A government station call up amateur stations on 60M channel 1 (Dial 5.3305 Mhz) at 9am Sunday (11/3/19) for the purpose of getting situational awareness reports. Amateurs will be asked for any known failures of infrastructure in their county such as water, power, telecommunications, sewer, medical, and also their zip code. If they don’t know of any failures, then they report no failures. Reports of no failures are just as important as failures.
This callup will be shortly after the Western Mass Emergency Net on 3.944 at 8:30am.
There will be a 60 Meter broadcast on Nov 17 0301Z. That is Saturday night in 2 weeks.
The Broadcast will be Voice and Digital. The Digital mode is M110A, and the software is available on the usarmymars.org website under software.
After a long hiatus, the Western Massachusetts ARES Section will conduct a simplified Simulated Emergency Test (SET) to determine our current capacities for communications within the 5 counties in the section.
The exercise will begin at noon local time on Sunday November 3 and last until approximately 3PM. Inter-section communications -MAY- be attempted in the 3PM to 4PM timeframe if the appropriate equipment can be put into place. More information on this will appear on this website prior to Nov 3 or be announced in an update during the regular ARES nets on the Sunday morning od the SET.
The SET will attempt to communicate across counties using our normal repeaters for an initial callup at 1200 local time, followed by county – to – county VHF simplex testing from 1230 to 1255.
At 1300, the ARES HF Emergency net will do a roll call on the same frequency (3.944 MHz+/-) as the usual Sunday morning HF net. Following this, at 1330, we will attempt to establish contacts across counties using SSB; there will be several ‘acting EOC’ stations to facilitate this testing under the guidance of an announced net control station. Digital mode (NBEMS) activity will commence at 1400 with a simple HF digital net on the 75M NBEMS frequency … 3.580 MHz USB using PSK31. We will attempt to broadcast a beacon message for stations to synchronize their operating frequency … the short message will read :
WMA ARES SECTON SET TEST DE K1YO
And will be repeated for 5 minutes after which we will have an NBEMS net control station calling up several stations by county and coordinating direct digital communications between them.
At 1430, we will initiate some WinLink messages to pre-established addresses to test this capability for stations so equipped. There also may be some direct peer to peer testing using WinLink although this is not anticipated to be the usual mode for direct communications during an emergency.
Additional inter-section testing is possible after 1500 with predetermined parameters that will not likely include the general ARES membership but could give our neighbor section(s) a chance to test whatever may be appropriate for their needs.
It is important to note that we are NOT looking to have a flawless exercise – but we should observe how effectively we may participate … a chance to identify our individual and group shortcomings and make notes on these. We will conduct several review meetings to reveal where we need improvement, and to identify additional training the WMA ARES team will develop and provide to our members. This will allow us to develop exercises in the near future to test and measure our improvement in key areas needed. MISTAKES ARE WELCOME !! – IT’S HOW WE WILL LEARN TO BE EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATORS
Eastern and Western Massachusetts Section Traffic Manager KW1U has posted the latest NTS monthly report. It can be viewed on the Eastern Massachusetts ARRL website at this link.
Brian Loverro K1BML, President of both WECT and CMARA, is looking for amateur radio operators for the Sutton Chain of Lights Saturday December 7, 2019 from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM.
The event is a town-wide holiday celebration featuring open houses and activities at a large variety of locations throughout the town. For more on the event, visit the Sutton Chain of Lights Facebook page.
The role of amateur radio is to coordinate the trolley buses that shuttle people to and from various locations throughout the town. You will need an external antenna. The trolleys’ roofs are made of fiberglass, so you’ll need another means of attaching the antenna to the trolley other than mag mount. Duct tape has often been used in the past. HT’s should be OK but portable mobiles are preferred. No DC power is available from the trolley so everything will need to be run by battery.
This is a very fun, festive and low-key event, perfect for those wanting to get into public service for the first time. Operators will also likely have opportunities to get out at some of the stops to shop and the like.
To sign up or for more information email K1BML and confirm that you have the equipment listed above. Thank you for your help and support.
Hi everyone, sorry for being a little late. Things are a little crazy for me, hopefully after this month things will settle down more.
The weather prognosticators really messed up the forecast this weekend and unfortunately had an impact on Near-Fest. I know this event is notorious for having weather of some sort. As Mr. Mike said. “It’s not all about the selling, it’s getting together twice a year and catching up with friends in the hobby.” Usually I am selling there and this time I did not fearing the easy ups were not going to be adequate, I did come up on Saturday and yes, had a great time visiting with friends. It was fun and relaxing indeed. The next Near-Fest is May 1 & 2, 2020. Put it on your calendar now to plan for it.
Most of the clubs have now started on their monthly meetings and I have been hearing about some good presentations coming up. Presentations are very important to a club and some clubs do struggle in finding good speakers. To those that do have a presentation, please consider going to other clubs. They would truly appreciate it and it helps to keep things interesting and helps in attendance. I hope to get a list together of people willing to visit clubs both in East and West Mass. which can help to see who’s available.
As a reminder if you have any news of interest, events, etc. Send it to me or to Gil, WK1H and we can get it on the website. Also, it helps me in knowing what is going on out there more.
That’s all I have for now be safe on Halloween and check out a contest or two!
NEAR-Fest is an international event run by and for all radio hobbyists and enthusiasts, including hams, short-wave listeners, scanner buffs, vintage/antique radio fans, etc. NEAR-Fest is held twice annually, spring and fall, rain or shine, at the Deerfield Fairgrounds, Deerfield NH beginning on Friday at 0900 and ending Saturday at 1500 hours.
The program of activities and events at NEAR-Fest is extensive; a huge outdoor electronic flea market, three buildings full of commercial vendors, forums, technical seminars and symposia, demonstrations, exhibits, displays, licensing examinations, special events radio stations, a “jam session”, good food, fellowship, fun and general mishigoss. NEAR-Fest is the largest event of its kind in the Northeast and has once been described as the “Woodstock of Amateur Radio”.
NEAR-Fest typically attracts attendees from the six New England states, NY, NJ, PA, MD and other states as well as from Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in Canada. Some attendees travel great distances; one gentleman from Los Angeles has attended fifteen events and in 2010 one radio amateur traveled from Greece to join us for the fun. It is a perennial attraction for many hams in the Western MA section.
Congratulations to the latest new hams of Western Massachusetts:
There have been some questions about the frequencies and schedule for tomorrow’s SET. Here’s what everyone needs to know:
This just in from Tom Kinahan N1CPE of Army MARS:
Brian Loverro K1BML, President of both 
