WCARES – Page 11

Mar. 2023 In-Person & Virtual Monthly Meeting:

Posted on March 30, 2023 at 10:20.

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.

Feb. 2023 In-Person & Virtual Monthly Meeting:

Posted on February 27, 2023 at 21:33.

Written by David, KK4CQD

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.

Siren test monitoring resuming

Posted on January 29, 2023 at 10:00.

Written by David, KK4CQD

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

Posted on December 27, 2022 at 16:00.

Written by David, KK4CQD

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 SET 2022 Pictures

Posted on November 22, 2022 at 10:25.

Written by David, KK4CQD

Jeff Standifer (WB5WAJ) delivers a briefing at the start of the SET.

WCARES SET 2022 Summary

Posted on October 21, 2022 at 08:55.

Written by David, KK4CQD

From Jeff, KC1DWP:

Our 2022 SET demonstrated that WCARES has the skills, depth, and commitment to serve our community in a time of need when communication support is necessary. During the SET exercise, 8 mobile radio operators connected 10 Emergency Response partners from multiple municipal agencies to the Williamson County ECOMM 911 center. This was an important first step demonstrating proof of concept in the development of the procedures and application of technology to provide continuity of communication in the event of a catastrophic Public Safety radio system outage.

Three simulated shelters were activated in response to a simulated flood event. Seven radio operators established stand alone radio operations at the three sites using their own power and radio equipment to provide vital status reports back to Net control and the Williamson County Emergency Management Agency.

Seven radio operators comprised the Net Control Team utilizing multiple modes, including the WCARES repeater system and back-up repeater, DMR and Winlink to manage communications from the 3 shelters, the 10 emergency response partners, and other participating WCARES members providing requested information regarding shelter status, weather and flood conditions as well as the status of public utilities. Vital information was able to be obtained from field sources and provided to the Williamson County Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service.

No monthly meeting in October due to SET Exercise

Posted on October 8, 2022 at 01:06.

Written by David, KK4CQD

There is no monthly meeting in October due to the SET exercise (see link below).
The next WCARES Monthly meeting is Saturday November 19, 2022.

Click here to read all the details and sign up to take part.

Updated – WCARES SET 2022 – Simulated Emergency Test

Posted on September 28, 2022 at 23:45.

Written by David, KK4CQD

WCARES, the Williamson County (TN) Amateur Radio Emergency Service, will be conducting an ARRL Simulated Emergency Test (SET) on:

Saturday, October 15, 2022 from 0800 (8 AM) CST through 1215 (12:15 PM) CST

This exercise will take the place of the October WCARES Monthly Meeting.

Final copies of the Simulated Emergency Test WCARES 2022 Player Handbook (Version 2.7) and the exercise associated Incident Radio Communications Plan (ICS 205) (Version 1.4) are now available at the following (updated) links:

Simulated Emergency Test WCARES 2022 Player Handbook (Version 2.7) updated Oct 11, 2022
Incident Radio Communications Plan (ICS 205) (Version 1.4) updated Oct 11, 2022

Sign-up here to take part in the WCARES Simulated Emergency Test 2022:

Update:
From: Jeff Schwartz, KC1DWP

THIS IS AN EXERCISE

The Williamson County Amateur Radio Emergency Service, WCARES, will be conducting an ARRL Simulated Emergency Test (SET) on Saturday 15 October 2022 from 0800 through 1215.

This countywide emergency communications exercise is intended to test our ability to provide communications for our primary served agency – the Williamson County Emergency Management Agency – as well as the National Weather Service.

The exercise scenario will involve a weather event necessitating evacuation to simulated shelters. Shelter communication teams will deploy to the simulated shelters and establish communication operations. Mobile communication operators will deploy to specific municipal agency locations to establish two-way communication between the agency and the Williamson County EMCOMM 911. Other simulated emergency communication needs will develop during the event.

All exercise related communications will begin with the phrase THIS IS AN EXERCISE.

Should an ACTUAL emergency occur during the exercise, the phrase “REAL WORLD” repeated three times will be used to indicate that the exercise is suspended until further notice.

Additional communications will be issued in advance of and during the exercise.

THIS IS AN EXERCISE
ARES® Resources

This countywide emergency communications exercise is intended to test our ability to provide communications for our primary served agency – the Williamson County Emergency Management Agency – as well as the National Weather Service.

The exercise scenario will involve a simulated weather event necessitating evacuation to simulated shelters. Shelter Communication teams will deploy to the simulated shelters and establish radio communication operations. Additionally, Mobile Communication operators will deploy to Emergency Response partner locations to establish communications between the partner and the ECOMM 911 center. More details will be provided.

At this point, we are looking for volunteers for the Shelter Communication teams and as Mobile Communication operators.

This is a great opportunity to exercise your skills, try out your equipment, and help demonstrate the emergency communication capability we have in WCARES.

Sept. 2022 In-Person & Virtual Monthly Meeting: VarAC

Posted on September 19, 2022 at 11:28.

Written by David, KK4CQD

Tim, AD4CJ gave a talk introducing a new use for the VARA HF protocol: the VarAC HF chat application created by by Irad Deutsch, 4Z1AC. The website for VarAC is: https://www.varac-hamradio.com and includes a list of features, the download for Windows, FAQs, user manuals and a community forum etc.

Tim then played a portion of the September 5th, 2022 Tonight @ 8 video from RSGB (Radio Society of Great Britain): Back to the keyboard! by Mike Richards, G4WNC. Mike gives an overview and examples of digital modes, required equipment and radio connections for keyboard QSOs and then walks through the features of VarAC and provides some operating tips for keyboard QSOs.

The complete video is well worth watching especially if you are new to digital modes:
https://youtu.be/SC0UxNG2itE
or skip ahead to the section on VarAC with the embedded video below.

The RSGB website is: https://rsgb.org/ and more videos from RSGB can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRSGB/videos.

The VarAC portion of the video starts around the 29:45 mark:

WCARES and The Boy Scouts, Sept. 2022

Posted on September 12, 2022 at 11:33.

Written by David, KK4CQD

WCARES took part in the Scouting event this past weekend in Franklin. Jeff Schwartz, KC1DWP who headed up the WCARES effort had this to say after the event:

I want to thank you all for turning out on a very rainy day and providing an engaging experience for the scouts, their parents, and the scout leaders who stopped by our three pop ups. In spite of the challenging conditions, we were able to get all of the planned stations up and operational and even had some of the Scouts make their first on-air contacts.

Nick Darnell, Cubmaster for Pack 131 was asked to coordinate getting all of the public safety departments to attend. He was the Scouts event contact for WCARES, met with WCARES at the site on Wednesday before the event, and provided the site needed to set up all of the gear, especially the antenna field.

Nick shared the following with Jeff after the event:

Thank You and everyone that came out. I heard a lot of talking about the “radio men”. I thought that was an awesome title. Some of the boys were so intrigued that everything was running off batteries. WCARES made a great impression, maybe next time it won’t rain all day.

Photos by WCARES members and Eric Strickland, Scout event photographer