ARRL West Texas

What’s Happening – week of April 27, 2012

HowardCollier — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 03:58:59 +0000

Hello Everyone!

Here’s what’s going on in the Ham Radio community in the El Paso and Southern New Mexico area the next couple of weeks.

***** QUICK EVENT SUMMARY *****

- Sunday, April 29 – Mesilla Valley Radio Club Bean Feed – 7 AM – Las Cruces, NM

- Friday, May 4 – K5WPH Business Meeting – 7 PM

- Saturday, May 5 – VE Testing at K5WPH – 9 AM

- Saturday, May 5 – Combined West Gulf and Delta Division Exercise

- Friday, May 11 – W5ES Regular Meeting – 6 PM

- Sunday, May 13 – Mother’s Day

- Saturday, May 19 – K5WPH Bar-B-QUE – 6 PM

- Saturday, May 26 – W5ES Spring Auction – 5:30 PM

- Monday, May 28 – Memorial Day

***** NEWS, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND OTHER STUFF *****

Sounds like a bunch of hams from El Paso are planning to attend the Bean Feed in Las Cruces on Sunday morning (Apr 29). The talk in repeater is the 146.64 (100 Hz PL). The website for more information is http://www.n5bl.org/beanfeed/beanfeed.htm. It starts at 7 AM (beans start around 10 AM), so plan to get there early. Admission (and tailgating) are FREE!

On Friday, April 20, 2012, the Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH) had an enjoyable Program Night. Martin WB5LJO presented a “show and tell” discussion on MSD, the El Paso based manufacturer of after market, high performance ignitions and other items. They had a very good time. Some photos from this meeting are on the “photos” section of the website, http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/photos

There are a couple of great events for the whole family on the horizon – the K5WPH BBQ (Saturday, May 19), the W5ES Spring Auction (Saturday, May 26), and the WTRA Transmitter Hunt (date TBD). Stay tuned for more details.

All operators should memorize the phonetic alphabet and number pronunciation, and be fluent in spelling groups using phonetics. A good time to practice this is during the evening repeater nets. As you have heard, KE5 can sound like KC5 or AE5, and so on. Being off by one letter can really mess things up. With a bit of practice, you will be able to easily spell things out using this phonetic alphabet without thinking twice!

Here is the Phonetic Alphabet word list adopted by the International Telecommunication Union. How many do you have memorized?

A             Alfa
B             Bravo
C             Charlie
D             Delta
E              Echo
F              Foxtrot
G             Golf
H             Hotel
I               India
J              Juliett
K             Kilo
L             Lima
M            Mike
N             November
O             Oscar
P             Papa (PA-PA’)
Q             Quebec (KAY-BEK’)
R             Romeo
S             Sierra
T             Tango
U             Uniform
V             Victor
W            Wiskey
X             X-ray
Y             Yankee
Z             Zulu
1 One
2 Two
3 Three (Tree)
4 Four
5 Five (Fife)
6 Six
7 Seven
8 Eight
9 Nine (Niner)
0 Zero

If you have anything appropriate for this section, please send it to me.

***** DETAILED EVENT SCHEDULE *****

Sunday, April 29 – Mesilla Valley Radio Club 2012 Bean Feed – MVRC Club House 6609 Jefferson Las Cruces NM – Admission is free – including tailgating. The Beanfeed this year is back to its historical time, the last Sunday in April, this year April 29. As usual it will feature tail gate sales, commercial vendors, beans, and beans. The location is the N5BL club house at the corner of Wilt and Jefferson off the Porter Road exit of US 70 east of Las Cruces. A map and other information is available from the BeanFeed website, http://www.n5bl.org/beanfeed/beanfeed.htm. Tailgating is on the clubhouse grounds. Come early if you want a place. People will be arriving before 7:00 AM. Parking is on the lot across Wilt. The club is borrowing the use of the lot so treat it as your own. The details of the program are still being worked out but will be similar to last year. No admission or tailgating fees will be charged. There will be lots of goodies for sale, and lots of beans served from about 10:00 AM for about $5.00. There will also be drinks for sale all during the day, and of course lots of rag chewing. Long before 1:00 PM most of the goodies and people will have left.

Monday, Apr 30 – Monday evening is the WTRA Round Table and Swapnet. Start time is 8 PM. The net meets on the 146.88 solar powered repeater on North Mt. Franklin (El Paso). All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments. NCS this evening is Brad KA5CDJ.

Tuesday, May 1 – 10-10 Net – 8 PM around 28.445 MHz.

