THE WCF SECTION PRESSER #7 – JULY 2015

News
HAPPY BELATED 4TH OF JULY TO ALL AND RECOVERING FROM ARRL FIELD DAY

I would like to take the opportunity to wish all of you a belated happy 4th of July. Due to part time work, and other commitments, I am late putting out this issue of THE WCF PRESSER. I am sure that many of you spend the early part of last week recovering from Field Day and I hope you enjoyed ARRL Field Day. I got see many of you at various Field Day locations throughout the West Central Florida Section. I got to take Radiograms from some of your Field Day sites on a special session of the Eagle Net. You only have 11 months to get ready for the next Field Day.

 

THE WCF EXPERIMENTER – SUMMER 2015 – HAS BEEN PUBLISHED

Right after we went to press with the last issue of THE WCF PRESSER, the next issue of THE WCF EXPERIMENTER went to publication. Geoff Haines N1GY, our Technical Coordinator, is the editor of THE WCF EXPERIMENTER. He makes a plea for authors to contribute articles for future issues of THE WCF EXPERIMENTER. If you have built a project or have an idea that you have been working on, what a better way to let you fellow ham know what you are working upon. Any submissions for THE WCF EXPERIMENTER should go to Geoff Haines N1GY at n1gy@arrl.net.

 

STATION APPOINTEE MONTHLY REPORTS ARE DUE FOR JUNE:

If you are serving as an ARRL Station Appointee, please be sure to file a monthly report by the 5th day of the month following the month being reported. If you still have not sent in your monthly report, please go ahead and do so anyway. For example for the month of January, your report would be due by February 5th. To those who have been filing their monthly reports, a sincere thank you for your effort. You can fill out te and fill out your monthly report there. Go to the section in the menu called Section Forms which is at http://arrlwcf.org/section-forms/ or select the appropriate report form in the Section Forms menu. Upon successful submission you will receive an on screen confirmation and almost immediately you will receive an email confirmation for your records that also goes to the Cabinet member that oversees your program. Your report is then filed and you are all done for the month. Regular reporting is an ARRL requirement to hold an ARRL Station Appointment.

 

UPCOMING HAMFESTS IN THE SECTION:

We are out of hamfest season until November. However, we have two hamfests coming up in the Section between now and November.

  • Saturday August 22: TARCFest #34 – TARC Clubhouse – Tampa, FL
  • Saturday September 12: 8th Annual LambieFest – Tropical Gulf Acres Clubhouse – Punta Gorda, FL

For more information on hamfests and events in the Section , please visit our website Section Calendar at http://www.arrlwcf.org/events for more information.

 

AMATEUR RADIO PARITY ACT OF 2015 COMPANION BILL (S 1685) INTRODUCED IN THE SENATE, 84 COSPONSORS OF THE HOUSE BILL (HR-1301):

US House Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) introduced the bill on March 4 with 12 original co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle: seven Republicans and five Democrats. Since the last issue of THE WCF PRESSER was published, US Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) introduced S 1685 on June 26, with Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) as the original cosponsor, into the United States Senate. HR1301, the original House bill is now up to 84 co-sponsors as of June 29. As of June 25, two Representatives with districts that are in the West Central Florida Section: Representative Daniel Webster, 10th District, that covers the north central part of Polk County and Representative Tom Rooney, 17th District, that covers Charlotte, Desoto, Hardee, Highlands, southeastern Hillsborough, eastern Manatee, and southern Polk Counties.

The ARRL has moved and expanded the webpage devoted to the Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015. The direct link is http://www.arrl.org/amateur-radio-parity-act. Look at this page for information on how to send a letter to your Representative or Senator, the current list of co-sponsors, etc. Check out the latest news article on the Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015 from Monday June 29 at http://www.arrl.org/news/senate-sponsor-of-amateur-radio-parity-act-of-2015-said-bill-promotes-regulatory-transparency-equali.

The following is a summary quote from the ARRL website, “The Amateur Radio Parity Act would require the FCC to amend its Part 97 Amateur Service rules to apply the three-part test of the PRB-1 federal pre-emption policy to include homeowners association regulations and deed restrictions, often referred to as ‘covenants, conditions, and restrictions’ (CC&Rs). At present, PRB-1 only applies to state and local zoning laws and ordinances. The FCC has been reluctant to extend the same legal protections to include private land-use agreements without direction from Congress.”

Writing a letter to your Representative or Senator is the best method to ask him to support the Amateur Radio Parity Act. The ARRL is recommending that you send your letter to the ARRL for two reasons: (1) Because of security concerns, it can take from six to eight weeks for a letter sent directly to a Congressional office to be delivered and (2) It can be combined with other letters to your Congressperson and hand-delivered to their office on Capitol Hill.

 

EDITORIAL: WHY HAMS GET TRAINING BY KEATING FLOYD KC4HSI – HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY EC:

The following is an email written by Keating Floyd KC4HSI, EC for Hillsborough County ARES, to his ARES members. It states well the reason why we as ARES members take training:

“Ham Radio operators have access to a wide range of ways to enjoy this wonderful and fascinating hobby, from VHF repeater communications, to microwave long-haul contesting, to surface mount soldering, and many other fun activities, as well as emergency communications.

