Upcoming Activities – Western Massachusetts ARES

Hello Western Mass Amateurs!

This is just a quick note to explain some of the things related to Emergency Services that we will be putting into place shortly.

First, we are going to focus heavily on training and practice for our net operations. Charlie (Smitty) Smith, KC1IKA has accepted a position as Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator and is taking over responsibility for Section net operations. The plan is to establish regularly-occurring training nets, both for simplex and repeater VHF/UHF operations. This will provide a forum for persons interested in participating on nets to learn the proper operational procedures in an environment specifically setup for learning and practice.  This should also be a good entry point for those interested in becoming a Net Control Station (NCS).

Additionally, we are initiating training in digital modes (JS8Call, FLDigi, and WinLink) to enable their use in passing messages as required on HF and VHF. Practice nets will be established and operate on a regularly scheduled ongoing basis for those interested in this type of communications. The training will also focus on getting the proper hardware and software setup and configurations to ensure you have the optimal configuration of your own equipment to operate effectively.

A link to a registration form for digital training will appear on this website so that you could choose which digital mode(s) you would be interested in … we will post a short announcement here on how to access that on the menu choices at the top of the main web page.

Operating nets properly and effectively is of prime importance in an emergency situation. I am currently investigating the communication needs of several agencies within the Section to ensure that what we can provide fits their specific needs. We are planning to hold frequent SET-type events involving those agencies to provide ongoing opportunities to fine tune and focus our combined efforts.

Finally, we intend to reach out – through the individual clubs – for assisting in communications with local public service events of various agencies. This has been a very common activity in the past and it would be great to see it rekindled.

Please watch this website for further developments for all the above.

Stay safe and well !

Vy 73

Bob Meneguzzo – K1YO
Section Emergency Coordinator, WMA ARES
K1yo@arrl.net