Bible
Verse
Jeremiah 29:11 / For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. NIV
President’s Report
Our next business meeting will be held in the back room of the Checker Board Restaurant on Saturday May 14th, 2011. Come join us!
The recent tornado outbreak has given amateur radio operators a real life scenario of why we should always be prepared to assist our communities with communications. Please evaluate how your radio equipment preformed and make any necessary updates or repairs. I met and talked with a lady that lives only a few minutes from Smithville, MS. She described it as "total destruction". Some of her friends lost their lives and some are still missing. Please keep all of the victims in your prayers.
There is a video on YouTube posted by MARC member AE5VF of a tornado in Neshoba County. Currently it has nearly one million views. Here is the link: http://www.meridianarc.org/sparkgap/media/April27_Tornado_Neshoba.wmv
In the April issue of The Spark Gap AE5FE announced the NLE 2011 (National Level Exercise) that would take place on May 16, 2011 involving eight states simulating a major earthquake in the New-Madrid fault area. It has been announced due to our recent bad weather outbreak on April 27th and flooding from the Mississippi River, MEMA has withdrawn Mississippi participation in the NLE-11. However, our local LEMA Director has expressed a desire for ARES to continue with NLE-11 on May 16th at the local level. Please see additional information in the articles below.
73, Darrell, W5MAV
MEMA Earthquake Exercise/SET Canceled
State RACES Officer, Ron Brown, AB5WF, has received word that in view of the severe weather outbreak on April 27 and the impending flood on the Mississippi River, MEMA has withdrawn Mississippi participation in the New Madrid Earthquake Exercise (NLE-11) scheduled for May 16-19. Consequently, the planned concurrent ARRL Mississippi Section SET is also canceled. (In the event a county EMA elects to continue to conduct an exercise during May 16-19, ARES groups are requested to support the exercise to the maximum extent possible at the local level.)
ARRL Headquarters has advised that those ARES Groups participating in the recent storm event satisfy 2011 SET Requirements, and the EC is requested to file an Annual SET Report (form to be available later in the year).
ECs with ARES Groups that did not participate in the severe weather outbreak are encouraged to schedule a local SET at some time during the remainder of the year convenient with ARES Members and served agency availability.
First Thursday EOC/served agency and ARES/RACES Officials Check-ins will, of course, continue through the remainder of the year to ensure communications reliability.
ARRL Mississippi Section Manager
Malcolm P Keown, W5XX
w5xx@arrl.org
Local Level NLE-11
After a meeting with David Sharp, LEMA Director, he has expressed a desire for ARES to continue with NLE-11, 16 May, on a local level.
Areas that will require support or communications interoperability to Amateur Radio Service are Sand-flats Training Facility, Rush Hospital, Anderson Hospital, Air Operations at Key Field and LEMA EOC. LEMA is equipped to handle Packet, Winlink, NBEMS, digital modes, VHF FM, and HF Phone. Packet Radio Communications will be sent to WX5MEI via the W5FQ-10 mail box. In the event of a simulated tower collapse, a temporary antenna will be installed to replace the simulated tower ant on top of TV hill. If the tower fails WX5MEI will beacon a request to send traffic direct to WX5MEI-10 until the temp ant has been installed. Additionally, if the tower is deemed to have collapsed VHF FM communication will be conducted on 146.520 MHz Simplex.
W5FQ repeater will remain on air for normal Amateur Radio use in case "there is an emergency or emergency traffic". Realizing that this exercise will occur during normal working hours, with the possibility of extending to the evening or night hours, please monitor as you can and check with WX5MEI to inform us of your presence. As of this writing we are not aware of any other Served Agencies participation or request for services. Additional information will be made available as it is received, but plan on most of the tasks to be made during the exercise.
Richard Morefield, AE5FE
EC Lauderdale-Clarke Counties ARES
W5YI-VE Team Announcement
First I would like to say that I hope and pray that non of you suffered any major losses or ANY loss of life in your family due to this latest round of bad weather!
The April 15th Revitalization Seminar was canceled because of bad weather and we received calls from a lot of people that were planning on attending informing us that they could not make it because of the weather. Our next scheduled Seminar is scheduled for Saturday, June 11, 2011. Again to be held at the EMEPA building on Hwy 39N in Meridian, MS. Our topics will be the same as we were planning on covering on the April 15 seminar, Pro and Cons of the NVIS antennas system and simple antenna building (dipole antennas). Rick Morefield, AE5FE will be the speaker for the two (2) topics.
You contact any member of the team for further information or me, Eldon Richardson, W4IOS directly! Cell: (601) 604-2063 or E-Mail: eldon.richardson@att.net
Tell Your Ham Radio Stories on HamRadioStoryProject.Com
By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU
For a long time, I’ve had the idea to set up a web site to capture ham radio stories. Well, I’ve finally done it. The Ham Radio Story Project (http://www.hamradiostoryproject.com) is now online!
This web site was inspired by the Story Corps (http://storycorps.org/), which was itself inspired by NPR’s National Story Project (http://www.npr.org/programs/watc/features/1999/991002.storyproject.html). The tagline for the site is "capturing the human spirit of amateur radio," and my motivation for setting up the site is to capture personal stories of how amateur radio has touched lives, either the lives of amateur radio operators themselves, or of the people that we serve.
The site has only been online a month, and I already have several good stories. I reposted my story about checking the QSL's of a county hunter, and there are also stories about an international friendship that survived WW II and a story about how an Elmer touched the life of his student. These are exactly the type of stories I want to collect.
If you have a great story about ham radio, I want to hear about it and to publish it on HamRadioStoryProject.Com. If you want to tell the story yourself, let me know, and I’ll set up an account for you on the site. If you would like some help, let me know, and I’ll contact you and either write the story myself, or find someone else to help you.
I don’t want to lose another great story because there isn’t a place to tell it. HamRadioStoryProject.Com is the place to tell it.
==============================
When he's not setting up yet another ham radio web site, you'll find KB6NU teaching classes; working on WA2HOM, the ham radio station at Ann Arbor's Hands-On Museum (www.wa2hom.org), or operating CW on the HF bands. You'll find his blog at www.kb6nu.com, or you can e-mail him at cwgeek@kb6nu.com.
QSO on PSK31
This was part of a QSO on PSK31 today on 20 meters ... What a strange solution
KOPDX DE N2FBB/4 Bob rr JEREMY your signal is very clean. its great. i hope mine is not too bad.. i am living on 3rd and top floor of a huge apartment complex. no place for 2O meter antenna at all. almost gave up ham radio until i remembered a trick that i used in the caribbean. i flushed 2O feet of teflon coated wire down the toilet by Oeeezing an ice cube to the end.. to help the drop. so no jokes about reverse swr. hi runniing 5O watts down the drain BTU JEREMY KOPDX DE N2FBB/4 K
W0AIB says: Leave it to a dedicated ham to figure out a unique solution. Obviously he has plastic drain piping. Thanks to Jeremy for sending this to us. (I received this via email so have no idea of its origin, but I did find it intriguing).
May 2011