Hello to all,
We are finally exiting hurricane season and now we move toward the winter weather season! This email is the typical monthly message to let everyone know that Monday evening, November 6th, 2023 is our first non-holiday Monday of the month and, as such, will be the next RACES/ACS/Preparedness Net night. This month also will play host to a winter Simulated Emergency Test by Eastern MA ARES. This test is currently scheduled to occur on November 11th, 2023 and has been designed by Frank, WQ1O. More information should be forthcoming on the Eastern MA Section ARRL web page: https://ema.arrl.org/category/emcomm/ please check with your EC or DEC for more information. I do recommend any RACES members that are able to participate please do! Exercises planned by Frank (WQ1O) are usually VERY robust and do a great job of testing participants skills and equipment very well.
As always, I am looking for Net Control stations to staff our sector nets for the evening. This month I will be able to run the Sector 2A net, but due to a possible conflict with town meeting, I may be left to run the net from my vehicle in the parking lot of our meeting place which may make the simplex test less than awesome. I am looking for someone to take over the Sector 2A NCO duties if anyone is available and interested. I am also looking for NCS operators to lead the Sector 2B (Plymouth County) net. Sector 2D has already arranged for an NCS operator for this month’s net and Sector 2C is a Winlink only net on a monthly basis.
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 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 should send a note to 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 can not 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 6th and before midnight EST November 7th (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 sections. 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.
The Region #2 and State Net Schedule for this evening is as follows:
| Net |
Frequency/Offset |
Time |
| Sector 2A |
147.00 /+0.60 PL |
19:30 Local |
| Sector 2B |
145.39/-0.60 PL 67.0 |
20:00 Local |
| Sector 2C |
Winlink Net Check-In |
6AM-Midnight Local Time |
| Sector 2D |
146.865/-0.60 PL 103.5 |
19:30 Local |
| 6-Meter State Net |
53.31 / -1.0 PL 71.9
Note: 53.31 has been reported as being repaired and back online. Please report tests on this repeater so that we can verify the repairs/improvements made to the repeater. |
19:00 Local |
| MA RACES HF Net |
3930 KHz LSB moving up to 3955 KHz until there is a clear frequency |
18:45 Local |
| MA MEMA NBEMS Net |
Frequency: 3584.5 MHx, Center Frequency: 1500 Hz, Initial mode: THOR22 |
19:00 Local |
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 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
Allen Phillips – MEMA East Regional Manager writes: