Eastern Massachusetts ARRL

Joseph Fratto-K1UN – FCC General Radiotelephone Operator License writes:

The USCG Auxiliary combine Divisions 5 / 12 Radio Net was held on Sunday 13 OCT 2024 at 1015 AM.

Check Ins: Wilmington Radio
Vessel 323088
Mobile 5F
Mobile 5G

Net Control: Waltham Radio NCS

Traffic: Radio tests were made of all radio facilities. It was announced that Flotilla elections are
forthcoming. January 10th is the Boat Show. Discussions of the Hurricane Milton and
Hurricane Helene events. Amateur Radio did a great job helping with communications.

Our Auxiliary Net held on the MMRA amteur radio network is going strong. This morning
we had 17 check ins. K1UVH Mike from Holbrook, a retired firefighter gave an account of
his assistance with Hurricane milton. Mike was on scene in the area at a IAFF convention
and volunteered his time working with their fire departments. He worked there for a week.
In addition to rescues they had several large working building fires to deal with.

Florida has a very progressive state and local government system and they did a great
job. It seems they were on top of everything and the fatality count was low. I saw a news
clip of the USCG Helo working a rescue. A gentleman’s boat went down during the storm
and the survivor was able to cling to a large ice cooler. He stayed afloat all night through
the storm until spotted by the USCG and rescued the following morning.

The D7 USCG Auxiliary COMMS. Team assisted the USCG and State government with
radio communications assistance throughout the storm. Hopefully we will continue on
through the month of November with NO more storm activity. I think it will show that the
tornados did more destruction and caused more loss of life than the hurricanes.

Emergency Ham radio communications for the hurricane are still on Broadcastify APP.
Use the N2GE repeater network on the APP.

Submitted: Joseph Fratto
FCC General Radiotelephone Operator License

KB1PGH-Dean Burgess, Cape Ann Amateur Radio Association (CAARA) ARRL/ARES Emergency Coordinator writes:

There will be an ARRL/ARES Emergency communications planning meeting for the Cape Ann area at the CAARA clubhouse at 6 Stanwood street in Gloucester on Saturday November 2nd at noontime. This meeting is open for all those who are interested in attending. This will be a first in a series of informal meetings as we start to plan out a ARRL emergency communications group on Cape Ann. The meeting will be run by ARRL/ARES emergency coordinator Dean Burgess KB1PGH and ARRL/ARES assistant emergency coordinator Bill Morris W1WMM.

Joseph Fratto-K1UN – FCC General Radiotelephone Operator License writes:

The combined Divisions 5 / 12 Radio Net was called on the Roslindale repeater 6 OCT 24 at 1015 hrs.

Check Ins: Radio Wilmington
Radio Roslindale
Vessel 323088
Mobile 5F
Mobile 5G

Net Control: Radio Waltham NCS

Traffic: Stations were able to radio check their equipment. I spoke to the Comms people in D7.
D7 Florida area will be implementing their Emergency Communications Nets starting on
this Tuesday. Another hurricane will be hitting Florida on Wednesday. They have noticed
how we have had good luck using Ham radio assets in D1N. They will in addition to USCG
Auxiliary channels be using the Florida SARNET a robust Amateur Radio Network that
covers their whole state. The D7 area Auxiliary has one high site Auxiliary repeater in
Stuart Florida. This is a wide area coverage repeater.

In addition D7 will be utilizing the SHARES network. DHS has not activated the SHARES
net for Hurricane helene. D1N HF stations will be able to assist D7 on their 14 meg nets.
Any SHARES station is authorized to activate a SHARES net when needed. The SHARES
ALE network will also be in play on Tuesday.

D1N stations are reminded to continue to monitor the 5 Mhz 60 meter channels for any
distress calls. 5 Mhz is clearly heard in New England during the evenings.

The Auxiliary net is going strong on the MMRA network. We had 17 stations checked in today.
Anyone using a police scanner radio can tune us in on 146.82 or 146.69 Mhz to hear the net.
Again we are asking all members to consider getting their Amateur Radio License to be able
to participate.

Submitted: Joseph Fratto
FCC General Radiotelephone Operator License

The Sunday morning Divisions 5 / 12 Combined Radio net was held on Roslindale repeater – 29 SEP 2024 at 1015 hrs.

Check Ins: Radio Wilmington
Radio Roslindale
Vessel 323088
Mobile 5F
Mobile 5G
Radio Harvard

Net control: Radio Waltham NCS

Traffic: Radio tests were conducted. Flotilla elections are coming up. Hurricane
Helena is threatening the Southeast coast of the country. The Florida
Governor has reported that up to 1.2 million homes and businesses are
without power.

The Hurricane Net on 7.268Mhz was very busy handling emergency
requests and health and welfare radio traffic. HF assets are reminded
If the USCG is quiet and the Auxiliary is not needed please join in on
the Hurricane Net, Salvation Army Net (SATERN) or the Red Cross
activated nets.

Even though you reside in New England, HF covers the world and you
will be appreciated for helping these nets handle and move traffic. As a
reminder during Hurricane Katrina the SATERN radio Hams handled
over 50,000 Health and Welfare messages. A number of these messages
were for people in need of emergency rescues. I counted over 100 calls
for rescue that came to the SHARES HF network.

We operate a valuable resource that can be of real assistance in times of
emergency. At the least perform increased monitoring of the 5 Mhz 60M
channels for emergency calls.

