WCARES Field Day 2022 – change of location

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Note the change of location – now Public Safety Center (EOC) and home

Out of concern over the currently forecast high temperatures, the decision has been made to move this years WCARES Field Day back to the Public Safety Center for SSB and CW and at-home (for digital.)

Note that set-up will not happen until 8 AM on Saturday morning.

If you did not sign up because of weather conditions now is a good time to sign up for air conditioned spaces!

WCARES Field Day information can be found here.

To sign up and participate with WCARES click here.

There are still lots of openings for Phone, Digital and CW Operators.

Look for more details to follow here on the website, WCARES Notes and the Monday night net.

If you have other questions please contact Paul Tampien KM4PT (KM4PT@arrl.net) .

June 2022 In-Person & Virtual Monthly Meeting: Surge Protection with Paul Havlik, WD9IOK

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Paul Havlik (WD9IOK) gives a MasterClass in station grounding and surge protection. Paul worked for Square D (now Schneider Electric) for 28 years, so he certainly knows his stuff.

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

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

Happy New Year – A message from our new EC

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Happy New Year greetings to all WCARES members –

As most of you already know, Ed Hudgens stepped down as Emergency Coordinator at the end of 2021. Thank you, Ed, for the great job you did during the last two years. Your leadership was much appreciated.

Beginning today, I took on the role of EC with a few thoughts I am passing on for your consideration:

  • Given that WCARES is an ARRL ARES organization, we need to ensure that we, as a group, are always ready, willing, and able to provide Williamson County with reliable emergency communications support. After all, that is the reason the county government has invested so generously and continues to do so, in our communications infrastructure.
     
  • Training exercises and public service events are invaluable in honing our skills as emergency communications specialists. I challenge each of you to take part in as many of these activities as possible.
     
  • The skills of WCARES members and our resources do not have to be limited to Williamson County. As I reach out to the Emergency Coordinators of surrounding counties to exchange ideas and share best practices, please be open to assisting where needed.
     

We will discuss these topics and more at upcoming monthly meetings. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or wish to share thoughts and ideas on the above comments or any other matters relevant to our organization.

I look forward to working with every one of you in the coming year!

Jeff Standifer

WB5WAJ

No Siren Monitoring until further notice.

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Just a reminder that we will not be monitoring the Williamson Co. siren tests until further notice.

From Ed Hudgens, WB4RHQ:

The EMA is in the process of reworking the system, and until that is completed we will not be checking the sirens. – Ed

September 2021 Monthly Meeting at the EOC: What is Emergency Management?

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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.