Category Archives: ARES

Updating ARES Membership Roster – Your Help Needed!

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WMA ARES is in the process of updating our registered Members roster. Below you will find a list of those members who are currently registered as of 10/27/2021.

If you are a member of WMA ARES and do not appear below or need a correction, please drop me a note at k1yo@arrl.net with your name, callsign, and email and I will make the appropriate changes.

Conversely, if you are in the list but want to be removed, please notify me at the same email above.

Thanks in advance and 73!

Bob Meneguzzo – K1YO
SEC – WMA ARES

Last NameFirst NameCallsign
AckleyGwenN1XYZ
AddisonAaronkf1g
AdeltCoryN1XWS
Al-BeikHishamKB1JLW
AlexanderToddKC1OKD
ALVESTOBYKB1CJT
ArchamboScottNot Provided
BarnettDylanNot Provided
BournJoshuaN1ZGA
CannataNickW1NJC
CyrAdamKO4GCH
DaviesTimothyK1RN
DeChristopherMikeN1TA
DionKenKD1KU
DunlapCharlesK1II
ElkinsMaryKB1ME
EwellJohnN1JIE
FarringtonSamuelKC1ENA
FOLEYDAVIDW1TTT
HABERMANNALEXANDERKC1NHG
HayesGilbertWK1H
HicksAmyNot Provided
KinahanTomN1CPE
LavioletteRichardKC1AEO
LosawPaulN1PUA
LukeJeffreyN1NWQ
MauriceBasilKB1PQZ
MeneguzzoBobK1YO
MoralezEdwinKC1BTX
MyersChristopherKb1nek
OborneTomKC1TAO
OquendoVanessaW1IRL
PalmerWilliamKC1PNR
PyraJacobW1JJP
RiceBradleyNot Provided
RichardsonKyleNot Provided
SaccoMatthewKC1JPU
SantanielloJosephKC1PNX
SegersonPhilipNot Provided
SmithCharlesKC1IKA
SmithGaryNot Provided
SpencerLarryN1LWS
St GermainChristopherKC1MAO
StephanGeorgeK1GXS
TarbellJohnKC1GRU
TorresBryanKB2UZY
WindykaKenKB1PKI
WoodhullAlbertN1AW
WyattDaveNot Provided
YoungAdamW1ACY

Upcoming Activities – Western Massachusetts ARES

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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

Communications for two events in our area

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The Franklin County Amateur Radio Club will provide communications for two events soon to take place in our area. We welcome licensed amateurs who would like to join us.

On 21 August, the Franklin County Land Trust will host an off the beaten path bicycle tour, called the Deerfield Dirt Road Rondonee (D2R2). It is part of their fund raising efforts. As the name of the tour suggests, it is mostly over dirt roads, in rural towns of western Franklin County and up into southern Vermont. Radio communications are necessary for key points along the tour where cell phone service is not available. At those points, our communicators will be the only way the Franklin Land Trust staff can send or receive messages to and from the base for the race in Deerfield.

The tour consists of three routes: 100k, 160k, and 180k. The first group of riders start at 6 AM, and the last rider may return as late as 6 PM. We will not cover that entire time period. We will ask radio volunteers to work in shifts. Volunteers may occasionally be asked to bring equipment, water, or food to remote stops along the way

On 29 August, the Connecticut River Conservancy and the Sugarloaf Mountain Athletic Club sponsor a traditional, 26 mile marathon. It starts at the campus of the former Marlboro Community College, in Marlboro, VT, and follows a path along the banks of the Green River, over mostly dirt roads. Our club members, with help from others, will help with the needs of the race staff, many positioned at water stops along the way. We are also there to call for help if needed by runners in distress.

For the D2R2, contact Al Woodhull, N1AW, at aswoodhull@yahoo.com, or 413-773-3522.
For the Green River Marathon, contact Chris Myers, KB1NEK, at camyers@protonmail.com, or 413-625-0344
More information on the Groups.IO site, at FCARC-MA, in the FILES section.

Emergency Radio Communications personal enrichment course

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MWCC Noncredit Personal Enrichment Course
Instructor Name: Paul Topolski
Name of Course: Emergency Radio Communications
Dates: Thursdays, September 9 to October 28, 2021
Time: 6:00 to 8:00 PM
Where: Gardner Campus
Cost: $169
Description of Course:
A course for everyone who uses or wants to use two-way radios professionally, as part of their emergency
preparedness efforts, on-board air and water craft, to help their community during disasters or special events, or
as a hobby.

Public safety professionals such as police officers, firefighters, EMTs, paramedics, hospital nurses, and more,
depend heavily on two-way radios to request and receive vital information. More importantly, the radio is the
critical link to safety and getting help. Unfortunately, little if any time is spent in training academies on how radios
work, why they will not work, and how to resolve communications failure issues on the fly. Students will learn
about the different types of radio system systems such as repeaters, simplex, trunk systems, analog and digital
systems.

