During the September 18th WCARES monthly meeting, Todd Horton (Director of the Williamson County EMA) gave a fantastic presentation.
His PowerPoint title slide asked, “What is Emergency Management?”
Todd provided a thorough answer and went well beyond this to include the structure of the Williamson County EMA, their vision, their capabilities, facilities, and much more.
The August 2021 WCARES Monthly Meeting was in-person at the EOC.
Mobile HF Contesting: Jim Hall (AD4EB) shows how much planning, preparation, and dedication is required to participate at a world-class level of performance.
From the ARRL:
Following Earthquake in Haiti, Radio Amateurs Asked to Keep Frequencies ClearIn a statement received by ARRL on August 14, 2021, Region 2 of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU-R2) has requested that radio amateurs in the Americas keep the following frequencies clear to support emergency communications in Haiti following an earthquake this morning: 3750 kHz, 7150 kHz and 14330 kHz. The statement came from IARU-R2 Emergency Coordinator (EMCOR) Carlos Alberto Santamaría González, CO2JC.
According to preliminary information from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on August 14, 2021 at 1229 UTC, about 12 kilometers northeast of Saint-Louis-du-Sud and 33 kilometers to the east-northeast of Les Cayes, Haiti; 18.352 degrees north and 73.4801 degrees west at a depth of 10 km.
Mr. Jean-Robert Gaillard, HH2JR, President of the Radio Club of Haiti, reported significant structural damage.
Image Credit: U.S. Geological Survey
Department of the Interior/USGS
(source)
Updated 2021-AUG-14 – AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin ANS-201 (source)
AO-109 (RadFxSat-2/AMSAT Fox-1E) Open For Amateur Use
<…>
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-201.01
ANS-201 AMSAT News Service Special BulletinAMSAT News Service Bulletin 201.01
From AMSAT HQ WASHINGTON, DC
DATE July 20, 2021
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-201.01AO-109 (RadFxSat-2/AMSAT Fox-1E) Open For Amateur Use
The AMSAT Engineering and Operations Teams are pleased to announce that
AO-109 (RadFxSat-2/AMSAT Fox-1E) is now open for amateur use. Users are
advised to use efficient modes such as CW or FT4 for making contacts, since
issues with the satellite make SSB voice contacts challenging at best.<…>
See the following link for an article by Burns Fisher, WB1FJ, and Mark Hammond, N8MH, detailing
the various attempts to characterize AO-109 and its apparent problems.
https://www.amsat.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Debugging-AO-109-update.pdf
Previous updates:
2021-JAN-17 17:17 CST – Virgin Orbit’s Cosmic Girl released LauncherOne for launch at 1:38 PM CST from the racetrack off Long Beach.
At 4:28 PM Virgin Orbit tweeted:
Payloads successfully deployed into our target orbit! We are so, so proud to say that LauncherOne has now completed its first mission to space, carrying 9 CubeSat missions into Low Earth Orbit for our friends @NASA.
From ANS-017 AMSAT News Service Weekly News Bulletin:
<…>
SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-017.01
ANS-017 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 017.01
From AMSAT HQ Washington, DC
January 17, 2021
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-017.01
RadFxSat-2 Launch Delayed Until Sunday, January 17, 2021
Virgin Orbit announced a new launch date of No Earlier Than (NET) Sunday, January 17, 2021
with additional windows in January if needed. The specific window is 10:00 to 14:00 PST
(1800 to 2200 UTC). Virgin Orbit seems to be using its Twitter account to make their
public announcements, so that may be worth watching at https://twitter.com/Virgin_Orbit.
AMSAT does not have preliminary TLE for the upcoming launch. If you are hoping to snag the
first contact, Jerry Buxton, N0JY, AMSAT VP – Engineering suggests checking the
nasabare.text TLE just prior to launch, maybe thirty-minutes after launch or until they
are posted.
[ANS thanks AMSAT for the above information.]
<…>
Via ARRL News and additional links:
SB SPACE @ ARL $ARLS001
ARLS001 AMSAT/Vanderbilt RadFXSat-2/Fox 1E Set to Launch
ZCZC AS01
QST de W1AW
Space Bulletin 001 ARLS001
>From ARRL Headquarters
Newington, CT January 12, 2021
To all radio amateurs
SB SPACE ARL ARLS001
ARLS001 AMSAT/Vanderbilt RadFXSat-2/Fox 1E Set to Launch
Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne is a go for launch on Wednesday, January
13, at 1500 UTC, carrying the AMSAT/Vanderbilt RadFXSat-2/Fox-1E
CubeSat into space.
