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ARRL West Texas Section (WTX) |
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News last updated: Mon, November 17, 2008 at 1:10 PM ET
West Texas Section News November 2008
11/15/2008
The 10th annual SKYWARN Recognition Day (SRD) special event will take place Saturday, December 6, 2008. SRD is co-sponsored by the National Weather Service and the American Radio Relay League. SKYWARN Recognition Day is a way to recognize the commitment made by Amateur Radio operators in helping keep their communities safe. During the 24-hour special event, amateur radio operators visit their local National Weather Service (NWS) office and work as a team to contact other hams across the world. The on-air event will be from 0000 UTC to 2400 UTC December 6. If you have not joined in the fun, 2008 is your year! To learn more, check out this web site: http://hamradio.noaa.gov
West Gulf Vice-Director David Woolweaver (K5RAV) passes along information that the Echolink/HF Project linking ARRL HQ with our Texas/Oklahoma ARES Nets has begun "live" testing with West Texas hams participating. The Top of the Panhandle folks report a very successful JOTA with 26 adults and 53 scouts involved. Their JOTA event resulted in three new Tech licenses. San Angelo VE's report seven new Techs and four upgrades. The San Angelo ARC is making plans to relocate its 94 repeater to a hill west of the city. The present location is atop a men's high-rise on the campus of Angelo State College that is to be demolished.
A tragic event at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in October reminded me how our ham radio family is intertwined. You may have read of the accident in which one of the balloons crashed into a powerline and caught fire. One of the surviving crewmembers was Keith Sproul (WU2Z). Keith was forced to jump from the burning balloon and received numerous broken bones, burns, and other injuries. I recognized Keith's callsign as one of the coauthors along with his brother Mark (KB2ICI) of WINAPRS and several other pieces of software. It was not until I visited the Panhandle ARC in Amarillo that I learned that they were identical twins and the sons of Maury (W5UGQ) and Betty (W5UGR) Sproul of Amarillo. Keith and Marty are on the staff of Rutgers University in New Jersey. Many of you know Keith from his APRS software, others from his interest in hot air ballooning, and others through his parents Maury and Betty of Amarillo. The Panhandle ARC has suggested that hams send Keith a qsl card wishing him a successful recovery. We are family.
A card to the following address will get to Keith, Maury, and Betty.
Debbie Sproul
C/o Garry Haruska
7305 Montano Rd NW
Albuquerque, NM 87120-3540
Field Day 2008 is now history . A record number of WTX hams participated in North America's most popular amateur radio event. The final count was 12 WTX groups with 232 hams involved. The Midland ARC (W5QGG) and the Big Bend ARC (K5FD) again vied for top honor with Midland coming out on top. The WTX Field Day Award will again go to the Midland Amateur Radio Club. Congratulations to both MARC and BBARC. They not only had the top two scores in West Texas but also had the top two scores in our West Gulf Division. The Sun City ARC (K5WPH) set a West Texas Section record in the 4E category. The K5WPH gang ran a very good FD operation. The Panhandle ARC (W5WX) deserves special note. This was their first attempt at putting together a competitive multi-op station. There is definitely a learning curve to getting such a station operating smoothly and they are certainly to be commended for this first effort. I look forward to bigger and better thing from the Amarillo area in the years to come. Look out Midland and Big Bend...they are gunning for you.
On a personal note, FD 2008 was a blast. Carla and I were invited by the two El Paso clubs to join them for Field Day. A Section Manager normally spends most of his weekend behind the wheel, traveling from FD site to FD site. This year was different because the K5WPH and W5ES sites are only 5 miles apart. Saturday evening I got a chance to run 20 SSB at the W5ES station, something I had not had a chance to do in years. It was certainly a rush to watch the logging program's rate meter hovering above a 100. The Old Man still has a little bit left in him!
