Welcome to Ojai Valley CERT

IMPORTANT UPDATE.....


THIS WEB-SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED.

PLEASE GO TO HTTP://OJAIVALLEYCERT.ORG

This blog provides information to those interested in CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) activities in The Ojai Valley, CA. CERT works in partnership with OVARC (Ojai Valley Amateur Radio Club) which provides Ham Radio Communications - http://www.ovarc.org/.

http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert is a good place to begin learning about CERT. The fact is, immediately after a major disaster, each of us will be on our own while Emergency Services Personnel (Fire, Hospital, Police, Hospitals, etc) figure out what happened and how to respond. CERT teaches valuable self-preservation skills and empowers each of us to be of service to ourselves, family, neighborhood and community. By integrating CERT with Ham Radio, citizens can effectively communicate actionable information from the field to the Emergency Operations Center -- help will be on the way sooner.

Please check out the CERT Calendar & Map at the bottom of this web-page and sign our Guestbook (top right of page).

Ojai Valley (CERT, Ham Radio, Red Cross)

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Ham Radio Training & Licensing Opportunity

OVARC (Ojai Valley Amateur Radio Club) seeks CERT Students and CERT Graduates interested in attending a 2-day Ham Radio Training course, followed by the exam for licensing. Jim Roberts (of OVARC) is inviting a well known Ham Radio Trainer (Gordon West) to Ojai if we can fill 60 spots. The instructor is waiving his usual $300 registration fee, so this is a great opportunity.

If you have an interest, please respond to Brian Brennan (Office of Ventura County Supervisor Bennett) via email by May 13th, 2008 -- Brian.Brennan@ventura.org

OVARC is trying to organize a Amateur Radio Technician Licence Class for CERT members in Ventura County. The technician class licence is an entry level licence that would allow the individual the use of the VHF and UHF bands (local communications). An amateur radio licence no longer requires Morse Code.

We hope to arrange the class for later this summer or early fall. In order to bring in the instructor we would like to have teach it, we need to have at least 60 people (all either CERT graduates or currently attending CERT class that agree to attend). This would be a two day class on a Saturday and a Sunday. The cost of the class would be about $39 which would include pre-study materials and examination fee. The instructor who would be teaching this class normally charges $300 for the same class - only CERT people can get this discount. He is essentially teaching the class for free, individuals are only paying for the study materials ($25) and exam fees ($14) they will be receiving. He has a very high success rate. I expect everyone who applies themselves and does some pre-study would pass.

At this time we would like to get an idea how many people may be interested to see if we can go forward with the additional planning necessary to put the class together.