Category: News

FLORIDA QSO PARTY SET FOR LAST WEEKEND OF APRIL 2023

The Florida Contest Group recently announced the 25th Annual Florida QSO Party will be held on Saturday April 29, 2023 from 1600Z (Noon EDT) through 0159Z (9:59 PM EDT) and on Sunday April 30, 2023 from 1200Z (8:00 AM EDT) and 2159Z (5:59 PM EDT), which is a 20 hour total operating period.   The 40, 20, 15, and 10 Meter bands will be used.  All 67 Florida Counties will be eligible for activation.

For all the details on the Florida QSO Party, including the Florida QSO Spelling Bee, please go to their Florida QSO Party website at https://www.floridaqsoparty.org.  For the Florida QSO Party 2023 Flyer, please go to https://floridaqsoparty.org/wp-content/uploads/CQ-FL-HAMS-FQP-2023-Announcement-REV-A-1-18-23.pdf.

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SECTION ARES MEETING FOR SPRING 2023 DATE AND VENUE SET

The date and venue for the Spring 2023 ARRL West Central Florida Section ARES Luncheon and ARRL West Central Florida Section ARES Meeting have been set.  The ARRL West Central Florida Section ARES Luncheon will be held at 1100 EDT on Saturday April 29, 2023, at the Golden Corral located at 815 Providence Road, Brandon, FL 33511.  The Golden Corral is on the west side of Brandon, very close to the east side of I-75.   The ARRL West Central Florida Section ARES Meeting will be held at 1300 EDT on Saturday April 29, 2023, at the Hillsborough County Public Safety Operations Complex located at 9450 E. Columbus Dr., Tampa, FL 33619. The Hillsborough County Public Safety Operations Complex is home to the Hillsborough County Emergency Operations Center and is located on the east side of Tampa, very close to the west side of I-75.

As is traditional, the Section ARES Meeting will be simultaneously conducted on Zoom and on the Section YouTube channel which is located at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFA4-HEjr-lYMFisVG_Nk5A .  The Zoom meeting information for the Section ARES Meeting has been published and is located on the Section ARES page located at http://arrlwcf.org/wcf-section-programs/ares/.

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9TH ANNUAL TECHCON SPEAKING SCHEDULE AND LIST OF PRESENTATIONS ARE PUBLISHED.

The Speaking Schedule and List of Presentations for the 9th Annual TECHCON are now published on the TECHCON webpage on the Section website located at http://arrlwcf.org/wcf-special-events/wcftechconference/.

Just a reminder that the Friday Afternoon Workshop has been cancelled.  See WCF SECTION PRESS RELEASE #23-05 for details on the cancellation.  The Friday Evening Social scheduled from 1800 through 2100 will go on as planned.  The venue for the Friday Evening Social is on the TECHCON webpage.

The primary track will be streamed live on the Section Zoom account and recorded as individual presentations on the Section YouTube channel.  The second track will be recorded as individual presentations and uploaded to the Section YouTube channel following the conclusion of the conference. The Zoom meeting information is posted on the TECHCON webpage at http://arrlwcf.org/wcf-special-events/wcftechconference/.  The link to the Section YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFA4-HEjr-lYMFisVG_Nk5A.

If you plan on attending TECHCON, please register to attend at http://arrlwcf.org/section-forms/wcftechconfregistration/.

The ARRL West Central Florida extends its sincere thanks to Hillsborough County Emergency Management for the use of the Hillsborough County Public Safety Operations Complex for this year’s TECHCON and to Hillsborough County ARES/RACES for their assistance with facilitating TECHCON.

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FRIDAY AFTERNOON WORKSHOP CANCELLED AND FOLDED INTO THE SATURDAY GENERAL PRESENTATION TRACK

Due to unforeseen circumstances the Friday Afternoon Workshop for the 9th Annual TECHCON will be cancelled.  Darrell Davis KT4WX, Technical Coordinator for the ARRL West Central Florida Section, made the following comments, concerning the cancellation of the Friday Afternoon Workshop.

“Regretfully, I must cancel the Friday Afternoon Workshop for the 9th Annual TECHCON.  As many of you are aware, my Mother passed away on Thursday February 2, 2023, which was followed by illness, and then an upper calf injury in my left leg which occurred on Wednesday February 8, 2023, the day after Mom’s funeral, which made it very difficult to walk, and I am now using a power scooter or walker.  With Mom’s prolonged time in a nursing home before her passing, and all that has happened to me, I have not had the time to prepare to facilitate the Friday Afternoon Workshop as I had planned.  I will plan to do an abbreviated presentation during the Saturday General Presentation track on the topic, “Introduction to the Raspberry PI Pico.”

