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The Georgia
Section News |
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National Weather Service Amateurs have a new
WX4PTC website
Click Here |
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CLUB EVENTS
HAMFESTS |
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STM Charles Pennington K4GK giving seminars on Traffic
Handling |
Given the importance of accurate traffic in any emergency, real
or simulated, our STM Charles Pennington K4GK
has been all over the state giving seminars on traffic handling.
If your local organization is doubtful about doing this you
might talk to Charles about it. As Barry Kanne W4TGA reports:
"In anticipation of the upcoming SET, DeKalb ARES invited
Charles Pennington (K4GK) to their August meeting to teach the
proper procedures for passing messages using the ARRL Radiogram
format. There were 20 students whose experience levels ranged
from "old hand" to "newbie" and all gained knowledge from
Charles' presentation. The class was held at the DeKalb
Fire/Rescue headquarters building in Tucker, GA." |
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Team KK4PQ Operates Field Day From Their Sailboat
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This year Team KK4PQ operated out of our sailboat,
Windezvous. Our team consisted of
David KK4PQ,
Lisa KI4ZFD,
Dwight KJ4OVP,
Wayne KC4ACT,
and Gayle KJ4KRZ.
We made a total of 101 contacts. 15 meters was our most
active band. |
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On Saturday, Dwight came over with "Big Papa", his
father-in-law, and we anchored out behind Beachview
Drive. |
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| It was very hot!
Saturday evening, David & I chose to go back up the
river and anchor at a sandbar our son named "San Diego"
where we weathered a lightning storm, grilled some
steaks, and made the majority of our contacts. Sunday,
Wayne and Gayle, who just happen to be David's parents,
came over and back up the river we went to a beach named
"Bora Bora". |
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| We swam a bit, made a
few contacts, had lunch, and ended field day with Gayle
sailing us back home. All in all, we'd have to say it
was a very successful field day for Team KK4PQ, and we
are looking forward to next year. |
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Central District shares some excellent footage of Middle
Georgia's fun with Field Day |
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Dave Stewart KN4DS,
D.E.C. Central District shares some excellent footage of Middle
Georgia's fun with Field Day.
You will enjoy it too.
Too good not to
share.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMgFcKGsjSM
Then there was great news coverage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFtHZ8ZfZUs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blmXOrBr8Ys&feature=related
A few photos, too.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kn4ds/sets/72157624247968459/
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Why We Practice |
 Late
this morning DeKalb Watershed Management had a 1000 lb
Chlorine gas leak at its wastewater plant in Lithonia, GA.
This caused a hazmat incident and while the gas
reportedly dissipated the Public Safety Director requested
the EMA have volunteers go door-to-door to check on the
welfare of citizens that
may have been affected.
At about 1:20 p.m. I received a call from Mac
McWhorter, Deputy Ops Director of DEMA requesting an ARES
net to support this event.
I contacted Steve
Garrison, N4SEG, who acted as a temporary net control until
I could reach the site of the command post that had been
established near the wastewater facility.
I also notified Tom Fuller, KE4QCM our DeKalb Net
Manager. In the
mean time, DEMA volunteers, many of which are newly licensed
amateur radio operators, were notified and started to check
in to the net on the 145.45 repeater, with Steve as net
control.
Upon arrival at the
command post, at 2:38 p.m., I checked in with the Incident
Commander, Captain Beth Burgess, and began gathering info as
to what resources would be needed from ARES.
After the briefing and assessment I took control of
the net for the balance of the event.
It was decided to field five teams of 2 person each,
to go to assigned streets and to the door-to-door canvas.
Each team would have at least one amateur radio
operator to communicate with the command post for reporting
purposes. The
mission was completed at 5:00 p.m. and I closed the net at
5:04 p.m. local time.
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Participating in the net were:
N4SEG;
KE4QCM;
W4TGA;
KJ4NYM;
KJ4CQJ;
KJ4TZP;
KJ4CNA;
KJ4NYO;
N4RHW;
KJ4AKA;
K4MCW
Submitted by:
Barry Kanne, W4TGA
EC DeKalb ARES
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Annual HURREX (Hurricane Exercise) in Savannah, GA |
Antenna Farm |
D-Star Radio |
Icom Radios |
Interop1 |
Steve W4SKB |
Tent City |
The annual HURREX
(Hurricane Exercise) was held in Savannah, GA on June 28 through
June 30, 2010. Here is a report on my experience with this
exercise.
Earlier this year I was
appointed the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) District
Emergency Coordinator (DEC) as liaison with the Georgia State
Patrol. I work alongside a great team here in the Atlanta area
consisting of Tom Holcomb, K5AES, the DEC working as liaison
with the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA), Jan Jubon,
K2HJ, the DEC for the Amateur Radio Emergency Service Mutual Aid
Team (ARESMAT), Lowry Rouse, KM4Z, the Assistant Section
Emergency Coordinator for Operations. I also had the full
backing of our Section Manager Gene Clark, W4AYK, and our
Section Emergency Coordinator Mike Brown, KE4FGF.