The prepper community knows all too well the importance of communications and they have a large variety radio
services to choose from. Learn what radio services best suits the type of communications needed. Which service
is best, FCC Part 95 CB, MERS, FRS, GMRS products, or a Part 97 Amateur Radio license? This course will help you
sort it all out.

Are you interested in learning about new things, emerging technologies, nature, physics, and electronics? Are you
interested in communicating locally or internationally, without the aid of expensive infrastructure such as the
internet, cable provider, cell phone or landline telephone systems? How about having a casual conversation with
an astronaut aboard the International Space Station? STEM students will find this course exceedingly helpful in
their studies.

This course, based on the FCC Technician Class Amateur Radio examination criteria. The material provides
answers and solutions to the questions above. At the end of the class, students will have an option to take the
exam and apply for a Technician Class License. The course fee includes the required text and materials. Not
included is an optional exam fee of $15 and FCC license application fee of $35.

Text and Materials required:

  • The ARRL Technician Class License Manual
  • An inexpensive digital multimeter
  • A Texas Instrument TI-30xa Scientific Calculator
  • Access to one of the many free on-line exam practice sites such as www.qrz.com

WMA ARES Section Upcoming Activities

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WMA ARES

There is a substantial amount of work underway in the WMA Section for activities upcoming in the near future. I’m certain most of you are unaware of these since they are still in the planning stage, but I wanted to give you a quick update.

I’m planning for a local Section Emergency Test (SET) to be conducted soon … likely in the mid to late December timeframe. What we’d like to do with this is (of course) exercise our voice net capabilities to give us a bit of needed practice in handling and forwarding messages to / from agencies that would likely require the same in the event of a disaster. …. But additionally, to come up to par with what ARES sections are doing across the nation, we need to also develop the capacity to handle messages digitally – and by that I mean via WinLink and NBEMS / FLDigi. Updates will appear here as things progress.

There has been a LOT of activity in this vein across ARES nationally in the past month or two. WinLink training videos (along with many other excellent and useful topics) are now available for free via Vimeo (video) to be viewed at users’ convenience. Also, you’ve all seen the offerings going on right now from the New Hampshire Training Academy … which have produced some great feedback!

But while training is great, PRACTICE is the key determinant of our abilities. To this end, our plan is to setup additional nets for practice handling digital messaging, and some additional exercises (beyond just check – ins) for voice nets.  To do this we need participants … which we have a good share of for our HF voice nets, but to a lesser extent for UHF / VHF repeater and simplex nets. MUCH testing has been done recently to determine our capacity for cross – county communications on HF, and VHF digital operations (digital VARA FM via 6 meter repeater, for ex.) and for simplex on VHF. Work will continue in these areas. The VHF / UHF repeater capacity should be back to its original capabilities in the near future also, so hopefully the VHF/UHF net participation will increase.

If you have digital capability already ( HF and / or VHF ) and would like to become part of the proposed digital messaging networks, please let me know (k1yo@arrl.net) . If you don’t have the experience but would like to get involved, that’s great !   We have some pretty good startup documents to help you and will offer short Zoom classes to finalize your capabilities …. even one on one if needed !

Anyone with solid digital messaging experience would be welcome to help train others to come on board!  Those with traffic handling expertise are also needed to get users up to speed on how messages should be passed to existing NTS traffic nets as that would be a probable conduit in a large scale disaster.

Simply, there has recently  been much work done  towards reviving the ARES capabilities of WMA. I believe we are now ready to start moving forward – simply at first – but engaging additional capabilities and technologies as we ready ourselves to meet the needs of our healthcare partners, agencies, and communities

The only thing missing is you !

Vy 73
Bob – K1YO
SEC WMA ARES

P.S. .  Several Worcester area stations have already volunteered for helping with additional testing … my apologies but due to an email error I have lost the specifics on  those of you who already contacted me!  Please resend – thanks.

WMA ARES HF Emergency Net Signal Reports

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Hello to all stations that checked into the WMA ARES HF Emergency Net on Sunday October 11.

You’ve probably noticed that I’ve requested your power levels to be reported also … this is to assist in studying some of the 75m ionospherics at play during our net relative to the time and your location. I’ve attached a table of your received signal strengths at my station here in Southwick MA for your information. Receive antenna is a multi band Off Center Fed Dipole (OCFD) at about 70 feet into a Yaesu FT-1000MP. Results are interesting especially at low and QRP power levels.

