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Cabinet Members

SM/AD--Ron Morgan, AD9I
ASM--Mike Nowack, NA9Q
ASM/ACC--Scott DeSantis KB9VRW
ASM/STM Roy R Eades, KA9MZJ
SEC--Fritz Bock, WD9FMB
OOC/AD--Tim Childers K9CQ
PIC -- Vicky Whitaker, KD9BAU
SGL -- Charlie Richie K9DUE
TC--John Dinnella WA9IL 
ASEC--Robert Littler W9DSR
ASEC--Danny Pease NG9R
ASEC--Garret Robinson KC9FVK
ASEC--Pat Ryan KC6VVT
ASEC Pat Stowell, N9PN
ASEC--Gary Shanks KA9FAJ
ASEC--Curtis Williams W5DTR                                                   

District Emergency Coordinators:

Region 2--Lloyd Sherman KB9APW,
Region 3--Dale Marzano N9JH, ADEC Debby Gray, WX9VOR
Region 4--Neil Ormos N9NL,
Region 6--Gary Shanks KA9FAJ,
Region 7--Josh Kittle, N9WEW,
Region 8--Curtis Williams W5DTR, ADEC Chris Pixton KC9EIZ
Region 9--Jim Hudson WB9QPM,
Region 11--Bruce Talley WA9APQ

Newsletter Topics
1. Section Manager – On the Road
2. Section Appointments
3. Solar Eclipse
4. Illinois ARES Meeting in Conjunction with IEMA Training Summit
5. What is a Local Government Liason?
6. Chicago Marathon
7. Net Reports

1. Section Manager – On the Road

I managed to attend two Saturday hamfest events, Carlinville on August 5th and Quincy (Paloma) on August 12th, which gave this SM some face time with the local amateur community.  Both events seem to be well attended. I was not able to spend as much time in Quincy as planned due to a family committment on Saturday afternoon.

The SMC Fest - will be held in Bloomington on August 26th at the Hyatt Place. They have plenty of 1st class forums on the agenda.

Peoria Superfest , September 15-17

W9DXCC, September 15-17 Woodfield (www.w9dxcc.com)

Chicago Marathon, Sunday October 8^th

ARRL HQ, Ocober 13-15 Section Manager workshop

Metropolis – Encampment on Friday October 20^th and Saturday October 21^st

2. Section Appointments

One of the best parts of the Section Manager position is making appointment to the Field Organization. Here are the current volunteers.

In collaboration with Dale Marzano, N9JH, District 3, District Emergency Coordinator, Debby Gray, WX9VOR, has accepted the position of Assistant District Emergency Coordinator for District 3.

As a General Class Licensee, Debbie has an extensive technical background in electronics and computer technology. Early on, she was introduced to both shortwave and ham radio in grade school thanks to her grandfather who supplied her with electronics kits (Morse key, crystal radio, etc.), and later through her college adviser who was a very active ham and participated in the local Civil Defense volunteer group. After an active career in IT, including working for Hewlett-Packard for 15 years, she was able to pick up a couple of old pursuits she loved – storm spotting and radio.

In collaboration with Charles Richie, K9DUE, State Government Liaison, Dale Russell, K9ELI, has been appointed as Local Government Liaison LGL to Union County.
Dale lives in the City of Buncombe which lies in the southern part of the Section. He has been a ham radio operator for 2 years.

Dale is a Commissioner in Union County, and has served as a Firefighter for 27 years retiring in 2012. Dale also served in the Army from 1980 to 1984.

Dale took the initiative to complete a self nomination using form FSD-187 from the ARRL Website.

I am extremely pleased to announce that Vicky Whitaker KD9BAU has accepted the position of PIC, Public Information Coordinator for the ARRL Illinois Section. Vicky will replace Fritz Bock WD9FMB who has held two cabinet positions for the past several months. Vicky is extremely well qualified for this role and the Section will be well served by this appointment. Please join me as we welcome Vicky to this role.

3. Solar Ecipse

From our ARES group and the SEC (I removed information that did not add to the eclipse). What we can do now...   1) Monitor 3.905 Mhz on the 80 meter band.  Several ARES stations will be on that frequency starting on Aug 19th through August 22nd.  Jim WB9QPM, in Shelbyville will be on frequency much of the time and don't forget the Illinois Sideband Net 3.905mhz 6:00pm Daily. NTS Traffic Net. Web site http://qsl.net/isn/index.html  Jim is the Net Manager for this.     2) Ensure that ham radio operators can be assigned in a moments notice.   3) Ensure that your VHF/UHF nets are ready to go.  
  Additionally, it must be remembered that ARC of Greater St. Louis and ARC of Southeast MO, oversees 9 counties in Illinois that border Missouri.  Please be aware that those nine counties may have different issues/marching orders  than the other counties in Illinois.  It is imperative that we have a close relationship with each other and communicate when there is a question or new information coming out.