Wednesday, May 2 – Wednesday evening is the El Paso D-Star Repeater Net. Start time is 7:15 PM. The net meets on the W5ELP (East El Paso) 145.110 D-Star Repeater (port C). All with D-STAR capability are welcome to participate.

Thursday, May 3- Thursday evening is the Multiplex Net, sponsored by the Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH). Start time is 8 PM. The net meets on the Amigo Link. All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments.

Friday, May 4 – WX5ELP Skywarn Net – starts at 9:30 AM on the Amigo Link: 146.700, 147.240, 147.280, 444.200, 442.825, 442.950, and 443.400 repeaters in El Paso, the 145.230 repeater (near Cloudcroft, NM), and the 448.500 repeater (Caballo Mountain). All amateurs are welcome to check in.

Friday, May 4 – Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH) Business Meeting – 7 PM – 3709 Wickham Ave., El Paso, Texas.

Saturday, May 5 – VE Testing at K5WPH – The Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH) holds VE test sessions usually on the first or second Saturday of January, March, May, July, September, and November. The K5WPH Clubhouse is located at 3709 Wickham Ave, El Paso, Texas. Testing will begin at approximately 9 AM, so applicants should arrive 15 minutes early to fill out forms prior to testing. The clubhouse doors will NOT be locked at any time during the testing. Any person arriving after testing begins MAY be allowed to test, depending upon their arrival time. The cost of the test is $15.00 for year 2012. Each applicant will need to bring a photo ID or two non-photo IDs. Licensed applicants must also bring the original and a copy of their license. Walk-ins are welcome.

Saturday, May 5 – Combined West Gulf and Delta Division Exercise (from Bill Roberts W5NPR, West Texas Section Manager) – The Combined West Gulf and Delta Division Exercise is scheduled for Saturday May 5th. The exercise will go from 8:00AM to 2:00PM and we are hoping for a great turnout from the West Texas Section. This exercise will feature digital communications, but will also utilize SSB for any operators or areas where digital modes are not available. Traffic handling skills will be a great benefit to the exercise. If you are unable to pass traffic digitally, please make an effort to coordinate with someone so SSB traffic can be sent and converted into digital modes. For information on setting up operating procedures for your area, please request help by emailing Howard Collier WB5EBW, West Section Emergency Coordinator, at wb5ekw@arrl.net. Please do all you can to make this exercise a successful event. With the possibility of another difficult fire season approaching, this exercise will be valuable training for any emergency.

Monday, May 7- Monday evening is the WTRA Round Table and Swapnet. Start time is 8 PM. The net this evening meets on the Amigo Link. All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments. NCS this evening is Martin WB5LJO.

Tuesday, May 8 – 10-10 Net – 8 PM around 28.445 MHz.

Wednesday, May 9 – Wednesday evening is the El Paso D-Star Repeater Net. Start time is 7:15 PM. The net meets on the W5ELP (East El Paso) 145.110 D-Star Repeater (port C). All with D-STAR capability are welcome to participate.

Thursday, May 10 – Thursday evening is the Multiplex Net, sponsored by the Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH). Start time is 8 PM. The net meets on the Amigo Link. All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments.

Friday, May 11 – El Paso Amateur Radio Club (W5ES) Regular Meeting – 6 PM.

Saturday, May 12 – No Host Amateur Breakfast – 8 AM at the Tejas Cafe, 9757 Dyer St, El Paso, TX.

Sunday, May 13 – Mother’s Day

Friday, May 18 – Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH) Program Night – 7 PM – 3709 Wickham Ave., El Paso, Texas.

Saturday, May 19 – K5WPH Bar-B-QUE – 6 PM at the Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH), 3709 Wickham Ave., El Paso, Texas.

Saturday, May 26 – El Paso Amateur Radio Club (W5ES) Spring Auction – Clubhouse opens at 3:30, Kitchen opens and 4:30, and the auction beings at 5:30 PM. The W5ES Clubhouse is located at 2100 San Diego Ave, El Paso, TX, 79930

Monday, May 28 – Memorial Day

Coming soon – the WTRA “Fox Hunt” – stay tuned for more details. Will probably be sometime in May.

***** UPCOMING AREA HAMFESTS *****

Sunday, April 29 – Mesilla Valley Radio Club 2012 Bean Feed – MVRC Club House 6609 Jefferson Las Cruces NM (more details above in the 29 April events list)

***** BUY / SELL / TRADE *****

No listings this week.

If you have any ham radio related gear, send me the info and I’ll list it here.