Over the past several
months I have worked on developing a good working relationship
with the Georgia State Patrol and GSP Trooper SFC Jamie
Sullivan. Jamie is the individual responsible for
interoperability of radio communications during disaster
recovery situations. Jamie is also an Amateur Radio Operator,
KJ4OPY.
I left Atlanta on Monday
to meet up with Jamie and the Mobile Communications Unit (MCU),
identified as “Interop-1”, in Dublin, Georgia for
processing into the system prior to going to the operations area
near the Savannah International Airport.
Our group was first on
scene at the operations area where we met with GEMA personnel to
tell us where the MCU was to be located. As this was a
full-scale exercise GEMA had living quarters set up, which
included feeding stations, sanitation facilities, and showers,
so that critical personnel would not need to leave the
operations area.
Once the location was
determined for the MCU, we started the process of deploying the
Public Safety Radio antennas, which had to be setup prior to the
installation of the amateur radio antennas. Our initial plan was
to deploy a 75-meter inverted-V antenna for operation on 3975
kHz. The antenna went up and we made all the connections through
the MCU back to the Icom IC-706MKIIG radios. The MCU contains
two Icom IC-706MKIIGs so we designated one for HF operations and
the second unit for VHF/UHF local area repeaters.
As part of the planning
process for this exercise, I had emailed Guy McDonald, K4GTM the
DEC for the Southeast District as well as the Emergency
Coordinators for each of the coastal counties giving them a
heads up on what was going on. Most indicated that they had not
heard from the local Emergency Management Agency (EMA) directors
that this exercise was taking place. On finding this out, I was
glad I sent the emails out to make sure the ARES folks were
aware of the exercise.
We immediately ran into
an antenna problem that appeared to be a bad coaxial cable
connection between a grounding block in the equipment cabinet
and the bulkhead connectors on the roof of the MCU. The local
ARES folks told me that they would be monitoring the 146.970
repeater, as well as the 442.700 repeater. We had good signals
on both repeaters but stayed on the 146.970 machine as more
people had VHF capability and this gave us the advantage of more
easily finding someone when we needed them.
I gave a call on the
146.970 repeater to let them know we had an antenna issue. The
response I got was great. Mac, KF4LMT, had a G5RV-mini, Ralph,
W4REQ, had a section of coaxial cable. and Heyward, KT4RW, had
an MFJ-949C manual antenna tuner.
At this point I was
getting a little tired as I had been up since 5 AM and it was
now 8 PM that evening. But these local amateurs said go ahead
and lockup the MCU and they would finish getting the antenna up
and ready for Tuesday. I cannot begin to express my sincere
thanks for all the area amateur radio operators who helped out
and made it possible to be on the air and the 9 AM Tuesday 3975
net.
On Tuesday, a GEMA rep
asked if amateur radio could establish communications from
Hutchinson Island back to the Savannah Command Center. I put out
a call on the 146.970 repeater and immediately got a call from
Guy McDonald and I told him of the GEMA request. He went to the
remote location and we found that not only could we work HT to
HT via the 146.970 repeater, but we could also work mobile to
MCU via a simplex path. GEMA was impressed and told me they
would bring this up in their after-action report.
Tuesday was the primary
exercise day, and we made contacts via HF, VHF, UHF, Winlink,
D-Star, and DV Dongle. For D-Star, we worked through the
Pembroke D-Star repeater which was connected to Reflector 30B
and the W4DOC D-Star repeater in Atlanta. We had good solid copy
between the State Operations Center (SOC) in Atlanta and the MCU
in Savannah.
The only item we did not
complete was the transmission of digital images from Savannah
back to the SOC. This was due in part to some interconnect
cables not being available in Atlanta and Savannah. We’ll know
better next time what to bring.
There were some technical and
logistical challenges but most were overcome by the willingness
of local ARES members and other amateur radio operators to step
forward and do what needed to be done to make it all come
together.
My brother Jim Millsap, WB4NWS
always talks about relationships. When we come together, without
worrying about who is getting the credit or the glory, we can
and do make things happen.
As DEC-Georgia State Patrol, my
first priority is to support the GSP operation in any way needed
and that may or may not include Amateur Radio operations. But
the relationship between GSP and ARES keeps getting better each
time we work together.
Taking the time to contact the
local amateur community prior to my arrival helped pave the way
for all the assistance that we needed to pull things together,
even when it seemed like they were falling apart all around me.
Again, I want to extend my
thanks to the great Amateur Radio Operators who live in Coastal
Georgia. I know when we have the real thing and I go back with
the GSP MCU, that I will have all the backup I need, and then
some.
Thank you all so very
much for all your help and support.
Steve Bramham, W4SKB
DEC-Georgia State Patrol
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Proclamation by the Cherokee County Board of
Commissioners |
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The Cherokee County Amateur Radio Society (CARS) and Cherokee
County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (CCARES) groups have been
issued a Proclamation by the Cherokee County Board of
Commissioners and Commission Chairman L. B. (Buzz) Ahrens
declaring the week of June 21-27th as, "Cherokee County Amateur
Radio Week" (see attached).
news/Cherokee_County_Amateur_Radio_Week_Proclamation.pdf
Pictured on June 21, 2010, presenting the Proclamation to Jim
Millsap, WB4NWS, Emergency Coordinator-Cherokee ARES, is
Cherokee County Commissioner Jim Hubbard.