Our hobby is governed by Title 47 CFR Part 97, and it states, in part, that the basis and purpose of the Amateur Radio Service is “providing emergency communications.”

“Old-time” hams, and most new hams, are keenly aware of the emergency communications aspect of this hobby, and many have plans to step up and help out in the aftermath of a disaster.

There are some 74,000 amateur radio operators in the state of Florida, with about 5000 licensed amateurs within the 335xx and 336xx zip code coverage areas.

The Hillsborough County ARES/RACES team consists of about 200 operators interested enough in disaster communications to receive occasional emails on various topics, and be informed about activations and other related activities.

That’s wonderful, and congratulations are in order for all of those 5000 people who have taken the time to earn their license, and to the 200 people on “the list.”

But being on the list is not enough.

Emergency communications began to be a large part of what we thought about as radio operators rather formally in 1935, when the ARRL requested that hams interested in emergency communications write to the League HQ. These were the early steps that led to the foundation of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES). Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services (RACES) started in 1952, in an effort to provide a faster and smoother transition in the event that the President invoked the War Powers Act.

Between then and now, and particularly since the tragic events of 2001 and the hurricane season of 2004/2005, emergency managers have changed the way they do business.

Gone are the days when a volunteer can just show up and be given a post as a communicator, passing and handling sensitive information. Gone are the days of strapping on a bandolier of handi-talkies, and heading for the disaster. Gone are the days, those heady days, of just “being a ham” and providing communications.

The Amateur Radio Operator in an emergency today must have earned the trust of those responsible in a disaster. Training is critical, as we must understand how those emergencies are managed. Operators must able to communicate messages for emergency management effectively and efficiently, in tune with emergency operations. It’s not that they are un-interested in our knowledge – far from it. It’s that they now have processes, policies, and procedures to follow in order to ensure the safety and security of everyone in their area of responsibility.

If you do not have the training to understand how they operate, and why theses things are important, when you volunteer (because most of you will – that’s part and parcel of who you are and why you are a ham) you are likely to be relegated to some staging area, wondering why your skills are being wasted, and frankly grumping with each other that those professionals are wasting your time and very highly sought-after skills.

But they are not wasting YOUR time – you are wasting theirs.

The modern operator is highly trained, highly skilled, knows the lingo, and, in many cases, has already participated in exercises with those emergency managers, and is thus a known quantity, fully trusted and vetted to handle situations in a sensitive environment.

Please become one of those assets. I know you want to help; it’s in the second paragraph of our governing document.

You can’t participate and be effective if you don’t get trained.”

 

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE MONTH OF JUNE:

On Saturday June 27, Ben Henley KI4IGX, our Section Emergency Coordinator and I embarked on the 15th annual West Central Florida Field Day Caravan, and the first one for Ben and I. We stated the caravan at 0900 hours and finished up at 0300 on Sunday June 28th. Out of 18 Field Day sites on the itinerary, we were able to visit 15 Field Day sites. One site we could get to due road closures for a public celebration of some kind, in downtown New Port Richey, one we could not locate on roads that were unfamiliar, one the gate was locked and we could not get in, and one had terminated operations by the time we got there. All the Field Day sites we visited were very gracious and accommodating.

When we visited the Tampa Amateur Radio Club site on Field Day, we presented Bill Bode N4WEB, the new Amateur Radio Service To Scouting award. Bill is heavy involved in the Boy Scouts in addition to being President of the Tampa Amateur Radio Club. Bill is the first amateur to receive the award since in inception just this year.

 

SECTION TRAFFIC MANAGERS REPORT FOR MAY 2015
By Doug Williams N2DW:

Station Activity Reports (SAR):

N2DW: Originated 0, Received 8, Sent 7, Delivered 0, and Total 15
W8IM: Originated 0, Received 7, Sent 12, Delivered 3, and Total 22
W4PXE: Originated 4, Received 31, Sent 11, Delivered 4, and Total 49
K4EEI Originated 1, Received 58, Sent 58, Delivered 1, and Total 117

Public Service Honor Roll:

N2DW 85

W8IM 72

West Central Florida Section Net Activity Reports:

AIN: Sessions 2, Stations 15, Traffic 0, Minutes 25
Net Manager – WA4ATF

EAGLE NET: Sessions 38, Stations 1167, Traffic 38, Minutes 1008
Net Manager – W4PXE

SPARC NET: Sessions 39, Stations 616, Traffic 39, Minutes 1158
Net Manager – W4TS

 

SECTION MANAGERS CONTACT INFORMATION AND CONCLUSION:

Here is my contact information. Much of this is listed now on Page 16 of QST.

 

The Section also has a website, Facebook and Twitter pages. The URL for those are:

That is all for this issue of THE WCF PRESSER. 73 de Darrell KT4WX