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The ARRL Letter

Published by the American Radio Relay League
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September 14, 2023

John E. Ross, KD8IDJ, Editor <news@arrl.org>

ARRL Home Page <http://www.arrl.org/>ARRL Letter Archive
<http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/>Audio News
<http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/audio/> IN THIS ISSUE

- Hurricane Lee: Amateur Radio Service in State of Readiness,
Activations Planned
- 2023 SET Exercise to Test Skills and Emergency Preparedness
- Amateur Radio Serves in Large Utah Bike Race
- Changes in the ARRL Louisiana Section
- Amateur Radio in the News
- ARRL Podcasts
- Announcements
- In Brief...
- The K7RA Solar Update
- Just Ahead in Radiosport
- Upcoming Section, State, and Division Conventions

==> HURRICANE LEE: AMATEUR RADIO SERVICE IN STATE OF READINESS,
ACTIVATIONS PLANNED

Hurricane Lee <https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/#Lee> is expected to impact
portions of New England in the Northeastern United States and Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick in Canada.

The storm has had the full attention of forecasters and the
volunteer organizations that coordinate Amateur Radio response to
hurricanes.

Amateur Radio Emergency Service <https://www.arrl.org/ares>® (ARES®)
groups are in an elevated state of readiness and alert ahead of the
storm.

ARRL Sections in the areas forecast to be impacted are preparing for
activation. Section Manager of the ARRL Maine Section Phil Duggan,
N1EP, sent an email to members in the section on Thursday encouraging
them to ready their stations and homes. "Because of all the rain we
have been getting, the likelihood of trees toppling is increased and
most likely power outages," he wrote. Duggan said the Washington County
ARES group would be on the air starting Friday.

Portions of Eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island have been dealing
with flooding rain and tornadoes over the past week.

Other areas of New England have had amateur radio activations
throughout the week. Section Emergency Coordinator of the ARRL Eastern
Massachusetts Section Rob Macedo, KD1CY, who also serves as SKYWARN
Coordinator for the National Weather Service Boston/Norton (MA) office
<https://wx1box.org/> and as Operations Manager for the Hurricane VoIP
Net says formal activations are planned of the SKYWARN program. "We
will support Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency efforts via the
SKYWARN mission giving situational awareness and disaster intelligence
information on storm damage, coastal flooding, any flooding from heavy
rainfall and rain gauge reports," he said.

The Hurricane Watch Net <https://www.hwn.org/> (HWN) is in Alert Level
2 - Monitoring Mode. HWN Net Manager Bobby Graves, KB5HAV, published an
update on the groups website. "The National Hurricane Center is
forecasting Hurricane Lee to slowly weaken over the next few days and
make landfall Saturday evening in Nova Scotia, or perhaps New Brunswick
Sunday morning, as a Tropical Storm or Post-Tropical Cyclone... Not
knowing for sure "if" Hurricane Lee will weaken, and, not knowing for
sure where landfall could occur, the Hurricane Watch Net remains at
Alert Level 2 - Monitoring Mode," he wrote. The HWN tentatively plans
to active Saturday morning at 8:00 am EST on 14.325 MHz and 7.268 MHz,
depending on need.

The Hurricane VOiP Net <https://voipwx.net/> is planning to activate on
Saturday, according to the group's Public Information Officer, Lloyd
Colston, KC5FM, "The VOIPWX.net will be activating Saturday on Echolink
7203 and IRLP 9219 for possible Hurricane Lee reports from New England
and Canadian provinces...The net will also connect to the Kansas
Sunflower System (www.sunflowernet.us) with connections to Allstar,
Hamshack Hotline, TGIF DMR, Dstar, Fusion, M17, and P25," said Colston
in an email.

Both groups funnel reports to the WX4NHC <https://w4ehw.fiu.edu/>
amateur radio station at the National Hurricane Center, if active.

As ARRL Field Organization leaders begin activating volunteers, radio
amateurs are encouraged to prepare their stations with the ARES go kit
checklist
<https://ema.arrl.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Go-Kit-Checklist.pdf>.

This story was last updated at 4:30 pm EST on Thursday, September 14.
For the latest information on Amateur Radio Service activations for
Hurricane Lee, check ARRL News <https://www.arrl.org/news-features>.

