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Monthly Summary for February 2010
News last updated: Sun, January 17, 2010 at 4:52 PM ET
Surf to www.sflarrl.org to view section data and recent e-mail news. Take a look at the site and if information about your county is missing ask your EC or Club President to send the information to Jeremy.
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Please check the affiliated club listing and update the contact name, phone number, e-mail and web site address. You won't get new club members is your club can't be contacted and the meeting sites can't be located. Also, be sure to appoint a publicity chairperson in order to have local media outlets contacted for meeting dates and club events.
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Displays for public events: The ARRL Web page has a new on-line page that enables someone to conveniently place an order (using credit card) for event and exhibit kit materials. The direct Web page link is http://www.arrl.org/brochures/. I visited the site and completed an order for a full exhibit kit with 2 large and 3 small brochure holders, brochures, and 75 extra of each the following: ARES, When All Else Fails, We Do That, and Hello. Total cost was for shipping to my zip code -- about $25. This is certainly less than ordering each brochure separately and less than the cost of the just the holders from your local office supply store. Take a look and have your club PIO order a kit and extra brochures for the club. These will make your public displays look more professional.
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Hamfests and Free Fleas--
Any hamfest, no matter what size may request ARRL sanctioning. Please see: http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/hamfests/rules.html for hamfest and convention rules
See:
http://www.arrl.org/awards/dxcc/checkers.html for the list of ARRL awards checkers. If you wish to have an awards checker at your hamfest these arrangements must be made by the hamfest committee and the cards checker.
If you wish to have cards checked at a location other than a hamfest contact the card checkers directly
*** for details on submitting cards for DXCC awards go to: http://www.freewebs.com/fecdx/dxcccardchecking.htm
"A great hamfest is usually one that you find something you wanted or something you thought you would never see," says Bill, W2CQ.
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Section policy has been and will continue to be: if health, family or work matters interfere with an appointee performing the duties of the appointment he/she may step aside without hard feelings and may apply for an appointment at a later date when the other matters are settled.
Amateur radio in Oregon received a lot of favorable press and praise from government officials for their work during and after the recent storms. Why? Because there were PIOs (Public Information Officers) working with ARES to get the information out in real time and the PIOs were available to the media. Where does your ARES group stand in this area?
Need to know who your ARES® Emergency Coordinator is? When the traffic nets are held? Hamfests throughout the area? How to complete the Public Service Honor Roll (PSHR) report? Go to: www.sflarrl.org
Need traffic handling procedures? Need information about ARES® and RACES functions? Can't find information on your individual traffic count for your Station Activity Report? Go to: http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/pscm/index.html
I will be happy to mail traffic handling information to anyone interested...
Just ask. de KA4FZI@ AOL.COM
SFAN (Saturday at 8AM local, 3.940MHz ), Net Manager is Thom, N5KFR.
All ECs are encouraged to check into these nets or send an OES representative if you cannot join the net. All ARES members are welcome to join the nets.
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If your weekly net and local repeater has IRLP or Echolink check-in available please let Karen K8KB, Phylisan KA4FZI and I know. Also advise the ARES EC in your county and the neighboring counties. This information could be useful during disasters.
If you are going out of town for more than a few days when the season is quiet or more than 48 hours with a system beginning, please notify your local EC. Time is of the essence when a phone tree is activated or when members are phoned after they do not check into a resource net. And, especially if you can't deploy to a shelter or to another area, please offer your time to phone members, enter logs into a database, provide route directions, or other at-home activities. Everyone can do something.
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Check into a net - better to learn how now than during a disaster!
FMSN (FL Medium Speed CW Net) 3.651 Daily 6:30 PM
QFN (All FL CW Traffic Net) 3.547 Daily 7:00 PM, 10:00 PM
FAST (FL Amateur Sideband Traffic Net) 3.940 Daily 6:00 PM
FMTN (FL Midday Traffic Net 7.242 Daily 12:00 Noon
FPTN (Friendly Phone Traffic Net -- FL AL GA) 3.940 Daily 7:55 AM
NFAN (North FL ARES Net) 3.950 M-S 9:00 AM
NFPN (North FL Phone Net) 3.950 Daily 5:30 PM Winter 6:30 PM Summer
SFAN (South FL ARES Net) 3.940 Sat 8:00 AM
TPTN (Tropical Phone Traffic Net) 3.940 Daily 5:00 PM
SEFTN (Southeast FL Traffic Net) (2 meter) 146.790- Daily 6:00 PM
SWFTN (Southwest FL Traffic Net) (2 meter) 146.685 M-S 10:00 AM
http://wx4j.com -- A great place to check for other ARES/NTS info
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Does your club have a Publicity Chairperson? Is there a Public Information Officer for your ARES group? Are these people actively promoting amateur radio on an ongoing basis and are they known at the EOC by the county or city PIO? For more information read the e-magazine Contact, at www.arrl.org/pio
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OP ED
(From time to time an op ed article will appear here)
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Field Day - What It Really Is
Op-Ed by W4WR
I'd like to share some of my personal thoughts about Field Day. I should also mention that these opinions in no way reflect the positions of the ARRL, either Headquarters or our Section Manager and are strictly my own.
The discussion seems to have gone on for years. And still, no one can agree. The opinions are so equally divided that I know a consensus will never - now or in the future - be reached.
The discussion is always the same. "It's a contest!" insisted 50%. No, it's emergency preparedness countered the other 50%. And so, back and forth it goes year after year.