While I have not calibrated the meter at this point, I believe the readings vs power levels vs distance from the station will give us a better idea of what could be the case in a large scale emergency where 100 watts might be the maximum power a station could produce – especially if deployed. Near Vertical Incident Skywave (NVIS) signals are the defacto mode of communication for our nets due to the typical heights of our antennas. This is usually a good medium for reliable communications out to 300 miles or so. However, there has been information published that describes a ‘donut hole’ of about 100 miles that may pop up depending on the condition of the ionosphere with time…most likely the D and E Layer absorption growing as the sun heats things up.

Certainly other layers and factors affect our efforts and I’m trying to get a handle on all this by collecting reports and trying to relate things to ionosphere level  readings taken at the same time as our net from the nearby ionosonde site at Millstone Hill in MA. I will keep you advised of any findings as I study the voluminous data on ionograms and their translations on the web. I am pretty new to this and the data available is primarily at research science levels so if any of you are well – versed or have a potential contact that might be, I’d appreciate your inputs <grin>!

I’m going to try to collect and refine readings going forward and will make these available as I collect them … at a location to be determined – possibly posted here for the time being.

Thanks to all of you for your net participation and your willingness to serve your communities in disaster situations.

Vy 73,
Bob – K1YO
Section Emergency Coordinator – Western Massachusetts Section

ARRL Hires Paul Z. Gilbert, KE5ZW, as Director of Emergency Management

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Originally posted on the ARRL HQ website:

As another step in ARRL’s increased focus on strengthening its emergency communications capabilities and long-standing working relationships with federal and state agencies and private emergency response organizations, ARRL has hired Paul Z. Gilbert, KE5ZW, of Cedar Park, Texas, as its first Director of Emergency Management.

Gilbert brings more than 30 years of experience in public service in both his professional and amateur radio endeavors. Beginning with his appointment as Emergency Coordinator in 1987, he has held multiple positions in the ARRL Field Organization. Currently in his second term as South Texas Section Manager, he has also served for more than a decade as the West Gulf Division’s Assistant Director for Public Service, acting as liaison between Division leadership and local, state, and federal emergency management organizations.

Professionally, Gilbert most recently was Radio Officer, HQ Staff, for the Texas State Guard, where for the past 6 years he has been responsible for planning and implementation of the organization’s communications capabilities. Previously he was a Public Safety Radio Coordinator for a Texas agency, charged with overseeing that organization’s large-scale disaster communications response and identifying and eliminating in-state interoperability issues.

Gilbert, who has an Amateur Extra-class license, is a member of Army MARS, and holds numerous DHS certifications, including COML, COMT, COMT Instructor, and AUXCOM Communicator. He is a member of the FEMA Regional Emergency Communications Coordination Working Group (RECCWG), a graduate of the FEMA Emergency Management Institute’s Exercise Design Course, and was a founding member of the Texas Division of Emergency Management Communications Coordination Group.

In his new role, Gilbert will manage a team responsible for supporting ARRL Emergency Communications (EmComm) programs and services, including the Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES®) and National Traffic System (NTS), as well as lead the continued modernization of those programs in consonance with the future emergency communications needs of the public and ARRL’s key partners.

WMA ARES Looking for Volunteers for VHF Testing

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The WMA ARES Section is in the process of conducting simplex communications testing on 6 and 2 meters within the section.

At this point, we are looking to test 6 meter communications between Hampden and Worcester counties and need a few volunteers with good 6 meter capabilities, particularly in the Southern Worcester County area. Time involved will be short …. approximately 15 minutes at your station’s convenience.

Anyone wishing to participate can contact me directly on email at  k1yo@arrl.net.

Vy 73 and Thanks in advance,
Bob – K1YO
Section Emergency Coordinator

FCARC Meeting on JS8Call Important For WMA ARES

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This month’s Franklin County Amateur Radio Club meeting will be held online via Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The meeting will be on Monday May 11 at 7 PM.  All are welcome to attend this online meeting.
 
FCARC President Aaron Addison KF1G will presenting on JS8Call.  JS8Call is a digital mode built on the popular FT8 protocol, however, it instead offers real-time, keyboard-to-keyboard messaging as well as store-and-forward capabilties and other similar features.  
 
Parts of this presentation has been developed as a part of a training that Aaron has been working on with Section Emergency Coordinator Bob Meneguzzo K1YO.  The training is intended to be a part of a series to help WMA ARES members communicate in a variety of ways.  Digital communications has proven extremely useful in emergency communications scenarios for transporting bulk data such as summaries of weather and infrastructure reports.  All WMA amateurs are welcome to join the meeting and learn about JS8Call, especially those involved with WMA ARES.
 
Use this information to join the meeting via Zoom:

https://umass-amherst.zoom.us/j/94979495039?pwd=bGtiUVEyZ0pJb0Yvb2lUbmtxRHpjZz09

Meeting ID: 949 7949 5039
Password: 226283

More details on the meeting are available on the KF1G’s personal website.