DeKalb ARES is a volunteer group of FCC-licensed radio amateurs providing emergency and public-service communications to DeKalb County Emergency Management, area hospitals, and community organizations — on a moment's notice, and without dependence on commercial infrastructure.
No license yet? The Get your ham license page walks you through study materials (free guide + iOS/Android apps), where to take the exam, and what comes next.
Serving DeKalb County EMA. Damage assessment, inter-agency messaging, and EOC support when activated.
Standing radio equipment at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University Hospital, Emory Midtown, and the DeKalb Board of Health — staffed on request during activations.
Communications support for the Atlanta Marathon, Peachtree Road Race, and county-wide drills and exercises.
We provide public service communications support, on a voluntary basis, to Public Safety, Public Health, and other community organizations. Our commitment is to be a ready resource of trained communicators for these organizations, and to serve when and where needed.
At least eleven DeKalb ARES operators worked the regional Atlanta UASI communications functional exercise, with a field station on the air by 7:30 AM and satellite internet restoring the DeKalb Mobile Command Vehicle after its networks were cut by design. Voice, Winlink, HF and APRS all carried traffic, and the exercise found exactly one weakness worth having found: written traffic between our own stations.
Our own Dekalb ARES member, KK4ODA, Facundo Fernandez (left) receives a recognition award from Larry McLendon- KU4RE, Alford Memorial Radio Club President (second left) and accompanied by Barry Kanne-W4TGA-Dekalb ARES AEC (3rd left) and Jim Penland-N4RAR Dekalb ARES EC (4th left) for all of Facundo's hard work in upgrading the remote access capabilities of the W4BOC repeater controller (146.76 MHz primary Dekalb ARES repeater on top of Stone Mountain.) Also, Facundo has done a excellent job in helping to establish the WD5EMA-10 VARA FM station and the W4BOC-1 APRS digipeater on top of Stone Mountain. Congratulations again Facundo on this well deserved recognition !
David Ratledge · CC BY 4.0
A progressive communications drill on August 15 walked the net through two repeater failures and down to 146.460 simplex. Eighteen stations checked in; repeater operation held up well, and the simplex phase exposed exactly the gap the exercise was built to find.
Volunteering at the hamfest can help you to practice and enhance your portable communications capability to help to provide 'situational awareness' at the hamfest site. All you need is an HT (a speaker mike/earphone is highly recommended also)
DeKalb ARES
Michael Boatright (KO4WX) walked DeKalb ARES members through building a 2 m roll-up slim jim antenna out of 450-ohm window line, including crimping the PL-259 and tuning the feedpoint. A cheap, packable antenna that turns an HT into a far more capable station in the field.
Every Sunday at 8:00 PM local time on the Alford Memorial Radio Club repeater. Open to any licensed amateur — membership not required.
Taking a turn as Net Control? Use the net script (PDF) →
Two Winlink RMS gateways under callsign WD5EMA-10, moving email over radio when the internet is down.
Between meetings and nets, the group stays coordinated on Groups.io — meeting announcements, last-minute updates, drill coordination, and member discussion.
Members should register; non-members may read archived discussions.
Supplementary real-time chat on Discord →
"If you are interested in emergency communications, you are welcome at any monthly meeting or weekly net. No advance registration required."
— James W. Penland · N4RAR · Emergency Coordinator, DeKalb County ARES
No dues. No mandatory deployments. Just a standing monthly meeting, a weekly net, and an open invitation to be useful when it matters.
Learn how to join →