March Section Manager's Report, Covering February

++Safety Note++

Spring is in the air, finally! The unofficial season of “indecision” is on its way out the door, and good riddance, too.

We can finally get out and about, and work on our maintenance on our antennas, towers, lawns, and everything else that we have. There are lots of things that can hurt us out there, so make sure to wear eye protection, gloves, and any other safety gear that may be called for. And remember to always have a second person close by who can call for assistance in the event that you cannot.

++Affiliated Club Coordinator++

From Mike WA8AHZ:

+++Engaging Inactive Hams in the Neighborhood+++

ARRL makes the point “As licensed Hams we are all ambassadors of Amateur Radio and we should always be looking at ways in which we can welcome newly licensed hams and project a positive image that will attract others to Ham radio.”  But ELMERing should not be just for the new Ham.  Consider the many licensed Hams in Virginia who haven’t been on the air for years, or even decades.  As active Hams, consider reaching out to find an inactive Ham in your neighborhood, and invite him/her back to the hobby.  How to find an inactive Ham near you?  Consider using the following app.  Look for a Ham you don’t know with an older issued radio call sign, and a “low” QRZ lookups number.  https://haminfo.tetranz.com/map

+++Virginia QSO Party, and Virginia’s VOTA Activation of W1AW/4+++

Are you planning to work the VA QSO Party (VQP) on March 18-19^th?  If you are, you'll be helping us to put the VQP on the map!  We are historically ranked behind the PA, FL and CA QSO parties, based on the number of log entries submitted.  Just 100 more operators activating across Virginia would make a huge difference!  As a special incentive, this year during the VQP you can sign up and operate as W1AW/4.  ARRL has requested Virginia help celebrate the contributions of thousands of ARRL volunteers during Virginia's activation of Volunteers on the Air (VOTA) event.  Can’t make the VQP this year, then still consider signing up to work as W1AW/4 from March 15^th thru the 21^st. 

·        To sign up for working as W1AW/4, see:   http://bit.ly/3iYqWCS 

·        VQP Rules are at: https://www.qsl.net/sterling/VA_QSO_Party/2023_VQP/2023_VAQP_Rules.pdf  and

·        ARRL VOTA rules are at:  http://www.arrl.org/volunteers-on-the-air

Questions, contact Evan, KM4SK at evanmann <at> aol <dot> com

73,

Michael Aimone, WA8AHZ

ARRL VA Section Affiliated Club Coordinator

++Upcoming Events++

+++Hamfests+++

Winterfest - The National Capital Area Ham Radio Fair 03/19/2023

Location: Oakton High School
2900 Sutton Rd.
Vienna, VA 22180
Website: https://viennawireless.net/wp/events/winterfest/
Sponsor: Vienna Wireless Society
Type: ARRL Hamfest
Talk-In: K4HTA repeater, 146.685 MHz, Offset: -0.600 MHz, CTCSS of 110.9 Hz
Public Contact: John Higi , W4FSO
9893 Georgetown Pike No. 153 Great Falls, VA 22066
Phone: 703-216-8368
Email: john_higi@yahoo.com

ThawFest 04/22/2023

Location: American Legion Greene County Post 128
636 Madison Road
Stanardsville, VA 22973
Website: http://gcvarc.net
Sponsor: Greene County VA ARC
Type: ARRL Hamfest
Talk-In: 145.470 / -0.6 / PL151.4
Public Contact: Tim Stevens , KM4YRX
1196 Allen Farm Lane Earlysville, VA 22936
Phone: 434-960-5555
Email: farmert@bigtomato.us

W4OVH Ole Virginia Tailgate 06/03/2023

Location: Field Across from Signal Hill Park
9300 Signal View Dr. Manassas Park
Manassas Park, VA
Website: https://w4ovh.net/tailgate/
Sponsor: W4OVH Ole Virginia Hams
Type: ARRL Hamfest
Talk-In: 146.970
Public Contact: Don Meyerhoff , WA2SWX
14014 Betsy Ross Ln. Centreville, VA 20121
Phone: 703-597-3211
Email: wa2swxdm@gmail.com

We currently do not have a Section Convention host, and here are currently no other hamfests or conventions in the Commonwealth. Please submit any requests for an ARRL sanctioned event, go to http://arrl.org/arrl-sanctioned-events and follow the instructions there. Remember that all of the requests go through the Section Manager and the Division Director, so allow for plenty of time for these to be reviewed. Please reach out to me if you’d like to get your club (or combination of clubs) to host the Section Convention.

