Author: Darrell Davis KT4WX

WCF SECTION ARES MEETING FALL 2025 VIDEO AND SLIDES ARE NOW AVAILABLE

ARRL West Central Florida Section ARES resumed having quarterly Section ARES meetings on Saturday September 13, 2025, and this meeting was held via Zoom.  The video and slides from the meeting are now available for viewing and download respectively.

To view the video of this meeting you may go to the ARRL West Central Florida Section YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY1BSZsG6Zw.  The main landing page for the Section YouTube channel is located at https://www.youtube.com/@arrlwcf

To download the Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, you may go to the Section website ARES page located at https://arrlwcf.org/wcf-section-programs/ares/.  The slides for the meeting are located in the Section near the bottom of the page entitled, “WCF Section ARES Communications Plan and supporting documents.”

The next WCF Section ARES meeting is being planned as an in-person meeting at the Tampa Bay Hamest on Saturday December 13, 2025.

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THE WCF ARES COMMUNICATOR FOR SEPTEMBER 2025 IS PUBLISHED.

The September 2025 issue of THE ARES COMMUNICATOR, is now available for download on the new ARES COMMUNICATOR page located at https://arrlwcf.org/home/wcf-ares-communicator.  All issues will be archived on this page for current and historical reference.

Included in this issue is an another good article about “Blue Skies” and the Emergency Coordinator and Official Emergency Station reports for July 2025.

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THE WCF ARES COMMUNICATOR FOR AUGUST 2025 ISSUE IS PUBLISHED.

The June 2025 issue of THE ARES COMMUNICATOR, is now available for download on the new ARES COMMUNICATOR page located at https://arrlwcf.org/home/wcf-ares-communicator.  All issues will be archived on this page for current and historical reference.

Starting with this issue, the ARES reports and ARES Net reports that are submitted will be carried in THE WCF ARES COMMUNICATOR.  The month being reported is a couple of months behind the date of publication.  For example in the August 2025 issue are the reports submitted for the month of June 2025.

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THE WCF PRESSER FOR JULY/AUGUST 2025 IS NOW PUBLISHED

THE WCF PRESSER for July/August 2025, issue #66, has just been published and is now available for download from the Section website at https://arrlwcf.org/home/the-wcf-section-presser-arrl-west-central-florida-section-news/.

THE WCF PRESSER production team is composed of Darrell Davis KT4WX, Assistant Section Manager for Technology, as editor, and Russ Delaney N4RTD Assistant Section Manager for Digital Communications, as layout coordinator.  In order to continue to publish THE WCF PRESSER, content is needed.  The editors are not “mind readers” and your submissions are definitely needed.  If your amateur radio club or group is having an activity or event, write it up and send it to Darrell Davis KT4WX via email at kt4wx@arrl.net.  The submission format does not matter and the production team can work with any format.  Pictures being included is encouraged.

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FLORIDA TROPICAL TRAINING TRACK GIVEN VIRTUALLY BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE

From Monday July 21, 2025 through Thursday July 24, 2025, the National Weather Service Office in Jacksonville, is offering a virtual training track via GoToWebinar, for anyone who wished to be better prepared for the impact of a Hurricane. The training is being conducted by National Weather Service meterologist from all over the State of Florida.  Each day will focus on a different aspect of Hurricane preparedness from season prepardeness on the first day to post storm recovery on the fourth day.

For more information on the virtual training track and or to register for the daily seminar tracks, which will be given via GoToWebinar, you may go to the following webpage:  https://www.weather.gov/jax/FloridaTropicalTrainingWeek2025.

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CHUCK JOHNSTON W4CWJ FEATURED IN SRQ MAGAZINE.

In the July 2025 issue of SRQ Magazine, a very nice article was published about Chuck Johnston W4CWJ, our Assistant Section Manager for Rural Communities.  To see the full article you may go to https://www.srqmagazine.com/articles/2217/In%20the%20Face%20of%20Disaster.

Chuck Johnston W4CWJ has had a varied career, which started with the City of Sarasota as a fire fighter, and eventually he served as Interim Director of Emergency Management for Sarasota County around 2005.  Johnston then seeing a need for emergency recovery support for agricultural communities, founded the Sarasota Agricultural Recovery Group (SARG) in 2010 and has served continuously since that time as its coordinator.  After getting his amateur radio license in 2015, integrated amateur radio in SARG.  Johnston has also planned several communications exercises, of which one of them was “High and Dry II” which took place early 2022.  “High and Dry II”, was very close to what happened during Hurricane Ian in September 2022.  Johnston led the response of SARG in the agricultural community in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian in 2022.

