#Hamradio Nets of Note #ARRL

The Wichita Amateur Radio Club has a footprint in south Central Kansas and North Central Oklahoma.

With that in mind, their Sunday evening net at 8 p.m. Central Time offers a good way for area amateur radio operators to keep track of what's going on, not only in the Club, but also in the groups around the region.

The net meets on the various linked repeaters and Echolink.

Also, on Tuesday evening, there is a YL net that has attendees from the Region and beyond.

Since 1932, this club has been active in bringing amateur radio to the attention of Kansas and Oklahoma hams.

Ant Trails #WRN #Skywarn

Chasing storms tornado forming right in front of us

Can we be accurate in our descriptions, please? To the left is a photo from a Storm Chaser who described what appears to be a funnel as a developing tornado.  The apparent funnel was reported to the appropriate Weather Service office.

Appropriately, there was no tornado warning issued on this cell.

Some of the emergency management community are happy to engage the Chaser Community. Others are less than happy to see the ant trails in their neighborhood.

What are ant trails?  Those are the little red dots displayed on the RadarScope image below.  Each dot is an individual trained, according to SpotterNetwork standards, that allows them to report to the National Weather Service.  There is also a verification program that meet certain criteria.  There is also a process to weed out those who are consistent with their less than accurate reports.  

Clicking the dot, emergency managers, media folks, weather service professionals can get contact information for the dot. Typically, it's a phone number or email address for a name.  Sometimes, nothing is there.

Unlike SpotterNetwork and Skywarn operatives, there are other chasers who contribute little to public safety.  These individuals rarely report to the National Weather Service or the Local Emergency Management program.  If there is any report, it's video streamed on their private feed.  It appears these individuals act for self-recognition, rather than community good.

During an unpleasant discussion with a government employee, the individual stated he trusted a famous chaser more than he trusted local Skywarn individuals.  

Ant Trails

The latter spend hours learning what to report.  They give their time and gas to protect their local community,   Along with spending time learning amateur radio, they develop their radar skills with programs such as the OK-First and other training from the Oklahoma Mesonet while using tools such as NWSchat communicate with media and the Weather Service.  These folks are your neighbors and friends.  They live in your community.  They shop at your stores before and after the storms.   These individuals make StormReady and Weather Ready Nation programs reality.

Please ask yourself if the famous chaser will be in your community during the next thunderstorm or will he be in Timbuktu?  Was there a tornado warning issued because of the chaser's report?  Did the chaser report to the local government or the National Weather Service?

The average person needs three confirming events before action will occur.  For example, weather radio sounds, followed by a text, followed by siren would generally cause the person to take shelter. What will happen if only your chaser sends the only notice?  Someone, somewhere will see it.  The rest of your community likely won't.

If you are the average Citizen, please have three ways to get your warning from the National Weather Service.  Your favorite media app, the American Red Cross or Federal Emergency Management Agency app, the local warning process, amateur radio, all-hazards NWS receiver, your local AM or FM or TeeVee broadcaster, or your local Scanner Feed would be items from which to pick and choose.  The siren will be a late arrival in the warning process.

You can also trust your local Skywarn volunteer.   Join your local Skywarn effort to enhance the Weather Ready Nation and StormReady initiatives. 

Winlink announces third-party traffic enforcement #hamradio #ARRL

If you are a US-licensed station that routinely connects to a foreign gateway, or a non-US-licensed station that connects with a US gateway, you may be affected by new CMS behavior. The Winlink CMS now will enforce US Third-Party Message rules.

Because Winlink is being severely criticized for allowing US client and gateway operators to violate US amateur radio third-party traffic rules, we are today starting to test automatic enforcement of these rules. Part 97.3(47), 97.115 and 97.117 apply.

If you attempt to send or receive a third-party message between a US-licensed station and another station the US does not have a third-party communication agreement with, you may receive a service message saying the message will violate the applcable rules and that the message is refused (if you're sending) or being held at the CMS (if you are receiving). Alternative means to successfully send or receive the message will be explained. The US has treaties with most countries in the North and South America, but not most European, Asian and Pacific countries.

If you are a US-licensee, you should have no trouble sending and receiving to/from internet addresses if you connect with another US-licensed gateway, or one licensed in Central or South America — as long as the US has a third-party agreement with the licensing country.

If you are a non-US licensee, you should have no trouble sending and receiving to/from internet addresses if you connect to non-US licensed gateways.

We wish this was not necessary, but we have relied on US client and gateway operators to know the rules and obey them—and most have ignored them, unfortunately for all of us. In order to clean up the violations we are taking these measures to keep US Winlink operators legal. All licensees have an obligation to study, know, and obey the Amateur Radio Rules.

New monitoring and enforcement measures are coming into play with the establishment of a new Volunteer Monitor Program, now being set up by the ARRL at the request of the US FCC. We're doing this to make it easier for US operators to avoid loosing their licenses!

We will be tweaking the behavior of this new mechanism to make it as friendly and informative as it can be. Please bear with us as we make changes.

Thanks and 73,

Lor W3QA

Winlink Development Team

Are you sure 10 meters isn't open? #ARRL #hamradio

Ten Meters is one of my favorite bands. Even when it's not "open", it's frequently open. With the sunspots on the rise, so should the activity on the band increase.


Have you found http://ten-ten.org/daily_nets.html yet? Nets listed there will help determine if the band is open. If you look at http://www.qsl.net/steelcity/nets/whichnet.html, one will see a search box that lets you know which nets are in operation.

http://www.dxwatch.com/dxsd1.php?f=92 or http://hamspots.net/10/ will also give you DX Cluster spots, just for 10 meters.