The LauncherOne vehicle will carry 10 other satellites.
RadFXSat-2/Fox-1E carries an inverting linear transponder, with
uplink at 145.860 MHz – 145.890 MHz, and downlink at 435.760 MHz –
435.790 MHz.
Telemetry will downlink on 435.750 MHz. More information is on the
Space Launch Now website at,
https://spacelaunchnow.me/launch/launcherone-launch-demo-2/ .
NNNN
/EX
Additional links related to RadFxSat 2 Fox 1E including frequencies:
ANS-0103 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins for Jan. 10, 2021
https://amsat-uk.org/2020/12/03/launch-window-for-amsat-radfxsat-2-fox-1e/
https://www.amsat.org/foxtelem-software-for-windows-mac-linux/
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2019/all2019/55/
https://www.nanosats.eu/sat/radfxsat-2
http://www.arrl.org/news/launch-window-for-amsat-s-radfxsat-2-fox-1e-opens-on-december-19
Tim Kreth, AD4CJ presented an ARRL video on RF Exposure and how to do the calculations and previewed a new ARRL calculation web page that should make the process easier.
Here are some related links:
ARRL Now Provides Free RF Exposure Calculator
RF Exposure Rules – ARRL video
ARRL RF Exposure information and resources page
Another WCARES Field Day is in the books. After a long period of only virtual events we were able to enjoy a limited in-person Field Day at the EOC in addition to members operating at home or in the field.
The pictures were provided by Josh N4CSV, Robert KA5WMF, Doug W4DML, Cliff N4CCB and Phil W4PHS.
(Buy/Sell/Trade ham gear)
On Sunday, July 11th at Noon, we’ll host a tailgate event at the Ag Center.
While we’ve been given permission to use the upper parking lot from Noon until 6:00pm, tailgate events are often wrapped up within an hour or two. So, get there as early as you can.
Those wishing to de-clutter their shack by selling a few things should bring their own table(s).
This event is still six weeks away, but mark your calendars and start looking around to see if you have any gear you might want to part with.
You can find more details about the Ag Center here:
http://williamsoncounty-tn.gov/594/Ag-EXPO-Park
(This event is also listed on the Event Calender)
and here is a map showing the entrance to and location of the upper parking lot:
The June 2021 WCARES Monthly Meeting was in-person at the EOC.
Cliff Batson (N4CCB) gave a presentation on the final plan for the WCARES Field Day 2021 event:
and Jack Cox (KA4OTB) gave a tour of the Auxiliary Communications room inside the Williamson County Public Safety Center:
Field Day initial discussion
With six weeks until Field Day 2021, it’s too soon to have a comprehensive presentation… but it’s not too early to begin making Field Day plans. This video gives viewers an overview of Field Day and presents a list of things to consider when planning their Field Day event. A more thorough presentation will be made during the June 2021 WCARES monthly meeting.
WSPR Experiment
In this video, Rob, KN4RHI experiments with WSPR (Weak Signal Propagation Reporter) with his HCLW-20* antenna.
*Highly Compromised Long Wire antenna is Rob’s tongue-in-cheek designation of this makeshift antenna located only 10′ off the ground.
Virtual Shack Tour
Paul, KM4PT takes us on a virtual tour of his ham shack and also shares his love of portable ops.
WARNING: Geomagnetic K-index of 7 or greater expected
Valid From: 2021 May 12 1250 UTC
Valid To: 2021 May 12 1800 UTC
Warning Condition: Onset
NOAA Scale: G3 or greater – Strong to Extreme
NOAA Space Weather Scale descriptions can be found at
www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation
Potential Impacts: Area of impact primarily poleward of 50 degrees Geomagnetic Latitude.
Induced Currents – Power system voltage irregularities possible, false alarms may be triggered on some protection devices.
Spacecraft – Systems may experience surface charging; increased drag on low Earth-orbit satellites and orientation problems may occur.
Navigation – Intermittent satellite navigation (GPS) problems, including loss-of-lock and increased range error may occur.
Radio – HF (high frequency) radio may be intermittent.
Aurora – Aurora may be seen as low as Pennsylvania to Iowa to Oregon.
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