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The ARES Letter

Published by the American Radio Relay League
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November 15, 2023

Editor: Rick Palm, K1CE <k1ce@arrl.net>

IN THIS ISSUE

- ARES® Briefs, Links
- 2023 SKYWARN�(tm)� Recognition Day is December 2
- ARRL November Sweepstakes as Personal COMMEX
- California Amateur Radio Operators Conduct Successful Simulated
Emergency Test "Red Skies"
- It Just Takes One
- K1CE for a Final: Keep Feed Line Lengths ASAP! (As Short as Possible)
- ARES® Resources

==> ARES® BRIEFS, LINKS

The Great ShakeOut is an annual international emergency response
exercise for earthquake safety and preparedness conducted on the third
Thursday of every October. Designed to raise awareness, the Great
ShakeOut <https://www.shakeout.org/> provides communities with an
opportunity to prepare, plan, and educate citizens on earthquake
safety. The United States Geologic Survey (USGS), FEMA and the National
Science Foundation are national sponsors. This year's event was held on
October 19. Amateur radio operators participated. Here are some stats
on the 2023 Great ShakeOut:

- USGS received and mapped over 230 DYFI entries via the ShakeOut
Scenario DYFI (Did You Feel It?) website
(https://earthquake.usgs.gov/data/dyfi/).

- More than 1,400 DYFI reports were sent by radio operators using
RadioMail, Winlink, and PAT.

- Operators from the US and Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands, Canada,
Guatemala, Honduras, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Germany,
Austria, Italy, Poland, the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand
submitted DYFI reports.

Based on the Winlink CSV output, geolocation remains achallenge for
Winlink submissions. In about a third of the reports, there were
significant differences between the entered address and corresponding
geocoordinates. See the ShakeOut scenario Community Internet
<https://earthquake.usgs.gov/scenarios/eventpage/usshakeout2023_se/dyfi/intensity>
Intensity Map
<https://earthquake.usgs.gov/scenarios/eventpage/usshakeout2023_se/dyfi/intensity>
and the global map
<https://earthquake.usgs.gov/scenarios/eventpage/usshakeout2023_se/map?dyfi-responses-10km=true&shakemap-intensity=false>.
The maps show ShakeOut Scenario DYFI website and radioMail, Winlink,
and PAT submissions. -- ARRL District Emergency Coordinator Oliver
Dully, K6OLI. Dully is DEC for ARES LAX Northeast, which provides
amateur radio communications backup for 911 receiving hospitals in
northeastern Los Angeles County.

Winter Field Day <https://winterfieldday.org/> is January 23-24, 2024.
According to its website: "Winter Field Day (WFD) is a communications
exercise. WFD is held on the last full weekend in January. WFD can be
worked from the comfort of your home or in a remote location. You can
participate by yourself or get your friends, family, or whole club
involved. Winter Field Day is open to participants worldwide. Amateur
radio operators may use frequencies on the HF, VHF, or UHF bands and
are free to use any mode that can faithfully transmit the required
exchange intact. Similar to the ARRL Field Day, bonus points are earned
in several ways, including using non-commercial power sources,
operating from remote locations, satellite contacts, and more."

==> 2023 SKYWARN�(tm)� RECOGNITION DAY IS DECEMBER 2

The popular annual SKYWARN�(tm)� Recognition Day (SRD) will be held on
December 2, 2023, from 0000Z to 2400Z. SRD was developed in 1999 by the
National Weather Service and ARRL. It celebrates the contributions that
volunteer SKYWARN radio operators make to the National Weather Service.
During the day, SKYWARN operators visit NWS offices and contact other
radio operators across the world.

SKYWARN Recognition Day Operating Instructions

- Object: For all amateur stations to exchange QSO information with as
many Amateur Radio SKYWARN Spotters and National Weather Service
Stations as possible on the 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6, and 2-meter and
70-centimeter bands. Contacts via repeaters are permitted. SKYWARN
Recognition Day serves to celebrate the contributions to public safety
made by amateur radio operators during severe weather events of the
past year.

- Date: NWS stations will operate December 2, 2023, from 0000 - 2400
UTC.

- Exchange: Call sign, name, location, signal report, a one- or
two-word description of the weather occurring at your site ("sunny,"
"partly cloudy," "windy," etc.), temperature reading if available and
SRD Number if the station has one.

