ARRL West Central Florida Section

ED ALLEN WA4ISB BECOMES A SILENT KEY

Edwin “Ed” Allen WA4ISB, one of the founders of the NI4CE Repeater System, became a Silent Key on Saturday April 16, 2022, after a brief stay in hospice care.

First licensed as an amateur radio operator in the mid 1960’s, Ed was co-founder of the Sarasota Emergency Radio Club (SERC) in 1976, and continued to remain active with SERC.  In 2001, Ed helped to create the West Central Florida Group Inc. (WCFG), which today operates the NI4CE Repeater system.  Ed, with his various relationships in the broadcast radio industry, helped WCFG to find and secure the sites they use today for the various NI4CE repeaters.  Ed also served as trustee for the NI4CE Repeater System, until recently stepping down from that role to be succeeded by Matt Copeland NC4FD, the current trustee.

Even though Ed worked professionally as a certified broadcast engineer for decades, he never lost his passionate interest and pursuit of amateur radio.

In his professional carrier, Ed was a certified broadcast engineer for numerous AM and FM broadcast stations since the late 1960’s, and recently retired from Cox Radio Tampa Bay as Chief Engineer for over 20 years.

It was Ed’s stated wish that in lieu of flowers or similar tributes, donations should be made in Ed’s memory to the West Central Florida Group, Inc.  There will be a Celebration Of Life for Ed on Saturday, May 14th, 2022 from 1200 until 1400 at Ed’s home in Sarasota.  The address information and any other details about the Celebration of Life will be available on the West Central Florida Group website at https://ni4ce.org.

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THE 25th ANNUAL FLORIDA QSO PARTY SET FOR LAST WEEKEND OF APRIL

The Florida Contest Group recently announced the 25th Annual Florida QSO Party will be held on Saturday April 30, 2022 from 1600Z (Noon EDT) through 0159Z (9:59 PM EDT) and on Sunday May 1, 2022 from 1200Z (8:00 AM EDT) and 2159Z (5:59 PM EDT), which is a 20 hour total operating period.   The 40, 20, 15, and 10 Meter bands will be used.  All 67 Florida Counties will be eligible for activation.

In honor of the 25th Florida QSO Party Anniversary, there will be the Florida QSO Party Silver Spelling Bee, which will have a total of 25 special 1×1 stations with one suffix for each letter of the alphabet except the letter X (FCC regulation). There are a total of 21 SSB and 21 CW stations active…The Florida QSO Party Silver Spelling Bee is a 1×1 Sweep and endorsed for either Mixed or CW or SSB modes.

For all the details on the Florida QSO Party, including the Florida QSO Party Silver Spelling Bee, please go to their Florida QSO Party website at https://www.floridaqsoparty.org.

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WCF SECTION ARES LUNCHEON AND MEETING FOR SPRING 2022 SCHEDULED

The ARRL West Central Florida Section ARES Luncheon and Meeting for the Spring of 2022 are now scheduled.  The ARRL West Central Florida Section ARES Meeting is scheduled for Saturday April 23, 2022 from 1300 until 1500, and will be held at the Hardee County Emergency Operations Center, located at 404 W. Orange St., in downtown Wauchula.  The meeting will be preceded by the customary ARRL West Central Florida Section ARES Luncheon on Saturday April 23, 2022 at 1100 and will be held at Paul’s Kitchen, located at 116 N. 4th Avenue near downtown Wauchula, just a few blocks from the Hardee County Emergency Operations Center.

The meeting will be a dual in-person and Zoom meeting.  For more information about the meeting including maps to the meeting and lunch venues and Zoom meeting info, please go to the Section ARES webpage at http://arrlwcf.org/wcf-section-programs/ares/.

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CHARLOTTE AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY TO CONDUCT COMMUNICATIONS EXERCISE

“The Charlotte Amateur Radio Society plans an emergency communications exercise to prepare for the 2022 hurricane season.  This exercise is part of the Charlotte Amateur Radio Society’s long-term multipart educational program to  ensure that radio amateurs in our area have a way to grow and practice the skills that may be used in a variety
of emergency communications situations.

The objective of this exercise is to evaluate our ability to gather information from local amateur radio operators using FM Simplex and pass the information to a local command station using JS8 Call.

Our primary goal is to test YOUR VHF and UHF voice communications on FM Simplex operating frequencies.

Can your equipment communicate with any of the portable stations? Can you contact all three portable stations? Will your HT work or do you need to be on your base rig? Do you have mobile capabilities?

You can operate your equipment in any or all three classes of operation:
1. BASE
2. MOBILE
3. HT (Handie-Talkie)

You will send your call sign, 6 digit grid square, Class, and power (100 watts, 50 watts, 5 watts, etc.) by FM voice on the designated frequencies listed below.  EXAMPLE: KM4LKC, EL96bx, Base, 50 watts.

Our portable operating stations below will confirm the receipt of your information. You can contact another portable station or change classes and try again. It may be possible to make 18 contacts (9 on VHF and 9 on UHF) depending on your equipment and location.

The secondary goal is to test each portable station’s capability to gather information and pass digital traffic to a central command station. Each of the portable stations will send their logged contact information to a central command station using JS8 Call on 6 meters.

CARS plans to deploy three (3) portable operating stations spread across the county. We expect to have stations in El Jobean, Murdock, and Punta Gorda.