+++Contest Calendar+++

April 2023

16       Rookie Roundup – Phone

May 2023 (no ARRL Contests) - don't forget our     
year-long Volunteers On The Air Event
https://vota.arrl.org

The calendar can also be found at https://www.arrl.org/contest-calendar

+++Virginia QSO Party+++

The VA QSO party, hosted by Sterling Park Amateur Radio Club is on the same time/date slot as the first of two rounds where we will have “guest” operators as W1AW/4, so that will be a great opportunity to get some twofers (or maybe threefers or fourfers!) in the logs. Mike is working on trying to get some coverage into the harder to get Counties/Independent Cities, and Suzy KD5YBF and I are planning to fire up the land barge and going to SW VA to activate some of those down there. We’re going to make that a week or more long, with the first weekend being devoted to the QSO party, and the remaining time to meeting with folks, and getting on the air from some of the beautiful State and Federal lands.

++Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES)++

+++ARES February Report+++

As you’ll no doubt notice, this month’s report looks a little odd. The ARRL is moving to a new reporting system, and it has some fields that have not yet been clearly defined, so it doesn’t quite mesh with the “paper” forms yet. Marty KE4KEW has arranged for Josh Johnston KE5MHV to give a presentation on the status of the upcoming changes to the reporting system.

The following information was submitted by Martin Krupinski, KE4KEW, VA SEC for Virginia, February, 2023 at 2023-03-06 13:14:00

 

Total number of DECs/ECs appointed in section:                     47

Number of DECs/ECs reporting this month:                           39

Total number of ARES members:                                     686

Member total change from last report:                             -16

Number of ARES net sessions held:                                 112

Number of ARES net sessions held with NTS liaison:                 26

Number of participants in nets:                                     0

 

                                     Number  Person-Hrs

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Exercises this month:                   98      755.20

Training events this month:              0        0.00

Public service events this month:        0        0.00

Community service events this month:     7      272.00

Emergency events this month:             1       24.00

SKYWARN events this month:               1        4.00

Meetings this month:                     0        0.00

Unclassified events this month:          0        0.00

 

Call signs of DECs/ECs reporting:

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DISTRICT 1: DAVID ELKINS KN4LQN, MARK ROBINSON N4MDR, GLENN WELLS KY4LP, ALLAN MAY WD4ITE, RON STOWELL W1RVR, DAVID E ROBERTS K4FOY

 

DISTRICT 2: MIKE MOORE K4MVM, MARK LINDSEY KD6AKC, DAVE ADSIT KG4BIR, SCOTT LARIMER KN4RPA, STEVE BOWMAN KN4AOB, STEVE BOWMAN KN4AOB, GEORGE GRAY W4GVK, JOHN NORMAN WA4JN, JACK DEEM JR KJ4ELI

 

DISTRICT 3: MIKE MCPHERSON KQ9P, DAVID TANKS AD4TJ, BRYAN DANIELS K4RMY, G.P "GEEP" HOWELL WA4RTS, MANNY RODRIGUEZ K4MSR, RORY GRIFFIN W4RJG

 

DISTRICT 4: ROBERT HARTLEY WB7EDM

 

DISTRICT 5: WILLIAM SIEFERS KM4YSI, WAYNE ROGERS N1WR, CHRIS COURSON KC4CNR, RICK ROSS KG4TAX, RANDY GRIGG WB4KZI,

 

DISTRICT 6: STEPHEN PRESTI W4SVP, HOWARD WOOD WA4PGI, DARRELL LITTLE KI4LLA, HAROLD DE VUYST K4YNO, J.C. HASSALL W4BEA, JERRY MOATS WD4ITN

 

