Chaves County ARES and EOC Receives Upgrades

The Pecos Valley Amateur Radio Club, Chaves County ARES and Chaves County Emergency Manager Karen Sanders have had a long standing close relationship when it comes to emergency preparedness. In recent years, the Office of Emergency Management released allocated funds for the purchase of an Icom IC-7300 HF radio, an Icom ID-5100 dual band D-Star mobile/base radio as well as an Anytone D-578UV Pro III DMR radio and associated antennas and accessories for use in area emergency events and exercises requiring communications augmentation.

Having placed the radios on a portable folding table temporarily, Skywarn Coordinator Jim Tucker appealed to the PVARC membership for their donation of a radio bench which had been built for the club by a member many years ago. Since the club had purchased new furniture during a recent move to the Roswell Adult Center, the club voted to donate the bench to the Chaves County EOC for their radio room. "Since the bench was structurally sound," said Tucker, "I felt it would be more cost effective to just refurbish the old one rather than purchase a new one." The upgrade included a coat of paint, adding a lower shelf and replacing the surfaces of the table top and upper shelf.

In addition to the bench, the Chaves County Emergency Operations Center received it's own amateur radio station license. ARES Emergency Coordinator Garry Blosser applied for and received call sign KJ5CIY which, Blosser said, will be short lived if a first or second choice of vanity call sign is available.