***** INFORMATION LINKS *****

A list of area clubs and other ham radio related links can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/links

A list of area repeater nets can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/area-nets

A list of area HF nets can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/hf-nets

El Paso Ham Radio phone line – information on Ham Radio in El Paso – (915) 239-5128

The “Amigo Link” repeater system is comprised of the following area repeaters: 146.700, 147.240, 147.280, 444.200, 442.825, 442.950, and 443.400 repeaters in El Paso, the 145.230 repeater (near Cloudcroft, NM), and the 448.500 repeater (Caballo Mountain). This is an open system.

***** OTHER INFORMATION *****

This e-mail will generally be sent out weekly, sometime during the weekend, and will try to cover events for the next 2-3 weeks (yes, I know many of you only check your e-mail once or twice a week). Other e-mail special announcements may be sent out in-between the weekly announcements if deemed necessary (for corrections, silent key notifications, anything that needs to go out right away, etc.)

If you would like to be added to or removed from this e-mail distribution, either reply to this e-mail or send an e-mail to ka5trq@elp.rr.com requesting to be added or deleted. Your e-mail address will be kept private. Please feel free to forward this e-mail newsletter to any hams you know so they can also subscribe.

If you have any events, meetings, announcements, news, or any other information you would like to be sent out in this e-mail distribution, please send it to ka5trq@elp.rr.com. Depending on the type of information, it may also be added to the http://www.hamradioelpaso.com website.

Comments, feedback, submissions, corrections, and updates are welcome. All of this is intended to promote and benefit Ham Radio in the area and to inform as many people as possible about what is going on in the local ham community.

John
KA5TRQ

Ham Radio News – Week of 25 March 2012

HowardCollier — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 02:33:27 +0000

Hello Everyone!

Here’s what’s going on in the Ham Radio community in the El Paso and Southern New Mexico area the next couple of weeks.

***** QUICK EVENT SUMMARY *****

- Friday, March 30 – K5WPH “5th Friday” – 7 PM

- Sunday, April 1 – W5ES Palm Sunday Breakfast – 7 to 11 AM

- Tuesday, April 3 – WTRA meeting – 7 PM at the W5ES clubhouse

- Friday, April 6 – K5WPH Business Meeting – 7 PM

- Saturday, April 7 – North-Easter Parade – 8 AM – Diana Street

- Saturday, April 7 – VE testing at W5ES – 9 AM

- Friday, April 13 – W5ES Regular Meeting – 8 PM

- Saturday, April 29 – Mesilla Valley Radio Club Bean Feed (Las Cruces)

***** NEWS, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND OTHER STUFF *****

Howard Collier, WB5EKW, is the ARRL Section Emergency Coordinator for West Texas. He wants to remind everyone of the ARRL West Texas website (http://arrlwtx.org). This site is designed to distribute information for the West Texas ARRL members and provides a place for section members to have conversation. He is inviting hams in the area to submit articles and other information to: wb5ekw@arrl.net
The repeater listing on the website (http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/repeaters1) has bee updated with more information on the repeaters in the Las Cruces area (thanks to Dave Hassall WA5DJJ). Las Cruces has a D-Star repeater, a repeater with Echolink, and several other repeaters, all which are open. You may want to download and print the updated list so you’ll have it handy when you head up to the Mesilla Valley Radio Club “Bean Feed” on Sunday, April 29.

Do you need to brush up on your math, physics, or history skills? Or do you have a “hamster” (that is what the small children of hams are called) who is struggling with their math homework? If so, you may want to get some free training from the Khan Academy. They have a library of over 3,000 videos covering arithmetic, physics, finance, and history. You can learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace. This is one of the hottest new trends in training, and the price is right! The Khan Academy website is http://www.khanacademy.org/

Don’t forget that the world will end on December 21, 2012 (this is the end-date of a 5,125 year long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar). If you are concerned about this and need to prepare, tune your HF radio to 0000 KHz at 9 PM on April 1st and listen for further instructions.

If you have anything appropriate for this section, please send it to me.

***** DETAILED EVENT SCHEDULE *****

Monday, Mar 26 – Monday evening is the WTRA Round Table and Swapnet. Start time is 8 PM. The net this evening meets on the Amigo Link. All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments. NCS this evening is Tony W5AAM.

Tuesday, Mar 27 – 10-10 Net – 8 PM around 28.445 MHz.

Wednesday, Mar 28 – Wednesday evening is the El Paso D-Star Repeater Net. Start time is 7:15 PM. The net meets on the W5ELP (East El Paso) 145.110 D-Star Repeater (port C). All with D-STAR capability are welcome to participate.

Thursday, Mar 29 – Thursday evening is the Multiplex Net, sponsored by the Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH). Start time is 8 PM. The net meets on the Amigo Link. All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments

Friday, March 30 – Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH) “5th Friday” Night - 7 PM – Details to be provided – 3709 Wickham Ave., El Paso, Texas.

