Category: News

NEXT NVIS TEST SCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY 3/07/20

On Saturday March 7, 2020 at 0900 a Near Vertical Incident Skywave (NVIS) test is being conducted on 75 Meters.  Larry Gispert KR4X, an ARRL Official Emergency Station and Fred Seely AA4ME, who is with Highlands County ARES, will be overseeing these tests.  The test will take place on a frequency of 3913 KHz on Lower Sideband (LSB).  Depending upon the Maximum Useable Frequency, test may also be conducted on 60 Meters at 5370 Khz USB (CH-3), and on 40 Meters at 7282 KHz. Note: 60 meters is USB in order to keep emissions within the F.C.C. mandated channel limits. Also the Maximum Useable Frequency (often called the FoF2) info will be used to determine which frequency to use. NVIS theory suggests using the amateur band that is closest but below the projected FoF2 frequency.

Gispert stated the following concerning the NVIS test, “The current data does indicate that any Horizontal HF antenna mounted at a height of less than a quarter wave length above ground does exhibit some NVIS tendencies. We realize that most hams have their 80/75 meter antennas mounted at a height of less than 60 feet and those antennas do exhibit some NVIS radiation. We adopted the height of less than 15 feet to insure maximum NVIS radiation… We were interested in proving the viability of this form of transmission for covering distances between 100 to 300 miles of separation by using High Frequency (HF). The thought was that during times of emergency the normal internet, telephone and VHF/UHF repeaters might be over crowded or disabled and two or more HF stations could provide the necessary communications links between identified emergency locations.”

At 0900 Gispert and Seely will meet on 3.913 kHz LSB running NVIS antennas (horizontal dipoles mounted at a height of 15 feet or less).  KR4X, will be setup at Picnic Island Park at the southern tip of the Interbay Peninsula in South Tampa and AA4ME will be setup in Highlands County (a distance of at least 100 miles apart). We will start at power levels of 100 watts and decrease incrementally to determine the viability of the communications path.  All stations are welcome to listen in or participate with their NVIS antenna.  GIspert and Seely have previously conducted these test in the 2009 and 2010 time frame and on a few occasions since then.

END OF PRESS RELEASE

 

 

 

 

ARRL WEST CENTRAL FLORIDA SECTION ARES MEETINGS LOCATION SWITCH

Due to construction at the Polk County Emergency Operations Center in the months of April and May, the locations for the ARRL West Central Florida Section Quarterly ARES Meeting for Spring 2020 and Summer 2020 have been switched.  The Spring 2020 meeting, scheduled on Saturday April 11, 2020 at 1300, will be held at the Sarasota Red Cross Headquarters, preceded by the Section ARES Luncheon at the Der Dutchmen Restaurant at 1100 on the same date.  The Summer 2020 meeting, scheduled for Saturday July 11, 2020 will be held at the Polk County Emergency Operations Center, preceded by the Section ARES Luncheon at Sonny’s BBQ on Recker Highway in Winter Haven.

A sincere thanks to Sarasota ARES and Polk ARES for agreeing to the date switch to accommodate the construction taking place at the Polk County Emergency Operations Center.  The special events calendar on the Section website has been updated to reflect these changes.

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RIVER RIDGE HIGH SCHOOL SCHEDULED FOR ARISS CONTACT ON TUESDAY 3/03/20

According to the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station website (http://www.ariss.org), an International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at River Ridge High School, New Port Richey, FL. The event is scheduled to begin at approximately 15:17 UTC (10:17 EST) on March 3, 2020. The duration of the contact is approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be direct between NA1SS and Ralph McCullough WA3YFQ, who also serves as the ARRL Emergency Coordinator for Pasco County. The contact should be audible over the state of Florida and adjacent areas. Interested parties are invited to listen in on the 145.800 MHz downlink. The contact is expected to be conducted in English.

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) inspires students, worldwide, to pursue interests and careers in science, technology, engineering and math through amateur radio communications opportunities with the International Space Station (ISS) on-orbit crew.  Students learn about life on board the ISS and explore Earth from space through science and math activities. ARISS provides opportunities for the school community (students, teachers, families and community members) to become more aware of the substantial benefits of human spaceflight and the exploration and discovery that occur on spaceflight journeys. Students have the opportunity to learn about space technologies and the technologies involved with space communications through exploration of amateur radio.

The ARRL West Central Florida Section wishes the amateur radio team at River Ridge High School success in their contact and ask all other amateur radio operators to not to transmit on the downlink during the contact time.  Also remember that the signal from the International Space Station will experience Doppler effect and that the signal will be slightly above frequency early in the pass and will decrease slightly in frequency as the International Space Station passes overhead.

SCHEDULE AND PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS FOR 6TH ANNUAL TECHCON ARE NOW AVAILABLE

The speaking schedule and the program descriptions list for the 6th Annual TECHCON Saturday Presentations are now available for download from the TECHCON webpage on the Section website at http://arrlwcf.org/wcf-special-events/wcftechconference/.  These documents are located in the “Conference Information” section of that page.   The presentations and or papers written for the conference will go live in the morning on Saturday February 22.  If you are planning on attending, and have not done so already, please be sure to fill out the TECHCON Registration Form at http://arrlwcf.org/section-forms/wcftechconfregistration/ so we will have a proper count to have enough supplies for TECHCON.

END OF PRESS RELEASE

6TH ANNUAL TECHCON FRIDAY WORKSHOP INFORMATION RELEASED

The information for the Friday Afternoon Workshop for the 6th Annual TECHCON has been posted to the TECHCON web page at http://arrlwcf.org/wcf-special-events/wcftechconference/.  The link to the workshop documents is in the Friday Afternoon Seminar section of the TECHCON web page.  This link will take participants to a Google Docs page where they may order parts if they wish to do the hands on experiments, instructions on how to setup their computers to do the experiments, and other general information about the workshop.

The Friday Afternoon Workshop is being presented by Jon Pellant W1JP, one of our ARRL Technical Specialist and the ARRL Emergency Coordinator for Charlotte County.  Also note that in the Saturday General Presentation track there will be another seminar on Linux by Dave Birnbaum K2LYV, our new Technical Coordinator for the ARRL West Central Florida Section.  Birnbaum did the Introduction to Python at the 5th Annual TECHCON in 2019.

The 6th Annual TECHCON will take place on Friday February 21, and Saturday February 22 at the Charlotte County EOC in Punta Gorda.  There is scheduled also a Friday Evening Social at the Golden Corral on U.S. 41 in Punta Gorda just a few miles from the EOC.  If you are planning on attending any of the TECHCON activites, please go to the TECHCON Registration Form at http://arrlwcf.org/section-forms/wcftechconfregistration/. and register to attend the activities you plan to participate in if you have not done so.

The list of presentations and speakers schedule for Saturday will be posted on Monday or Tuesday on the TECHCON web page.  The conference flyer, list of restaurants, and list of nearby hotels are already listed.

END OF PRESS RELEASE

THE WCF PRESSER ISSUE #46 FEBRUARY 2020 IS NOW PUBLISHED

The WCF PRESSER Issue #46 for February 2020, has been published on the Section website.  We are running slightly behind schedule due to preparations for and time spend at Orlando Hamcation.  An announcement of the publication of the WCF PRESSER will be disseminated on the ARRL remailer shortly. If anyone has any information that is amateur radio related that you would like to go into the next issue of THE WCF PRESSER, please send that to our newsletter editor, Jim Weslager K3WR via email at weslager@gmail.com.

For the PDF version of this newsletter and past issues in PDF format go to http://arrlwcf.org/home/the-wcf-section-presser-arrl-west-central-florida-section-news/.

 

 

 

 

END OF PRESS RELEASE

K4WCF 20TH ANNIVERSARY OPERATING EVENT ACTIVATION FROM SARASOTA COUNTY ON WINTER FIELD DAY WEEKEND

For the weekend of Saturday January 25 and Sunday January 26, Sarasota County ARES, will activate K4WCF on HF, VHF, and UHF for Sarasota County.  Sarasota County ARES will active K4WCF. via the NI4CE Repeater System from 1000 through 2000 hours on Saturday and Sunday.   For information about the NI4CE Repeater System, including a list of repeater frequencies, go to http://www.ni4ce.org.  On Saturday, Sarasota County ARES will also active K4WCF on 146.550 MHz or 146.580 MHz for contact via 2 Meter simplex from approximately 1600 hours through the early evening hours and may be repeated on Sunday.  This will be the first activation of K4WCF on voice operation in 2020.

WCF SECTION PRES RELEASES will be used to announce upcoming activations of K4WCF 20th Anniversary Operating Event as they are planned.

END OF PRESS RELEASE

UPDATE TO K4WCF 20TH ANNIVERSARY RULES AND RULES CLARIFICATIONS

After collecting some feedback since the first of the year and in order to improve operations, the following changes to the K4WCF 20th Anniversary Operating Event will be enacted immediately:

(1) All weekends through the year 2020, except for ARRL Field Day, will be available for activation of K4WCF by any club, ARES group, CERT group, radio group, or individual amateur radio operators.  Operations of K4WCF have to be pre-approved by the Section Manager, Darrell Davis KT4WX.