DISTRICT 7: BRENDAN O'NEILL KM4HRR, RICHARD BUNN N4ASX, SCOTT MORSE WB6EFW, DAVID LANE KG4GIY, RICHARD CORRIGAN KH7RC, GARY SESSEMS KC5QCN

 

Activity Details:

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From District 7 Remarks: "ARES Alexandria and Alexandria Radio Club provided support for the Gworge Washington's parade. 911 went out and ARES was put on standby system was returned to service after 4 hous 6 operators responded"

 

Administrative and Other Comments:

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Total Op Hours:  107

Total Man Hours: 1055.2

Please remember that your reports are essential for demonstrating to our partner organizations that we have the capability and capacity to assist them in their communications needs, and are the responsibility of every EC to complete monthly, no later than the 2^nd of each month.  This has proven so valuable that in the past month alone we have had three Emergency Managers reach out to us to establish or re-establish ARES units in the Counties/Independent Cities. Or, in other words, this is a very big deal!

++Get On The Air (GOTA) For Life Initiative++

Ed KW4GF reports that a Gota for Life (G4L) Design Team meeting took place on February 16,2023. The Design Team discussed their January meeting with Josh Nass KI6NAZ. Jim K3MRI introduced the team to his fairly new website Hamcommunity.com which is a new tool for collaboration. This site is open to all hams. 

The team will learn in May about the needs of hams who are senior citizens. Also, the team will be tasked with following a ham in their club who is returning or new in order to use some of the strategies that the team has discussed over the past year. For more information about G4L, contact Ed KW4GF at KW4GF@ARRL.net

Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the link to the discussion on Josh Nass’s (KI6NAZ) YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qRO4HNh260

++Richmond Amateur Radio Club license exam prep classes++

Announcing! Classroom Training to upgrade to General or Amateur Extra!

Richmond Amateur Radio Club (RARC) has extended the registration for General and Amateur Extra test prep classes to March 17, 2023.

The cost for the class is $22, the study guides are $20-$33 depending on the license class, plus fees for testing and FCC ($35)

Class size is limited so visit this web page now for more information and to register: 
https://rarclub.net/license/class-schedules/

++Section Traffic Manager Report/Public Service Honor Roll Report++

Va Section Traffic News

Station Activity Report (SAR) and Public Service Honor Roll (PSHR) Reports for February

KK4PUX – SAR – 42, PSHR – 215
N3SW – SAR- 16, PSHR – 48
W4CAC – SAR – 31, PSHR – 181

Net Reports for February

Va Net (CW) – QTC – 43, QND-279, QNI – 129
Va Sideband Net – QTC – 13/8, QND-178,  QNI – 173
Ports ARC – QTC – 0, QND-46, QNI – 26
Floyd ARS – QTC-0, QND – 66, QNI – 24
NVTN – QTC – 10/8, QND – 854, QNI – 532

The VN is a CW net and we just recently changed frequency.  The VN can now be found on 3553 kHz every evening at 7 PM local time.

We are trying to update our list of Nets in the section.  Please let me know your net information so we can update the Section web page as well as the Section‘s Wiki pages and on the Net Calendar.  Please get your March reports to me early enough that I can turn in to ARRL by the 6^th of April. This way the reports can be published in QST!

73, Carl, W4CAC, w4cac@cox.net

++Section Manager Close-out++

We continue to work on getting folks to activate the rarest counties for the Virginia QSO Party. The Southwestern portion of the state has the most of those, but there are a few scattered about. The Sterling Park Amateur Radio Club (SPARC) has provided a graphic that shows those hot spots. You can find that at https://emcommwiki.org/index.php/Virginia#Volunteers_On_The_Air

Also, the Volunteers On The Air Event overlaps with the March round of the W1AW/4 Virginia activation, so this is a great opportunity for a “two-fer!” Please let me or Mike WA8AHZ know if you’d like to help out on the activation of either W1AW/4, or some of those rare counties/independent cities. Suzy KD5YBF and I are planning to attempt activation of some of those.

Keep an ear out for us! We’d love to hear you on the air!

73,

Jack KE4LWT