At http://www.vhfdx.info/spots/warnings.php, one can get email alerts when six meters is open. If SIX is open, it's almost a given that TEN is open.

http://www.dxmaps.com/spots/map.php?Lan=E&Frec=28&ML=M&Map=W2L&DXC=N&HF=N&GL=N also offers a map of openings AND the ability to post spots all in one place.


There's a number of 10 meter software defined radios that one can use to see where's the band is open. Two are dedicated to the "Beacon Band".

http://userpages.troycable.net/~wj5o/bcn.htm is a list of beacons on Ten. Tune here to see where the band is open, even when it's not.

Ten Meters is one of my favorite bands. Thankfully, there's plenty of tools to take some of the Magic out of the Band.  What is your favorite band?

#HelpWanted #HamHoliday #ARRL #hamradio

Volunteers needed for Ham Holiday

Each of the clubs in the OKC area volunteer to fulfill roles at Ham Holiday.  The Edmond Amateur Radio Society is tasked with collecting volunteers for the Ham Holiday ticket sales/will-call desk and wristbands for Friday and Saturday.

Please contact Ron McCubbin, KC5QCV.  Volunteers are needed to sell tickets, look-up pre-paid tickets and help with wristbands.

We thank you as does CORA, the Central Oklahoma Radio Amateurs!

Contact Ron McCubbin: KC5QCV1@att.net

(405) 255-5666

13 Colonies event #ARRL #hamradio #RSGB

One of my personal favorite events in ham radio is the 13 Colonies! 

One has until the 7th of July to contact as many of the 13 original US colony stations as possible and there's a UK station along with two other stations for a total of 16 stations.

Look for them on HF.  Use DXwatch to check for spots. There's a spotting site dedicated to the event. Technician class operators, you have 10-meter privileges.  Will they be there?  Will you be there, when they are?

From a Yank who has a 12th great-grandmother who was Queen, there's more than COFFEE to help with the enjoyment. 

When #FakeNews hits #hamradio @ARRL #ARRL

You've seen the note!  THEY are taking away your Two-Meter band.

This mysterious THEY is ONE country that is proposing to change two meters in France to aeronautical service.

One poster asked where the Federal Communications Commission and the American Radio Relay League is in the matter.

First, France is in International Amateur Radio Union Region 1.  When last checked, the USA is in Region 2.  The forty meter band alone would show there are different band plans for the three IARU regions.  The FCC has no jurisdiction anywhere but the USA.

Second, the ARRL represents 100% of amateur radio, including the 80% of those operators who aren't League members, before the IARU.  The proposal has yet to be discussed with all member nations.  One of the pesky details in the proposal, however, is the two-meter satellites on FM, SSB, and APRS, including the International Space Station.  AMSAT, to be sure, will likely issue a comment or two.

The best take on this issue was found in this tweet:

[Moon-Net] Latest News On the Current 2 m Band Allocation Discussion https://buff.ly/2XjwoEu #hamradio #arrl @IARU_R1 @amsat

Thanks to Bernd, DF2ZC, for the information from the German Amateur Radio Club, which on their front page, addressed the issue.  

He writes quite accurately ... 

Latest News On the Current 2 m Band Allocation Discussion 


As most of you probably are aware, for example from the email by John,
G4SWX, dated June 6th the French administration at short notice had handed
in a modified a proposal to WRC-19 preparatory groups at CEPT that WRC-19
should decide on feasibility studies for additional
Aeronautical-Mobile-Services(AMS) allocations in the range from 144 MHz to
22.2 GHz. 

Since I have some insight in this matter I would like to give you a short
information update on the situation.

 

If this proposal in its current version is endorsed at the next meeting of
the CEPT Conference Preparatory Group in August it is highly likely that it
will appear on the agendas of WRC-19 and WRC-23 where a final decision will
be made. At least 10 of the 48 CEPT countries have to be in favour of this
proposal while not more than 6 must be against this.

During the recent Meeting of the CEPT Project Team A in Prague this proposal
by France was being discussed for the first time. Only the German delegation
made it clear that they are against this proposal including 144-146 MHz.

The main reason for that little opposition might be that the 2 m band was
included in the revised version of that French proposal only few days before
the deadline for the Prague meeting. Consequently most other European
countries had no time for internal discussions let alone formulating their
position.

IARU, being supported by regulatory experts of their member associations
(RSGB, DARC, VERON etc) is intensively working on executing their influence
within the current process and trying to keep the 2 m band as it is now. By
the way, the cost of this activities is covered by the funds resulting from
the contributions of the IARU member societies. So those who left their
county's amateur radio society should perhaps reconsider their decision.
Without the commitment and the funds the amateur radio community would have
little influence in that process, let alone could be present at the relevant
meetings.

Most importantly, amateur radio should speak with a single voice only. So I
would like to ask everybody to refrain from using maybe good personal
contacts to your government or the EU. This would weaken our position and
take away power and vigour from the systematic approach by IARU and country
amateur radio societies. This particularly applies for online petitions in
the WWW.which by the way do not even base on a correct facts background. 

 

73 Bernd DF2ZC, designated Frequency Manager DARC

The Change.org petition is problematic in that it will only show the low numbers of respondents to everyone.  Amateur radio is a 2% population in the USA.  It's less in other places.  If you really want to make a difference, let your ARRL officials know.  Your Section Manager would be a good first step.

As Bernd mentions, above, it's problematic also because it's #FAKENEWS,  It's a STUDY; not a rule.

PLEASE be aware of your facts before starting petitions, spouting out on YouTube, emailing and blogging.  

One country does not get to dictate to the world, regardless of what the USA, USSR, and CHINA think.  Please let due process work.  Your ARRL is on top of this.  THAT is not FAKEnews.