HAM LICENSE TESTING
Periodically a small group of designated Volunteer Examiners holds local examination sessions for those who wish to become amateur radio operators or upgrade their license. Participants must be pre-registered (no walk ins allowed). To register or for additional information, contact Bud Wasson (AJ6PA) at bud.aj6pa@yahoo.com . Additional preparation material may be found at http://www.arrl.org/getting-licensed as well as https://www.fcc.gov/new-users-guide-getting-started-universal-licensing-system-uls .
LOCAL INFO RESOURCES
Life in the rural mountains often involves activities or travels that can be influenced by the weather and resulting road conditions. This is especially true in winter when snow and ice can produce both challenges and safety concerns. So here are a couple of authoritative information resources that may help residents and visitors alike:
- Weather information can be obtained from the Sacramento office of the National Weather Service using their website at
https://www.weather.gov/sto/ .
Their homepage provides a broad overview but you can quickly obtain local details by entering "Chester, CA" in the text box at the upper left of the page. You will then be presented with both current and forecast conditions for that location.
- Highway conditions are found on a CalTrans website at
https://quickmap.dot.ca.gov .
The "options" menu found at the upper left allows you to select which kinds of topics you would like displayed on the map. Small icons will then appear on the map at the locations of incidents, road closures, chain controls, highway cameras and so forth. Clicking on an icon will bring up further detail, and in the case of the highway cams, a view of current road conditions at that location. And yes, we do have a couple of local cameras: one at the intersection of Hwy 36 and Hwy 89 just west of Chester, and another east of town at the intersection of Hwy 36 and County Road A13.
FIND YOUR EMERGENCY EVACUATION ZONE
During extreme emergencies residents may be evacuated using designated geographic zones. Those zones can get a little complex and confusing if you live near a zone boundary, so the best advice is to go online to
protect.genasys.com ,
enter your address, and then jot down the zone number associated with that location. An overview of the evacuation zones in the populated areas of the basin is found below.
