Mike “Sparky” Leger-N1YLQ, MEMA Region 2 RACES Radio Officer writes:
Hello to all,
I hope that everyone and your families and friends are continuing to stay healthy! Trying to remember what day it is has been a challenge as the normal workweek and routines have long since gone out the window as we distance socially from others… and temporally from our daily routines to make things work as best we can.
Tomorrow, May 4th 2020 is the first non-holiday Monday of the month and, as such, is our RACES/ACS/Preparedness night. We will be holding our sector nets on the normally assigned frequencies. As with last month, many EOCs and Community operating points are not accessible by our operators, so I continue to ask those who cant get to their EOC or normal RACES operating post to please check in from home or a mobile rig if possible.
As always, I am looking for Net Control stations to staff two of the four sector nets for the evening. Sector 2D is already covered as it always is. I can run the Sector 2A net from my home QTH in Acushnet (though if someone else wants to act as NCS for 2A for some practice, I am more than happy to let them have at it.) I am looking for NCS operators for Sector 2B (Plymouth County) and 2C (Cape and Islands.) Please let me know if you are interested,
For the net we will once again be working with the form AR-2 AR2 SHORT FORM INSTRUCTIONS and collecting information from our RACES operators. I have attached the AR 2 Short Form for reference. I will be looking for the following data items from the Form AR-2 during what would normally be our simplex test…
Items 1, 2 (If still activated), 3 (If still activated), 4, 5, 6, and 17.
Any requests or updates that do not fall within the AR-2 parameters can be sent using NTS formatted messages.
I am asking that all Net Control Stations please record the information from the AR-2 in a spreadsheet that you can e-mail or on a piece of notebook paper that you can scan or send to me as a photo.
I continue to ask that any operators who have the time, please try to check into sector nets from near-by sections. This will allow any our Net Control Operators to practice fielding nets with a strong check-in count and will also serve to help practice with relays or modified sector assignments in the event that a single repeater is out of service.
For those operators who serve as Net Control Operators, please try to remember to send me a list of the stations and communities that check into your nets. The numbers are reported to MEMA to show them our level of participation. I am continuing to work on a graphical map based report to show which parts of our section have strong coverage and which areas may need a more targeted recruitment campaign to improve our ability to provide back-up communications in an emergency.
The Region #2 and State Net Schedule for this evening is as follows:
Sector 2A
147.00 /+0.60 PL
19:30 Local
Sector 2B
145.39/-0.60 PL 67.0
20:00 Local
Sector 2C
146.955/-0.60 PL 88.5
20:00 Local
Sector 2D
146.865/-0.60 PL 103.2
19:30 Local
6-Meter State Net
53.31 / – 1.0 PL 71.9
Note: 53.31 has been reported to be having difficulties lately.
The appropriate people are aware and working to remedy any issues.
19:00 Local
MA RACES HF Net
3930 KHz LSB moving up to 3955 KHz until there is a clear frequency
18:45 Local
I appreciate you all answering the call to serve even when things are uncertain and tough to manage as they can be right now. Thank you all for helping us keep things on track and prove that we remain consistent. This net provides a monthly reminder that we stand ready with a quiet professionalism prepared to serve as a voice to whomever needs one to get help and resources where they should be.
If you know someone who would benefit from being on this list, please have them contact me at WC1MAB@gmail.com and I will add them to this distribution. Thank you all!
If anyone has any questions or comments I can be reached by e-mail or cell phone. Thanks for being a part of our team and I look forward to hearing back on who can participate this month.
Sincerely,
Michael Leger (N1YLQ)
MEMA Region #2 RACES Officer