Field Day is now over and I have received notes that many operations were successful and had good public relations. Field Day has always been a great exercise and a chance to Elmer new hams in setting up and operating away from home. In St. Charles County, our ARES group had a number of hams get introduced HF and digital operations. Lot’s of fun.
I wish to note for District D ARES groups that John Wall, K0EAV has resigned the position of DEC for District D. I want to thanks John for his time spent in the DEC position. A replacement for John is in the paperwork mill (ARRL Hqts) and I will notify the district ECs when the position is formally filled.
District News & 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. BC ARES members participated in a Nation wide field day event on Saturday June 24,2023.
Cass Co. – Cass County Missouri ARES performed a 2 meter simplex and repeater communication test on the east portion of Cass County June 10, 2023. Number of volunteers involved in this test: 10
Positive take aways from this exercise:
- The SSARC repeater proved to be essential to this exercise in establishing communication with all assigned locations and stations.
- Simplex communications established between stations.
- EQUIPMENT USED FOR THIS EXERCISE WORKED AS DESIGNED WITHOUT FAILURE.
- The exercise operated with no incidents or disruptions
Lesson learned for future improvements:
- NCS and ANCS need to utilize headsets for clarity and eliminate radio noise.
- Mobil stations need to have appropriate antennas with gain to extend simplex operation.
- Utilization of the alternate repeater on 146.865 +0.600 T=151.4 to reach the distant locations in Cass County. The repeater on 146.865 needs to be compared to the SSARC to establish the best performance.
- Stations need to be trained in providing relay communications between simplex stations they can hear to station not heard by there contacts.
- Maps need to be provided with destinated locations and labels.
- Stations need to be trained in providing formatted reports to enhance accuracy, clarity and consistency.
CLAY/PLATTE Cos. – ARRL FIELD DAY 2023
Platte County ARG – 18th Anniversary for the group since beginning in 2005. Among the participants, sixteen are from the Northland ARES team. Visitors to the event had interesting questions for operators as they visited each of the Digital, CW, and Voice operations. The purpose of “”Field Day”” and Amateur Radio in general provided a better understanding of the hobby. http://www.pcarg.org/
JUNE 2023 “MODES” “Missouri Digital Emergency Service”
MODES 3.598 MHz Thursday 10:00 am CST. FIVE sessions QNI 63 QTC 8 31 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. Additional “MODES” info at https://modes.groups.io/g/main/topics. FLdigi-FSQ or FSQcall for net interaction. New members are welcome. KA0OTL Jeff, Net mgr.”
District D: John Wall, K0EAV, DEC
Greene Co. – This month we resumed the District D 6 Meter Net on Mondays after a long absence; an almost 3 years absence, due to repeater not being available. Greene County also had a bike event for the Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks which is new to us. 16 hams, all ARES members, participated.
Jasper Co. – Soldering PL259’s to RG8x 3rd Thursday
District G: Harold Hoffman, KA0SAB, DEC
We Welcome Wright county into the Group
District I:
Phelps Co. – Joe Council, KO0G, EC. Discussed Phelps County ARES at our monthly club meeting. Asked for a volunteer to take on Phelps ARES E.C. position, but no takers, so I guess I’ll continue for now. Encouraged members to become more familiar with message handling techniques, especially using digital modes.
The following are the activities and volunteer hours reported for the month of June. 43 Counties and 7 DECs reported:
73 and have a safe summer,
Jeff KB3HF
Missouri SEC