Williamson County Siren Testing sign-up

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A temporary sign-up form is available to help monitor Williamson County siren tests. You can find the form here:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E4FADAC29A5FFCE9-owsmonthly

The form lists sirens and test dates to choose from. After selecting sirens and dates, click the

Submit and Sign Up

button at the bottom of the page.

After you monitor a siren test please send reports by e-mail to our EC, Jeff Standifer wb5waj@arrl.net. Please include the following in your e-mail:

  • Did the Siren sound?
  • What time did it go off?
  • Did it go the full time?
  • Were there any problems?

 

NEW
    Siren location addresses and descriptions and a map of the siren locations
    are now available as PDFs here, under:  

Library & Special Interests --> Books References Guides

 

Take part in the May 31 – June 1 FEMA Communications Outage Exercise using Winlink

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WCARES members are encouraged fire up Winlink and take part in the FEMA RECCWG Region 4 &
Region 6 May 31-June 1 Communications Outage Exercise.

For any WCARES members who take part, please CC WB5WAJ on your submitted exercise Winlink message.

The linked PDF provides detailed step-by-step instructions. Some points to note from the PDF:

  • DATE and TIME of Exercise: Tuesday evening, May 31st, from 6:00 PM EDT (5:00 PM CDT) until 4:00 PM EDT (3:00 PM CDT) Wednesday afternoon, June 1st.
  • Please, no telnet from areas where communications outage problems are shown to exist (Charlotte, Dallas, Miami, Little Rock – see attached map).
  • Message to send: Winlink standard Template, Field Situation Report
  • Please avoid requesting acknowledgement requests, either manually or automatically.

Exercise map showing cities affected by the exercise “communications outage”.

Click here for the PDF with detailed step-by-step instructions.

In a “real life situation,” you would always want to use Telnet if it is available in order to leave the precious RF spectrum for those in affected areas who have no other choice. However, for this exercise, do what you wish since this is for practicing your ability to use Winlink in an emergency condition.

April 2022 In-Person & Virtual Monthly Meeting: MTEARS

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Presentation by Tom Delker (K1KY). Tom talks about the MTEARS network… the Middle Tennessee Emergency Amateur Repeater System. This is a set of 34 linked repeaters that span most of the state of Tennessee.

March 2022 In-Person & Virtual Monthly Meeting: VHF/UHF Sideband

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In this comprehensive video, Paul, WD9IOK gives you all the information you need to get involved in 6 meters and up (VHF and UHF) operations using SSB mode. There’s more than just FM to play with in the higher frequencies of ham radio!

February 2022 In-Person & Virtual Monthly Meeting: Maximize Your Signal Reception

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For the February 2022 WCARES meeting, Tim, AD4CJ presents Maximize Your Signal Reception

Learn how to adjust your HF radio to maximize your signal reception. Tim delivers a presentation based on a PowerPoint stack that he put together back in 2016. It was good advice then and it’s good advice now!

00:53 Mechanics of Fine-tuning your radio
02:03 How to Fine-Tune Your Radio
03:14 How to Zero-Beat CW Signals
05:41 How to Accurately Tune a SSB Signal
09:50 Automatic gain control & RF gain
28:35 The use of preamps
29:23 Attenuators
36:45 Noise Reducer Circuits
39:16 Noise Blanker Circuits

A survey on all things ham radio

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From our EC, Jeff Standifer, WB5WAJ:

I found this interesting site this weekend. It is a survey on all things ham radio. I signed up and took it and overall it took about 1.5 hours. You can stop and resume as your time allows. I found it very interesting to look at the results.

https://hamcensus.org/

WCARES upcoming Monthly Meetings and the website

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The technical presentation for the February meeting will be a repeat of a great presentation Tim, AD4CJ gave back in 2016 on “Improving HF Reception”.

The March 19th presentation will be “VHF/UHF SSB” by Paul, WD9IOK.

The April presentation is to be about MTEARS ( mtears.org ) by Tom, K1KY.

You can find these and all WCARES events on the Events Calendar, here; upcoming events are also shown in the sidebar below the WCARES Frequencies list.

Frequencies and Nets

  • The Frequencies and Nets page and the WCARES Frequencies list in the sidebar include frequencies etc. for the WCARES repeaters, simplex and DMR.

Frequencies and Nets --> Nets

  • Details on checking in to the weekly WCARES phone and winlink nets can be found on this page along with information about other nets of interest

Library & Special Interests --> Presentations

Library & Special Interests --> Books References Guides

  • This page lists books and other reference material of interest to WCARES members and other radio amateur operators. This includes the WCARES Lending Library and books at the Williamson County Public Library and the latest LOTW New User Guide.

Frequencies and Nets --> NOAA Weather Radio (NWR)

  • This page includes a number of links to more detailed information about NOAA Weather Radio including transmitter frequencies and locations, SAME codes etc.

Tennessee SWAW 2022 and NOAA Weather radio test

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From the National Weather Service OHX office: https://www.weather.gov/ohx/swaw2022

Beginning Sunday, February 20th, the National Weather Service offices that serve Tennessee will be conducting Severe Weather Awareness Week 2022. Each day, a new topic will be covered by way of online presentations. You will be able to register for any or all of the FREE classes that will be offered during the week. The topics for each day are listed below, then you can scroll down and register for the classes you would like to attend.

Visit the link above for list of classes being offered as well as links to register for the classes.

This event is on the WCARES calendar: here.

In addition, Tennessee will host a special NOAA Weather Radio test on Wednesday, February 23rd at 9:30am CST / 10:30am EST to replace the weekly test that normally occurs on Wednesday at 11:15am. This is a great time to encourage everyone to think about their safety plans and what THEY would do IF a Tornado Warning is issued. If weather is expected next Wednesday, the test will be conducted on Friday, February 25th.

Finally, for a list of other Skywarn Storm Spotter Classes offered, please check out:
https://www.weather.gov/ohx/skywarn

 

 

Skywarn® and the Skywarn® logo are registered trademarks of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, used with permission.

Winter Field Day 2022

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We will participate fully in Winter Field Day as individuals while working together for an aggregate score AND by staying in touch (virtually) throughout the weekend.

Saturday, January 29 1PM CST – Sunday, January 30 1PM CST

You can begin setup 24 hours before the event, starting Friday, January 28 at 1PM CST.
You are allowed a total of 12 hours of setup time.

For questions regarding WCARES Winter Field Day 2022, contact Paul Tampien (rnggldwng07@gmail.com)

(* This event counts towards WCARES participation requirements )

See the Rules link on the Winter Field Day website for all the details.

January 2022 Virtual Monthly Meeting: Solar Power for HAMs and Understanding NVIS

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Solar Power for Hams presented by Tim, AD4CJ

Understanding NVIS from Paul Denisowski, KO4LZ of Rohde & Schwarz