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ARRL Southern Florida Section (SFL) |
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Hi Everyone, First, here are the reports. Station Activity and Net Reports: SFL SAR's for October 2009: WD4DNC 535, WA4BAM 266, KA4FZI 133, KE4CB 130, KC4TM 13, W9MSS 11, KB9ABX 9, N8BGJ 8, K9GCF 1 SFL PSHR's for October 2009: KE4CB 125, KA4FZI 120 ============ SFL PSHR's for October 2009: KE4CB 125, KA4FZI 120 ============ Nets for October 2009: NET, ABB., SESS, QNI, QTC, QND, MGR All Florida CW Traffic Net, QFN, 62, 475, 333, 1083, AD4DO Broward Co. Emer. Prep. Net, BCEPN, 4, 14, 62, 130, KI4JRT Florida Amateur SSB Traffic Net, FAST, 31, 408, 88, -----, K4SCL Florida Medium Speed Net, FMSN, 31, 253, 103, 636, AG4RJ/AB4XK Glades County ARES Net, GCAN, 5, 48, 2, 79, N5KFR Jupiter Com Emer Resp Team, JCERT, 8, 46, 10, 210, AG4BV/W4FK Jupiter-Tequesta Rptr Group, JTRG, 8, 55, 19, 297, AG4BV/W4FK Palm Beach County Ares Net, PBCAN, 8, 122, 23, 229, AG4BV/W4FK Southeast Florida Traffic Net, SEFTN, 32, 731, 88, 1413, AG4RJ/KI4IQZ Southwest Florida Traffic Net, SWFTN, 27, 435, 120, 2225, KE4CB/N9WS ============ October QNI 2587 (+70) QTC 848 (+108) Going strong in spite of the bad band conditions and contests. Let's keep up the great work NTSers! 73, de Phil KA4FZI ------------------------- ARES Reports from Karen, K8KB: Total reported number of ARES members in the 10 counties reporting: 926 DECs/ECs reporting: N4LEM, KJ4AWB, N5KFR, WA4ASJ, W4LWZ, K8KB, AD4RZ, N4ZIQ, K4DLF, W4ZE ARES nets act: 13, Sessions: 48, nets with NTS liaison: 6 Drills, tests and training sessions this month: 43, Person hours 638 No public service events or emergency operations this month. Total ARES operations: 43, Person hours 738 SFL ARES Net Report --- QNI 48, QTC 2, Time 79 Min. Comments: Join me in welcoming Larry Zimmer, W4LWZ as the new EC for Lee County. Broward & Palm Beach: Carol Sjursen, KJ4AWB, Broward County EC & David Fowler, K4DLF, Palm Beach County EC combined their efforts for the 2009 ARRL Simulated Emergency Test (SET) on Saturday, October 3rd. This year’s combined SET gave communicators in both counties the opportunity to focus on amateur radio simulated emergency communications within a simplex environment. Participants were informed that a major hurricane severely impacted Broward and Palm Beach counties and that all of the repeaters were out of commission. Traffic needed to be passed between the Staging Areas, EOCs, shelters and PODs in the two counties. The only way to accomplish this was through the use of relays in simplex mode. There were 70 participants, 50 of which operated on emergency power, and 28 were newer hams. In addition, the Southeast Florida Traffic Net held a special session of the net logging 27 check-ins. As a part of the NTS, this net passed formal written traffic on behalf of the two counties during the SET. Each of the SET participants received a Certificate of Appreciation for their efforts. The goal of passing “long distance” VHF simplex communications between the two counties was accomplished, proving that the use of relays and liaisons between the counties could be used in the absence of working repeaters. Indian River: Participated in NE Division webinar on Part 97.113 compliance. Martin: Martin County held their SET during the week ending Oct 17th. On Sunday afternoon tests were made to insure we still had more than one communication option available in the event we lost all of the antennas at the EOC. Tuesday evening Oct 13th the we activated the Martin County automated call out system and announced a resource net in the place of the weekly net for Thursday. Net Control for the Thursday night net was held from the amateur radio room at the EOC and assignments for the next phase of the SET were made. On Saturday a portable battery powered hf station was setup outside in front of the EOC in time to check into the SFL ARES net and pass traffic although this is not normally a traffic net. Then after some instructions every one was deployed to 1 of 4 locations for the final phase of the SET. Altogether we had approximately 30 participants and there were many lessons learned of which most were positive. ---------------------------------------------- Part 97.113 compliance continues to be actively discussed. This was one of the topics at the ARES Leadership Workshop held on November 7 at the EOC in St Lucie County. ECs from 8 of our counties attended along with several ARES PIOs and Training Officers. Among the topics discussed were Relationship Building within ARES and with served agencies, Public Relations for ARES, training opportunities and how to select instructors, Responder Stress, Recruiting, special challenges in individual counties, and SET Planning. Everyone came away with new ideas and new relationships with other counties. --------------------------------------------- Two items to write to your Director and Vice Director about. These are items that will be discussed at the next ARRL Board of Directors meeting in January 2010. 1) ARRL Emergency Communications Advisory Committee. Should there be one? The Committee would be like the other advisory committees that provide twice yearly formal reports and ongoing informal advice and counsel to the board, this committee would be the drivers of EMComm policy. As an example: the Contest Advisory Committee (CAC) keeps themselves abreast of the current state of contesting throughout the world and tries to keep the League current as it administers and operates its contests. Every board member is not necessarily a contester, so an expert advisory panel is a ‘trusted’ committee that keeps the board supplied with the best and latest information available. This allows the board to make good decisions with respect to contesting. An EMComm Advisory Committee would be comprised of EMComm experts pulled from the Field and a couple of HQ folks-- to include Dennis-- to keep the board apprised on the current state of the art with respect to Emergency Communications. 2) The ARRL has not committed to any position on revision of part 97.113. A petition for rule making has been filed with the FCC to allow paid employees with amateur licenses to participate in drills and training. Here is a link to that filing: http://n5fdl.com/storage/ARPC%20Part%2097%20Petition%20Final.pdf That's all for now. Stay safe and stay on the air. 73, Sherri, W4STB