Date: February 2023
Amount: $6,995

The Central Arkansas Radio Emergency Net dates it’s origins back to the late 1950s. They first incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 1971 with a mission to provide communations support for public service events, SkyWarn, and other emergency communciations in Pulaski County, Little Rock and North Little Rock, Arkansas.

This grant will fund the installation of a generator at the club’s main repeater site on Shinall Mountain so that it remains on the air during prolonged power disruptions. This will enable the club to provide uninterrupted communications support to the National Weather Service (NWS) and other served agencies during severe weather events. The Little Rock NWS County Warning Area serves approximately 1.682 million people across 47 counties.

Learn more at https://www.carenclub.com.

Update

The Central Arkansas Radio Emergency Net (CAREN) operates the W5DI linked repeater network, consisting of multiple voice repeaters, APRS and VHF packet digipeater and digital stations located across the state of Arkansas interconnected through a central hub in Shinall Mountain in West Little Rock. The flagship W5DI repeater is located on Shinall Mountain and serves as the primary hub of the CAREN network. This site is interconnected with several other repeater locations across the state, providing wide-area coverage and reliable communications.

To further enhance the reliability of the network, the ARDC grant was used for the purchase and installation of a standby 13 kW generator, a security cage for the generator and a propane tank at the Shinall Mountain site. As the central hub for the W5DI linked repeater system in Arkansas, this upgrade significantly improves the resiliency of the CAREN system. The generator and propane system provide a minimum runtime of five days on a full tank before refueling is required, ensuring dependable communications during extended power outages, severe weather events, and disaster situations.