ARES Radio Room at EOC

Delaware County ARES-RACES maintains a sophisticated communications station at the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Lima (Middletown Township). The Delaware County Department of Emergency Services is the host for this facility and is the main agency served by ARES-RACES. The communications station is equipped with an HF operating position, two VHF/UHF operating positions, a D-Star operating position for data communication and an RMS packet node (W3AEC-10) for sending and receiving radio emails via the Winlink 2000 System. A Davis Monitor II weather station is also installed for collecting meteorological data.

The ARES-RACES communications station is equipped with a 55-foot crank-up tower that is outfitted with several VHF, UHF and microwave antenna systems. Additionally, a Hygain AV-640 vertical antenna is mounted at the top of the tower for omni-directional HF communication. A horizontally polarized OCF dipole for operation from 3.5 to 30 Mhz is also installed at the facility.

A new D-Star 440 / 1.2 G repeater (W3AEC) will be installed less than 200 yards from the ARES Radio Room atop nearby Fair Acres Geriatric Center. The D-Star repeater will serve as a digital data communications hub for Delaware County and will be part of a network of (3) new D-Star repeaters that will blanket the county. These D-Star repeaters will provide voice, slow-speed and high-speed data communications and will be linked to other ARES-RACES D-Star repeaters in the region.