Month: October 2011

The Genesis Amateur Radio Society, in cooperation with Jordan Hospital will conduct a General license class culminating in a volunteer exam testing session in November, 2011. The class sessions will be held at Jordan Hospital:

Friday, November 11, 2011 6:30-9:30 PM – Boynton Conference Room
Saturday, November 12, 2011 9:30 AM-6:30 PM – Scarzi Room
Saturday Nov 26, 2011 9:00 AM-6:00 PM – Funkhouser Room A

Walk-in registration for testing (all classes of Licenses) starts at 2:30 PM on Nov. 26; testing begins at 3 PM.

While not mandatory, it is recommended that candidates participate in all three classes. Registration is required due to limited seating.

To register, please download the registration form and email the completed form to education.registration@genesisars.org.

If you have questions, please email: Joe Reynolds at ka1gdq@gmail.com or call 508-296-3622 (voice mail) or 774-222-2542 (mobile); Chris Johnson, n1ir@arrl.net.

Hello all Stations:

We now expect the mobilizations for the storm to begin around 1800 today.

RACES will participate in a phased assist mode starting with helping to ensure that the mountain of storm and damage data gets to higher authorities in your local jurisdictions and then to the regional and state MEMA levels.  I desire that you assist in the efforts already requested in EMA and WMA SEC’s storm response guidance promulgated earlier in separate messages.  I have designated SKYWARN Taunton NWS as having tactical command of this phase.  Berkshire should feed reports to NWS Albany as well.

I will promulgate a detailed Operations Plan sometime this afternoon after consulting further with NWS and the SEOC.

I also need two experienced volunteers to assist with relay operations at the SEOC in Framingham.  Please reply to this email for coordination.

Please direct all questions to your RRO and/or ARES SEC/DC.

Please remember that your and your family’s safety is always paramount in any RACES/ARES response action!

I can be reached all day at (below AC) 562.5662

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR EVERYTHING YOU WILL BE DOING.

I request the widest possible dissemination of this message.

Regards and 73,

Michael P. Neilsen, W1MPN
State RACES Officer (Acting)
Chairperson, Amateur Radio Working Group
Member of the MA State Interoperability Executive Committee (SIEC), and Policies and Programs subcommittee
Office Answering Service/FAX 978.389.0558
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Mike Neilsen, W1MPN writes:

The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national public warning system that requires broadcasters, cable television systems, wireless cable systems, wireline video providers, satellite digital audio radio service providers and direct broadcast satellite service providers to make their communications facilities available to the President during a national emergency. The system also may be used by state and local authorities to deliver important emergency information such as AMBER (child abduction) alerts and severe weather warnings targeted to specific geographical regions or areas. The following transmitted message may be used:

“This is a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System. This test will last for approximately three minutes.

During this test, most television and radio providers will remain on the air to participate in the test.

This is (station name). We will be discontinuing programming for the duration of the test.

Our programming will resume at the end of the test, in approximately three minutes.”

 

I am requesting the widest possible dissemination on all Yahoo Groups lists, the SKYWARN List, and the EMA and WMA websites.

Many thanks in advance.

Regards and 73,

Michael P. Neilsen, W1MPN
State RACES Officer (Acting)
Chairperson, Amateur Radio Working Group
Member of the MA State Interoperability Executive Committee (SIEC), and Policies and Programs subcommittee
Office Answering Service/FAX 978.389.0558

The ARRL Foundation has awarded a $200 grant to the Cape Ann Amateur Radio Association towards the purchase of equipment to support CAARA’s ongoing weekly Morse code classes.

In a letter dated October 19, 2011 from Foundation Secretary Mary Hobart, K1MMH to CAARA’s Rick Maybury, WZ1B, Hobart writes:

“On behalf of the ARRL Foundation I am pleased to advise you that the Foundation Board of Directors has approved a grant of $200 from the ARRL Foundation CW Operators Fund. The grant is provided for the purchase of a MFJ-4628 Multi-Mode Code reader.

“As outlined in your grant application, this grant will provide funding for equipment to be used in learning and practice of Morse code in your Saturday morning classes. The classes include the history of Morse code, reading, transmitting, contesting and emergency services.

“Congratulations! The Foundation Board will be eager to hear from you about the impact of this grant.”

The Eastern MA ARRL leadership  also extends its congratulations to CAARA members for their work in promoting Morse code–still a vibrant and popular mode of Amateur communication.

