It seems like the season has finally figured out what the correct temperatures should be. Saturday, October 7th was a beautiful day for the official time for the annual Simulated Emergency Test ( SET). St. Charles County ARES held their exercise “Operation Aware”. The purpose of the exercise was to test passing of tactical traffic for a tornado weather event followed by windshield damage assessment reports. The operations were conducted on both the ARES repeater and HVTAC simplex frequencies to test the radio coverage of the county EOC equipment and antennas along with the ARES Go-Kits for working in the field. The exercise lasted 2-1/2 hours followed by a Hot Wash and refreshments at the EOC.
Hopefully our other section ARES groups held or are holding a SET this month. It is a great chance to practice tactical traffic, tactical call signs and how accurate and efficient your directed net skills are under somewhat stressful conditions of an exercise.
District September Comments and Information:
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.
- Cass Co. – Meeting Summary: Emphasis was placed on fldigi for emergency communications, specifically PSK-500. Several Amateurs brought equipment to set up and evaluate. Rod N0SLJ had mobile capability. From his vehicle he sent out PSK-500 signals. Some translating success, however, using Acoustical Interfacing (without use of an electronic interface, i.e.SignaLink), had problems translating PSK-500. Better success with PSK-31. Meeting with Belton Emergency Management Agency (BEMA) to demonstrate FLDIGI 2M FM and the associated equipment. A drone flight was made to examine the BEMA antenna farm on top of fire station #2. The requirements for an MOU between BEMA and CCMOARES was discussed and an MOU was submitted for review by all parties. Feedback was received from all parties and a meeting will be scheduled in October as schedules permit.
- Clay/Platte Cos. – Northland ARES September Meeting. John Britton KD0NBH provided a preview of the upcoming MECC-SET. The event occurs October 7 in the KC Metro area. A detailed program on “Search, Rescue and Crime Scene Preservation” was presented by Deputy O’Neal, PC Sheriff Dept, EMA.
- MODES 3.598 MHz Thursday 10:00 am CDT. FOUR sessions QNI 46 QTC 8 21 hours. Additional testing on 7.085 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.
- Jackson Co. – In-person meeting was held on September 16th for SET training
District C: Bill Grimsbo, N0PNP, DEC
- SET Planning underway in some counties. St. Charles County SET will be 7 October at 1300. Ste. Francois County planning SET for later in the fall. DEC providing some guidance for their SET.
District H:
- Livingston Co. – Meeting discussed public service events, focus on Missouri Days/Trenton next month, and cross-band repeater operation.
The following is the activities and volunteer hours reported by 39 counties and 6 DECs in the Missouri Section for the month of September:
73,
Jeff KB3HF
Missouri SEC