February, 2015

Greetings to the Hams of Michigan:  

Help Wanted  

I am looking for a very creative person or persons to assemble and maintain a website for the Michigan Section of the ARRL. Ideally, that person would be a Michigan ARRL member who is knowledgeable in the activities of the ARRL and the Michigan Section and ham radio in general. This would be in addition to a successful track record in web design and maintenance thereof.

The individual(s) would provide services per an established schedule which would include publication deadlines in addition to adding information to the website on an as-needed basis.  

This website would have a number of purposes:   

Provide a go-to place for information about the ARRL in Michigan for the hams of Michigan, the nation, and the world.  

Provide a place to go to get ham radio news from around the state.  

Provide space for the amateur radio clubs to post their club newsletters in PDF format for all to review.  

Provide a place for the Section Staff to opine and to provide information for the membership and hams in general. This could be simple informative notices or training issues or more complex items such as how-tos and projects.  

The monthly Section News Column that the Section Manager is obligated to write each month is currently published on the ARRL website. The ARRL portal is very limited, and it is difficult to upload anything from a Word environment and has less than desirable formatting characteristics.  

I would add a link to the ARRL Michigan Section Page that would direct readers to the Section website where my column would appear each month along with other timely information.

I would still need to use the ARRL portal to send the monthly column via email to Michigan ARRL members and I will just have to deal with it.  

The website would allow us to use photographs, and other graphical items to tell our story.  

The webmaster would get the same great pay as the rest of the section volunteers as well as the same sense of satisfaction that we get when we do good things for ham radio in Michigan.  

You can reach me at wb8r@arrl.org or by phone as listed on page 16 of QST magazine.  

News From Around the Section  

Michigan QSO Party  

The 2015 version of the Michigan QSO Party is scheduled for Saturday, April 18, 2015 from noon to midnight local time on 80 through 10 Meters (no WARC Bands) SSB and CW.  

This is a great, reasonably short competition that is ideal for clubs and individuals alike. Set aside time to participate in this great event and be sure to take the information to your club meetings to encourage participation. Full information is available online at: http://www.miqp.org/.  

Severe Weather Training  

Springtime will soon be on us and with that comes the convective weather season. Now is the time to make your plans to attend the annual severe weather spotter training classes that are often offered by the NWS offices around the state. In addition to the spotter training, it is time to have your local ARES/RACES meetings to get the proverbial “ducks in a row” for the upcoming severe weather season.  

2015 Club Election Results  

 2015 Delta County ARS Officers  

President – Dave Palmgren, N8DP          

Vice Pres – Walter Aho, K8WLT             

Treasurer – Lysle (Les) Elder, WA8LE

Secretary – Justin Soulia, KD8SDC 

2015 Kalamazoo Amateur Radio Club Officers  

President  -     Fred DeVries, AC8ED Vice-Pres -     

Donald Batts, WE8UPJ  Secretary  -    

Bryan Staufer, KD8PXQ Treasurer  -    

Gary Wightman, WA8MCD At Large  -     

Scott Lemmer, KD8RCI At Large  -     

Jerb Buchanan, K8WPI Trustee  -        

John Tucker, WB8ZVV    

Thank you for accepting the call to serve. Amateur radio clubs are truly the lifeblood of amateur radio.  

Hospitality Acknowledgements  

Feb 7               HARA Swap, Negaunee, MI  

It was a pleasure to attend your event and I thank you for the hospitality you have shown me.  

