Welcome to the Western Massachusetts ARRL Web. The WMA ARRL field organization serves ARRL members in the western part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, comprised of Worcester, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire and Berkshire counties.

The American Radio Relay League is the principal representative of the Amateur Radio Service in the USA, serving members by protecting and enhancing spectrum access and providing a natural resource to the public. If you haven't already, be sure to visit ARRL Headquarters' World Wide Web.

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Worcester County District Emergency Coordinator Bob Beausoleil KA1OTQ is looking for 12+ amateur radio operators to assist with the Sutton Chain of Lights. The event is on Saturday, December 5, 2009 from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM. This is a town holiday festival that involves several local businesses and community activities. Amateur radio support is once again being called on to provide logistics and tracking for the trolley buses that transport patrons to and from several of the activity locations within the town.

Amateur radio volunteers will need an HT or mobile rig with enough battery power to last the entire event. An antenna that is external to the trolley is highly recommended, but please note that the trolleys are made primarily of fiberglass, so magnet mount antennas will not work as designed. Duct tape or clamps are usually used to complete the setup, operators should be prepared with these items or make arrangements with each other prior to event day to ensure that the proper equipment will be provided for them. Also, it is suggested that volunteers dress in layers as they may be placed in a variety of temperatures throughout the day. Usually a bag lunch and drink is provided, or operators may find something to purchase to eat or drink at a stop, but it may be advisable to bring some provisions regardless.

This one of the more fun, low key public service events in the Central MA region. It is highly recommended for any amateur radio operator but especially those with no prior public service experience.

Please contact Bob KA1OTQ for more information or to sign up.
This just in from ARRL HQ:

The new Emergency Communications course is taking shape. Here are the details.

Overview:

The content of the new emergency communications course is undergoing final review and the decisions about what shape this new course will take have been made. I'd like to update you on our progress, what changes are being made and what may be expected of you.

As we have said previously, the former Level 2 and Level 3 Emergency Communications courses are being updated and combined into one new course. The new course will focus on emergency communications training for leaders and managers. The title of the new course is Public Service and Emergency Communications Management for Radio Amateurs.

We anticipate launching this new course in January 2010. It has been developed in a lesson format and will be posted on our website and, as such, it will be viewable by any ARRL member. Members will need only log in to the ARRL website to see the course material. It will not be a mentored course. Later on, we may provide a mentored online forum on our website where students can post questions about course topics and receive answers from a mentor.

Requirements for Course Completion:

The new course requires that the student has previously completed the Level 1/Basic course, certain FEMA courses and has some experience with Amateur Radio and emergency communications. Those who desire to receive a course completion certificate for this new course (which we refer to in shorthand as "Advanced EmComm") will first need to document that they have satisfied a list of prerequisites. After providing the necessary documentation, applicants will be required to pay an enrollment fee of $35 to gain access to the course's final exam. This fee will help to offset the cost of developing the course and for the online testing service as well as costs for administrative support.

The course prerequisites to be verified include:

• An Amateur Radio license,
  
• Completion of ARRL's Level 1/Basic Emergency Communications Course
  
• FEMA ICS-100 (basic ICS)
  
• FEMA ICS-200 (supervisory)
  
• FEMA ICS (NIMS)-700

FEMA ICS-300, a classroom course, is also highly recommended, but not required.

Candidates for the course completion certificate will also be required to document completion of additional FEMA courses that are integrated into the Advanced EmComm course curriculum. These include:

• IS-800 (National Response Framework)
  
• FEMA IS-240, Leadership & Influence
  
• FEMA IS-241, Decision Making & Problem Solving
  
• FEMA IS-250, Emergency Support Function 15 (ESF15), External Affairs
  
• FEMA IS-1, Emergency Manager, An Orientation to the Position
  
• IS-288, The Role of Voluntary Agencies in Emergency Management
  
• IS-244, Developing and Managing Volunteers
  
• FEMA IS-120.a, An Introduction to Exercises
  
• FEMA IS-130, Exercise Evaluation and Improvement Planning
  
• FEMA IS-139, Exercise Design

Please note: the list of FEMA course as prerequisites, as well as those referenced internally within the course, may change as FEMA makes changes to its course offerings or the course is modified to introduce new content.

Applicants will also need to supply a reference from their Section Manager, or his or her designee, stating the reason for the applicant's participation. Section Managers will take into account the applicant's relevant experience or role within emergency communications and whether they are in good standing within the amateur radio community. Once applicants have documented that these requirements have been met and they have paid the course evaluation fee, they will receive access to complete the online exam.

We are also making provision for unlicensed individuals who perform an official role as an emergency responder to earn the course completion certificate if they desire. To apply to take the final exam and earn the course completion certificate, these individuals will need to obtain a "waiver" recommendation from the local ARRL Section Manager. This waiver request should include a description of the position of responsibility the applicant holds in an emergency response organization. Note that these individuals will need to be an ARRL member to obtain access to the course on the ARRL website. Later on, when other media formats are available there may be additional ways to access the course materials.

Course Presentation:

Because of the nature of the course content and its fluidity with regard to decisions of the Federal government, as well as its internal links to reference material from non-ARRL sources, we are reluctant to produce copies of the course in media which are fixed in time. Nevertheless, later on, we are considering publishing the Advanced course in other media formats (print, CD, etc.), and depending on demand, may also build an infrastructure for field classroom instruction of the course. However, all course completion exams will be conducted online and course completion certificates will be issued online. We will notify Section Managers of the names of those who earn the course completion certificate.

