced the second Net in those odd months with a Zoom Training Session. The current 2026 Schedule is posted under Forms & Docs. Sign up for NCS by sending an email to kc3dso@gmail.com with "NCS" in the subject line with the dates to can be NCS. I will update the online form frequently to show the open dates.

 

Sussex County ARES completes First Qtr Drill for 2026 - A Great Success!

Sussex County ARES held it's First Quarter Hospital Drill on Saturday, January 10, 2026. The drill started promptly at 0845 with operators checking their stations for readiness by testing voice and data. A MSEL was used to send a series of multi point injects to all the hospitals and Sussex EOC. In line with Sussex ARES adhering to national standards related to improvement planning, we will having our After Action Zoom on Wedensday, January, 21, 2026 at 7pm. Sussex ARES needs input from all participating stations so we can complete our After Action Report/Improvement Plan. These AAR/IP plans are always made available after every drill, exercise or Public Service Event we run. These plans are not only for our radio operators but also our served agencies. The Zoom link for the AAR meeting is: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85321759670?pwd=T5o7Wui2sQZZt9W2uxDFa3gjAQ5Fns.1  Sign in with first name and callsign.

 

Sussex County ARES to have guest Speaker at February 11, 2026 Meeting

The Sussex County ARES will have a guest speaker for the February 11, 2026 Meeting at Arena's in Georgetown. Via Zoom we will have Bobby Graves, The Hurricane Watch Net net Manager and Webmaster. Bobby will run us through the operation of the HWN providing us insight in the amateur radio operations at the National Hurricane Center as well as it's integration into the NWS.