SECTION TRAFFIC MANAGERS REPORT - DECEMBER 2014

By Doug Williams N2DW - Section Traffic Manager

West Central Florida SAR and PSHR Report for DECEMBER 2014

Station Activity Report (SAR) Public Service Honor Roll Call Sign O R S D T BPL 1 2 3 4 5 6 T K4EEI 0 48 63 1 112                 N2DW 0 8 7 1 16   40 16 30 25 0 0 111 W8IM 0 27 29 3 59   40 40 30 28 0 0 138

West Central Florida Section Traffic Net Report - December 2014

NET Name Session Stations Traffic Time AIN – WA4ATF 2 26 1 33 EAGLE NET –W4PXE 31 1030 32 875 SPARC – W4TSP - 43 557 51 1130

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THE PRESSER:  ARRL WEST CENTRAL FLORIDA SECTION NEWS COLUMN

Issue #1 - January 2015

By Darrell Davis KT4WX

ARRL West Central Florida Section Manager

I would like to welcome all of to “THE PRESSER”. We are resuming the monthly news column for the ARRL West Central Florida Section. This column will appear on the Section News section on the ARRL web page and will also be disseminated by e-mail to all ARRL members who have opted into email delivery for Section and Division News.

THANK YOU:

I wish to start off by thanking all of you who have offered your support and congratulations for being elected as your Section Manager. The time would fail me to mention all of you by name that have offered congratulations and your support. The ARRL WCF Section is here to support YOUR activities as amateur radio operators, whether it be a club or an individual ham. If there is any way I can be of assistance to you my contact information is listed at the end of this news column.

DEE TURNER N4GD - A  JOB WELL DONE:

I would like to thank Dee Turner N4GD, who just retired as Section Manager at the end of last year. Dee is well liked, encouraging to many, and was Section Manager for 10 years from January 1, 2005 until December 31, 2014. Dee was especially helpful to me in training and preparing me to be your Section Manager. The job would be a lot harder and I would have to find out a lot more, if it had not been for his help. Dee is not “riding off into the sunset”, because Dee is staying on as one of my Assistant Section Managers.

INTRODUCING THE NEW SECTION CABINET:

I would like to introduce to you the Section Cabinet that assist me in my duty as your Section Manager. Some are veterans from Dee's term(s) as Section Manager and some are newly appointed. The members of Section Cabinet are: 

• Assistant Section Manager - Executive:   Ben Henley KI4IGX

• Assistant Section Manager - Webmaster:  Judson Bracewell. KJ4IDH

• Assistant Section Manager - SM Emeritus:  Dee Turner N4GD

• Assistant Section Manager – Logistical Support:  Pete Kemp KZ1Z

• Section Emergency Coordinator:   Ben Henley KI4IGX

• Section Traffic Manager:  Doug Williams N2DW

• Official Observer Coordinator:  Dennis Griffin W4DG

• Technical Coordinator:  Geoff Haines N1GY

• Section Youth Coordinator :  Christine Duez KK4KJN

• Affiliated Clubs Coordinator:  Jeff Bronsing KJ4NEO

• Public Information Coordinator:  Dave Rockwell W4PXE

Give these people your congratulations and your support. They will be assisting me in administrating the ARRL WCF Section. We will have more detailed biographies on each of these individuals coming in the future on our Section website. 

I would like to thank Neil Lauritsen W4NHL, our former Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC) and Assistant Section Manager(ASM), for his 10 years of service as SEC and ASM.  Neil decided to retire from the position after 10 years of service.

I would like to also thank Kevin Poorman KV4CT and Bill Johnson WJ4G for their service as Public Information Coordinator and Affiliated Clubs Coordinator who decided to step down and not to continue in their former positions due to committments wih their employment. We wish them well in their future endeavors. 

NEW WCF SECTION WEBSITE:

If you have not noticed, on January 1, 2015, our Section website received a very pleasing retrofit and facelift.  Also with the retrofit comes new features. Our new Section webmaster Judson Bracewell KJ4IDH built the new website on the WordPress platform. WordPress allows us to have some new capabilities that we did not have before. Go check out our newly redesigned website at http://www.arrlwcf.org.