John Beanland, G3BVU writes on the PART List:

W1GFF has drawn our attention to a fatal accident [on October 12, 2011] on  the “WHDH” tower in Newton. Fatal accidents on a tower should NEVER happen provided a simple set of safety rule is followed 100%.

1. Use a “climbing belt” and two (2) straps. If you have only one (1) strap, DON’T CLIMB.
2. Carefully examine the belt and both straps before putting them on, REJECT IF DAMAGED.
3. When only a few feet off of the ground, place one strap around the tower and throw your weight on it. NO HOLDING THE TOWER. If something breaks you will suffer only a bruise or two as you hit the ground.
4. Repeat the test with the second strap.
5. With two (2) straps there are four (4) ends.
6. ALWAYS HAVE AT LEAST ONE STRAP AROUND THE TOWER AND THREE (3) ENDS CONNECTED TO YOUR BELT.
7. When you come to a set of guys to prevent you climbing further, pass one strap around the tower on the other side of the guys and secure to your belt before releasing one end of the strap that is preventing further progress up/down the tower.
8. BASICALLY YOU ARE ALWAYS SECURED TO THE TOWER BY YOUR BELT AND ONE STRAP.

Safe climbing.

de G3BVU

—

W1GFF wrote:

Boston news outlets are reporting that a tower worker fell 1,000 feet to his death today from the American Radio Systems Tower next to Rt 128 in Newton. The tower was formerly known as the WHDH-TV Channel 5 tower…but after Ch 5 lost their license in the 70’s it became known as FM-128 and was the home to a number of FM radio stations and two-way customers. The tower is owned by American Tower Systems.

On Tuesday, October 25th, a Contest University will be presented by the Yankee Clipper Contest Club (YCCC). The Philips Amateur Radio Club (PARC) will be hosting this unique opportunity to learn about contesting from some of the top-level contesters in the area!

The event will take place at the Philips Electronics facility, conveniently located near route 93 in Andover, MA.

Professors K1DG, K5ZD, and K1RX will be on hand to present tips, tricks, and techniques for maximizing your contest performance! Topics will be adjusted for audience interest, but will typically include:

• Maximizing score with limited station
• Maximizing score with limited operating time
• Propagation – what’s expected this year
• Operating tips for running, S&P, DO’s and DON’Ts
• Sleep strategy

The event will take place from 6 to 11 pm. Philips employees will act as hosts/escorts for non-Philips attendees. We will take a collection for pizza and drinks.

If you are interested in attending, there is no fee, but you MUST PRE-REGISTER. Send an email to barockteer(at)aol.com or k1kp(at)arrl.net with your full name and callsign, and US citizenship status. You will be emailed detailed directions to the event to confirm your registration.

This will also count as a YCCC Local Meeting, and new members are welcome to join YCCC at this time.

For the second year, amateur radio has been asked to help with race communications throughout the course of the Bay State Marathon. This years course is a little longer and we would like additional communications resources to cover the entire race, so we are looking for a few more hams than in the past.

http://www.baystatemarathon.com/coursemaps.html

I know it is a “long” weekend which includes NEAR-FEST, but if you find that you don’t want to be dodging rain drops in Deerfield but enjoy the warm sunny skies of Lowell along the river, consider joining us.

It is an early morning event (7 AM) and you should be able to be home in time to watch fute-ball in the afternoon! Patriots game is at 4:15.

Please contact Alan-W1AHM or Terry-KA8SCP if you have questions or are available to assist.

Hello to all..

My apologies to all for a late update here. There have been a lot of developments in the past few weeks and it seemed it would be best to hold off on providing an update until a number of the items here were sorted out.

Approximately 3 weeks after Hurricane Irene, there was the Southeast Massachusetts Emergency Managers Directors Association Meeting (SEMEMDA) meeting. After the meeting, a discussion on RACES ensued including the operational changes of the region 1 and 2 offices not being opened during Hurricane Irene. The official reason given by Region Two Manager, James Mannion, was that there was not enough staffing on the MEMA side to staff the Region 1 and 2 facilities. The closure of the region offices, as mentioned previously, affected not only Amateur Radio but local public safety and others that would normally route requests to the regional offices. The timing of this situation 4 weeks after an Amateur Radio Statewide Hurricane Drill was obviously not optimal for this change during an actual hurricane but again necessitated on their staffing and again Amateur Radio was not signaled out on the impact here and many other agencies were impacted.