The Auxiliary Net is held on the MMRA Minuteman Repeater Association
and is going well. We had 17 check ins this morning. The Auxiliary Net
starts at 1100 hrs every Sunday morning. Scanner radios can receive the
Net on 146.82 or 146.67 Mhz. Tune in or get your Ham Radio Technician
license and join us. A question came up on the Net as to joining RACES,
the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service. RACES is a federally spon-
sored and authorized Ham radio Network. RACES is locally managed by
Emergency Management Director of a city or town.

When and if the president of the United States were to impose the War
Powers Act, Amateur Radio or Ham radio as we know it would be shut
down. The only Ham radio stations allowed to operate and transmit would
be RACES stations. RACES stations have to be designated and authorized
by EM Agencies for Official Business Only. Federal stations such as the
Auxiliary would continue to operate as usual for official business.

Submitted: Joseph Fratto
FCC General Radiotelephone Operator License

Hello to all…

The October Eastern Massachusetts ARES section net will be Monday October 7th, 2024 at 830 PM on the MMRA Repeater system.

For frequencies that will be linked into the ARES Net on the MMRA Network, please see the following link from the MMRA web site detailing the repeaters that will be linked in through Hub 1:
https://mmra.org/repeaters/repeater_linking.html (Click the ARES box to see the repeaters and other systems linked)

We look forward to your participation and remember, we are always looking for Net Controls to run the ARES Net. We will have several announcements for the net including training announcements in the areas of NBEMS (Narrow Band Emergency Messaging System), NTS training and the date for the Eastern Massachusetts ARES Simulated Emergency Test (SET).

Thanks for your continued support of ARES!

Respectfully Submitted,

Robert Macedo (KD1CY)
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator
Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator
Home Phone #: (508) 994-1875
Home/Data #: (508) 997-4503
Email Address: rmacedo@rcn.com
https://ares.ema.arrl.org
https://www.wx1box.org
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Don Rolph, AB1PH, Walpole area ARES Emergency Coordinator writes:

The MEMA RACES nets are held on the first Monday of the month, unless the first Monday is a holiday, when it is delayed one week, For Oct 2024, the MEMA RACES nets will be held on Mon Oct 7 at:

********************************************************************************
80 meter Voice net
No 80 meter voice net this month: No NCS.

*********************************************************************************
Region 2D VHF net:
7:30 PM ET VHF net on 146.865 MHz PL 103.5 (Sharon Repeater)
We will have a general call up of any RACES, ARES, or other interested stations. If there is time, we will have a simplex test.

Jim WJ1R will be net control.

********************************************************************************
HF 80 meters NBEMS net:
Dial Frequency: 3584.5 MHx
Center Frequency: 1500 Hz
Initial mode: THOR22
We will have checkins, followed by an ICS-213 format message using FLMSG.

Don AB1PH will be net control

*********************************************************************************
Winlink Net:
Bryan Marcotte KF1D will be net control.
Send a winlink checkin form to KF1D, copy AB1PH, between 0600 Monday Oct 7 and 2400 Monday Oct 7.

We look forward to you checking in!

—

73,
AB1PH
Don Rolph

Terry Stader-KA8SCP – Region 1 RACES Radio Officer & ARES District Emergency Coordinator for Region 1 RACES writes:

We are still looking for volunteers….

This year’s Baystate Marathon and Half Marathon race is scheduled for Sunday October 20, 2024.

Amateur Radio operators have been asked once again to support the Baystate Marathon and Half Marathon. This year the event is on Sunday, October 20th.

Our operational time period is from approximately 0700 until event completion (estimated 1400). Our assistance has been requested by Lowell Office of Emergency Management and Lowell Fire Department. The communications team will be employing Amateur Radio to provide this communications asset.

Amateur Radio will be used for:
* Accountability Net: the purpose of this net is to coordinate with a race public information booth the status of runners who are unable to complete the race for any issue to any one is seeking this information.

Race info may be found at http://baystatemarathon.com.
Course map is found at
https://www.baystatemarathon.com/course-map-description

Please contact me if you can assist or would like more information.

Please share with others that may be interested. This is a pretty laid back event and suitable for first time public event participation.

Terry

Terry M. Stader – KA8SCP
MEMA Region 1 RACES Officer
ARRL ARES Eastern MA District Emergency Coordinator for Region 1 RACES

Joseph Fratto-K1UN – FCC General Radiotelephone Operator License writes:

Check Ins: Radio Wilmington
Radio Roslindale
Vessel 323088
Mobile 5F
Mobile 5G

Net Control: Radio Waltham NCS

Traffic: Radio tests were conducted. Signals were fair / readable. Still unable to receive
Amesbury and Event repeaters at this station.

Our ADSO-CM PTT Ben Wechsler passed his General Class Amateur Radio
license and is now studying to pass the Extra exam. Our congratulations for a
job well done.

The Auxiliary Net on the MMRA Minuteman Repeater Association Amateur radio
is going strong. We had 11 check ins this morning and discussed radio mainten-
ance.

The winter months are coming quickly. This is a good time to get those radio repairs
done before the cold weather. Antennas, connections and wiring need constant
attention. Microphones needs to be checked out and coiled cords replaced if it is
necessary. Clean all contacts as needed.

We discussed cable ties this morning. Black cable ties should always be used outside
instead of white or translucent cable ties. The Black ties hold up better with the UV
Rays shining on them. Clear and white ties disintegrate very readily from UV Rays.
Be neat and always trim cable ties down to the locking mechanism to prevent some-
one from getting cut and injured from sharp edges.

Submitted: Joseph Fratto
FCC General Radiotelephone Operator License