ARRL WCF SECTION FACEBOOK AND TWITTER PAGES:

I have setup for the ARRL WCF Section a new Facebook and Twitter accounts. If you are on Facebook or Twitter feel free to follow us on either of these social media sites. Social Media is simply another way to reach out to the amateur radio community and goes along with email and our website as another tool in the toolbox. It especially makes connection with the younger (and sometimes even more mature) amateur radio operators who are on social media frequently. Check the WCF Section out on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/arrlwcf and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/arrlwcforg.

STATION APPOINTEES PLEASE REAPPLY:

If you have been serving as an ARRL Station Appointee (Emergency Coordinator, Official Relay Station, Net Manager, Official Emergency Station, Official Observer, Local Government Liaison, Technical Specialist) please go to our newly redesigned Section website and reapply on the Online Station Appointment Form in the Section Programs tab to continue your appointment. This allows us to know who is interested in continuing to serve as an ARRL Station Appointee and who is no longer active.

Also if you are serving in one of these appointments, please be sure to file a monthly report by the 3^rd day of the month following the month being reported. This can be simply an email to the Cabinet member that is the coordinator over your Station Appointment or myself, telling us what you did last month or anything you feel is worth including. No particular format is necessary  Even if you were not active for that month, simply put something like, “No activity for this month to report”. Regular reporting is an ARRL requirement to hold an ARRL Station Appointment.

HAMFEST SUBMISSIONS:

Please let me know if your club or organization is holding a hamfest. That way I can put your hamfest into my calendar so that I or Ben Henley KI4IGX, our new Assistant Section Manager  can represent the ARRL at your hamfest, with either an ARRL table and or an ARRL forum. You may use the Contact Form that is on the newly redesigned Section web site.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

We already have a busy calendar planned for 2015. We have two major events planned so far for this year. More will be planned as the year goes on. 

• West Central Florida Section ARES Meeting: Saturday January 10 at 1300 (1:00 P.M.) at the Highlands County EOC on 6850 W. George Blvd., in Sebring.  Lunch will be at 1100 (11:00 A.M.) at the Sebring Diner at 4040 U.S. 27 South, Sebring about 2 miles north of the EOC.

• West Central Florida Section Technical Conference: Saturday April 4 at 9:00 A.M. At the Bert J. Harris Jr. Agri-Civic Center, 4905 George Blvd, Sebring. You can click on the link above and it will take you to the conference page on our new website.  There you can register for the conference, download the conference flyer, and look at the entry on the Section Calendar which has a Google Map showing the location of the Agri-Civic Center.  

 UPCOMING HAMFESTS IN THE SECTION:

We have the following hamfest coming up in the Section for the month of January:

• Saturday January 17: TARCFest 36 – Tampa Amateur Radio Clubhouse, Tampa.

• Saturday January 24: Desoto Hamfest – Turner Agri-Civic Center, Arcadia.

For more information, please visit our website Section Calendar for more hamfest information.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE MONTH OF DECEMBER:

The ARRL WCF Section had its usual spot with the ARRL table at the Tampa Bay Hamfest on Friday December 12^th and Saturday December 13^th. This was Dee's last hamfest as Section Manager.  Dee Turner N4GD was presented a plaque of recognition of service during the ARRL forum. Also I introduced the Section Cabinet members and presented them with their certificates of appointment. Norm Fusaro W3IZ, was our guest from ARRL Headquarters and did a fantastic presentation on Logbook Of The World (LOTW).

SECTION TRAFFIC REPORT:

Doug Williams N2DW is preparing the December 2014 Section Traffic report, starting today as he always does the first of the every month.  We will have those totals here as soon as he sends me his monthly report.  Thanks Doug for your persistent work in this area.

SECTION MANAGERS CONTACT INFORMATION AND BIO:

Here is my contact information. Much of this is listed now on Page 16 of QST.  You can read my biography and more about me on my website at http://www.kt4wx.org

Darrell Davis KT4WX – Section Manager, ARRL West Central Florida Section

• U.S. Mail: 6350 Mills Road Fort Meade, FL 33841

• Telephone: (863) 245-9923

• Email: kt4wx@arrl.org

• Website: http://www.kt4wx.org.

That is all for this issue of THE PRESSER.  See you all here next month.  Hopefully I will get to see many of you at a meeting, hamfest, or talk to you on the air.

73 de Darrell KT4WX.