April turned out to be the month of seasonal change this year bringing a lot of severe weather to our Section. There were 41 Skywarn® ops this month for a total of 344 hours of weather spotting reported. Training ops continue to be a large part of the ARES activity with 1352 hours reported as training. It’s great to see this level of activity as ARES continues to support the public in all our operations.
Field Day is coming quickly in 6 weeks. Hopefully your plans are in progress for a chance to exercise your ability to setup and operate in the field. Be sure register your site in the ARRL Field Day listings and to invite your friends and family to the Field Day site to introduce them to amateur radio. The GOTA station can be an opportunity to get new people interested in radio.
District News and Comments:
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. Benton County ARES has transferred the Region A Healthcare Net back to Johnson County ARES.
- Cass Co. – Training and equipment verification in preparation for a n event which included antennas, mobile radios, FLDigi 2M digital, frequency coordination and HF voice and FLDigi familiarization. No EM committee meeting in April. Next Cass County Missouri ARES meeting will be May 13. Email will be sent to all members.
- Clay/Platte Cos.- APRIL 19 Severe Weather and Tornado Outbreak. NL ARES activated in the evening hours as the remnants of the Oklahoma outbreak
approached the Kansas City Metro. Extreme Winds, Heavy Lightning, and large hail reports were provided to Pleasant Hill NWS via NWSChat. Damage to Homes, Trees along with power outages reported. A three hour event before the line of storms had moved out of the area. - APRIL 2023 “MODES” “Missouri Digital Emergency Service” – MODES 3.598 MHz Thursday 10:00 am CST. FOUR sessions QNI 40 QTC 4 18 hours. Additional testing on 7.090 Mhz during Daylight hours provided communications info for future net operations for Primary/Secondary frequencies. ZOOM Mtg concurrently for Technical Discussion. NCS utilizes FSQcall triggers to expedite responses from participating stations.
- Jackson Co. – JCARES EC presented on “Public Service and ARES” to the Raytown Amateur Radio Club on April 27.”
District B – Dale Bagley, K0KY, DEC
- Lots of wind, minimal amount of storms this month
District C – Bill Grimsbo, N0PNP, DEC
- Perry Co – POTA events and Bike Race
- Franklin Co. – Net times moved to 8pm for summer
District D – John Wall K0EAV, DEC
- Health Care Coalition Net, Tour de Crawdad and MS Walk were events held this month in Greene County and staffed by GC ARES Members
District F – J. D. Simmons, WA0BER, DEC
- Audrain county held an antenna building class/workshop. 13 attendees lasting 5 hours.
The following chart is the participation and volunteers hours donated to the Section this month:
Thanks to all for the support and efforts in the ARES program for the Missouri Section.
73,
Jeff KB3HF
Missouri Section Emergency Coordinator