==> 2023 SET EXERCISE TO TEST SKILLS AND EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

The ARRL Simulated Emergency Test (SET) is scheduled for October 7 - 8,
2023.

The SET is ARRL's annual national emergency exercise designed to assess
the skills and preparedness of Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES®)
volunteers, as well as those affiliated with other organizations
involved in emergency and disaster responses. The SET is open to all
radio amateurs and partner organizations, in additon to national,
state, and local officials. Besides ARES volunteers, those active in
the National Traffic System (NTS), Radio Amateur Civil Emergency
Service (RACES), National Weather Service's SKYWARN® Storm Spotter
program, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), and a variety of
other allied groups and public service-oriented radio amateurs are
needed to fulfill important roles in this nationwide exercise.

During the exercise, volunteers can assess equipment, modes, and skills
under simulated emergency conditions and scenarios. Individuals can use
the time to update a go-kit for use during deployments and to ensure
their home station's operational capability during an emergency or
disaster.

To get involved, contact your local ARRL Emergency Coordinator or Net
Manager.

SET guidelines and report forms can be found at:

ARRL Simulated Emergency Test (SET) Guidelines+
<https://www.arrl.org/public-service-field-services-forms>

In addition to the ARRL SET exercise, as part of their communications
interoperability outreach to the amateur radio community, the US
Department of Defense (DOD) will be conducting a DOD COMEX 23-4
exercise. During the week of October 16, they'll conduct a series of
high-power HF information transmissions on 60 meters and channel 1
(5330.5 kHz). This event will coincide with the ARRL SET.

==> AMATEUR RADIO SERVES IN LARGE UTAH BIKE RACE

On September 9, 2023, the Bridgerland Amateur Radio Club
<https://barconline.org/> (BARC) in northern Utah provided amateur
radio communications support during LoToJa <https://lotoja.com/About>,
the longest 1-day USA Cycling (USAC)-sanctioned bicycle race in
America. The LoToJa course consists of 200 miles of rough, mountainous
terrain. BARC was prepared for the challenge and had been training and
working on their communications plans for more than 3 decades.

The club's involvement with LoToJa began in 1991, when the race had 200
riders and 14 amateur radio operators. This year's event had 1,700
riders and 120 amateur radio operators, including 35 cars with amateur
radio operators along for the ride. Amateur radio was engaged in every
aspect of the race from start to finish thanks to assistance of
operators from Ogden, Davis County, and Salt Lake City, as well as
Idaho, Wyoming, and Maryland.

Section Manager of the ARRL Utah Section Pat Malan, N7PAT, said that
BARC members evaluate their operating skills and equipment, which is
the best form of preparation for emergency communications. "It's a
tremendous effort and dedication from everyone," Malan said.

Youth Coordinator for the ARRL Utah Section and former BARC President
Kevin Reeve, N7RXE, said the teams deployed two mountaintop portable
repeaters (using batteries and solar power), three portable
digipeaters, and a portable IGate throughout the racecourse, in
addition to setting up four command and net control centers. Reeve
explained, "This provided continuous audio and an Automatic Packet
Reporting System (APRS) for the 35 cars covering the entire event."

Reeve went on to say that this year, a family needed to contact one of
the riders because of an emergency. He stated, "There was no cell phone
coverage, but we were able to locate the cyclist in about 5 minutes,
then reunite them with their family in 15 minutes."

BARC also provided emergency communications for at least two other
large-scale cycling events this year, including the Little Red Riding
Hood event that had 3,500 women cyclists and 70 ham radio operators,
and the Cache Gran Fondo event that had 1,500 cyclists.

BARC was founded in 1976 by Jeff Jacobsen, WA7MBL; Bob Wood, WA7MXZ,
and Bill Neville, WA7KMF (SK), and it exists for the training and
fellowship of amateur radio operators. The club currently has 227
members.

==> CHANGES IN THE ARRL LOUISIANA SECTION

Section Manager of the ARRL Louisiana Section John Mark Robertson,
K5JMR, has stepped down. He has held this role since April 1, 2018.
Robertson has been active in the Section and in Louisiana ARES. He held
the Emergency Coordinator and both District and Section Emergency
Coordinator positions before he assumed the role of Section Manager.