Cache County ARES has been actively working on frequency coordination in the valley for over a year now, hoping to keep interference from happening between the numerous city, town and faith based radio groups who will be on the air during an emergency. After all this work, there will be an opportunity this Tuesday, October 14, 2025, to get on the air on the frequencies we have selected to see if there is any interference from other groups in the valley.
This linked file includes the list of frequencies we hope to test. As you will see on the attached list, we hope to test Family Radio Service frequencies as well as amateur frequencies.
At 6:00 p.m. this coming Tuesday, October 14, 2025 we will begin with a roll call of amateur licensed operators on the primary net frequency.
For amatuer licensed operators: I will have the cross-band repeater operational, which will especially help those stations on handheld radios. If you are not able to key up the cross band system using the split frequency, try again using the straight simplex frequency 147.420 transmit and receive.
After taking check-ins on the net frequency, for those who are able to transmit within the power limits of the FRS band (0.5 W), the frequency progression will follow the list in the attachment, and detailed below:
FRS channel 6: 462.6875
FRS Channel 10: 467.6125
FRS Channel 12: 467.6625
At approximately 6:30 we will return to the NWCV net frequency to close out the net.
If you know of persons in the area who use FRS radios, please invite them to join us for the test.
For operators in Clarkston or the other towns in the stake, it is unlikely those of us in Newton will hear you on the low power FRS frequencies, but that is okay because those frequencies are intended for the wards and local government to use over short distances as they coordinate efforts such as household evaluations. When the information is gathered at the ward/community level, reporting to the County EOC or to the Benson Stake will be completed over amateur radio frequencies with higher transmit power limits that carry longer distances.
Those with radios that will operate within the power limit, please program the 3 FRS frequencies on the list into your radios. If I can help with that please let me know. After the initial roll call of licensed amateur operators on our usual net frequency, handheld users will be asked to switch to those frequencies as we see if we can hear each other on the FRS frequencies, or have interference from other groups in the valley.
If we have participants from Clarkston or any other towns in the Stake who want to follow the progression to the FRS band, we will assign one of the operators from those communities to attempt to contact others in their community on the FRS frequencies, again, to see if there are conflicts from other groups on those frequencies, returning to the amateur net frequency at approximately 6:30 p.m.
Please reach out if you have questions.