Status of Current Mentors and Instructors:

All current EmComm online Mentors and Field Instructors who intend to continue instructing the Level 1/Basic course, as well as any who foresee conducting classroom instruction for the new Advanced course, will need to take this course and earn the course completion certificate.

All EmComm Mentors and Field Instructors will need to earn this course completion certificate on or before December 31, 2010 to continue in the role of Emergency Communications Mentor or Field Instructor. This is one of a few new qualifying requirements for Mentors and Field Instructors that will be phased in during 2010 as we endeavor to insure more consistency and control over EmComm instruction.

Mentors and Field Instructors who have been active during the past 2 years-since January 2008-will be able to enroll in the course evaluation component of the new Advanced course free of charge.

We have been reevaluating our EmComm training goals and processes as we have been configuring this new course. There were many opinions and constraints to be considered, but we believe we now have an excellent training program about to be unveiled which will position Amateur Radio well for the future. We appreciate your patience.

Debra Johnson, K1DMJ
Education Services Manager
ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio
225 Main Street
Newington, CT 06111-1494
(860) 594-0296
Fax: (860) 594-0259
-email-
As we all know, the combination of poor conditions on the higher HF bands and increasing participation in contests, ARRL-sponsored and others, is creating some very crowded bands on the weekends - especially in the 20, 40, and 75 meter phone allocations. Busy bands can lead to conflicts between different groups of amateurs, but those conflicts can often be avoided. The following message is intended to help amateurs operate more effectively by planning ahead to mitigate the expected congestion.

Because contesters know to expect this situation in advance, it's a good reason to make an extra effort to avoid non-contest users of the bands, particularly emergency communications and service-type activities. For example, look up the times and frequencies of state- and regional-level traffic and emergency nets you are likely to encounter. Make a list and post it near the radio to remind you to listen first when near those frequencies. The same goes for wide-coverage nets or special event stations operating on the higher bands. If there is activity, give these non-competitive stations a little extra breathing room - 2.5 kHz above (for your signal) and below (for theirs) is a reasonable margin (proportionately less margin on CW). If a net is on 3965 kHz, for example, keep your carrier frequency above 3967.5 or below 3962.5 kHz. And it should go without saying that everyone's signal should be clean and free of splatter. If you unintentionally open up on an ongoing QSO or net, apologize and move. Just as we ask others to recognize the legitimacy of contesting, we should return the favor. Take a deep breath, have fun, and play nice!

Because net managers and emcomm leaders know to expect this situation in advance, it is a cue for nets and other on-the-air activities to activate and exercise their Plan B. Everyone must have a Plan B - an alternate frequency or band or time or even mode. It's unwise at best to expect that our chosen frequencies will always be noise- and interference-free in an emergency, so why not take advantage of the flexibility unique to the Amateur Service? 75 meter nets could try out 60 meters - to which amateur access was granted on the basis of the need for emergency communications. Changing net or scheduled contact times to avoid contest activity also works well. For example, when solar activity is low, 75, 60, 40, and 30 meters are often quite useful for regional communications during daylight hours. If you choose to stay put, remind the participants that under strong signal conditions, it's best to turn off noise blankers and preamps, turn down the RF Gain, and even switch in a little attenuation. They may be pleasantly surprised at how clean and quiet the band sounds! Why not take the opportunity to make this a training exercise? It will improve your group's operational abilities at any time!

Upcoming November contests that will create very heavy band loading include CW Sweepstakes (Nov 7-8), Phone Sweepstakes (Nov 21-22), and CQ World Wide CW (Nov 28-29). These events have been running on the same weekends for decades, so no one should be surprised that they will be loading up the bands again this year. Take this opportunity to inform yourself and your group and to adjust your operating technique and plans. Reasonable and informed expectations coupled with flexibility and a spirit of accommodation will help us all make use of our spectrum more effectively at any time of the year or solar cycle.
We have timed the release of the new website to coincide with the release of the new WMA ARES Member Registration System. The ARES registration system is now online and available at the link in this website's main menu. There are two real advantages to this type of ARES membership registration system. First, it gives the ARES leadership the ability to know exactly what resources and manpower are available to them, and a means of activating and organizing those resources quickly and easily during an incident. Second, it gives ARES members the ability to update their registration as often as necessary, instantly informing the ARES leadership of their new skills, equipment, or status. It should be noted that the database is also sent out to their leadership in hard-copy regularly, so that records and member data are still available even if the database is not - an important consideration for any emergency response entity.

As such if you currently are or you wish to become a WMA ARES member please register in the system using the New Application function. If you are an existing ARES member and you know who your EC is, please note that in the comments field at the very bottom of the form.

We are happy to have released both the newly revamped website system as well as the new WMA ARES Member Registration System.

73,
Gil Hayes WK1H
ASM Southeast and Webmaster
Barry W1HFN reports that he has recently hidden his foxhunt transmitter somewhere within the Henry E. Cowdrey Nature Center off of Route 2A in Lunenburg, MA.

Barry really enjoys foxhunts, so for over two years, he has deployed his transmitter in several locations. All amateurs, as well as the general public, are welcome to hunt down his fox and sign the log.

The fox transmits on 146.565 MHz, power out is 50mw into a 1/4 wave whip. It is housed in a small die-cast box, about the size of a box of king-size cigarettes, covered in camouflage tape. It transmits a voice ID for 20 seconds every three minutes.

The transmitter is usually well-hidden and not visible to the eye. It is also usually in public access areas so only on-foot hunting is required (safer and cheaper with gas prices as they are). There is a plastic bag with a log for the foxhunters to sign nearby.

Barry's web site has further details and announcements regarding his foxhunting activities, as well as contact information. His website is http://home.comcast.net/~foxbw/site/.