- Modes: NWS stations will work various modes including SSB, FM, AM,
RTTY, Winlink, CW, FT8, FT4, and PSK31. While working digital modes,
special event stations will append "/NWS" to their call sign (e.g.,
N0A/NWS).

- Station Control Operator: It is suggested that during SRD operations
for NWS offices a non-NWS volunteer should serve as a control operator
for your station.

- Event and QSL Information: The National Weather Service will provide
event information via the SRD website
<https://www.weather.gov/crh/skywarnrecognition>. Event certificates
will once again be electronic and printable from the main website after
the conclusion of SRD.

- Log Submission: To submit your log summary for SRD, you can use the
online submission form that will be made available on the NWS SRD
Recognition main page when the event is completed. Deadline for log
submission is January 31, 2024.
Note on NWS Station Operations: For 2023, guidance on in-person
amateur radio operations by volunteers will be determined by each
National Weather Service Local Forecast Office. Amateur radio operators
must make all necessary inquiries ahead of SRD with the appropriate NWS
staff at your respective Weather Forecast Office before registering the
NWS office for this event.

Involving Non-Amateur Radio SKYWARN Spotters in SRD

Amateur Radio SKYWARN groups and those groups involved with their NWS
amateur radio office station setups are encouraged to actively reach
out and find ways for non-amateur radio SKYWARN spotters to participate
in the event. This can be done through social media and other ways in
coordination with the local NWS offices.

For more information on SRD:

NWS SKYWARN Recognition Day Main Page
<https://www.weather.gov/crh/skywarnrecognition>

For More Information on SKYWARN:

NWS SKYWARN <https://www.weather.gov/SKYWARN>

==> ARRL NOVEMBER SWEEPSTAKES AS PERSONAL COMMEX

Each November, ARRL runs an HF contest that tests one's ability to make
contact with all of the ARRL and RAC (Radio Amateurs of/du Canada)
Sections during the contest periods. It's called the November
Sweepstakes. Sweepstakes is split into two contest periods. The first
contest period ran November 4-6, 2023 and was for CW operations only.
The second contest period runs November 18-20, 2023 and is for Phone
operations only. On-air times for each contest period run from 2100 UTC
Saturday through 0259 UTC Monday.

New for 2023 -- Limited Antennas Overlay

Any Single Operator or Single Operator Unlimited entrant may enter
using the Limited Antennas Overlay. Operation is limited to the use of
single-element antennas such as a single vertical, end-fed wire, or a
single dipole antenna no more than 50 feet above ground at its highest
point. The antenna(s) may cover multiple bands, as in the case of
multiband verticals and dipoles with fan or trap constructions. This
new entry category really lends itself to using the ARRL Sweepstakes as
a personal COMMEX (communications exercise) to test one's ability to
operate an HF portable station in a manner similar to operating in
emergency or disaster conditions. A single-element antenna may be the
simplest way to get on the air quickly. So, get out those end-fed
half-wave (EFHW), end-fed random wire (EFRW), dipole (with or without
traps), and vertical (with or without traps) antennas and test them.

In addition to these types of simple antennas, Sweepstakes provides a
great opportunity to test the rest of one's portable HF grab-and-go
kit. How long can your portable HF kit operate on portable power? Did
it run as long as you expected? How well did your single-element
antenna(s) work? Were they easy to set up? You could combine operating
in the contest while surviving on just the contents of your 72-hour
emergency supply kit during Sweepstakes' 24-hour maximum operational
period.

Since an emergency kit should last an individual 72 hours, one could
then gauge how well the kit was prepared. Would the remainder of the
kit last an additional 2 days?

If you do use the November Sweepstakes as a personal COMMEX, why not
write about your experience and send it along for use in a newsletter.
For additional information, see ARRL November Sweepstakes
<http://www.arrl.org/sweepstakes>. [This article is an excerpt from the
November 2023 issue of the superb Blair ARES Alert, newsletter of the
Blair County, Pennsylvania ARES, by editor Drew McGhee, KA3EJV - Ed.]

==> CALIFORNIA AMATEUR RADIO OPERATORS CONDUCT SUCCESSFUL SIMULATED
EMERGENCY TEST "RED SKIES"