Sunday, April 1 – W5ES Palm Sunday Breakfast – 7 AM to 11 AM (El Paso Amateur Radio Club, 2100 San Diego Ave El Paso, TX) – Waffles, breakfast burritos, sausage, bacon and scrambled eggs with orange juice and coffee – $5

Monday, Apr 2 – Monday evening is the WTRA Round Table and Swapnet. Start time is 8 PM. The net meets on the 146.88 solar powered repeater on North Mt. Franklin (El Paso). All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments. NCS this evening is TBA.

Tuesday, April 3 – WTRA meeting for the 2nd quarter of 2012 – 7 PM at the El Paso Amateur Radio clubhouse (W5ES), 2100 San Diego Ave El Paso, TX.

Tuesday, April 3 – 10-10 Net – 8 PM around 28.445 MHz.

Wednesday, April 4 – Wednesday evening is the El Paso D-Star Repeater Net. Start time is 7:15 PM. The net meets on the W5ELP (East El Paso) 145.110 D-Star Repeater (port C). All with D-STAR capability are welcome to participate.

Thursday, April 5 – Thursday evening is the Multiplex Net, sponsored by the Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH). Start time is 8 PM. The net meets on the Amigo Link. All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments.

Friday, April 6 – WX5ELP Skywarn Net – starts at 9:30 AM on the Amigo Link: 146.700, 147.240, 147.280, 444.200, 442.825, 442.950, and 443.400 repeaters in El Paso, the 145.230 repeater (near Cloudcroft, NM), and the 448.500 repeater (Caballo Mountain). All amateurs are welcome to check in.

Friday, April 6 – Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH) Business Meeting – 7 PM – 3709 Wickham Ave., El Paso, Texas.

Saturday, April 7 – North-Easter Parade - the ham radio operators will again be providing communications for this Parade, which travels down Diana. Parade starts at 10 AM, and hams should be there around 8 AM. Repeaters used will be the 147.32 MHz (162.2 PL) and the 442.55 MHz (100 Hz PL), which will be linked. More information will be provided on the Monday and Thursday evening nets, as well as at the K5WPH meeting on Friday evening.

Saturday, April 7 – VE testing at W5ES – The El Paso Amateur Radio Club (W5ES) holds test sessions at 9:00 AM on the first Saturday of every even month (February, April, June, August, October and December). Sessions are held at the W5ES clubhouse, located at 2100 San Diego (at the corner of Cotton and San Diego streets). Walk-ins are not only welcome but encouraged. Bring photo ID, copies of any CSCE’s, your license and a copy of your license.
WE MUST SEND IN A COPY OF YOUR LICENSE!!!
For more information please call Clay, K5TRW @ (915) 859-5502

Monday, April 9 – Monday evening is the WTRA Round Table and Swapnet. Start time is 8 PM. The net this evening meets on the Amigo Link. All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments. NCS this evening is ???.

Tuesday, April 10 – 10-10 Net – 8 PM around 28.445 MHz.

Wednesday, April 11 – Wednesday evening is the El Paso D-Star Repeater Net. Start time is 7:15 PM. The net meets on the W5ELP (East El Paso) 145.110 D-Star Repeater (port C). All with D-STAR capability are welcome to participate.

Thursday, April 12 – Thursday evening is the Multiplex Net, sponsored by the Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH). Start time is 8 PM. The net meets on the Amigo Link. All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments.

Friday, April 13 – El Paso Amateur Radio Club (W5ES) Regular Meeting – 8 PM at the W5ES Clubhouse, 2100 San Diego Ave, El Paso, TX.

Saturday, April 14 – No Host Amateur Breakfast - 8 AM at the Tejas Cafe, 9757 Dyer St, El Paso, TX.

Sunday, April 29 – Mesilla Valley Radio Club 2012 Bean Feed – MVRC Club House 6609 Jefferson Las Cruces NM – Admission is free – including tailgating. The Bean Feed is one of the major activities of the club. It is usually held on the last Sunday of April. It is the usual hamfest featuring tailgating and a feed of beans near noon. The MVRC Clubhouse is located at the intersection of Wilt and Jefferson in Hacienda Heights. This is east of Las Cruces. Take the Porter exit on US 70. It is about 5 miles from the I 25 interchange, near the firehouse. Almost immediately south of the south frontage road on the south side of US 70, turn left toward the mountains on Cortez until you come to Wilt. Turn right. There is a jog in the road, but at 0.35 miles you should come to Jefferson. Look for the tower and beam. Parking is across the street. Tailgating is in the club parking lot. Talk in frequency is the 146.640 (100 Hz PL). 7:00 AM Set up and selling (in the parking lot), 10:30 AM Food is served (in the dining room), 1:00 PM VE Session (In the dining room) ($14.00 cash and photo I.D. issued by a government agency)

Coming soon – the WTRA “Fox Hunt” - stay tuned for more details. Date to be announced.

