RACES plans statewide drill July 27

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Joseph Lawrence, K9RFZ, RACES Radio Officer for Allen County, sent the following information via email July 23. We’ve reprinted it here for any interested operators who might not have seen the email.

To all Allen County RACES & ARES members

This Saturday morning, the IDHS semi-annual RACES drill will occur. For the first time, we will be conducting communications at the state, district, and county level for this drill. Please plan to participate.

District 3 county EOC’s will be conducting a net on the 146.88 repeater from about 9am to noon. The state EOC will be activated to receive county mission tasks via WebEOC (internet based). Allen county will start a net at 8:30am on the 146.94 repeater. If you are an Allen County RACES/ARES member, then you are expected to check-in and be counted. You may decline to accept a deployment assignment if you can’t particpate further. That’s understandable. In an actual incident, many operators may be unavailable to deploy.

If you can participate for the full local drill, then you may be assigned to deploy to one of the five trauma hospitals in the county. I will be seeking at least 10 volunteers who can drive to a designated hospital, make contact with the hospital security dept, be escorted to their EOC radio connection, connect to the SO-239 external antenna connection, and handle voice messages for the drill duration. You will need to provide your own radio and a cable to connect your radio to an SO-239 wall-mounted connector. I have recently checked each of the antenna systems with an HT and they work fine.

The hospital Security staff will give you an envelope with instrucitons for the drill. Follow the instructions at the appointed times.

Important: All messages transmitted during the drill need to be prefaced with “this is a drill message”. I know it’s easy to forget. I’ve messed up before, so let’s all try to make certain at least one of the stations in each contact clearly makes that statement. Let’s help each other remember and don’t take offense if someone backs you up.

The Allen County EOC will be monitoring both the 88 and 94 repeaters. Local net will be on 94, district net will be on 88.

We have been practicing these RACES drills for the past 5 years with progressively more realistic and complex requirements. Allen County has always done well in accomplishing the scenario tasks. I’m asking each of you to step it up and let’s show the IDHS and our district 3 partners that Allen County has a top-notch competent team that can be relied upon to succeed in a disaster.

I will be on the ARES net tonight to answer questions or you may reply to this group posting.

73,
Joseph Lawrence, K9RFZ
Allen County RACES RO

July fox hides under log

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The Foxhunt Chronicles

foxhunt cartoonThe sixth foxhunt of the 2013 FWRC’s foxhunt season occurred on Sunday, the 14th of July as planned. The July hunters consisted of the team of Steve & Linda Nardin, W9’s SAN and LAN plus their grandson Alex, the team of Jim & Kim Machamer, KB9’s DOS and DOT, the team of Charles Ward, KC9MUT and Fred Gengnagel, KC9EZP, and the team of Annie & Jim Pliett, KA9YYI and K9OMA plus Carole & Al Burke, WB9’s RUS and SSE.

Dave Spence, K9NDU and Bob Dean, KC9UHU served as the wily fox. The actual (micro-power) fox was hidden under a log in a nature preserve just off Chapman Rd. near Coldwater Rd. They used a mobile rig feeding a yagi as the high power fox and both the high power fox and the micro-power fox operated on the input to the 146.76 MHz machine so that the local ham community could follow the goings-on of the hunt. Joseph Lawrence, KB9RFZ was also at the Off-Track Betting Parlor starting point trying out some experimental DF equipment, but he did not join in on the hunt proper.

When the high power fox came up at 13:30 the signal was a little weak, but eventually everyone heard it coming from the north, and the race was on.

Our team headed up Lima Rd. until the bearings indicated that the signal was starting to have an easterly bearing, so we turned right on Gump Rd. and headed to the east. The Nardin and Machamer teams continued heading up Lima Rd., and we didn’t see where the Ward/Gengnagel team got off too.

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FWRC Board meeting this week

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FWRC MEMBERS:

Just a reminder that this month’s BOD (Board Of Directors) meeting is this Tuesday night, at 7:00 pm EDT, in room 138 of the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, at 4700 Vance Avenue in Fort Wayne.

All are invited! We will be discussing the Field Day wrap up and plans for next month’s Tail Gate Ham Fest.

Hope to see you there!

FWRC Field Day 2013 wrap-up

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FIELD DAY WRAPUP:

The 2013 addition of the ARRL Field Day activity is in the record books! Once again, the Fort Wayne Radio Club has made me the proudest club president in the state. We all came together, got the stations up without any incidents, operated for the full 24 hours, and took down the towers again without any safety concerns. Here are some of the highlights:

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SKYWARN frequency change might be necessary

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Skywarn Logo Attention all operators:

During the past two activations of IMO SKYWARN quadrant two, the ACARTS 146.88 MHz repeater experienced intermittent transmitter failure. The most recent occurrence was at about 9 p.m. last night, June 24.

Please be aware that if the 146.88 MHz repeater exhibits the same issues during the severe weather expected today and tomorrow, the active net control station (whoever it is at the time) will move SKYWARN operations to the FWRC 146.76 MHz repeater.

This decision will be made on an as-needed basis. Ideally, however, if the issue arises early in the operation, SKYWARN will change frequencies sooner, rather than later, to avoid dealing with the issue during potential periods of heavy spotter reporting.

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