Polk County Amateur Radio Emergency Service, ARES, provides emergency and public service communications to our served agencies. Getting the message through “when all else fails”.
Our served agencies are Polk County Emergency Management, American Red Cross, Polk County CERT Teams, Polk County Hospitals, and the Municipalities located within Polk County.
Our next meeting will be on Thursday, April 25th at 7:00pm. Doors open at 6:30pm. For more information, click here. With hurricane season approaching, we need to check the operations of our GO KITS. We will break out the GO KITS and ask ARES members to take a kit and go somewhere nearby to test the kit and return to the EOC.
Be sure to check out the latest edition of the ARES LETTER.
Click here to read the April 17, 2024 edition. Also, read the story on arrl.org titled “Active Hurricane Season Predicted for 2024” by clicking here.
The theme for 2024 ARRL Field Day is “Be Radio Active.” The event will run on June 22 – 23, and it will be one-part contest, one-part emergency communications exercise, and one-part open house — and a great time. If you’re looking for ARRL Field Day information and resources, click here.
For Polk County, the Lakeland Amateur Radio Club will be working together once again with the Lake Wales Radio Amateurs, for a combined Field Day event at the Kathleen Area Historical Society Heritage Park. This location is at 8950 N Campbell Rd, Lakeland, FL 33810 (click here for Google Map).
The FCC will require the use of multi-factor authentication beginning March 29, 2024. Licensees use to pay any application or regulatory fees, manage or reset a password on an existing FRN, or request a new FRN.
One of our served agencies, CERT, as well as other emergency communicators, have a GMRS net on the Polk CERT repeater. (note: This is NOT an ARES net, but welcome to all FCC licensed GMRS operators interested in emergency communications)
The Polk ARES ICS-205 and Polk County ARES Band Plan have been updated. You can find them under the Operations menu option at the top of this page.
Our focus is on preparation and training for wireless communications during disasters and public service events. A Statewide Florida Emergency website has been opened. Come check it out.
Winlink RMS Gateways in Polk County
144.930 WC4PEM-5
144.950 W4PSR-5
The Imperial Polk County ARES Net is held every Wednesday at 7:00pm EST on the following frequencies on the Polk County Emergency Management, WC4PEM, repeater system:
This is a wide area linked repeater system. Pick the repeater located closest to you. You should be able to reach one of our repeaters with a 5 watt HT from anywhere in Polk County. If you are not, please contact Polk ARES through our contact page and we will help you find an antenna solution.
The repeater is Echolink accessible (Echolink node 3363).
Click here for a coverage map of the WC4PEM repeater system.
