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ALERT: Thu, May 15, 2008; 2:28 PM ET Please avoid the use of 14.270, 7.050 and 7.060 MHz during the earthquake emergency in China. These frequencies are being used for amateur radio emergency service by Asian hams. |
News last updated: Thu, May 15, 2008 at 2:09 PM ET
West Texas Section News May 2008
5/15/2008
News from around West Texas
Do you know what a CC&R is? If your home is in a deed restricted residential area, you probably have first hand knowledge of how CC&R's affect your amateur radio station. Home Owner Associations and developers will tell you that the purpose of a CC&R is to enhance the quality of living and preserve property values for everyone. Unfortunately, some CC&R's contain unjustifiable prohibitions. There are residential subdivisions that prohibit all radio transmissions. This literally makes usage of garage door openers, cell phones, and baby monitors illegal. Homeowners using such devices are subject to fines. This is enhancing the quality of life? ARRL West Gulf Vice-Director Dr. David Woolweaver, K5RAV, spoke to this problem at our Midland ARRL Forum. Some of the members of the Texas Legislature are concerned with overly restrictive CC&R's and we are compiling information to present to them. If you live in a subdivision or are aware of a subdivision that restricts or prohibits radio transmissions, send a copy of the key sections of the document and the details of the subdivision where they apply to Dr. Woolweaver at k5rav@arrl.org or to his callbook address. This discussion does involve outside towers, antennas, etc. That is an entirely different subject. At this time, we are targeting extreme CC&R's that are way over the line.
In the SK listing below you will see the widely respected antenna guru and author LB Cebik, W4RNL, listed. Cebik's ties to West Texas date back to his college days at Texas Tech where he earned both a BA and BS in English and Philosophy. His classmates in Lubbock knew W4RNL as Roy Cebik. Efforts are being made to preserve his writings and continue to make them available online.
Congratulations to Tom, KE5OIB, on getting the N5WPV El Paso 147.36 repeater back online. It only took Tom six months to get the transfer approved. Repeater coordination across West Texas once was a local issue but those days apparently are long gone. On a personal note, I cannot even hit a 2-meter repeater from my qth.
In other news from El Paso, the Sun City ARC club members turned out in force to give the K5WPH clubhouse a facelift. Many weeds were slaughtered, lots of trash was hauled, old plywood and lumber was replaced, and lots of OJ and coffee was consumed. I heard a rumor that there was a temporary shortage of paint in El Paso by the time the Sun City gang finished their project. Good job folks. I look forward to seeing the fruits of your labor later this summer.
Many ham activities this weekend. The Odessa and San Angelo clubs are having tailgate sales Saturday. Several thousand hams are gathering in Dayton (Ohio not Texas) this weekend. The ARRL HQ gang is planning on a major presence at Dayton. Details of the ARRL at Dayton can be found at http://www.arrl.org/blog/Dayton%20and%20ARRL%20Expo
Carla and I will be representing the ARRL at the Eighth Annual PARC Picnic and ARRL Swapfest in Amarillo this weekend. Come on out to Thompson Park and enjoy "Dayton on the Prairie" with us. Good deals, good fellowship, and good BBQ.
73,
John Dyer
AE5B
West Texas Section Manager
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ARES® NEWS from WTX SEC J.T. Caldwell, WA5ZFH
ARES REPORT FOR April 2008
Total Number of ARES® members: 275
Number of DECs/ECs reporting: 13
Number of ARES® nets active: 10
Number with NTS liaison: 2
DECs/ECs reporting: KD5KBU, KD5HYB, WA5NBP, NL7C ,K5DWS, N5DO, KB5JXO, KD5URW, NQ0B, KJ5DX, KB5HPT, KC5NOX, W5ZOX
Number of drills, tests and training sessions: 15
Man-hours: 143
Number of Public Service events: 5
Man-hours: 220
Number of emergency operations: 6
Man-hours: 31
Total number of ARES operations: 0
Man-hours: 129
Comments:
This month has seen an up swing in severe weather across West Texas with many members involved in Skywarn operations. Also a lot of activity associated with public service events. Many areas continue to experiment with digital communications and we are seeing more effort to include larger areas as emergency coordinators see a greater need. Much more effort to include hospitals and even locations that were once not included such as health departments. ARES continues to grow but the need is growing faster for good trained amateur radio operators. Looks as though we will have a lot of spirited Field Day competition this year. Excellent test of emergency communications capability.
Following Comments taken from EC Monthly Reports:
Nolan County:
Nolan County ARES has been working on 145.250 Repeater project to update radio system (making it a fully controllable remote base with 3 remotes, two uhf and one vhf link for Emergency Communications to Abilene, West Texas connection, and San Angelo and a Echolink, and IRLP connections.
Lubbock County:
April activity centered on the preparation for April ARES meeting. A planning meeting was held April 11 and was decided that we would start training on direction finding.
We had a very good meeting with 9 in attendance (list attached). Frank, KB5DUZ, gave a very good presentation on Radio Direction Finding. This was an introduction to RDF and he had handouts with schematics of antennas and equipment needed to get started in RDF. He also brought along a RDF antenna he had built. We discussed plans for a fox hunt during Field Day. John KC5ZRQ will present an APRS program next month.