Section Staff Travel Plans  

March 7, 2015   Section Staff Meeting - Lansing  

Mar 14, 2015     Crossroads Hamfest (new location in Kazoo) – WB8R  

Mar 21, 2015      Lowell Swap, Lowell, MI – WB8R  

May 2, 2015       Cadillac Swap, Cadillac, MI – WB8R  

Jun 7,2015         Chelsea Swap and Shop, Chelsea, MI - WB8R  

Jun 21, 2015       Monroe Hamfest, Monroe, MI - WB8R    

Michigan Section Traffic/ARPSC Nets (All times Local)  

MACS - MI Amateur Communications System 3.952 1000 Daily  

UPN – Upper Peninsula Net 3.921 1700 Daily; Noon Sunday  

MIARPSC – MI Amateur Radio Public Service Corps 3.932 1700 Sunday  

QMN – The Michigan Net 3.563 1830 and 2200 Daily  

MITN – MI Traffic Net 3.952 1900 Daily  

MIDTN – MI Digital Traffic Net 3.583 (Olivia 8/500) in waterfall 2000 Tues, Thurs, Sat  

MIADS – MI ARES D-Star Net. Reflector 24A Mon 2000  

D8EN - District 8 Emergency Net 3.909 Wed 2100  

GLETN – Great Lakes Emergency and Traffic Net 3.932 2000 Daily  

MVTN – MI VHF Traffic Net IRA Link System 2100 Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun 

NLEUP - Northern Lower Eastern UP Net 146.64- 18:30 Daily  

SEMTN – SE MI Traffic Net 146.76- 2215 Daily  

TMMTN – Thumb Mid-Michigan Traffic Net 147.30+ 2130 Mon - Sat

More information is available at http://nts-mi.org/. Come join us on our traffic and public service nets.  

Amateur Radio Public Service Corps (ARPSC) Activities

 Station Activity Reports (SAR) for January, 2015: WB9JSR 826, K8ED 400, WB8WKQ 394, KB8RCR 210, WB8TQZ 166, K8RDN 161, N8FVM 74, WB8RCR 73, WD8USA 52, W8MSK 25, WB8SIW 22, N8UN 17, WN8QGV 16, WD8MWD 11, WB8R 10, N8OSL 8, KD8LSM 2.  

Brass Pounder’s League (BPL) for January, 2015: WB9JSR 826, K8LJG 302.  

Public Service Honor Roll (PSHR) for January, 2015: WB8R 232, KC8YVF 174, N8FVM 170, WD8USA 150, WB8RCR 123, KB8RCR 120, WB8TQZ 110, WB9JSR 110, WB8WKQ 100, K8RDN 100, WD8MWD 94, K8ED 90, N8OSL 83, KD8VUI 83, KD8LSM 31, WN8QGV 27, KC8NIY 23, WB8H 13, KC8NFN 10.  

Net traffic for January, 2015: The Michigan Net 258, Michigan Amateur Communications System 257, Michigan Traffic Net 154, Michigan VHF Traffic Net 63, Upper Peninsula Net 51, Great Lakes Emergency and Traffic Net 42, Michigan Digital Traffic Net 25, Motor City Radio Club 2 Meter Net 13, Michigan Amateur Radio Public Service Corps 6, Saginaw County ARES Net 3, District 3 ARPSC Net 3, District 3 Digital Training net 2, Red Cross Net of Greater Grand Rapids 1, Bay Area Regional Traffic System 1, Genesee County ARPSC Traffic and Training Net 0, Genesee County Radio Club , Michigan ARES D-Star net , District 5 Hospital Net .  

 Total net traffic reported: 879 If you are reporting monthly,you can see your PSHR eligibility status at http://www.nts-mi.org/. The full details are at: http://www.arrl.org/public-service-honor-roll.

This award recognizes the efforts of hams that are active in public service. Those reporting accumulate points for checking into nets, volunteering, holding Section appointment(s) and handling message traffic.  

EC’s can see their reports of Form FSD-212 here: http://ares-mi.org/ec_his.php If you send your report to WB8RCR and don’t see it noted there, send a note to John to tell him your report has gone missing.   EC’s: Be sure to share your FSD 212 with your District EC, your ARES/RACES members and with your county’s Emergency Manager and others in your jurisdiction who need to know what you and your ARES/RACES group are contributing to your community each month.  

If you have difficulty knowing how to report and how to complete the FSD 212 form, assistance is as close as your District EC or your Section EC. If you don’t know who these folks are, you can locate them here: http://ares-mi.org/ECcontact.php. They stand ready to help you.  

Until next time,  

73,  

Larry, WB8R