The ARRL West Central Florida Section congratulates Chuck Johnston W4CWJ on having his service recognized in SRQ Magazine.

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UPCOMING NWS SKYWARN IN PERSON TRAINING SESSIONS

For anyone who wishes to get SKYWARN™ training conducted by the National Weather Service Office in Ruskin, there are a couple of classes coming up in the next few weeks.

On Saturday, July 19th, 2025 at 1000 EDT there will be a class at the Hillsborough County Public Safety Operations Center (PSOC), located at 9450 E Columbus
Dr., just off of Falkenburg Road, on the east side of Tampa.

On Tuesday, July 24th, 2025 there will be two back to back classes, at 1600 EDT and again at 1800 EDT, at the Polk County Emergency Operations Center, located at 1890 Jim Keene Blvd., off of Winter Lake Road, not far from the Polk County Parkway and on the west of Winter Haven.

With the weather we’ve been experiencing lately, not to mention the fact that it is hurricane season, this is a golden opportunity for those who have never been trained, or might be in need of refresher training.

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ARRL FIELD DAY 2025 CARAVAN AND SECTION NET CANCELLATIONS DUE TO FIELD DAY.

This coming Saturday and Sunday is ARRL Field Day 2025.  On Saturday 6/28/25, the 25th Annual ARRL West Central Florida Section Field Day Caravan will take to the roads of the ARRL West Central Florida Section.  This year we will have three teams making visit to various Field Day sites in the Section.  One team will be Mike Douglas W4MDD (Section Manager) and Dave Rockwell W4PXE (Section Emergency Coordinator / Section Traffic Manager).  The second team will be Darrell Davis KT4WX (Technical Coordinator) and Russ Delaney N4RTD (Assistant Section Manager).  The third team will be Jimmy Russ AB4KA (Senior Assistant Section Manager) running solo.

All three teams will be running APRS trackers, so Field Day participants can keep an eye on the progress of the caravan.  For more details on the area of coverage by our teams and APRS tracking information, you may go to the ARRL West Central Florida Field Day Caravan webpage located at http://arrlwcf.org/wcf-special-events/west-central-florida-section-field-day-caravan/.  On this page there is detailed information on how Field Day sites may send their Field Day message to our Section Manager for 100 bonus points.

Due to ARRL Field Day, the following Section Nets will be cancelled:  The ARRL West Central Florida Section ARES Net scheduled for Saturday 6/28/25 at 0730 EDT and the South Florida ARES Net scheduled for Saturday 6/28/25 at 0745 EDT.  The ARRL West Central Florida Section ARES Net will resume normal operation on Saturday 7/05/25 and the South Florida ARES Net will resume normal operation on Monday 6/30/25.

The Eagle Net will be held as scheduled on Saturday 6/28/25 at 2030 EDT, and will be able to take any Field Day related traffic.

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THE WCF EXPERIMENTER IS REBOOTED AND NEXT ISSUE OF THE WCF ARES COMMUNICATOR IS PUBLISHED.

The Summer 2025 issue, and anticipated reboot, of THE WCF EXPERIMENTER is now published.  THE WCF EXPERIMENTER, all past and the current issues, are available on the Section website at https://arrlwcf.org/home/the-wcf-experimenter-technical-newsletter/.

The July 2025 issue of the THE WCF ARES COMMUNICATOR also is now published on the Section website at https://arrlwcf.org/home/wcf-ares-communicator/.

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NEW WEST CENTRAL FLORIDA SECTION MANAGER APPOINTED

Jimmy Russ AB4KA, was appointed as the new ARRL West Central Florida Section Manager on Thursday June 12, 2025. Russ is succeeding Mike Douglas W4MDD, who is stepping down as the ARRL West Central Florida Section Manager on Monday June 30, 2025, due to personal reasons.  Russ’ tenure as Section Manager will begin on Tuesday July 1, 2025, and he will be the 5th Section Manager of the ARRL West Central Florida Section.

ARRL Field Services Manager Mike Walters, W8ZY, officially appointed Russ to succeed Douglas as the Section Manager of the ARRL West Central Florida Section. Russ will now serve for the remaining portion of Douglas term, which runs through December 31, 2026.

Russ made the following comments about his appointment as Section Manager:

“…I am honored to have been asked to serve as Section Manager for the West Central Florida section.  I am a life-long resident of central Florida, having been born and raised in Dade City and now residing in Lakeland.  I started out as a shortwave listener in high school, and a few years later in 1987 I passed my novice exam at the Melbourne hamfest.  Over the next few months I worked my way through the license classes and passed my amateur extra exam in the summer of 1988 and have been continuously licensed since.

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