Following Hurricane Irene was the cancellation of the September RACES Nets. At the SEMEMDA meeting, less of an explanation could be offered for the last minute cancellation, but later on, it was determined that MEMA was reviewing the program including changes to the RACES Nets resulting in the cancellation. The cancellation was very late and going forward such a situation will be avoided. The October RACES Nets will occur but with some changes as requested by the agency and that will be conducted and brought down to RACES folks through their region RACES Radio Officers. These changes will actually benefit and provide more training and more usefulness to the nets. As always, with changes can come some issues implementing the changes. As the changes are rolled out we remind folks as we state in our Emergency Communications Workshops the motto from the 9/11 ARES/Amateur Radio deployments wish is ‘blessed our the flexible for they will not get bent out of shape’.

By now, many of you may have heard that an Acting Massachusetts State RACES Radio Officer has been chosen and that is former Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator and ARRL Section Manager, Mike Neilsen-W1MPN. I can not think of a better person to be in this role at this critical time. Mike has many years of experience in ARES, Amateur Radio and served in RACES supporting Massachusetts State EOC operations working with Tom Kinahan-N1CPE as Massachusetts State RACES Radio Officer. Mike will help out significantly in implementing changes that MEMA is looking for in terms of the support Amateur Radio can provide and the right way that Amateur Radio can provide support for their changing needs. His announcement is provided in its entirety at the end of this update. It is noted that Mike is taking this on as an interim/acting position and that one of his priorities will be a search for a permanent candidate while implementing the most important initial changes on Amateur Radio support for MEMA.

From an ARES perspective, we will continue to support RACES/MEMA as a client agency. A greater role for our services in terms of training and preparation is likely to occur as we move forward. Other changes in operations for MEMA/RACES may occur as reviewed under Mike Neilsen-W1MPN’s leadership.

While the recent events understandably unsettled people on Amateur Radio’s role in MEMA and disasters, it is our belief that the long-term impact could be a strong positive as we work with MEMA to make the changes that they feel will make Amateur Radio crticial in their disaster operations while maintaining the main roles that Amateur Radio can fulfill. Further updates will be posted as required. Below is Mike’s announcement as posted to the MRAS-General email list:

Hello all RACES, ARES, and SKYWARN stations:

Recently, Tom Kinahan resigned his post as our State RACES Communications Officer after serving in that post since the mid-90’s.  Many of you have joined me in thanking him for his long service and wishing him the best in his future endeavors.

While we search for an exceptionally qualified candidate for permanent appointment, MEMA has asked me to assume the role of State RACES Communications Officer on a temporary basis.  I accepted the offer with that proviso.  I look forward to speaking with each of you, but in view of the pressing circumstances I would be very appreciative if you would contact your regional RACES Officer with your questions and comments.  They will relay to me as needed.

Please continue to function as you have in your local and state government RACES appointments, including the monthly radio drills.  There will, however, be some changes that will be implemented immediately in the monthly drill procedure, so please watch for a message on the 10/3 drill to be released shortly.  These developments for the RACES program do not immediately affect any ARES programs, but you are encouraged to contact your ARES leadership with any questions you may have.

In the meantime, we also have some pressing challenges that need to be addressed in the coming months.  I desire to receive as much input as possible for that process, starting with input from the recognized ham leadership, and then later providing a forum for general input such as our MRAS group, and other interested parties.

To that end, I will convene the Amateur Radio Working Group (ARWG) approved earlier this year by the State Interoperability Executive Committee to review grant proposals for Amateur Radio.  Unfortunately those funds have been frozen, but the ARWG can be used for the purpose of guiding the future of amateur radio emergency communications.  I will send invitations to those stakeholders shortly for a meeting in October and before the next MRAS meeting.

I look forward to working with you.

de W1MPN

Regards and 73,

Michael P. Neilsen, W1MPN
State RACES Officer (Acting)
Chairperson, Amateur Radio Working Group
Member of the MA State Interoperability Executive Committee (SIEC), and Policies and Programs subcommittee
Office Answering Service/FAX 978.389.0558
******************************************************************

Respectfully Submitted,

Robert Macedo (KD1CY)
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator
Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator       
Home Phone #: (508) 994-1875 (After 6 PM)
Home/Data #: (508) 997-4503 (After 6 PM)
Work Phone #: 508-346-2929 (8 AM-5 PM)
Email Address: rmacedo@rcn.com
http://ares.ema.arrl.org
http://www.wx1box.org