It is obvious where my heart is when it comes to FD but there is much more to this exercise then making a gazillion contacts. Time and time again, I hear comments playing down the importance of FD scores. I suspect that the commenter may have forgotten the objects of Field Day. Our FD is a national exercise in emergency preparedness. Two meter full quieting nets give an operator little opportunity to practice communicating in abnormal situations in less then normal conditions. That skill set can be improved by spending time on HF during FD. If an operator is unable to reliably copy call signs under less then optimal conditions, how bad is he going to butcher a piece of priority medical traffic during an actual emergency? More qsos, more points...better prepared. What about bonus points? Emergency or battery power increases your score. Is your group really prepared for an emergency if you have to depend on commercial power? Emergency power, more points...better prepared. Copying the W1AW FD bulletin and handling NTS messages gains you additional points. Hey fellows, that's what this is about...handling emergency messages. More practice, more points...better prepared. Your group's raw score alone is not important but when compared to your neighbor's score or your group's past scores, it becomes a quantitative measure of a group's emergency preparedness that does have significant meaning. FD scores are not perfect indicators but are a very useful tool in EMCOM planning.
Top Six 2008 WTX FD 2008 Scores
1 - W5QGG - Midland ARC - score 9884, QSOs 2886
2 - K5FD - Big Bend ARC - score 8308, QSOs 2303
3 - K5WPH - Sun City ARC - score 3260, QSOs 1108
4 - W5WX - Panhandle ARC - score 2930, QSOs 651
5 - W5QX - San Angelo ARC - score 1908, QSOs 297
6 - W5ES - El Paso ARC - score 1524, QSOs 428
John Dyer
AE5B
West Texas Section Manager
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ARES® NEWS from WTX SEC J.T. Caldwell, WA5ZFH
ARES REPORT FOR October 2008
Total Number of ARES® members: 296
Number of DECs/ECs reporting: 12
Number of ARES® nets active: 12
Number with NTS liaison: 2
DECs/ECs reporting: KD5HYB, NL7C, W5ZOX, KB5HPT, KE5NYB, KM5VM, WX5SD, KJ5DXm KD5KBU, K5DWS, WT5C, KD5URW
Number of drills, tests and training sessions: 13
Man-hours: 78
Number of Public Service events: 3
Man-hours: 22
Number of emergency operations: 6
Man-hours: 6
Total number of ARES operations: 12
Man-hours: 92
Comments SEC:
October has managed to be a quiet month. Our local SET Drill was held on the 4th and was a success. We learned a bunch and see that we have lots of room to improve. Through out our WTX Section the emphasis is on digital communications. Also we are seeing more repeaters going up to cover areas that have been lacking in coverage. The shift in EM operations to cover larger areas has added a new dimension to our work. We should be including other EC's whose counties are adjacent to ours in our planning and offering our services to them. When you plan your next SET Drill it might be fun to do a combined set drill covering several counties. We have already started planning for our 2009 Set Drill and it will cover several counties. More on this is coming soon....
Following Comments taken from EC Monthly Reports:
Tom Green, County: The Tom Green County ARES group had a good group meeting on the 16th of Oct 08. We had a good discussion on some the plans and SOPs/SOGs that the group will be using in the coming year. Talked about some of the changes and upgrades to the radio room at the city/county EOC and on a work day to do some required work on the antennas, radios and computers in the room. Work day was set for 8 Nov 08. The next TGC-ARES group meeting was set for the 20th of Nov 08 at 7:30 PM at the city/county EOC.
Childress, County: Two of us assisted with the local "Tour d'Cotton" bicycle race on October 4th. We provided small scale communications service and transportation. More importantly, we have made them realize the services they need as this race increases in size. I think they will help us support the Amarillo MS 150 next July. Hopefully that will provide our people with more information and ideas on how to run the race and we will be able to get more help from the local areas..
Coleman, County: The tower on Santa Anna Mountain is standing at 80 feet. The radio shack is being completed and the antenna braces are being completed as well. I am still looking for a duplexer for 155 but I would also take a set for the ham side of VHF. I do hope to give the county a Christmas present and be on the air with 444.375 by Christmas Day. I did participate with the Brownwood ARC in a tabletop exercise and we did utilize ham operations during the exercise. It was a good learning exercise and it showed us where we had problems with ham operations.
Signature: J. T. Caldwell Call Sign: WA5ZFH
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West Texas Net Reports October 2008
Name/sessions/checkins
Big Bend Emergency Net: 4/153
Concho Valley 2 Meter Net: 4/75
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Coming 2008 WTX Events
Dec 6 SKYWARN Recognition Day
Jan 15 Sun City Amateur Radio Club, K5WPH. 50 Year On-The-Air Special Event
Big Bend Emergency Net/ West Texas Section Net 3922 Khz Sunday at 8:30 AM CDT
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