June Virginia Section Manager’s Report

++

Safety message.

Summer is here, and so is the heat! Field day brings a lot of us outdoors for the first time in a good while, so be extra careful out there. Working in the heat makes people get frustrated easily, and eagerness to get antennas up and on the air quickly can lead to missteaks. Look out for overhead lines, trip hazards, and the signs of heat illness. Also remember that you’ll need to have an RF exposure limits evaluation done for any new installs.

For heat injury/illness tips, see https://www.ready.gov/heat
For information on the RF exposure analysis process, see http://arrl.org/rf-exposure

++

Field Day (25-26 June)

Field Day is ham radio's open house. Put on your best operating face, and imagine if you will that it’s an open house where you’re trying to sell a home, or maybe showing off a car to sell, or even applying for that dream job! You want to look your best so that you can get folks interested, and maybe to either use our services in the future, or even to become licensed themselves. Take the time to show off in a way that’s welcoming and informative. Remember to post signage so that people can get to your site easier. Maybe reach out to your local community’s Facebook page and post it as an event with the times and location. Take lots of photos, and post on social media using the hashtag #ARRLFD. Not only does it get you 100 bonus points, but it helps build the awareness of the event. And remember, post your site to the ARRL Field Day Locator!

http://www.arrl.org/field-day-locator

While you don’t get any bonus points for this, I encourage you to also reach out to your local community based organizations (churches, synagogues, mosques, Red Cross, Team Red White and Blue, Team Rubicon, American Legion, etc.) and invite them out, too! Use the information from Emergency Support Function 6 (ESF-6) to help you see what kind of groups use our services. That list is a national level one, and is not all inclusive, but it gives you some ideas.

https://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nrf/nrf-esf-06.pdf

++

Affiliated Clubs

From the VA ACC Mike WA8AHZ:

- ARRL continues to have issues scraping the FCC data base for new hams licensed in the previous month.  In the interim, I’m sending the Club POCs the list scrapped via the HamCall website.  What I can't send you right now are the three other ARRL reports:  New Upgrades, New ARRL members and lapsed ARRL members.

- Some ARRL members are having issues logging onto the ARRL website ... if so, see:  https://www.arrl.org/login-instructions

- Meeting with Club Presidents:    About 20 of the VA ARRL Club Presidents or designated members attended a meeting w/ the Section leadership during the last week of April.  It probably was the first time that such a dedicated meeting between the Section leadership and the Affiliated Club Presidents have been conducted in the Commonwealth.  Besides the clear message that the Presidents wish continued dialogue, the Presidents concurred that the Section should create something like a Speakers' Bureau to help catalog technical programs presented by the Clubs that could be repeated at other Club meetings.  Finally, Ed Gibbs, KW4GF discussed a new initiative entitled "GOTA for Life"  and asked for Club participation on a working group as the concept is fleshed out.  The ACC has been tasked to organize a 2nd round of meetings in July.

- One of the benefits of being an ARRL Affiliated Club is that you can receive a commission for recruiting new ARRL members and securing timely ARRL membership renewals. The commission structure for this program has been updated, and the process has changed to make things easier for the clubs. The new procedure involves all membership dues being sent to ARRL for processing, prior to the club receiving a commission payment directly from ARRL. The complication of adjusting funds around credit cards, checks, and cash has been eliminated. ARRL is now responsible for all of the processing. As a result, your club could earn money while promoting the many benefits and programs of ARRL, to help ensure that the amateur radio hobby is protected and continues to grow.  Additionally, the commission rate has changed. Now, clubs will receive $15 for each new membership or lapsed membership (of 2 years or more). For renewing members, clubs will now receive $5. There is no limit to the amount that a club can earn in this program. Club leadership is encouraged to let their membership know that the club can benefit from this program. Only regular memberships are eligible for commission. Life, International, Family, Blind, and Student memberships are ineligible for commission. The new Club Commission Program is available for all ARRL Affiliated Clubs and goes into effect on June 1. Additional information, as well as FAQs, can be found at: http://www.arrl.org/affiliated-club-benefits

++

Section Traffic Manager

From Carl W4CAC:

Jack, KE4LWT, appointed me as Section Traffic Manager.  I am getting acquainted with the nets and the Traffic Handlers who participate in them.  We have two statewide nets.  The Virginia Net is a CW net on 3568 kHz (Gary, W4IVF is net manager) and the Virginia Sideband Net is a voice net on 3947 kHz.  These nets handle traffic into, out of, and throughout the state.  There are also a few local traffic nets that help out by being a source of traffic or an outlet for traffic for the statewide nets.  If you have a local net that would like to help the National Traffic System, please get in touch with me.  Also, if you are a traffic handler in the state and you wish to file SAR, PSHR, or BPL reports, please send to me by the 5^th of the month.  I can also be found on the VSBN (18:00 hrs) many nights.  ORS/OES appointees play a vital role in our traffic capabilities and our emergency preparedness.  If you would like more information, please ask me.  If we train and handle traffic now, when the stuffing hits the fan we will be prepared.  73, Carl, w4cac, w4cac@arrl.org, or w4cac@winlink.org

++

Section Manager Events/Scheduling

I had the opportunity to present via Zoom to the Albemarle Amateur Radio Club on May 10^th. See their webpage at https://www.albemarleradio.org/ for more information and a link to the video.