During my tenure as Section Manager (yes, I had a life before I moved to Florida) each year I would travel to 15 or so FD sites over the weekend. Some were pretty plushy and some were a bit more primitive. Most were somewhere in the middle. And after so many years and so many Field Days, I finally decided what Field Day was.
Today I hear clubs happily announcing the procurement of a 50 foot comm van they got from their Office of Emergency Management (OEM) or how they had reserved the sheltered pavillion on the ocean with rest rooms and BBQ grills. (Nothing wrong with either of those, by the way.) Planning meetings start in January, a full six months ahead of the event. Some clubs start their Field Day planning for the following year immediately after the break down on Sunday.
So, I thought, how realistic was all of this for an actual emergency? Would ARES® groups and clubs all leave their homes to gather together in a comm van after a tornado? Would they set up 10 towers with a crane right after a flood? Why would they all come together to provide emergency comms in a field? Is this a realistic scenario for a disaster? I didn't think so.
If you wanted to practice your skills as a disaster communicator, first you needed to be trained in the Disaster protocol for your area Emergency Management organization, then you needed to participate in the annual SET (Simulated Emergency Test). The ARRL describes SET as follows: "The ARRL Simulated Emergency Test is a nationwide exercise in emergency communications, administered by ARRL Field Organization Leaders including Emergency Coordinators, District Emergency Coordinators, Section Emergency Coordinators and Net Managers. Many other Section Leaders like the Section Manager and the Section Traffic Manager may have a hand in planning the exercises and/or reviewing the results. Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES), National Traffic System (NTS), Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) and other public-service oriented groups can be involved. The SET weekend gives communicators the opportunity to focus on the emergency-communications capability within your community while interacting with NTS nets.
But when it comes to Field Day, even the ARRL endorses two points of view. They provide a database where groups where the locations of FD sites would be listed. The League's web site boasts a full page dedicated to Field Day with such topics as:
* Field Day Package (requires Adobe Reader)
* Field Day Station Locator
* 2009 Field Day Press Kit (Word)
* Order Field Day t-shirts, pins, supplies
* W1AW Field Day Bulletin Schedule
* Event Exhibit Materials
* Public Service Announcement
and much more. All of this was listed under the auspices of the "Contest" Branch. Confusing? You bet!
So the rush is on. A rush of planning on who is going to bring the chili, how much to charge for meal tickets, what software would be used for logging and what call sign would be the most prestigious?
Does any of this sound like it is appropriate planning for an UNPLANNED disaster? What does Field Day have to do with "Emergency Communications"?
So it must be a contest, right? Wrong. Have you even seen a contest with 15 people in a field? Even the most serious Field Day operators admit that they are just out there to have some FUN. The camaraderie of getting the club and their families together and just having a good old time is the main objective for most Field Days.
So how can this be a contest? The only thing in common between the "Field Day Disaster Drill" and the "Field Day Contest" is, "who's bringing the chili?"
I live in south Florida, a disaster waiting to happen. A close friend of mine said, "When a communication crisis hits here in Southeastern Florida hams don'tusually end upoperating from parking garages, pavilions, 50 foot air conditioned van or even tents - many end up in their own houses without commercial electricity and with their outdoor antennas either non existent or downed by the bad weather."
So what is Field Day, really? Field Day is our annual public relations event. Your PIO should be the most important player. He/she should be calling the Selectman or the Mayor, or the County Commissioners or whoever runs your town, city, or county. Invite your Office of Emergency Management, the Fire Chief, the Police Chief, the County Sheriff, hospital administrators, CERT teams and Team Leaders, and representatives from your ARES®/RACES groups. Call the newspapers, the TV stations, the radio stations, and especially invite the general public...whoever has the capability to get the word out and those who need to hear it. Prepare exhibits and "hands on" projects for the kids in attendance. And be prepared to deal with the public as much as you do with your food menu. Dedicate a significant part of your resources to Tour Guides, an Information Table, easy to understand handouts, and well spoken representatives of our contributions to the community.
Field Day is an opportunity that only comes once a year. We wonder why we are "unsung heroes". It's our own fault. We have to take advantage of the two days a year we can blow our own horn - to become "sung heroes", to let the public know we are here, what we do and why we do it.
Torn jeans and stained t-shirts are NOT the order of the day. Take pride in your professionalism. Look sharp. Wear your club or ARRL badge. Let the public know we are not a bunch of rag-tag geeks. We are lawyers, engineers, teachers, real estate agents, and telephone linemen. We are people who make things happen.
Paul Harvey said, "America's quiet warriors are the legion of ham radio operators, 700,000 of them, who are always at ready for backup duty in emergencies -- amateur, unpaid, uncelebrated, civilian radio operators, during and after floods and fires and tornadoes..... and right now, at this moment, they are involved in homeland security to a greater degree than you would want me to make public." (Paul Harvey News and Comment, ABC Radio, March 19, 2003)
Those words did more for Amateur Radio than a thousand Field Days could do. Now, imagine a thousand Field Days doing what Paul Harvey did -- speaking out for our tremendous commitment to volunteerism. We need to look at Field Day a little differently.
With all your preparations for Field Day, are you prepared to deal with the important officials you have invited? Are you prepared for the three minute drill: explaining the "who, what, why, where and how" of Amateur Radio? Will you be proud of the way you look on the 11:00 pm news?
So, both sides are wrong! Field Day is our annual PIO event. Let's hear it for the "unsung" and under-appreciated PIO's in the Field. Field Day is their day!
© copyright 2009 Warren L Rothberg. All rights reserved. All trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners.
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Say Hello to your world with Amateur Radio. Stay on the air, talk up ham radio, support your local club and emergency communications group.
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