WCF SECTION PRESS RELEASE #21-23
NEW SECTION EMERGENCY COORDINATOR APPOINTED
On Tuesday May 4, 2021, Mike Douglas W4MDD, Section Manager of the ARRL West Central Florida Section, appointed Norman Xanders WX4NEX to be the new Section Emergency Coordinator for the ARRL West Central Florida Section. Xanders succeeds Ben Henley KI4IGX, who had been Section Emergency Coordinator since January 2015 and has been in poor health recently.
Xanders was originally licensed in late 2016. Xanders has been a storm chaser for over 20 years here in central Florida, specifically in Polk County. One day Xanders got the RadarScope app for his smartphone and was looking at other Spotters on the map and saw some with call signs, inquired into it, and found out they were part of a Skywarn Net. This is where Xanders began his amateur radio journey. Since becoming licensed, Xanders has volunteered extensively for Polk County ARES as a net control operator. Xanders then became an Assistant Net Manager, and then Net Manager for the Polk County ARES Net. In 2019, Xanders became the Assistant Emergency Coordinator for Operations for Polk County ARES. Xanders also serves as a net control station for the National Weather Service SKYWARN Information Net, which is held on the NI4CE Repeater System every Tuesday at 2100 hours. Recently, Xanders had been appointed and was serving as an Assistant Section Manager as Liaison to the National Weather Service Office in Ruskin.