I hope by now that the Section membership has seen the letter and skills book that I sent to the Section leadership a few weeks ago. The skills book is a close representation of the national task book with a few exceptions. The national task book is a one size fits all and the Section skills book is designed so that the local Jurisdiction Having Authority (AHJ) that your ARES group is supporting can modify the skills to match what they require for participation with them. I recommend that the membership complete the entire book with the total list of skills but if not, complete what is locally required by your AHJ.
The other obvious change is it is not called a task book. It is named a skills book. I think the word task is intimidating to some individuals. Look at it as an inventory of your skills documented in a book. By completing the skills listed in the book, you can take pride in what you have accomplished and be able to demonstrate to others that you are a capable amateur radio communicator. It also can create the need for a program at your monthly meetings. If a number a members need to sign off on a particular skill such as building a dipole or learning how to attach a PL-259 connector to coax, have your local guru hold a demonstration at a meeting and have everyone at the meeting practice the skill.
The fillable PDF is available in the forms tab of our ARES-MO.org website. You can keep the form on a computer and fill it out on the computer or you can just print it and use it as a paper copy. Either way, download the form and use it to document your skills.
District News:
District A: Richard Fretwell, W0KRF, DEC
Benton Co. –
BC ARES Members participated in the following nets: MTN, MESN, ARES, Region A Healthcare, and various club nets.
KR1STL ran the Region A Healthcare Net in April with KE0AVT as back up operator. There were 22 check ins with 8 being from Healthcare facilities.
Clay/Platte Cos. –
Northland ARES Meeting presentation “Damage Assessment”. Platte County Sheriff Dep. Mike Oneal’s presented DA from the FEMA perspective. The importance of recovery along with documentation of of damage after an event has occurred were the key topics.
NL ARES Weather net operations –
April 23 … After a pleasant Saturday with mild temps a huge cold front approached the northland. Reports of Heavy Lightning, high winds, and local temps dropping from 76 f to 56 f. Recorded Precipitation of 1.23 inches during the two hour event.
April 29 … Tornado’s Andover, Kansas https://www.weather.gov/ict/event_20220430. A powerful low pressure system approached Kansas on Friday April 29th allowing a sharp dryline to track to generally along Interstate 135. Storms first developed across central and northeast Kansas near the warm front, but as the early evening hours continued, a couple storms fired just east of Wichita. One of these storms produced a strong tornado across the east side of Andover, causing extensive damage. This same storm produced numerous additional tornadoes as it tracked east. NL ARES WX net provided up to the minute reports to National Weather via NWS-Chat
during the Three hour event.
APRIL 2022 “MODES” “Missouri Digital Emergency Service”. MODES 3.985 MHz Thursday 10:00 am CST.
FOUR sessions QNI 69 QTC 4 35 hours. ZOOM Mtg for Technical Discussion. NCS utilizes FSQcall triggers to expedite responses from participating
stations. Additional “MODES” info at https://modes.groups.io/g/main/topics FLdigi-FSQ or FSQcall for net interaction. New members are welcome.
NCS KA0OTL Jeff, Net mgr
Jackson Co. –
Jackson county had an information table at 2 events, Central Jackson County Fire District Weather Spotter training on 4/9/22 and the Ararat Hambash on 4/16/22. Two new members from the Weather Spotter training.
The following are the statistics for the month of April 2022:
For the temperatures forecasted this week, it looks like we missed spring. Be careful with the heat this early as we are not used the the higher temps yet. Stay hydrated.
Jeff KB3HF
Missouri Section EC