4. Illinois ARES Meeting in Conjunction with IEMA Training Summit (formerly "IEMA Conference") September 5th in Springfield 10:00 til 2:00.  For those wanting to attend, please register at the following site:

https://www.illinois.gov/iema/Training/Summit/Pages/default.aspx

Our team is planning several ARES meeting about the section, this is one of those that will coordinate with some of our served agencies.  It’s important that we provide a face to amateur radio. Hopefully some will be able to join us.   A big topic will be the Solar Eclipse Event and how well the Amateur communitty was able to participate.

5. What are the (LGL) Local Goverment Liasons?

In brief: The Local Government Liaison (LGL) monitors local government dockets, offers local, organized support when necessary, and is known in the local amateur community as the point. LGLs  report to the State Government Liaison, (Charles Richie K9DUE).

Responsibilities:

Monitors proposals and actions by officials which may affect Amateur Radio, for working with the local PIO to alert section leadership officials to any such proposals for coordinating local responses.

Serves as a primary contact for amateurs encountering problems dealing with local government agencies.

Monitor proposals of legislative or regulatory agencies or officials below the state level.

Attend meetings when possible, to become familiar with their policies, procedures and members.

Be available to educate elected and appointed officials about the value of Amateur Radio.

Work with the PIO or PIC to of any proposals of actions which may affect Amateur Radio, and report regularly on progress to the SGL.

Work with the PIO to organize the necessary local response to any significant proposals, and coordinate that response.

Work with the PIO and local clubs to build and/or maintain good relations between Amateur Radio and local officials.

6. Chicago Marathon From Rob Orr:
Folks…once again time to get ready for the 2017 marathon.  It will be held Sunday, October 8th.

Over the years, the ham team has been able to demonstrate just how effective we can be as a communications team for the event’s volunteer medical staff.  As a result, our role has grown. We could easily use 150 volunteers.  We have expanded our support in the final mile, Grant Park and increased staffing in several event hospitals and medical stations.  We need you!  In fact, with the crisis happening with many of the email services, many of you may have changed your addresses…and this might end up as spam or not get to you at all. So, please send this note to your colleagues just to make sure we get the word out.

This is a great place to develop your public service skills…and some of those you can do before the event. We encourage everyone to take the ICS (Incident Command Structures) courses, especially ICS 100, 200, 700 and 800. But, even if you have had no public service radio experience, we will post you with some others who have worked this event.  Still, you need to do the reading, watch the videos and be willing to serve the cause.

 As in past years, there will be a two part registration process. Part one is here…with our system to help us organize our team.  Please go to this site: (By the way, this is not the most mobile friendly app…best to do this on a desktop computer.)

 https://goo.gl/forms/HPSVilEUlJEE7FS62

7. Net Report

Got 80 Meter capability? Join us on Sunday afternoon June 4^th an June 18^th at 4:30 PM on 3.905 Mhz.  We call the amateurs by county and would love to hear from more of you.  I find it interesting to listen for stations to ID about the state and see how well the various stations are able to transfer information.

From Roy Eades KA9MZJ ASM/STM Illinois Section would like to propose that each ARES organization at the county level select one or more ARES members that would be willing to check into the Illinois Sideband net that meets daily at 1800 local time on 3905 at least once a week in order to receive incoming traffic for their county. This way they would get the experience of working with an organized traffic net, learn the message handling procedures etc. We provide training on the air as needed. If we can’t do this at the county level  then perhaps we could do it at the district level. For the NTS side it would also give us more outlets for delivering incoming messages. (A strong turnout prepares us for future events and callout, join in. Ron Morgan AD9I)

Section ARRL Traffic Nets

NCPN – North Central Phone Net, Net Manager KA9MZJ
Monday thru Friday 07:00 Central Time on 3912khz

IPN – Illinois Phone Net, Net Manager KA9MZJ
Monday thru Friday 16:45 Central time on 3857khz
Sunday 08:00 Central Time on 3940khz

ISN – Illinois Sideband Net, Net Manager WB9QPM
Daily 18:00 Central Time on 3905khz

ILN – Illinois CW Traffic net, Net Manager W9NXM
Daily 19:15 Central Time on 3535khz

IAN – Illinois ARES Net, Fritz Bock, WD9FMB
1^st & 3^rd Sundays of each month on 3.905 Mhz