ARRL West Central Florida Section

SPECIAL SESSION OF THE EAGLE NET FOR ARRL FIELD DAY

Once again this year, the Eagle Net, the National Traffic System Net for the West Central Florida Section, will operate for an extended period on the evening of June 27. The net will open at 2000 local (0000Z or 8:00 PM) and operate as long as stations bring traffic. Stations wishing to send formal traffic by voice are encouraged to bring their messages to Eagle Net on the NI4CE repeater system. Our Section Manager, Darrell Davis KT4WX, and other members of the cabinet will be available to accept traffic. Many Official Relay Stations and our Net Liaisons will also be available to take traffic outbound the section through both the National Traffic System and Radio Relay International state and regional nets. All stations are welcome to join. Message traffic should be in the form of an ARRL Radiogram.

This is the perfect opportunity to practice your message sending skills. The Net Control Station will be Dave, W4PXE. Dave teaches our annual Traffic Training Class and will offer constructive advice on the best techniques to send and receive formal traffic. Hope to hear you on the net.

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NEW ARRL EMERGENCY COORDINATOR APPOINTED FOR MANATEE COUNTY

Ed Skalecki NI4MX, the ARRL Emergency Coordinator for Manatee County ARES, decided to step down as ARRL Emergency Coordinator on Thursday June 18, 2020.  Skalecki had served as ARRL Emergency Coordinator for Manatee County ARES since 2009.  Steve Park W4OEP, an ARRL Official Emergency Station, has been appointed as the new ARRL Emergency Coordinator for Manatee County ARES on Thursday June 18, 2020.

Darrell Davis KT4WX, Section Manager for the ARRL West Central Florida Section, had the following comment on the change of ARRL Emergency Coordinators in Manatee County, “I am extending my sincere thanks to Ed for his over 10 years of service as ARRL Emergency Coordinator and wishing him success in his future endeavors as a sport coach, since he always been into sports and he even visited sites as w88 to gamble on games.  Steve will make a fine successor to Ed as ARRL Emergency Coordinator and brings his technical expertise and emergency communications experience.  He is always looking for ways to combine his enthusiasm for the amateur radio satellite service with emergency communications and ARES in particular.”

Steve Park W4OEP was first licensed in 1974 as WN9OEP in Peoria, IL and upgraded to the FCC Extra Class license in 1977 while attending the University of Illinois (W9YH) and for a number of years held the callsign WB9OEP.  Park’s amateur radio experience includes HF and VHF Contesting, chasing DX, amateur satellites, Air Force MARS, and emergency communications.   Park has served as a long-time AMSAT Area Coordinator (now called AMSAT Ambassadors.) and his particular interests today are in all-mode DXing, homebrew antenna designs, mentoring, and emergency communications and how the Amateur Radio Service can best serve and even broadcast sport games where people do bets and gamble using sites as capsa online for this.  Park in his professional career of over 35 years worked as an Electrical Engineer in RF and Microwave product design. As long time Floridians, he and his wife returned to the Tampa Bay area after retiring from Raytheon Missile Systems Co in 2016.

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WCF EXPERIMENTER SPRING 2020 ISSUE IS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

The WCF EXPERIMENTER Spring 2020 issue is now available for download. To download the Spring 2020 issue and any other previous issues please go to the WCF EXPERIMENTER webpage at http://arrlwcf.org/home/the-wcf-experimenter-technical-newsletter/.  The WCF EXPERIMENTER is published quarterly, and on occasion a supplemental issue as needed.

We are targeting release of the Summer 2020 of the WCF EXPERIMENTER in the month of July.  We are looking for articles for this next edition and future editions of THE WCF EXPERIMENTER.  If you would like to submit an article, please send those submissions to Jim Weslager K3WR via email at weslager@gmail.com.

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WEST CENTRAL FLORIDA SECTION FIELD DAY CARAVAN GOING VIRTUAL FOR 2020

After much consideration, and in consultation with the members of the Field Day Caravan team, Darrell Davis KT4WX, Section Manager for the ARRL West Central Florida Section, has decided to cancel the in person ARRL West Central Florida Section Field Day Caravan for 2020, out of a sense of precaution to help slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus.  The ARRL West Central Florida Section Field Day Caravan will be held virtually, most likely using teleconferencing, instead of conducting the caravan in its traditional format.  Details of the virtual ARRL West Central Florida Section Field Day Caravan will be published on the Field Day Caravan webpage on the Section website which is at http://arrlwcf.org/wcf-special-events/west-central-florida-section-field-day-caravan/ as soon as they are finalized.

