ARRL West Central Florida Section

UPCOMING SKYWARN TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

Dan Noah WX4DAN, Warning Coordination Meteorologist for the National Weather Service Office in Ruskin has announced three upcoming SKYWARN Spotter online training sessions.  The following are the dates and times currently scheduled:  Tuesday, April 28,  from 1000 through 1100, Tuesday April 28 from 1900 through 2000, and Thursday April 30 from 1400 through 1500.

The online training is free of charge but pre-registration is required.  To register for whatever session you wish to attend please go to the SKYWARN Registration Page.  The training will be virtual using the Join Me meeting platform and the training session will be 60 minutes or less.  The training session details will be sent the day of the training to those who have signed up.

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WCF EXPERIMENTER WINTER 2020 REVISED ISSUE RELEASED.  ARRL RELEASES QEX AND NCJ ONLINE EDITIONS

Due to the accident omission of a graphic and the proper publication credit notation in the lead article “Automatic Tuner for Small Magnetic Loop Antennas“, an updated version of the Winter 2020 edition of the WCF EXPERIMENTER has been posted to the Section website.  Our apologies to all for this unintentional oversight and thank you in advance for your understanding.

In addition, ARRL HQ brought digital editions of QEX and NCJ online this morning.  Now all four ARRL magazines will be available in digital format as a standard ARRL membership benefit.  The four digital journals are:  QEX, On The Air, QEX, and NCJ.  You may access them one of two ways.  The first method is through the Android, iOS, or Amazon Kindle app called “ARRL Magazines”.  The second method is through the ARRL website at the ARRL Magazines page:  http://www.arrl.org/arrl-magazines.  For full details of this new ARRL membership benefit please read the ARRL news article entitled, “ARRL Announces New Benefits for Members” on the ARRL website at http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-announces-new-benefits-for-members.

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WCF EXPERIMENTER WINTER 2020 ISSUE IS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

After another long delay, the WCF EXPERIMENTER Winter 2020 issue is now available for download. To download the Winter 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 Spring 2020 in early to mid May, following the release of the May WCF PRESSER.  We are looking for articles 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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NEW EMERGENCY COORDINATOR FOR HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY ARES/RACES APPOINTED

On Monday March 30, 2020, Bill Miller N1CDO, was appointed as the ARRL Emergency Coordinator for Hillsborough County ARES/RACES due to the declining health of Roy Drury K4DCT, who subsequently passed away on Wednesday April 1, 2020.

Miller, first licensed in 1980, has been extensively involved with ARES and MARS since he was licensed.  After retiring from a career with the United States Navy, Miller moved to Ruskin, to be close to his parents, where he became involved with Hillsborough County ARES/RACES serving as the Assistant Emergency Coordinator for HF operations and most recently as the executive Assistant Emergency Coordinator.  Miller is also involved with the Kings Point Amateur Radio Club serving as a volunteer examiner and taking care of several repeaters.  Miller also has been providing service for several years with the annual BIke MS CItrus Tour,  Miller is also an ARRL Life Member.

Miller in his professional career served in the United States Navy, having served in numerous locations and had been an Electronics and Operations instructor.

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ROY DRURY K4DCT IS A SILENT KEY

Roy Drury K4DCT passed away on Wednesday April 1, 2020, after a prolonged period of illness.  Roy was serving as ARRL Emergency Coordinator for Hillsborough County ARES/RACES up until shortly before his death and was serving as an ARRL Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator for the ARRL West Central Florida Section.  Roy had previously served as an Assistant Emergency Coordinator for Hillsborough County ARES/RACES.  Roy is survived by his wife Dawn K2WLS, who is currently serving as an ARRL District Emergency Coordinator and an Assistant Emergency Coordinator with Hillsborough County ARES/RACES, his son and daughter who are both licensed amateur radio operators.

Darrell Davis KT4WX, Section Manager of the ARRL West Central Florida Section had this to say upon Roy’s passing, “Roy never thought about himself but only the good of his family and serving others.  Roy provided great leadership for Hillsborough County ARES/RACES and great service to the amateur radio community and .  He will be missed by all who new him.”

A GoFundMe account has been established to help the Drury family with final expenses and medical expenses.  For more information please go to https://www.gofundme.com/f/druryfamilycare.

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NWS TAMPA BAY TO OFFER VIRTUAL SKYWARN TRAINING ON 4/01/20

The National Weather Service Office in Ruskin just announced a virtual SKYWARN training class, that will be held at 1400 on Wednesday 4/01/20.  To participate in the virtual SKYWARN training class you must register before the class at the following link:  https://goo.gl/rx4qpH.  Seating is limited, so please register ASAP.  The virtual SKYWARN class is free of charge.  Once you are registered you may join the virtual SKYWARN training class at https://www.join.me/NWSTampaBay or by telephone at (866) 231-8384.  The passcode for the training is 813 645 2323.

