Hello to all,
This email is the typical monthly message to let everyone know that Monday evening, November 4th, 2024 is our first non-holiday Monday of the month and, as such, will be the next RACES/ACS/Preparedness Net night.
I will be unable to act as NCO for the Sector 2A net as this month’s net falls on my work shift and I cannot guarantee that I will have ready access to a radio at the scheduled net time. If anyone is interested in taking on the Net Control duties for this sector net this month, please reach out to me and let me know.
In our recent monthly nets, Sector 2B has had very low turnout. While we do not have many RACES operators for the communities in this sector at the moment, it would be appreciated if operators from other, nearby sectors would also check into this sector net to help maintain our NCOs net management skills and to make the net at least a little more fun and interesting or all those involved. A net with 2 people participating on a regular basis is really not something that many of us would look forward to taking the time to check into. With this in mind, hats off to WA1ZLQ and WA1BEE for their dedication in maintaining the presence of the Sector 2B net on a monthly basis even with so few other participants.
For any operators interested in performing the duties of Net Control Station (NCS), there are materials available to make the task fairly simple and straight forward. The net pre-amble and role call lists are available at http://wc1mab.org/RACES_R2_Interim_Preamble.pdf and http://wc1mab.org/Month.php with the role-call lists on the left column near the bottom. If anyone is worried that they may mess up running a net, please remember that, in many cases, a less than perfect net is WAY better than no net at all! At the conclusion of any net, any operator that acted as Net
Control Operator is asked to please send a note to WC1MAB@gmail.com <mailto:WC1MAB@gmail.com> letting me know who ran the net and who checked in so that the proper numbers can be reported to our served agencies. We
cannot always count on our normal net control operators to be available in the event of a large scale emergency, so every RACES operator should be prepared to act as NCO if needed when disaster and emergency strikes!
Winlink Net Instructions From Don Rolph:
*Winlink Net*
To participate:
– create a check-in form using the Winlink standard checkin form
– send via Winlink after 6 AM EST Mon. November 4th and before midnight EST November 5th
(any mode, but include mode in check-in form) to KF1D
I continue to ask that any operators who have the time, please try to
check into sector nets from near-by sectors. This will allow 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.
I appreciate you all answering the call to help our communities remain
prepared. Thank you all for helping us keep things on track and prove that
we remain a consistent source of communication capability to the
Commonwealth. This net provides a monthly reminder to our communities and
served agencies that we stand ready with a quiet professionalism prepared to
serve as a voice to whomever needs one to get help and resources to where
they need to be.
If you know someone who would benefit from being on this list, please have
them contact me at <mailto:WC1MAB@gmail.com> 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
C: 508_995_0203