 

The ARRL West Central Florida Section Field Day Caravan has been conducted by the Section Manager and other section cabinet members since the creation of the ARRL West Central Florida Section in 2000.  For many years the caravan was conducted by the Section Manager and the Section Emergency Coordinator.  Starting in 2017, the caravan began to operate in multiple teams of two section cabinet members each to allow the caravan to visit all the Field Day sites on Saturday during daylight and evening hours.

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WORMFEST 2020 CANCELLED DUE TO COVID-19

On Thursday May 7th, 2020, Bill Williams AG4QX, President of the Glorious Society of the Wormhole announced via email that the Wormfest 2020 scheduled for Saturday May 23, 2020 at Freedom Lake Park in Pinellas Park has been cancelled.  The cancellation was due to the fact that Freedom Lake Park will not be open to the public through the end of May due to COVID-19 restrictions.

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NEXT SKYWARN TRAINING OPPORTUNITY – 5/12/20

The next training opportunity for SKYWARN training from the NWS Office in Ruskin will be on Tuesday May 12, 2020 from 1000 until 1100.  The training will be conducted by Dan Noah WX4DAN, the Warning Coordination Meterologist for the National Weather Office in Ruskin, which covers all of the ARRL West Central Florida Section and four other counties.

The training is FREE of charge but pre-registration is required.  The training will be conducted by the Go To Meeting online conference platform.  To register for the training, please go to https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5571275302588365584.

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NEW NET MANAGER APPOINTED FOR THE WCF SECTION TECHNICAL NET

On Friday April 2, 2020, Burt Wizeman K4SRQ, an ARRL Technical Specialist, was appointed to be the new Net Manager for the ARRL West Central Florida Section Technical Net.  Wizeman succeeds Geoff Haines N1GY, who retired as Net Manager and Technical Coordinator for the ARRL West Central Florida Section in late 2019. As for the retiree, he can spend most of his leisure days on sites like 케이카지노.

First licensed in 1982 as KB4BPP, has been involved in the technical side of amateur radio since being licensed.  During this time Wizeman helped with the installation of the first digipeater in Lake Wales and built from kit form an early version of the original TAPR TNC for packet radio and even used packet radio to send and receive DOS program source code as text files via packet radio, an advanced feature for the time.  Today Wizeman’s interests in amateur radio include working with Windows and particularly Linux programming, doing projects with the Raspberry PI computer, kit building, wire antenna design,and computer repair.  The best Chicago IT companies also look for opportunities to collaborate with him. Wizeman is active with the Sarasota Emergency Radio Club, the SERC Annual Hamfest, and maintaining the SERC Facebook page.

Wizeman in his professional career had previously worked for Heathkit in Tampa in the early to mid 1980’s , doing stand up comedy in the 1990’s and in Information Technology, and more recently as a Christian school teacher and working in Information Technology for the Christian school he taught in and currently working in IT for Saraota County Board of County Commissioners.  Wizeman’s other interests include being involved in his church ministry and spending time with his wife Nancy and his children Hanna and Daniel.

Darrell Davis KT4WX, Section Manager of the ARRL West Central Florida Section had the following to say about Wizeman’s appointment, “Burt will make an excellent Net Manager for the WCF Section Technical Net.  Burt is really good with people and has a real good technical background, a very effective combination especially on the Tech Net.  I also want to take this opportunity to thank Phil Wilson N8IPS for filling in as an ‘interim net manager’ unofficially until Burt was appointed as Net Manager.”

The ARRL West Central Florida Section Technical Net is held every Thursday evening at 2100 hours on the NI4CE Repeater System.  The ARRL West Central Florida Section Technical Net is an question and answer net for technical topics, with participants giving updates on projects as time permits.

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EAST PASCO AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY HAMFEST SPRING 2020 CANCELLED

On Monday 4/27/20, it was announced on the East Pasco Amateur Radio Society Facebook page that the East Pasco Amateur Radio Society Spring 2020 Hamfest that had been scheduled for Saturday 5/09/20 in Dade City, has been cancelled to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

Any further hamfest or special event cancellations will be announced via a WCF SECTION PRESS RELEASE.

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