Michigan Section News                                                                   February, 2012

Greetings to the hams of Michigan:

Spring must be coming as the annual Skywarn Training presentations have begun. Be sure to attend the session in your county or in a neighboring county in order to meet your training requirement as a spotter. For those that have the opportunity to attend a session that is presented by an NWS office other than the office that serves your county, this is a good way to observe the viewpoints of another NWS office. Each training presentation is unique to the NWS office presenting it and you will find a different perspective that can be valuable to you as a spotter. Nothing prevents you from attending more than one training session. You can locate information on planned training sessions on the websites of the various NWS offices around the State.

Al Ronning Outstanding Service Award presented to Muskegon Ham

The Muskegon County Emergency Communication Services, Inc., a local non-profit amateur radio group involved in emergency communications in Muskegon County, Michigan has awarded, Barbara Grob, amateur radio call, K9BLG, the “Al Ronning Outstanding Service Award”. The award is given each December to a member of the group that has gone above and beyond in service to this organization. This recognition is given in memory of Al Ronning (K8AER) who was an inspiration to other members of the group in his tireless effort towards public service. Ronning was a member of the group that died in an automobile crash in December 2006. James Duram, K8COP, Emergency Coordinator for amateur radio in Muskegon County awarded the plaque to Grob at their December meeting. We offer our congratulations to Barbara as well.

SSC Status Renewed

Congratulations go to the Genesee County Radio Club, Inc., W8ACW, on renewal of their Special Service Club (SSC) status. Those clubs that have stepped forward to serve their communities and fellow hams as a Special Service Club have certainly gone the extra mile.

Media Hits and Operating Events

Just prior to the Winter Field Day event in late January, the Muskegon group scored a Public Relations hit with an interview and video report on WZZM 13 in Grand Rapids about the group’s abilities. Nicely done, folks.

The hams of Muskegon and Barry Counties participated in the SPAR Winter Field Day. Brrrrrr! Reports indicate that all had a great time and all survived the cold. This sounds like a good winter emergency exercise that more groups should participate in.

Speaking of operating events, we have this interesting information from John, KC8ULE and the Lake Effect ARC in Marquette County: International Pi(e) Day / Albert Einstein's Birthday Special Event on March 14 (3.14 -- get it?) -- KD8DKU, Lake Effect ARC (Marquette area) is running the annual Pi Day / Albert Einstein's Birthday special event again this year. But note -- two, possibly three CW operators have signed on for this go-round, so the brass-pounders out there are encouraged to give us a shout. This is a fun event and theme aimed at the geek in all of us. Snazzy QSL card, too, paper and eQSL. See info on QRZ.com and here: http://www.lakeeffectarc.info/Event-PiEinsteinDay/PiDay.htm 

Big TNX! to Hank, N8XX, and Ken, WA8REI for offering their spark-gap skills for this activity.  Lemon pi(e) at the clubhouse for ops who sign up for an operating shift. Sounds like fun to me, John!

Training Opportunities

The first of a series of workshops to provide training for Ham Radio Club Leaders and others who lead volunteers will be held in SE Michigan at the Red Cross in Ann Arbor on March 3, 2012. There are still seats available for this workshop. In addition, we have added a workshop location in SW Michigan on April 21, 2012, at the Red Cross Chapter House in Kalamazoo. Preregistration is required and the class runs from 0830 to 1600 hrs. The cost for these workshops is $10 per student and this covers class materials, coffee and doughnuts, lunch, and a very nice Certificate of Completion. Contact kb6nu@arrl.net for reservations and information.

Hospitality Acknowledgment

I wish to thank the hams of the Hiawatha Amateur Radio Association (Marquette) and the Cherryland ARC (Traverse City) for their outstanding hospitality that was shown to me at their recent hamfests and related activities. Both trips were excellent and I am already looking forward to a return visit next year.

Looking Forward

As a long range heads up, be on the lookout for the annual “Maker Faire” event at the Henry Ford in Dearborn in late July.  Maker Faire is an event created by Make magazine to "celebrate arts, crafts, engineering, science projects and the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset". This will tie nicely with the recently announced ARRL DIY initiative. There are eight amateur radio clubs from SE Michigan who have participated in this event in past years and they are gearing up to be there in 2012 with a number of interesting technologies. This falls into place nicely with the recent ARRL DIY initiative. After all, hams are the original “Makers and Hackers”.

