Eastern Massachusetts ARES Report – September Through Early October 2021

Hello to all…

This is the second in a series of monthly Eastern Massachusetts ARES reports that we have published on the Eastern Massachusetts ARES web site and will redistribute via the ARRL Section News provided we can meet the Section News deadline with our report. In the future, we plan to include additional statistical information on number of SKYWARN and ARES activations, total number of ARES members in the section as well as a narrative report in key happenings in Eastern Massachusetts ARES. We hope everyone finds these reports informative.

As this ARES report is being written, the 125th running of the Boston Marathon will take place on Monday 10/11/21. We thank all Amateur Operators and those that are Amateur Radio SKYWARN Spotters and ARES members for their participation in race day despite COVID and dealing with the COVID precautions. We wish everyone a great and fun race day on Marathon Monday. Also upcoming for public service events are the Baystate Marathon and the Head of the Charles Regatta.

Eastern Massachusetts ARES has lost a key member of its staff. Metro Boston ARES District Emergency Coordinator, K1BTH-Blake Haskell is now a silent key along with his wife Deb Haskell. Eastern Massachusetts ARES honored Blake with a last call on the October Eastern Massachusetts ARES Net and on many of the RACES nets that took place. The ARES Net and Sector 2 RACES Net last calls were recorded and can be heard here:

https://ema.arrl.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Sector_2C_RACES_Net_K1BTH-Blake-Tribute.mp3

https://ema.arrl.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Eastern_Mass_ARES_Net_K1BTH-Blake-Tribute.wav

The Eastern Massachusetts ARES staff will review his vacancy and announce a replacement over the course of the next 1-2 months. Our sincerest condolences are extended to the friends and family of Blake and his wife Deb and to all in the Amateur Radio and Public Safety community that knew them.

The month of September after Labor Day was a bit less active from an ARES-SKYWARN perspective as the weather pattern changed allowing for less activations. Nonetheless, the weather pattern remained fairly wet across the region with 6 self-activations for SKYWARN during the period mostly for heavy rainfall events but also for isolated severe thunderstorms on 3 of the self-activation for SKYWARN. More information on the larger activations with post storm reports and photos from the 2021 tropical and severe weather season will be posted on wx1box.org over the course of the next week.

ARES/SKYWARN members from across the country including Eastern Massachusetts support the VoIP Hurricane Net as Hurricane Larry made landfall in Newfoundland Canada. Details on this activation can be seen here:

https://ema.arrl.org/2021/09/16/voip-hurricane-net-lauded-for-efforts-during-hurricane-larry/

As we go through the month of October, the threat of direct impacts of tropical systems to our region is less as water temperatures cool but strong hybrid coastal storms become a potential concern. Given the continued very wet weather pattern of the last few months, we will need to monitor this potential for both SKYWARN and ARES activations.

Eastern Massachusetts ARES will conduct its Simulated Emergency Test (SET) coincident with the national Winlink exercise on Saturday 11/13/21 from 1000 AM-1200 PM. Further details will be posted on the Eastern Massachusetts ARES/ARRL section web site towards late October.

Thanks to all for their continued support of Eastern Massachusetts ARES!

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
Like us on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/wx1box
Follow us on Twitter – http://twitter.com/wx1box

Leave a Reply