The list of presentations and speaking schedule will be released tomorrow.

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WINTER 2023 SECTION ARES LUNCHEON AND MEETING, DATE AND VENUE SET

The date and venue for the Winter 2023 ARRL West Central Florida Section ARES Luncheon and ARRL West Central Florida Section ARES Meeting have been set.  The ARRL West Central Florida Section ARES Luncheon will be held at 1100 EDT on Saturday January 28, 2023, at the Golden Corral located at 815 Providence Road, Brandon, FL 33511.  The Golden Corral is on the west side of Brandon, very close to the east side of I-75.   The ARRL West Central Florida Section ARES Meeting will be held at 1300 EDT on Saturday January 28, 2023, at the Hillsborough County Public Safety Operations Complex located at 9450 E. Columbus Dr., Tampa, FL 33619. The Hillsborough County Public Safety Operations Complex is home to the Hillsborough County Emergency Operations Center and is located on the east side of Tampa, very close to the west side of I-75.

As is traditional, the Section ARES Meeting will be simultaneously conducted on Zoom and on the Section YouTube channel which is located at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFA4-HEjr-lYMFisVG_Nk5A .  The Zoom meeting information for the Section ARES Meeting has been published and is located on the Section ARES page located at http://arrlwcf.org/wcf-section-programs/ares/.

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NEW AFFILIATED CLUB COORDINATOR AND TWO EAGLE NET ASSISTANT NET MANAGERS APPOINTED.

(Left to Right:  Jim Schilling KG4JSZ, Ron Balaze KE8B, and Jack Harris W4AXE.)

On Tuesday January 3, 2022, Mike Douglas W4MDD, Section Manager of the ARRL West Central Florida Section, made the final round of appointments to start the year 2023.

Jim Schilling KG4JSZ, has been appointed as the ARRL Affiliated Club Coordinator and an Assistant Section Manager.  Schilling was first licensed in 2000, and has served in a number of capacities in amateur radio clubs and organizations.  Schilling served as President of the Florida Gulf Coast Amateur Radio Council, which sponsors the Tampa Bay Hamfest, from 2004 through 2007, and then served as President of the Lockheed Martin Amateur Radio Association from 2008 through 2010.  Schilling was then elected in 2019 to be ARRL Vice Director for the ARRL Southeastern Division, which includes all three ARRL Florida sections.  Schilling also currently serves as Secretary and Director of Special Ops for the Mid Florida DX Association: http://www.w4fdx.com/.  In his professional career, Schilling works as a mechanical engineer for Lockheed Martin in Orlando.

Ron Balaze KE8B, has been appointed as an ARRL Net Manager to serve as an Assistant Net Manager for the Eagle Net, the NTS Traffic Net for the ARRL West Central Florida Section.  Balaze currently serves as the net control for the Eagle Net on Sunday evening.  Balaze was first licensed in 1978, and upgraded to General class in 1979.  Balaze was inactive for a number of years, before retiring and subsequently moving to Florida.  Balaze began his return to amateur radio with a Yaesu FT-60R handheld, and has now expanded into a full fledged HF, VHF, and UHF station.  Balaze is a member of the Sarasota Emergency Radio Club (SERC) and a supporter of the West Central Florida Group, the owners of the NI4CE Repeater System.  In his professional career, Balaze worked as a weigh-master, weights and measures inspector, meteorologist, and concluded his career as the laboratory manager of the state meteorology lab where they calibrated mass, volume, length and temperature standards.

Jack Harris W4AXE, has been appointed as an ARRL Net Manager to serve as an Assistant Net Manager for the Eagle Net, the NTS Traffic Net for the ARRL West Central Florida Section.  Harris currently serves as the net control for the Eagle Net on Wednesday evening.  Harris was first licensed as a Technician class licensee in 1995, and upgraded to General class in 2005, and then upgraded to Extra class in 2021.  In his professional career of over 40 years, Harris has worked in the IT industry, specifically in the area of cybersecurity.  Harris is currently working on his Ph.D. in Technology.

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NEW SECTION TRAFFIC MANAGER, ASSISTANT SECTION MANAGER, AND EAGLE NET MANAGER APPOINTED.

Pictured from left to right:  Dave Rockwell W4PXE, Doug Williams N2DW, and Sanford Wyatt KM4WXX.