Licensed Amateur radio operators from Charlotte County and the directly surrounding counties that are not members of CARS are encouraged to visit the CARS website for information about how they can help on the day of the event from their own radios. See www.carsfl.org.

If news organizations wish to observe the stations during setup and operations, please contact Douglas Young, KM4LKC email to: km4lkc@arrl.net”

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8th ANNUAL TECHCON SCHEDULE AND LIST OF PRESENTATIONS NOW AVAILABLE.

The speaking schedule and list of presentations are now available for download from the TECHCON webpage on the Section website at http://arrlwcf.org/wcf-special-events/wcftechconference/.  Darrell Davis KT4WX, Technical Coordinator, made the following comment about the posting of the schedule and list of presentations, “My apologies to all for making these available much later than I have planned.  I have been tied up with my Mom being in the hospital and rehab since the conclusion of Orlando Hamcation.  And thank you to all of you for your understanding, prayers, thoughts, and words of kindness.”

Any slide presentations, papers, or handouts produced by our various speakers will come online the morning of the General Presentations on the TECHCON webpage at http://arrlwcf.org/wcf-special-events/wcftechconference/.

As a reminder, the Friday Afternoon Workshop has been cancelled. The 8th Annual TECHCON will start tomorrow evening, Friday February 25 at 1800 with the Friday Evening Social, and the General Presentations will be on Saturday February 26. The doors to the Polk County EOC will open at 0800 and the presentations will begin at 0900. The conference will conclude between 1630 and 1700.

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8th ANNUAL TECHCON UPDATE – FRIDAY WORKSHOP CANCELLED

The 8th Annual TECHCON Friday Afternoon Workshop, which was scheduled for Friday February 25, 2022, has been cancelled.  The Friday Evening Social scheduled for Friday February 25, 2022 and the Saturday General Presentation Tracks scheduled for Saturday February 26, 2022 will carry on as scheduled.

The following statement was issued by Darrell Davis KT4WX, Chairman of TECHCON concerning the cancellation of the Friday Afternoon Workshop, “I was scheduled to be presenter of the Friday Afternoon Workshop.  Due to unforeseen circumstances, I was forced to cancel the Friday Afternoon Workshop.  I will be conducting an abbreviated version of the workshop, as a two time slot presentation during the Saturday General Presentation tracks.  I apologize to anyone that this cancellation may have inconvenienced.”

The Saturday General Presentations Track speaking schedule and presentation descriptions are scheduled to be published towards the end of next week.

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ARRL SOUTHERN FLORIDA SECTION ARES NET TO EXPAND TO SIX DAY A WEEK OPERATION.

The Southern Florida ARES Net (SFAN) currently meets on Saturday on 3940 KHz at 0800 hours.  SFAN will be expanding from operation on Saturday to operation six days a week:  Monday through Saturday.  The start time of 0800 EDT will remain the same.  The new Net Manager Ed Johnson W2PH issued the following statement concerning the expansion of the Southern Florida ARES Net.

“We will be beginning the new SFAN on Saturday March 5, 2022.  It will meet on 3940 kHz at 8am Monday thru Saturday.  The net will act as a means to join ARES groups in the lower half of Florida and will change to the Southern Florida Emergency Net during times of deployment.  We have set up an email system for those interested in participating by registering at SFAN@groups.io.  We will be looking for Net Control Stations as well as net Liaisons to both ARES and traffic nets for the purposes of training and developing means for passing Welfare traffic into the NTS.

Interested amateurs should contact the Net Manager, Ed W2PH at ed@w2ph.com or w2ph@arrl.net.  We also have an email network you can join at the website: SFAN@groups.io where you can register and be kept informed of our upcoming activity.”

Johnson has noted in his announcements on various HF nets that volunteers for Net Control from all three ARRL Florida Sections, will be accepted, so that net controls will be sufficiently saturated throughout the State of Florida, to support relaying of message during advese band conditions.  Johnson also stated that the net will primarily service the Southern Florida Section ARES and West Central Florida Section ARES, and will be the counterpart of the Northern Florida ARES Net that currently meets on Monday through Saturday at 0900 on 3950 KHz.

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TRAVELERS REST SPECIAL EVENT STATION ACTIVE FOR THE FIRST WEEKEND IN FEBRUARY

The Travelers Rest Amateur Radio Club will be holding a Special Event Station to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Travelers Rest RV Resort located in Dade City in Pasco County.  They will be running the special event callsign W5O.  They will be operating on or near 7240 KHz on 40 Meters or 14240 KHz on 20 Meters.  A certificate is available for working this special event station.  For more information on this operation look at the Special Events Station column in the February 2022 QST Magazine.

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WINTER 2022 SECTION ARES LUNCHEON AND MEETING VENUES SET

The date, time, and venue for the Winter 2022 Section ARES Luncheon and Meeting have been confirmed.  The Winter 2022 Section ARES Luncheon will be held on Saturday January 22nd at 1100 EST, at the Sonny’s BBQ located at 2250 Seminole Blvd. in Largo.   The Winter 2022 Section ARES Meeting will follow the luncheon at 1300 EST, and will be held at the Pinellas County Emergency Operations Center, which is located at 10750 Ulmerton Road, Building 1, Suite 267, in Largo.

The Section ARES Luncheon and Meeting is open to anyone who wishes to attend.  The meeting will be available on the Section Zoom account as well.  The Zoom meeting information is available on the Section ARES page which is located at http://arrlwcf.org/wcf-section-programs/ares/.

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