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The newly formed Oregon Communications Group is
comprised of Amateur Radio repeater owners and operators from Coos, Curry
and Douglas Counties as well as the Salem area. The group’s members
have over 100 years of combined experience in both commercial and amateur
repeater and microwave operation and maintenance.
Members of The Oregon Communications Group have
individually been dealing with limited connectivity for Amateur Radio
emergency operations from Coos, Curry and Douglas counties to the Amateur
Radio emergency operations center in Salem for years. The recent storm in
December 2007 which cut off primary communications in portions of Coos,
Curry and Douglas Counties for several days brought this to the forefront
of everyone’s mind once again. Several of the Amateur Radio
repeater owners in the three counties and the Salem area realized that
there was a need to band together and come up with a plan to bring
reliable high speed communications from the Office of Emergency
Management in Salem to Lane County, Douglas County and the South Coast
for Amateur Radio emergency communications. After many months of planning
and goal setting, the Oregon Communications Group was formed in early
2009. The goal of putting in place a high speed multi-channel
communications link for amateur radio emergency communications from Salem
to Lane County, Douglas County and the South Coast for use by ARES/RACES
in times of need is the group’s first priority. The members of the
group have come up with a multi year plan that such a system will be
built out in 3 phases. Each phase could take as long as a year to
complete, but could be finished sooner if the needed equipment and
resources become available.
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