On January 1, 2023, Mike Douglas W4MDD, Section Manager of the ARRL West Central Florida Section, made the following appointments effective:

Dave Rockwell W4PXE was appointed to be the new Section Traffic Manager.  Rockwell succeeds Doug Williams N2DW, who had been Section Traffic Manager since 2005.  Rockwell had previously served as Net Manager of the Eagle Net, the NTS traffic net for the ARRL West Central Florida Section since April 2014, and as ARRL Public Information Coordinator from January 2015 through early January 2016.  Rockwell was the Ellen White W1YL Award recipient for 2019.  Rockwell is active in Pinellas County ARES/ACS, serves as an ARRL Technical Specialist, and also provides communications as a volunteer for the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

Doug Williams N2DW, was appointed to be an Assistant Section Manager, as Traffic Net Liaison.  Williams had previously served as Section Traffic Manager since 2005, is active on many NTS traffic nets on HF and VHF, and in Pinellas County ARES/ACS as an Assistant Emergency Coordinator.

Sanford Wyatt KM4WXX, was appointed to be the new Net Manager of the Eagle Net, the NTS traffic net for the ARRL West Central Florida Section.  Wyatt succeeds Dave Rockwell W4PXE, who had served as Net Manager for the Eagle Net since April 2014, and stepped down on December 31, 2022 to assume his new appointment as Section Traffic Manager.  Wyatt also serves as the Net Manager of the ARRL West Central Florida Section ARES and Information Net on VHF/UHF, since February 2021.  Wyatt is active in the Sarasota Agricultural Recovery Group.  Wyatt was the Ellen White W1YL Award recipient for 2021.

All the above appointments were previously announced at the ARRL forum held during the Tampa Bay Hamfest on Saturday December 10, 2022, by Mike Douglas W4MDD, Section Manager of the ARRL West Central Florida Section.   All these appointments became effective on January 1, 2023.

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NEW EMERGENCY COORDINATOR FOR SARASOTA COUNTY ARES APPOINTED

Mike Douglas W4MDD, Section Manager of the ARRL West Central Florida Section, has appointed Chuck Cooper K1CHC to be the ARRL Emergency Coordinator for Sarasota County ARES, also known as SRQARES, effective on Tuesday December 13, 2022.  Cooper succeeds Gary Wells WB9AYD, who recently stepped down as ARRL Emergency Coordinator for Sarasota County ARES due to his moving out of area in the near future.  Wells had served as ARRL Emergency Coordinator for Sarasota County ARES since September 2019.

Cooper, originally from Ipswitch, Massachusetts, has had a lifelong interest in radios and electronics, beginning with listening to shortwave radio on his grandmother’s wood cabinet floor model vacuum tube radio.  Cooper progressed into being in Citizens Band radio, then obtained his first amateur radio license in the late 1970’s with the callsign KA1GKY, and currently holds a General class license with the callsign K1CHC.   Cooper started an ARES group in his local area to support emergency communications for his local police department, and for his work with this ARES group, Cooper received an ARRL Emergency Communications Commendation from the ARRL Eastern Massachusetts Section for “Extraordinary Performance and Integration of ARES into Public Safety Operations”.

Cooper in his professional career, served in the Ipswich Police Department from 1973 until 2006, as a police officer, detective, and Director of Emergency Management for the last five years of his career.

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SPECIAL SESSIONS OF THE EAGLE NET PLANNED FOR CHRISTMAS EVE 2022 AND NEW YEARS EVE 2022.

On Saturday December 24, 2022 and Saturday December 31, 2022, Darrell Davis KT4WX our Assistant Section Manager – Technology and ARRL Technical Coordinator, will continue his annual tradition of being the Net Control for the Eagle Net on the Christmas Eve and New Years Eve editions of this net.

The Eagle Net is the NTS Traffic Net for the ARRL West Central Florida Section and normally meets daily at 2030 Eastern Time on the NI4CE Repeater System, 365 days a year.  The only day(s) the Eagle Net is not held is if the NI4CE Repeater System is being used to support gathering of information for the National Weather Service office in Ruskin, in a tropical storm incident, hurricane incident, or other severe weather outbreak.  For more information on the NI4CE Repeater System, including a list of repeater frequencies go to https://www.ni4ce.org.

On Christmas Eve, those who check in will be asked to share a favorite past Christmas experience, or a favorite Christmas present which they either gave or received. On New Years Eve those who check in will be asked to share project and or resolution completed and or a project and or resolution planned for the New Year. This will be the 6th year of this tradition, which Davis started in 2018.

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