If your club, ARES group, or even a partner organization would like for me to speak with them, please contact me for scheduling.

++

Upcoming events

Hurricane Season began 1 June, and runs through 30 November

Field Day, June 25-26

For upcoming events throughout the ARRL® you can see:

http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/search for Hamfests/Conventions. This is particularly useful if you’re traveling, or live near one of our neighboring states.

++

Position vacancies

The Virginia Section has many vacancies open. Some of these are the “traditional” ARRL appointments, but there are also a good number of non-traditional positions available which can contribute greatly to the Virginia Section. For more information on these, see https://emcommwiki.org/index.php?title=Virginia_Section_Help_Wanted! or feel free to contact me directly. To make the section successful, it takes a wide variety of skills.

Some of the things we’ll be looking for that are non-traditional will be for the ARES® organization, and some will be for things like the GOTA For Life Initiative. There will be many opportunities to help lead the Virginia Section into the future.

++

Amateur Radio Emergency Services® (ARES®)

John participated in the Hampton Hurricane Drill and will be using the lessons learned from that to help inform the drill that he’ll be sending out soon. If you have participated in a drill of any kind in your area, please send that information to John so that he can use that help work on other projects for the future. If you’d like to help out with developing meaningful training, get with us and let us know. We do much better when we work as a team.

Also, John WB4AXY has continued reviewing all of the ARES/Relay Station/Emergency Station appointments in the database, and great strides are being made. If you have not received an email requesting a status update, it may be because your email address as listed in the database is wrong. Please send John and I a quick email with your callsign so that we can balance that against what we have to make sure that any discrepancies are caught.

++

Special Projects

+++

Get On The Air (GOTA) For Life

Ed KW4GF has been working hard on this project, and it has generated a lot of interest not just in Virginia, but across the region. Here is Ed’s update:

The ARRL Virginia’s “Growing Our Clubs: GOTA For Life Program”, a visionary program overseen by Ed Gibbs KW4GF Assistant Section Manager has begun in earnest. During a May, 2022, Section Leadership meeting, Mike Aimone WA8AHZ stated that over 50% of the newly licensed amateur radio operators in Virginia never get on the air. Mike then suggested a plan to operate a GOTA Confab during Field Day, 2022. Ed wondered what would happen the other 364 days and came up with the name “GOTA FOR Life.” How will the ARRL Virginia Section encourage clubs to support their members’ growth in the hobby from license acquisition to SK?

From there Ed invited amateur radio leaders from all corners of the state to be a member of the GOTA FOR LIFE Design TEAM and attend meetings. The purpose for the quarterly meetings will be to suggest, discuss, and recommend strategies to stay and remain on the air. The first meeting, “a Meet and Greet” was held on May 16^th.

Ed first asked each member to describe their own GOTA experiences. After everyone had a chance to describe their own personal experiences, Ed asked each member give a word or two description of their observations of positive and negative behaviors they encountered in their clubs or the greater amateur radio community.

Positive behaviors that encourage new and return operators from amateur radio operators, :”open minded, encouragement, inviting, reassuring, instruct, Elmers, be a good ambassador, be supportive, show hams how to do the task, be friendly, have fun, encourage possibilities, find the motivation, enthusiasm through leadership, give it a chance.

Negative behaviors that detract from the amateur radio experience: “Don't get stuck, change of mindset, condescending, we’ve never done this, I'm an Officer, laugh at us, it'll never work, never had this before, don't be stuck in the past, stay away from negative nellies, ignoring us, we can't do that.”

The ARRL GOTA FOR LIFE DESIGN Team will continue meeting quarterly through December, 2023. The Design Team is open for additional members. This design team is a positive and constructive approach that will produce strategies and resources for assisting new, current, and returning amateur radio operators through their enjoyable journeys in our hobby. Those interested can contact Ed at KW4GF@ARRL.net

+++

ARES Mutual Assistance Team (ARES MAT) Project:

Wayne, N1WR has done great work on developing an ARES MAT standard operating procedure that will enable an Emergency Coordinator (EC), District Emergency Coordinator (DEC), or served agency in requesting support either during an emergency/disaster, or for public service events. This is modeled on the National Response Framework (NRF) and incorporates a model Resource Typing system developed by John N5TIM. As with CW, and the Incident Command System (ICS), there is a common language, and this builds upon the common framework. I encourage you to have a look.

https://emcommwiki.org/index.php?title=VA_ARESAE_Mutual_Assistance_Team_Standard_Operating_Procedure

++

Closing comments

As always, should you have any question, concerns, or suggestions, please feel free to reach out to me. If it’s something with your local organization, always try to work through them first. Of course, you do not have to be a member of a club or ARES® unit to reach out to me regarding ARRL® Virginia concerns.

73,
Jack KE4LWT