The Michigan Section’s 14^th Annual Summer Family Outing will be held July 5-8. More information is available at www.sectionouting.info. Make your plans early and I hope to see you there!

Section Staff Travel Plans

Here are the Section Staff travel plans for hamfests and other events for the next 90 days:

Feb 19 – Livonia (WB8TKL)

Mar 3 – Ham Radio Club Leadership Workshop, Ann Arbor (WB8R, KB6NU)

Mar 9 – Central MI ARC (WB8R)

Mar 17 – Crossroads Swap, Marshall (WB8R)

Apr 7 – ARGYL Swap, Lowell (WB8R)

Apr 14 – Milford Swap, Milford (WB8R)

Apr 21 – Ham Radio Club Leadership Workshop, Kalamazoo (WB8R-KB6NU)

May 5 – Cadillac Swap, Cadillac (WB8R)

We look forward to meeting our old friends and making new ones at these events. Be sure to stop by the ARRL table at the hamfests and say hello.

Operator and Net Activity  

ARPSC Activity Report for January, 2012   Total ARES Members: 2045. Number of EC’s reporting: 33. Drills, tests and training sessions: 345. Public Service events: 16. Emergency operations: 4. Total number of ARES ops: 365. Total monthly operator hours: 3158. Dollar value of operator time: $56,002.

ARES members should check http://www.ares-mi.org/ and click on FSD-212 Results to obtain all of the details of their local county's activities. You can select various items on the page and get the full details and histories of your area's activity levels. EC’s and NM’s please remember the Michigan ARPSC State net Sundays at 5 PM Eastern Time on 3.932 kHz.  

SARs for January, 2012: N8JWH 2219, WB9JSR 727, WB8WKQ 479, K8RDN 322, KD8CYK 276, KB8RCR 268, KD8QPF 198, KD8AAD 188, NX8A 186, KC8BW 158, K8OLY 156, K8ED 70, KD8LZB 69, WB8RCR 61, K8VFZ 60, K8LJG 48, WB8TQZ 45, N5ASU 44, W8QZ 32, WD8USA 22, WB8R 20, N8OSL 10, N8FVM 9, KD8GLN 8, WB8WJV 7, KC8RTW 2, WD8BCS 2. Total SAR reported: 5686  

BPL for January, 2012: N8JWH 2219, WB9JSR 727.

PSHRs for January, 2012: K8OLY 246, KD8QPF 230, WB8RCR 215, KA8KUF 207, K8RDN 205, WB9JSR 200, WD8USA 167, KC8QWH 163, N8OSL 160, N8JWH 140, NX8A 130, KB8RCR 125, WB8WKQ 120, K8VFZ 100, N5ASU 90, KD8LZB 90, KC8BW 90, KD8CYK 90, WD8BCS 89, WB8TQZ 80, WB8R 80, KD8AAD 71, KD8EBY 69, W8QZ 56, WB8WJV 55, WX8MOJ 51, N8FVM 32, KC8RTW 30, KD8GLN 26.  

Net traffic for January, 2012: Michigan Traffic Net 378, Southeastern Michigan Traffic Net 296, Michigan Amateur Communications System 233, Michigan VHF Traffic Net 191, The Michigan Net 177, Michigan Digital Traffic Net 79, Upper Peninsula Net 53, Great Lakes Emergency and Traffic Net 31, Thumb Mid-Michigan Traffic Net 30, Motor City Radio Club 2 Meter Net 10, Michigan Amateur Radio Public Service Corps 6, District 3 ARPSC Net 5, Red Cross Net of Greater Grand Rapids 3, Hiawatha Net 2, Chelsea ARC Net 0. Total NTS value of operator time: $58087. Total net traffic reported: 1494  

Parting Comments

If you are reporting monthly to our SEC/STM WB8RCR, you can see your PSHR eligibility status at http://www.nts-mi.org/pshr-cert.php. 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 a Section appointment and handling message traffic.  

Thank you for all of your efforts on behalf of the people of the State of Michigan and for filing your monthly reports. It really shows how active Michigan is in holding a leadership position for ham radio public service activities.  

73 until next month,  

Larry, WB8R