The following is where you may download the supplemental materials to go along with the class:  Download the Weather Spotters Field Guide at https://go.usa.gov/xnDYC and the Local SKYWARN Severe Weather Spotter page is http://weather.gov/tampa/skywarn.

If anyone has any questions concerning this class you may contact Dan Noah WX4DAN, the Warning Coordination Meterologist at the NWS Office in Ruskin, via email at daniel.noah@noaa.gov.  It is the hope of the National Weather Service to offer more of these virtual SKYWARN training classes in the future.

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FLORIDA QSO PARTY SCHEDULED FOR 4/25/20 AND 4/26/20

The Florida Contest Group has announced the Florida QSO Party will be held this year as scheduled.  The Florida QSO Party is scheduled for Saturday April 25, 2020 and Sunday April 26, 2020. At the present time, mobile operation will be allowed this year as in years past.  For detailed information on contest rules, suggested frequencies of operation, and log entry – submission information go to the Florida QSO Party website at http://www.floridaqsoparty.org/.  The Florida Contest Groups has also establied a Florida QSO Party groups.io list and is open for anyone to join.  Anyone wishing to subscribe to the Florida QSO Party email reflector may send an email request to George Wagner, K5KG at k5kg@k5kg.com, who is administrator of the list.  Upon receiving your request to join, George will send you an invitation to subscribe to the reflector.  When you receive the invitation, simply follow the instructions, and sign yourself up.

The Florida Contest Group simply requests that everyone follow the COVID-19 guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and enjoy the contest.

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SECTION ARES MEETING FOR SPRING 2020 AND APRIL 2020 TARCFEST CANCELLED

Ben Henley KI4IGX, our Section Emergency Coordinator, has cancelled the Spring 2020 ARRL West Central Florida Section ARES Luncheon and ARRL West Central Florida Section ARES Meeting both scheduled for Saturday April 11, 2020 in Sarasota County.  This cancellation is due in keeping with guidelines issued by the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reduce the spread of COVID-19.  The next scheduled Section ARES Luncheon and Section ARES Meeting will be on Saturday July 11, 2020.

Biff Craine K4LAW, one of our Assistant Section Managers, relayed the following information from the Tampa Amateur Radio Club, “TARCFest has been held in April since its beginning but will be cancelled this April due in part to park closure and our inability to provide a responsible event that would not contribute to efforts to stem the spread on COVID-19. This action is consistent with other tailgates from Dayton to Zephyrhills.”  The next scheduled TARCFest will later in the year in August.

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HAMFEST AND CLUB MEETING CANCELLATIONS CONTINUE DUE TO COVID-19 CONCERNS

The cancellations of hamfest, some club meetings, and amateur radio related events continue as a precautionary measure against the spread of the COVID-19 virus.  The following additional hamfests, local radio club meetings, and amateur radio events have been cancelled since Thursday March 12 when WCF SECTION PRESS RELEASE #20-16 was issued:  The ZAARC Hamfest 2020 scheduled for Saturday March 21st has been cancelled.  The Pasco County Hamfest Spring 2020 scheduled for Saturday March 28th has been cancelled.  The Highlands County Amateur Radio Club monthly club meeting scheduled for Monday March 16th has been cancelled.  The Glorious Society of the Wormhole monthly club meeting scheduled for Saturday April 4th has been cancelled.  The Sarasota Amateur Radio Society monthly club meeting scheduled for Tuesday March 17th has been cancelled.  The Gulf Coast Amateur Radio Club monthly VE test session schedule for Wednesday April 1, has been cancelled.

The ARRL News announced on Sunday March 15, the Dayton Amateur Radio Association has cancelled the Dayton Hamvention for 2020 scheduled for May 15 through May 17.  The ARRL News announced on Friday March 13th, that ARRL HQ has discontinued all public tours of ARRL HQ and W1AW until further notice.

Here in the ARRL West Central Florida Section, several county emergency management agencies have gone to some kind of partial activation   in response to the COVID-19 virus.  On Saturday March 7th, the State of Florida Emergency Operations Center went to a Level 2 activation to deal with the ongoing COVID-19 response.  On Monday March 9th, Governor Ron Desantis issued Executive Order 2020-52 declaring a state of emergency in the State of Florida.  On Friday March 13, the Florida Department of Education announced that all Florida public school districts to close from the period of Monday March 16th through Friday March 27th.

The ARRL West Central Florida Section will continue to issue WCF SECTION PRESS RELEASES as cancellations notices of hamfests and local radio club meetings and or VE test sessions come to our attention.  Please continue to monitor the latest information being issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html and the Florida Department of Health at http://www.floridahealth.gov/diseases-and-conditions/COVID-19/index.html.

Update:  The State of Florida EOC is now at a Level 1 activation as of Sunday March 15 to deal with the COVID-19 response.

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