Also pictured is Jim Millsap presenting a 2010 ARRL Field Day
shirt to Commissioner Jim Hubbard for his excellent support to
our groups and participates with us on Field Day.
Field Day will be open to the public
beginning Saturday, June 26th at 2pm and run 24 hours through
Sunday, June 27th at the Cherokee County Community Room, 100
Ridgemill Ct., Acworth, GA. 30102, located on Hwy 92 and
Ridgemill Ct. For more information, please see
www.cherokee-ares.org. Come
and join us!
Jim Millsap-WB4NWS
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June 14, 2010
Amateur Radio Operators Appreciation Week, Walton County |
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April 28, 2010
Amateur Radio Operators Support Bike MS: Deloitte |
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Amateur Radio Operators Support
Bike MS: Deloitte
In Bike MS:
Deloitte, a bicycle ride raising funds for the Georgia
MS Society, bicyclist covered paths up to 100 miles
between downtown Atlanta and downtown Athens and return
on April 10 and 11.
A number of amateur radio
organizations supported the ride in a display of
cooperation and capabilities.
There were over 40 amateur
radio operators representing the Clarke, DeKalb,
Gwinnett, Jackson, Rockdale and Walton County ARES
groups, the Oconee County RACES group as well as the
Athens Radio Club, Gwinnett Amateur Radio Society, the
LaGrange Amateur Radio Club, and the Northeast Georgia
Amateur Radio Club. The Atlanta Radio Club allowed the
use of their D-STAR 2 meter repeaters W4DOC and WX4GPB,
the Tri-County Amateur Radio Club allowed the use of
their 70 CM D-STAR repeater WJ4FD, and WA4YIH installed
a portable 70 CM D-STAR repeater to support the primary
communications for the operation.
The Alford Memorial Radio
Club and the Lanierland Radio Club allowed the operation
to use their FM repeaters for operations.
The bicycle ride provided an opportunity to demonstrate
the capabilities of D-STAR operations and primary
operations were conducted using D-STAR.
All the participating
repeaters were connected to reflector 30B, a reflector
designated for use by Georgia ARES.
Georgia Emergency
Management Agency loaned 20 Icom IC-2820 radios to the
operation.
These radios were equipped
with Power Pole connectors and programmed by John Davis,
WB4QDX, and Scott Hartlage, KF4PWI.
A standard single mode
configuration was used to make operation by participants
new to D-STAR equipment as simple as possible and a
simple two page instruction sheet was prepared by WB4QDX
for the operators. All the SAG vehicles used to support
the race had their GPS units active so positions were
reported each time the microphone was keyed.
In addition, break points
and the lunch points had operators stationed to
coordinate needed information flow including getting
food to break points and the operations center.
Net control and bike ride officials were able to keep
tabs on the riders as they traversed the course from
downtown
Atlanta
to downtown
Athens
on Saturday and return on Sunday.
The use of D-STAR provided
a novel approach to tracking vehicles using the same
radio as used for voice.
Previously it was
necessary to operate two radios: one for voice and one
for traditional APRS.
With the integration in D-STAR’s
data channel and integrated GPS, one radio was all that
was needed.
The ability to link all
repeaters digitally provided a uniform operation without
all the variables normally encountered in analog linked
repeater systems.
Having a seamless network
allowed ride break point managers and the operations
center to maintain a view of the entire course, even
though the various locations might be on different
repeater systems.
The projected display of
vehicles over the mapped route proved helpful to
visualize what was transpiring, even getting a wayward
SAG van back on course
In summary, the event provided an initial look at the
wide scale application of D-STAR in an event requiring
multiple repeaters and operators unfamiliar with the
technology.
While some problems were
encountered, they were rapidly resolved, including
relocation of the portable repeater twice to improve
coverage of a segment of the course without normal
access.
It also educated a large
group on the operation of and benefits of D-STAR in
certain applications.
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March 26, 2010
Gordon County ARES Team |
With the financial assistance and support of the Gordon County
EMA Director Richard Cooper, WG4OEM, who is also a fellow
Amateur Radio Operator, the Gordon County ARES Team, has
assembled a communications trailer that the team has named ARES
1. It is for the use by Gordon Co. ARES to support both the
local community and surrounding area. ARES 1 was put into
service during the 2009 SET after much work by the team with
Assistant EC Josh Townsend, W7TJT, leading the way. The air
conditioned 6' x 12" trailer is well equipped and is continually
being upgraded with other equipment and modes of operation. It
is equipped with HF, VHF, UHF, and public service band
capabilities. There are also two onboard computers, which can
link into the Internet via a wireless air card. It is powered by
battery and generator power. There are two 40' masts to mount
antennas to along with other miscellaneous equipment needed to
keep ARES 1 on the air. |
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