Apr 2023 WCARES Monthly Meeting – In-Person & Zoom

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Situation Awareness & Tactical Communications

Kevin Fitch (K4KCF) is a volunteer wildland firefighter. Situational Awareness & Tactical Communications is vitally important in this environment. In his presentation, Kevin gives ham radio operators some things to consider as we train for our role as emergency communicators.

Off-Center Fed Antennas

Ted Edwards (W3TB) gives a detailed presentation of the properties of a multi-band off-center fed dipole antenna. The antenna described is only 68 feet long, but covers the 40m, 20m, 15m, and 10m amateur radio bands.

Mar. 2023 In-Person & Virtual Monthly Meeting:

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Paul Havlik (WD9IOK) thoroughly discusses RFI, how it affects you (and others!), and what can be done to reduce or eliminate it. Recorded during the WCARES monthly meeting on March 18th, 2023.

WCARES website – Events listings being rebuilt

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We are in the process of rebuilding the Events listing (calendar) for the website.

Feb. 2023 In-Person & Virtual Monthly Meeting:

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1. Blake and Ryan Pearson achieve “Big Dog” status

Blake Pearson (KN4VKY) and Ryan Pearson (KN4VKW) operated the CW station at the N4FR Winter Field Day. Their work was impressive, expertly handling traffic at 23-25wpm. Because of this, Tim Kreth presented the boys with certificates, clearing their way to sit at the proverbial “Big Dog Table” from now on. While the boys watched the presentation on Zoom, their father, Andrew Pearson (KN4VKX), accepted the certificates on their behalf.

2. WCARES Membership Requirements – 2023

In this video, Jeff Standifer (WB5WAJ) reviews the requirements for being a WCARES member in good standing.

3. Radio Wave Propagation

How is possible for us to talk to hams across America and beyond? Watch this video and learn the science behind the magic.

Tim Kreth (AD4CJ) gives a detailed presentation of radio wave propagation. Much of this material comes from the General license study materials. If you haven’t yet obtained your General class license – or if it’s been a while, and you’ve forgotten a few things – Tim’s presentation includes useful information for all hams.

Portable Ops February 2023

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Tim W4BAX, Jeff WB5WAJ, Doug W4DML, Paul KM4PT, Rick WX4UKE and Andy KY4DF enjoying portable ops at Liberty Park.

Siren test monitoring resuming

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From our EC Jeff, KC1DWP:

The Williamson County Emergency Management Agency is ready for us to resume monitoring of the monthly siren test and they are greatly appreciative of the support we provide. The sign up system is active and an improved process is in place to inform us in the event of a siren test cancellation.

This is the link to the current sign up system:

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


In the event the scheduled siren test is canceled, I will be notified by the On Call On Duty no later than 12:00 noon (i.e. one hour prior to the scheduled test).  An announcement will be made on the WCARES repeater system indicating either the siren test has been canceled or the siren test has not been canceled.


Please make every effort to sign up for a siren.  It’s an important part of making sure the siren warning system is operational and able to warn members of our community in the event of a dangerous weather event.  You may also find that it is a good time to take your significant other out for lunch or a picnic. 

Jeff Schwartz

Reserve Team Leader

Williamson County Emergency Management Agency​
ARRL Emergency Coordinator Williamson County TNARES

Update 2 – Winter Field Day 2023 Signup & WCARES details

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From Paul, KM4PT

Reminder that the last weekend in January (28 & 29) is Winter Field Day. You can go online to winterfieldday.com and pull up the 2023 regulations.

The sign-up sheet is available at this link.

WCARES-specific details from Paul are here (PDF).

CW and SSB stations which will be at the Public Safety Center in Franklin. These will be broken down into three hour time slots starting at 1 P.M. on Saturday 28 January and ending at 12:59 P.M. on Sunday 29 January 2023.

There won’t be any set-up or tear down.

WCARES Technician & General License Classes on in 2023 – Sign up now!

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WCARES will again be offering free classes to help prepare for the ARRL license exams for both the Technician (beginner) and General (intermediate) amateur radio licenses. The classes are open to everyone interested in getting their first license, upgrading or simply auditing the classes as a refresher.

You can find more details along with links to the sign-up forms here:
https://wcares.org/2023-wcares-university/

TVA: rolling blackouts ended

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The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA.com) and Middle Tennessee Electric (MTE.com) are both reporting via social media accounts that the rolling blackouts have ended (Sat. Dec. 24):

https://twitter.com/tvanews
https://twitter.com/MidTnElectric

Links to regional power companies are listed below.

Cold weather continues… see local forecasts on weather.gov, the OHX page at weather.gov/ohx and the NWS Nashville Situtation Report here:

http://www.weather.gov/media/ohx/briefing/SitRep.pdf

Cold Weather Safety:
https://www.weather.gov/safety/cold

 

 

 

 

Source: https://www.weather.gov/images/ohx/graphicast/image6.png

 

Additional Resources:

National Weather Service, Nashville Office (OHX):
https://www.weather.gov/ohx/

OHX Situation Report:
http://www.weather.gov/media/ohx/briefing/SitRep.pdf

Forecast for Nashville International Airport (KBNA):
https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lon=-86.67380332946777&lat=36.12867698311848

Regional low-bandwidth radar loops:
Nashville
https://radar.weather.gov/ridge/standard/KOHX_loop.gif

Clarksville
https://radar.weather.gov/ridge/standard/KHPX_loop.gif

Memphis
https://radar.weather.gov/ridge/standard/KNQA_loop.gif

Huntsville
https://radar.weather.gov/ridge/standard/KHTX_loop.gif

South Mississippi Valley
https://radar.weather.gov/ridge/standard/SOUTHMISSVLY_loop.gif

Continental US
https://radar.weather.gov/ridge/standard/CONUS_loop.gif
https://radar.weather.gov/ridge/standard/CONUS-LARGE_loop.gif

Weather Prediction Center
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/

Storm Prediction Center
https://www.spc.noaa.gov/

 

Regional Electric Companies

TVA – Tennessee Valley Authority
https://tva.com/
https://twitter.com/tvanews

CEMC – Cumberland Electric Membership Corporation
https://www.cemc.org/outagemap/
https://twitter.com/CumberlandEMC

Dickson Electric System
https://dicksonelectric.com/power-outage-reporting/
https://twitter.com/DicksonElectric

MTEMC – Middle Tennessee Electric
https://mte.com/ServiceConcerns
https://twitter.com/MidTnElectric

NES – Nashville Electric Service
https://www.nespower.com/outages/
https://map.datacapable.com/i/nes/
https://twitter.com/nespower

 

Portable Ops November – Liberty Park

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Our EC, Jeff Standifer, WB5WAJ contributed this short video of a WCARES portable ops gathering at Liberty Park. The video was taken on 11/22/2022 and features Jon Kessell (KK4AIZ) at his rig while other WCARES members look on.