(2) Clubs or groups currently scheduled and approved to activate K4WCF for a weekend will continue to be scheduled and approved to do so.

(3) To apply to activate K4WCF for a weekend, please use the Contact Form on the Section website.  Please indicate in the application what times and frequency ranges will K4WCF will be activated.  Operation over the whole weekend is not required but at least a portion of one or both days is encouraged.

(4) All logs will be uploaded in the ARRL LoTW, as soon as they are available from an activation, to provide contact confirmation and or for QSL purposes.

As a reminder, the only criteria for activation of K4WCF, is that the proposed activation has to be conducted in the county being activated.  Activations for different bands and or modes may be held by a club or group activation at different locations, as long as they are in the same county that is being activated.  For example:  Podunk Radio Club can hold an HF activation in one location in Podunk County and another location for VHF/UHF in another location as long as that operation is inside Podunk County.  Also repeaters and satellites are permitted and encouraged, so as to get our Technician class licensees involved in this operating event.

If anyone has any further questions, please use the Contact Form on the Section website at http://arrlwcf.org/section-forms/contact-info/ to submit those questions.  For complete information on the K4WCF 20th Anniversary Operating Event please go to http://arrlwcf.org/wcf-special-events/k4wcf-20th-anniversary-operating-event-2020/.

END OF PRESS RELEASE

THE WCF PRESSER ISSUE #45 JANUARY 2020 IS NOW PUBLISHED

The WCF PRESSER Issue #45 for January 2020, has been published on the Section website.  An announcement of the publication of the WCF PRESSER will be disseminated on the ARRL remailer shortly. If anyone has any information that is amateur radio related that you would like to go into the next issue of THE WCF PRESSER, please send that to our newsletter editor, Jim Weslager K3WR via email at weslager@gmail.com.

For the PDF version of this newsletter and past issues in PDF format go to http://arrlwcf.org/home/the-wcf-section-presser-arrl-west-central-florida-section-news/.

END OF PRESS RELEASE

 

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO ACTIVATE K4WCF SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS FOR 20TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF THE WCF SECTION.

The Section will be holding a ARRL West Central Florida Section 20th Anniversary Operating Event special operating event to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the ARRL West Central Florida Section.  As part of this celebration, K4WCF, the callsign of the West Central Florida Section, will be activated one weekend in each county of the West Central Florida Section until all ten counties are activated over a period of ten weekends.  A K4WCF operation was done in January of 2000 when the West Central Florida Section commenced operation. This will be repeated once or twice more later during the year, either in the fall and or the summer and fall, to give everyone an opportunity to work K4WC in all ten counties. This will not be a contest but simply an operating event to celebrate the anniversary of the West Central Florida Section.

The West Central Florida Section is now taking applications for ARES and or ACS groups,CERT groups, or radio clubs to apply to be authorized to activate K4WCF for a weekend at a time for each respective weekend. A special event web page on the Section website will be setup once the rules are finalized.  The following is the tentative schedule of operating weekends for the first running of K4WCF in the Winter and Spring of 2020 and the groups, clubs, or individuals who have volunteered to operate K4WCF:


• Hillsborough County: 1/11/20 and 1/12/20
• Manatee County: 1/18/20 and 1/19/20
• Sarasota County: 1/25/20 and 1/26/20
• Charlottte County: 2/01/20 and 2/02/20
• Desoto County: 2/15/20 and 2/16/20
• Highlands County 2/22/20 and 2/23/20
• Polk County: 2/29/20 and 3/01/20
• Hardee County: 3/14/20 and 3/15/20
• Pasco County: 3/21/20 and 3/22/20
• Pinellas County: 3/29/20 and 3/30/20 – St.Petersburg Amateur Radio Club.

The publication of the WCF Section 20th Anniversary Operating Event page and the schedule of who is going to operate will be announced by future WCF SECTION PRESS RELEASES and in the January WCF PRESSER.  Groups interested in operating K4WCF in a particular county please use the Contact Form on the Section website to apply.  Please state on the Contact Form the name of your organization, where you would activate K4WCF, and for what county you are volunteering to activate.  The criteria for operating K4WCF is two fold:

(1) A station operating K4WCF must be located in the county it is activating.  (2)  Have the capability to hand out contacts on VHF and UHF so that our Technician class licensees can participate by making contacts as well. K4WCF may be operated either portable, from a club station, an EOC station, or a base station.

For the full list of activation critieria, operating rules, etc., may be found on the K4WCF Special Operating Event webpage at http://arrlwcf.org/wcf-special-events/k4wcf-20th-anniversary-operating-event-2020/.

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