2011 NFL Officials visitation plans for field day.

 There will be only three teams of officials representing the NFL Section visiting FD Sites this weekend.

 Ron, WB4GHU, ASM/SEC will be near the SE corner of the section. Exact plans are not set yet.

Joe, W2DWR, ASM/ASEC will be near the Suwannee District area.

This year, Donna and I will be in Orlando Friday evening and will start the 2011 FD tour Saturday morning at the LMARS Breakfast.

We will head out from there to tour from the southern end of the NFL Section, working our way northward and towards home on Sunday afternoon.

Two (2) years ago, Donna and I started in PNS and worked eastward to TLH. It was a very enjoyable FD trip and saw a lot of great teams working to be successful.

If any clubs, groups or other teams have specific directions to get to your site, please let us know so we can schedule a visit.

Please include phones numbers or any other assistance in helping us save time to be used to get to other sites.

We will be traveling in the coach, and will have HF and hopefully 2/6 meters USB, 2/440/1296 D* and D* simplex call channel (145.670) and 146.55 analog simplex.

Also we will be posting on APRS as KJ4G or WQ4M. Check for us on www.aprs.fi for our location.

Our aprs radio is the Kenwood D-700.

When we have Verizon aircard service available, we will have the FL-EOC2 D-RAT Flector running, www.aprs.fi and possibly a D* reflector.

We will be using the ARRL posted list of FD sites. If your team isn’t listed, then let us know ahead of time.

Please let us know if there are restrictions on the size of vehicles for getting to your operation.

The coach is 40 feet long 13 feet tall and for the bridges we have to go over, we weigh 40,000 pounds.

We will have the car if we need to use it.

Our goal is to get to as many FD sites as possible. We, the staff support the hard work each of you all do the prepare for and train in this operation.

We want to stop by and say “Thanks”.

Looking forward to seeing each of you during FD 2011,

73,

Paul L. Eakin, KJ4G@arrl.org   NFL SM 850-591-0442

Donna, WQ4M@arrl.net     NFL DBM  850-766-3964 

Ron, WB4GHU@arrl.net  ASM/SEC    407-921-3481

Joe, W2DWR@arrl.net  ASM/ASEC 386-330-2583

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Good morning all,

 In the lines of equipping our ARES emergency tool boxes, We are happy to announce that in Tallahassee, Florida, a team of amateur's have installed a D-Rat reflector for ARES use in emergencies and for general amateur use at other times.  

This system is set up both on the internet and on “RF” on the K4WAK the local D-Star repeater for District use (port TBA later).  This provides both mobile and internet operators to communicate between each other along with the FL-EOC. In the next few weeks, email will be established to coincide with with W2K for both the mobile operators and the internet users.  File transfers can be used now.   Two servers were installed, one being made public and a back up which can be activated if needed.  

The FL-EOC is equipped with full time service both on the local D-Star repeater and on the internet (subject to on duty amateur radio operators) and or local ARES volunteers.   This system will augment their other Data equipment; APRS, SEDAN, W2K.  Thank you to the FL-EOC for their support and contribution to this project.  

This multi server system is being made available to all three section amateurs in Florida and to our neighbors in Georgia and Alabama. This is in line with how the SE WX net operates.  In any emergency, any section or district outside of FL, GA or AL can notify the admins of their needs and use the reflector.  

We are using the latest version of D-Rats found at    http://d-rats.com/download/beta/ Use this version....d-rats-0.3.3b5-installer.exe The FL-EOC reflector address is;    net:fl-eoc1.dyndns.org:9000    Thank you to all who made this possible and we look forward to it being part of the ARES tool box. Thank you also to Dan, KK7DS for his hard work in the design and implementation of this service.   Enjoy  

73,

Paul L.Eakin, KJ4G@arrl.org ,NFL SM

850-591-0442  

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To all NFL Section Members,   We want to thank all of the members who contacted us to help correct items of the first two versions of the Plan.

  It's understandable that many revisions have had to be posted, but it is necessary in order to have the best possible document. Hopefully this will finish the project, except when we add addendums for new sections to be added to the plan.    Please scroll down to the bottom of this page and you will find the attachment for you to download. Please destroy older versions to eliminate mix-ups or confusion.   73,   Paul L. Eakin, KJ4G@arrl.org NFL SM

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Neighborhood HamWatch

Goal To provide a method for every capable amateur radio operator who isn’t involved in a deployed active ARES operation to serve his/her community in an Emergency Communication role. This would include senior citizens, care givers, health challenged, wives with kids, off duty police and fire, and others who cannot commit to a deployment but want to serve their community. These amateurs are good communicators, and have ample stations with emergency power they can use during periods of extended communication outages which often follow major natural disasters. These amateurs would augment the active ARES® volunteers and be part of the Em Comm System.

Objectives 1) Communicate neighborhood conditions to local Emergency Operations Centers. Emergency Managers will be provided access to first-hand information about conditions in the communities which they serve. They would handle heath and welfare, report crime and fulfill other communications needs.

2) Relay information from local Emergency Managers to local neighborhoods so local citizens are better informed of relief efforts and information helpful to their survival and overall recovery process.

Requirements Participation in this program requires the desire and capability to utilize your amateur radio license to help your fellow neighbors. You would augment informational communications when normal commercial communication systems fail to operate. There is no special training or equipment burden necessary. A valid license and 2-meter/UHF radio and/or HF rig will do the job.

Concept of Operations Amateur radio operators would communicate with ARES stations that are in direct contact with local government EOC’s. Because of commercial outages, this may be the only link to the outside world. Examples are the telephones, commercial television and radio and cell phones. They would describe neighborhood conditions, medical needs, dangerous situations to Emergency Managers or their staff. Emergency Managers through amateur radio would relay messages to these neighborhoods containing information citizens need for their safety and survival in the recovery effort.

Key Players Amateur radio operators located at his/her home station. They would be an active station in a Neighborhood Hamwatch program. Support from local amateur radio clubs, ARES Groups, other Em Comm groups or private owner of a 2M/ UHF repeater. They would support this program by providing the repeater(s) for use by Neighborhood HamWatch operators. Simplex operation should be practiced and utilized when/where necessary. These communications would be second to emergency operations and should be given ample time to handle the local neighborhood traffic. The ARRL DEC’s and EC’s would coordinate this plan and would help implement its operation with their emergency plans.

Here is how to get started. An informational brochure is available on the NFL website which will help explain the program and can be printed by local hams and distributed to their neighbors. This will acquaint neighbors with their next-door amateur radio operators and establish the Neighborhood HamWatch groups.

ARES® EC’s, NCS’ s can help by including a check-in option for Neighborhood HamWatch operators during or immediately following training nets so participating Hams can begin establishing contact familiarity.

For more information contact: Andy Gausz, Neighborhood HamWatch coordinator for the NFL Section KG4QCD@arrl.net 321-229-7547 2519 Sweetwater Trail Winter park, FL, 32789

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