The purpose of Bonner County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (BC-ARES) is to provide Amateur Radio (ham) communications support during emergencies and public service events to communities within Bonner County Idaho, and to assist our neighboring counties in Idaho, Washington and Montana. The Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES) consists of licensed amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment with their local ARES leadership for communications duty in the public service when disaster strikes.
Local time (Pacific) | Zulu time (UTC)
Bonner County ARES/RACES Repeaters:
- Primary Repeater: Baldy Mtn, Sandpoint – K7BNR *ON AIR*
442.500 MHz, plus offset, PL tone 131.8 Hz encode/decode **Note addition of decode**
Location: 48.3312, -116.6940, 6183′ [view on Google Earth] - Backup Repeaters: Long Mtn, Cocolalla – K7BNR *70cm ON AIR* *2m OFF AIR*
These repeaters are linked together.
145.230 MHz, minus offset, PL tone 100.0 Hz encode/decode (hope to be back online Spring ’26)
444.075 MHz, plus offset, PL tone 118.8 Hz encode/decode
Location: 48.07834, -116.71266, 4462′ [view on Google Maps] - Non-Ham GMRS Repeater – Long Mountain, Cocolalla
- For Public Use Sponsored by Bonner County Emergency Management
- 462.6250 RX / 467.6250 TX (+5000 offset), Tone 141.3 RX/TX – GMRS Channel 18
Bonner County ARES/RACES Simplex Operations Channels:
- Tactical Simplex:
145.580 MHz VHF simplex – Primary (eff. 10/2/2024)
146.460 MHz VHF simplex – Primary (old)
445.800 MHz UHF simplex – Alternate - Digital Operations:
145.780 MHz VHF simplex – Primary (eff. 10/2/2024)
146.480 MHz VHF simplex – Primary (old)
445.950 MHz UHF simplex – Alternate
Modes: THOR-22 @ 1000 (Secondary: MFSK32 or MT63 1KL @ 1000) - Winlink Email-over-radio:
Node call sign K7BNR-10 on 144.910 MHz, using VARA FM Narrow
(located at Bonner County EOC, Grid Square DN18rg)
Bonner County ARES/RACES Nets:
Local ARES/RACES Nets are held every Monday evening. The Net meets on-the-air at 7:00 PM local time on the primary repeater frequency. In the event of an emergency, we will also use the backup repeater and simplex frequencies listed above. If the Baldy, Primary repeater is inoperable, please switch to our Tactical VHF Simplex frequency.
Net Control Station Operator Schedule:
1st Monday – Baldy Repeater followed by Simplex Digital Net: Lee Lukehart K7AVR
2nd Monday – Baldy Repeater followed by Simplex Digital Net: John Ailport K7BSV
3rd Monday – Baldy Repeater followed by Long Mtn UHF and then GMRS: Mark Earls K7MEE
4th Monday – Baldy Repeater followed by Simplex Net: Judy Mahan AC6DY
5th Monday – Baldy Repeater: Keith Bansemer K7NEB
Thank you to Dave Holten WA7DH for his years as a primary NCS.
ARES® and Amateur Radio Emergency Service® are trademarks of the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL). Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) was created by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).