Taylor County:
We have already had several activations for Skywarn this year. Most of these have been "serious" events in which we have had rotation, mezzos, hail, and wind. Some of the counties around Abilene (Jones & Stephens) have had actual tornados. We have established an Echo Link node at the Abilene EOC, and are working on connecting some of the outlying counties (where repeaters exist) with IRLP links back to Abilene and on into the San Angelo National Weather Service office. We are planning on having a RADAR school so that the operators at the EOC can be well versed (better equipped) to handle severe weather events.
El Paso, County:
During the month of April Winlink 2000 (WL2K) installation has been put behind us so we could get down to learning how to use this system. We started out by sending and receiving email with replies and attachments. Attachments can be a form, a text file, or photographs. There is however a limit of 120 Kbytes per email. I sent my EC Bulletin to the W5ES Bulletin editor last month as an attachment. The attachment was 1.2 Kbytes and took approximately 6 minutes to send via VHF packet radio. We sent a photo that was 49 Kbytes in size. It took approximately 16 to 17 minutes.
Client LAN connectivity was accomplished. The main purpose of WL2K is to let the clients work from their own computer at their own desk in an as close to normal environment as possible. So they do the work and we make sure the link to the Internet stays up.
Another feature of WL2K is sending email without having WL2K software. We demonstrated this by using the Hyper Terminal, WinPack, and RCWinPacket terminal programs. We connected to the KB5HPT-10 TELPAC Gateway and sent an email. The Gateway functions like an ordinary BBS except that the message can be sent to a commercial email account. The recipient can reply to the message and the sender can retrieve the reply in much the same manor as connecting to an ordinary BBS. The Gateway compresses email it sends except for these types of messages. Therefore, size becomes important. These messages are sent in the clear. This method could be used in an emergency to get an email out to family or friends from a disaster area.
Working keyboard-to-keyboard to communicate is something that we can only do when running the Airmail program. This is not a normal function of WL2K. The clients are using the system to send and receive email. We can use the keyboard-to-keyboard function in Airmail for troubleshooting purposes. The Paclink MultiPort (MP) program does not support keyboard-to-keyboard communication.
If you have someone that connects to your WL2K station regularly then forwarding messages to them can be done from the Airmail program. Messages that are received from other stations which connect to your station or from a central station and addressed to other stations which also connect to your station can be forwarded. Routing the message is accomplished with the use of routing lists. It's a little tricky but it does work.
Midland, County:
The ARES meeting for April 2008 was held at a local rehabilitation hospital for CPR training.This training included infant, child, and adult CPR; as well as utilization of AED. There were also ARES members that attended K5PSA training and a community healthcare drill for a tornado disaster. The community healthcare drill brought to the forefront issues of emergency power, communications, policies and procedures to the healthcare providers and opened the door for EmComm for providers that were unaware of amateur radio. Also, it is worth noting that the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has the following standard that any organization must meet for accreditation:
Current Standard: EC.4.10 A back-up communication system in the event of
failure during disasters and emergencies (for example, two-way radios, cell phones).
Revised Standard: EM 02.02.01 The [organization] establishes alternative communication systems or technologies in the event that internal or external systems fail during an emergency.
The knowledge of ARES members will be beneficial to the organizations in our county to assist in the development, procurement and implementation of emergency communication policies and procedures as well as equipment.
Brewster County:
Some members of the Brewster County ARES assisted with communications for the Hammerfest bicycle race in Jeff Davis county; Brewster County ARES participated in the K5PSA net which links the hospitals and EOCs in west Texas using HF, VHF, and packet.
Jeff Davis County:
With assistance from the Big Bend Amateur Radio Club we provided communications support for the Hammerfest Bicycle race in Jeff Davis County. This is a Texas Professional Race operated by Peytons Bikes in Midland. Participating hams were KD5KBU, W5NPR, N5HXZ, KA5YPW, W5DWI, KD5RJE, KM5VM, K5TDA, K5ITT, and KE5KNQ.
Tom Green County:
The number of emergency operations this month was for Skywarn and all of the severe storms we have had in the area, to include one (possible two) tornados on 9-10 April 08 within the City of San Angelo.
Signature: J. T. Caldwell Call Sign: WA5ZFH
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Silent Key Report
Bernie Ohmes (K5DE) Canyon
L.B.(Roy) Cebik (W4RNL) Texas Tech Graduate
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West Texas Net Reports April 2008
Name/sessions/checkins
Big Bend Emergency Net: 4/162
Concho Valley 2 Meter Net: 3/49
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Coming 2008 WTX Events
May 17, 2008 Panhandle ARC Swapfest/Picnic
http://www.orgsites.com/tx/w5wx/_pgg1.php3
May 17, 2008 West Texas ARC Tailgate Odessa http://www.wtarc.org/
May 17, 2008 San Angelo ARC Tailgate San Angelo
June 13-14 Ham-Com 2008 http://www.hamcom.org
June 28-29 ARRL Field Day http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2008/02/08/101/?nc=1
Big Bend Emergency Net/ West Texas Section Net 3922 Khz Sunday at 8:30 AM CDT
Panhandle Traffic and Emergency Net 3933 KHz 7:00PM CDT
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