Updated – Oct. 2020 Virtual Monthly Meeting – USGS Did You Feel It, Certificate Chasing, Shack tour

Update: Jeff’s presentation PDF has been added (find the link below)

ARRL ARES Presentation

This month a presentation by Oliver Dully, K6OLI on the use of Winlink in the USGS Did You Feel It? earthquake reporting program. Oliver is the District Emergency Coordinator for the ARES LAX Northeast District. Our EC, Ed WB4RHQ is planning to schedule a WCARES DYFI exercise.

https://youtu.be/sENkcx-21Ik

The Oliver’s video links:
DYFI introduction:
https://youtu.be/VgLhWqZIxNQ
Hands-on training:
https://youtu.be/-uqL_z_fG2w

Certificate Chasing

Jeff, WB5WAJ gave a talk on Certificate Chasing which included examples of the kinds of certificate programs out there and how to take part.

https://youtu.be/R0OuPpwb2ec

and Jeff’s presentation is here:

Certificate_Chasing_Oct2020_WB5WAJ.pdf

Virtual Ham Shack Tour #4 – KA4OTB

Jack Cox takes us on a virtual tour of his impressive shack.

https://youtu.be/rfr81mk1gyI


Updated – Red Cross Winlink Drill – November 14

Update – the folks who run the Florida Winlink Net have posted a FAQ answering questions like:

  • Solo or Team?
  • How many modes should I use?
  • What is the format of the tactical address to send to?
  • etc.

You can find this FAQ here:

https://johnsails.com/RADIO/w4akhnet/redcrossFAQ.pdf

From Mike Walters, W8ZY CT ARES SEC via W4WTN and AuxComm of TN.

There will be a Red Cross drill using Winlink on November 14th.

The purpose of this drill is to encourage more operators to learn about Winlink messaging and how to use the template for preformatted messages. The weekly practice has gone very well and more operators are participating.

The linked PDF below gives an overview of the drill and specific instructions on how to create and post the messages.

PDF: Drill_Instructions_IAP_-_11-14-2020.pdf

The drill is open to all operators and I encourage all ARES groups to offer this as a training exercise.

 

 


Sept. 2020 Virtual Monthly Meeting – TN Section Manager, Net Operations, Shack tour

ARRL ARES Presentation

David Thomas (KM4NYI)

David is the ARRL Section Manager for Tennessee

He had to appear at the Severiville, TN hamfest today so he recorded this video for us to play at the meeting.

https://youtu.be/aoIShoprYOU

WCARES Weekly Net

Laura Marler (N4CLO)

Laura gives us a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into calling the WCARES Monday night training net.

https://youtu.be/uYwskYfKaVY

Virtual Ham Shack Tour #3 – WB5WAJ

Jeff Standifer takes us on a virtual tour of his impressive shack.

https://youtu.be/vsS1Om1WvWM


Dickson Co. offering General licensing classes in October

Dickson Co. Amateur Radio Club will be offering General licensing classes in person and via Zoom in October.

From Suzanne Bennett, N4JSB

“I am secretary of the Dickson County Amateur Radio Club & wanted to share some info if you have any members interested. We will be having a free General licensing class October 3, 10 & 17th. We will have the class in person with a virtual (Zoom) option for any interested. The class will run 9 AM – 5 PM the 3rd & 10th & 9 AM until complete on the 17th ( earlier than 5). It will be held at the Dickson County Emergency Operations Center at 284 Cowan Road, Dickson. We will be using the Gordon West book. Any one attending will need to purchase their own book and pre-study some before the class. A link to sign up is on the home page of our club website http://www.wc4dc.org/ and on our facebook page.”


Updated – Getting Started with Logbook of the World – LOTW

Don’t know where to start with logging your contacts? Need help getting LOTW up and running?

The LOTW New User Guide written by Gary, ZL2iFB has reached version 1.0.

You can find more information about LOTW at the ARRL here:

http://www.arrl.org/logbook-of-the-world

A copy of the current version of Gary’s guide will be kept under the Library -> User Guides section of the WCARES website – here:

https://wcares.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/LoTW_New_User_Guide.pdf

and the definitive URL for the current English version is:

https://www.g4ifb.com/LoTW_New_User_Guide.pdf

 

 

 


August 2020 Virtual Monthly Meeting – Emergency Ops Plan, Winlink and more

Friends,

The WCARES Monthly Meeting for August was held this past Saturday. Here are the videos of the presentations for those who were unable to attend.

WCARES Emergency Communications Operations Plan by WB4RHQ: https://youtu.be/OTFNI89V-io

Winlink Presentation by W4PHS: https://youtu.be/IH8671kyyHQ

Virtual Ham Shack Tour by WB4RHQ: https://youtu.be/t2xQ8KgW6f4

Enjoy!

