Outreach
May 20, 2026
ARRL ARES Letter - 5/20/2026
ARRL ARES Letter - 5/20/2026 - http://www.arrl.org/aresletterissue?issue=2026-05-20
Serving the Community of DeKalb County, Georgia
When the phones go down,
ham radio stays on the air.
DeKalb ARES is a volunteer group of FCC-licensed radio amateurs providing emergency and public-service communications to DeKalb County Emergency Management, area hospitals, and community organizations — on a moment's notice, and without dependence on commercial infrastructure.
No license yet? The Get your ham license page walks you through study materials (free guide + iOS/Android apps), where to take the exam, and what comes next.
Public safety
Serving DeKalb County EMA. Damage assessment, inter-agency messaging, and EOC support when activated.
Public health
Standing radio equipment at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University Hospital, Emory Midtown, and the DeKalb Board of Health — staffed on request during activations.
Community
Communications support for the Atlanta Marathon, Peachtree Road Race, and county-wide drills and exercises.
Our mission
We provide public service communications support, on a voluntary basis, to Public Safety, Public Health, and other community organizations. Our commitment is to be a ready resource of trained communicators for these organizations, and to serve when and where needed.
Recent Activity
All activity → 
Drill
May 2026
DeKalb Fire & Rescue Station Scramble exercise
Planning is underway for a potential rapid-deployment drill concept — a 'station scramble' exercise testing portable communications from multiple fire stations across the county, building on the March APRS coverage drill.
Meeting
May 16, 2026
Digipi building session and Advanced APRS operations using Objects
Thanks to Scott Sheppard, KJ4ZZB for his excellent demo of a DigiPi build and also to Facundo Fernandez, KK4ODA for his very informative presentation on the use of APRS objects in EmComm for Dekalb ARES.
Lonesome Crow · CC BY-SA 4.0
Training
April 2026
W4BOC-1 APRS digipeater/iGate goes permanent on Stone Mountain
Building on the results of the March 2026 county-wide APRS coverage drill, DeKalb ARES completed a permanent deployment of W4BOC-1 — the group's APRS digipeater and iGate — at the Stone Mountain summit. Operating on the national APRS frequency 144.390 MHz, it extends reliable automatic position reporting and short-messaging coverage across DeKalb County and beyond. The deployment also brought a substantial power-system upgrade benefiting every service on the Stone Mountain rack.
Training
April 2026
Graywolf APRS application
Members discussed Graywolf — an open-source modern APRS station (github.com/chrissnell/graywolf) bundling software modem, digipeater, iGate, and web UI in a single binary — as a candidate for portable APRS deployments and as a comparison point to our existing W4BOC-1 setup.
How we stay in touch
Weekly training net
Every Sunday at 8:00 PM local time on the Alford Memorial Radio Club repeater. Open to any licensed amateur — membership not required.
- Primary W4BOC 146.760 (-) PL 107.2
- Backup W4BOC 145.450 (-) PL 107.2
- Simplex 146.460 MHz
- EchoLink W4BOC-R · node 330246
Taking a turn as Net Control? Use the net script (PDF) →
Winlink digital
Two Winlink RMS gateways under callsign WD5EMA-10, moving email over radio when the internet is down.
- Packet 145.590 MHz (DeKalb Fire/Rescue HQ)
- VARA FM 145.530 MHz (Stone Mountain)
Groups.io · primary channel
Between meetings and nets, the group stays coordinated on Groups.io — meeting announcements, last-minute updates, drill coordination, and member discussion.
Members should register; non-members may read archived discussions.
Supplementary real-time chat on Discord →
For members & weather spotters
From the Emergency Coordinator
"If you are interested in emergency communications, you are welcome at any monthly meeting or weekly net. No advance registration required."
— James W. Penland · N4RAR · Emergency Coordinator, DeKalb County ARES
Get involved
Hold an FCC license? We'd like to meet you.
No dues. No mandatory deployments. Just a standing monthly meeting, a weekly net, and an open invitation to be useful when it matters.
Learn how to join →