Cliff (N4CCB)


Maximize your signal reception – a presentation by Tim, AD4CJ

Tim, AD4CJ talks about how to get the most out the sensitive receivers in most modern HF transceivers.

https://youtu.be/8cUUvxnGM4w

In this video, Tim covers:

  • how to fine tune
  • how to zero-beat phone and cw signals
  • automatic gain control (AGC)
  • the RF-gain control
  • pre-amps and attenuators
  • noise-reducer and noise-blanker circuits

Jeff, WB5WAJ presents the ARRL ARES Task Book

From the ARRL Task Book introduction…

The Task Book is a working document that enable those ARES communicators electing to participate in the ARRL training plan, to track and document their training plan elements as they are completed toward the various levels of increasing proficiency.

As an ARES organization, WCARES will be using the Task Book for members who wish to advance their knowledge of emergency communications.

Jeff’s presentation has been added to the WCARES Youtube Channel – thanks Cliff, N4CCB:

https://youtu.be/ROomm5vKax0

To download the Task Book used by WCARES see the ARRL ARES Task Book – WCARES under

Join Us -> ARRL ARES Task Book – WCARES

 


Winter Field Day 2020 – N4FR took 7th place!

Results are in and N4FR took 7th place in the Outdoor category with a calculated score of 24815! You can find all the results here:

https://www.winterfieldday.com/wfd-2020

Congratulations to everyone who took part!

Another Winter Field Day is done – thank’s to all who participated!

And thanks to Jon, Cliff and Ed for the photographs included below:

Photos of setup from Jon, KK4AIZ:

Photos from Cliff, N4CCB:

Photos from Ed, KN4TIX:


2019 ARRL Sweepstakes CW – N4FR is #1 in Delta Division Multi-Op Low Power!

Thanks to Tim, AD4CJ for this post and Cliff, N4CCB for the photos. Operator in the pictures is Hunter Mills, K3IE. Hunter is also the Tennessee Contest Group president. You can learn more about TCG here: http://k4tcg.org/ . Full results are in the May, 2020 issue of QST on pages 72 and 73.


The results of the 2019 ARRL Sweepstakes CW contest are in. The N4FR CW contest team consisting of AD4CJ, K3IE, N4CCB, KB9DKR, and KJ4YAY were the crew manning the station at the QTH of Tim, AD4CJ. We were able to score #1 in the Delta division Multi-Op Low Power category, and win a plaque sponsored by Icom America.

Sweepstakes is the oldest domestic radiosport event, with the first contest held in 1930. It has its roots in message handling protocols, and as such, it has the most difficult of all contest exchanges. The exchange is not your typical 599 exchange. It consists of an incremental serial number, then the precedence (Q,A,B,U,M, or S), then your own call (in our case N4FR), then a check number (the year of first licensing of your call), then finally the ARRL/RAC Section. We were operating as a multi-op, single radio, low power (under 150 Watts) station, so our precedence was M. The year of licensing of N4FR was 2000, so our check number was “00”.

A typical exchange would be as follows:

Us: CQ CQ N4FR SS (This means CQ CQ N4FR SweepStakes)

Answering Station: W1AW

Us: W1AW 123 M N4FR 00 TN (We answered their call, gave a sequential S/N, then our precedence, then our call, our check, then finally our ARRL section.

Answering: 43 M W1AW 31 CT

Us: TU (Thank you) CQ N4FR SS

Our contest station consisted of a Flex Radio 6500, and we used N1MM contest logging software. We are allowed to use a spotting network and CW skimmer assistance in the Sweepstakes contest. Therefore, we were running CW Skimmer (a program that decodes call signs over the entire band that the Flex Radio has open). We then fed the results of the Skimmer program into N1MM logger as the DX spotting cluster instead of using Telnet. Doing this allowed only those stations that our radio actually heard to be listed in our spotting network. If a new Section was listed, N1MM alerted us to an unworked section, and we were able to concentrate just on that frequency and station.

We were able to work a “Clean Sweep” this year, which means we worked stations in all 83 ARRL/RAC sections. One of the most desired QSOs was with VY1AAA from the Northwest Territories as it was the only station operating from NT, and was being manned remotely by Gerry, W1VE. We were able to work them at 1831 Z on Sunday. Cliff was operating Sunday afternoon when our spotting network alerted us to the last section we needed, which was Manitoba (MB). Cliff was able to concentrate on and successfully completed our “Clean Sweep”, when he worked VE4VT from MB at 2213 Z on Sunday.

Overall, we had a great time, and lots of good ham radio and CW experience. This year, CW Sweepstakes will run 11/7/2020 through 11/9/2020. The SSB Sweepstakes will run from 11/21/2020 through 11/23/2020. We want to encourage all the members of WCARES to consider working this contest, even if they have no contest experience. Most of the stations participating in this contest will slow down, and give newbies a chance to make successful QSOs. It is a great way to sharpen your skills, and you will definitely have a chance to achieve “Worked All States”.

73,

Tim, AD4CJ