***** UPCOMING AREA HAMFESTS *****

None at this time

***** BUY / SELL / TRADE *****

No listings this week.

If you have any ham radio gear that you are interested in selling, buying, or trading, send me an e-mail with the appropriate information (make/model, condition, accessories, asking price, etc), and a means for people to contact you. Remember that this e-mail is going out to at least 80+ hams in the area, (and could be forwarded to anyone), so only provide the information you are comfortable with (phone number and/or e-mail address). It will be posted right here in this section one time only, and I’ll try to put it in the next weekly e-mail newsletter. This will be for ham radio gear only please.

***** INFORMATION LINKS *****

A list of area clubs and other ham radio related links can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/links

A list of area repeater nets can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/area-nets

A list of area HF nets can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/hf-nets

El Paso Ham Radio phone line – information on Ham Radio in El Paso – (915) 239-5128

The “Amigo Link” repeater system is comprised of the following area repeaters: 146.700, 147.240, 147.280, 444.200, 442.825, 442.950, and 443.400 repeaters in El Paso, the 145.230 repeater (near Cloudcroft, NM), and the 448.500 repeater (Caballo Mountain). This is an open system.

***** OTHER INFORMATION *****

John
KA5TRQ

HAM Radio News – Week of March 18, 2012

HowardCollier — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 03:47:08 +0000

Hello Everyone!

Here’s what’s going on in the Ham Radio community in the El Paso and Southern New Mexico area the next couple of weeks.

***** QUICK EVENT SUMMARY *****

- Friday, March 23 – W5ES Tech Night & Potluck supper – 6 PM

- Friday, March 23 – Sun City Astronomers Meeting – El Paso ISD Planetarium – 8:15 PM

- Friday, March 30 – K5WPH “5th Friday” – 7 PM

- Sunday, April 1 – W5ES Palm Sunday Breakfast – 7 to 11 AM

- Tuesday, April 3 – WTRA meeting – 7 PM at the W5EW clubhouse

- Saturday, April 7 – North-Easter Parade – 8 AM – Diana Street

- Saturday, April 7 – VE testing at W5ES – 9 AM

- Saturday, April 29 – Mesilla Valley Radio Club Bean Feed (Las Cruces)

***** NEWS, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND OTHER STUFF *****

Lew Maxwell, KB5HPT, the ARRL Emergency Coordinator for El Paso County, has posted a new “Emergency Coordinator’s Bulletin” on the website. This article is on the High Speed Multimedia – MESH (HSMM – MESH) nodes that were set up at the recent Susan G Komen Race for the Cure. You can read this article at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/emergency-coordination

On Friday, March 23rd, the Sun City Astronomers will be having their monthly meeting at the planetarium located at El Paso ISD. The meeting will be held at 8:15 PM. The meeting is held after the public program which begins at 7:00 p.m. Anyone is welcome to attend the public program. You might want to get there early enough, say 6:15 PM to get a ticket for the public program. There are ham radio operators who attend the planetarium meetings. The meeting is open to the public. Come and see the new projector system which they purchased from DOD grant money given to El Paso ISD. Come see the wonders of the other side of the Electromagnetic Spectrum -visible light. (Contributed by Albert KB5GZZ)

Don’t forget about the West Texas Repeater Association (WTRA) meeting for the second quarter of 2012. It will be held on Tuesday, April 3, at 7 PM at the El Paso Amateur Radio (W5ES) Clubhouse. This meeting is open to everyone. Please try to attend if you can.

If you have anything appropriate for this section, please send it to me.

***** DETAILED EVENT SCHEDULE *****

Monday, March 19 – Monday evening is the WTRA Round Table and Swapnet. Start time is 8 PM. The net meets on the 146.88 solar powered repeater on North Mt. Franklin (El Paso). All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments. NCS this evening is Martin WB5LJO.

Tuesday, March 20 – 10-10 Net – 8 PM around 28.445 MHz.

Wednesday, March 21 – Wednesday evening is the El Paso D-Star Repeater Net. Start time is 7:15 PM. The net meets on the W5ELP (East El Paso) 145.110 D-Star Repeater (port C). All with D-STAR capability are welcome to participate.

Thursday, March 22 – Thursday evening is the Multiplex Net, sponsored by the Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH). Start time is 8 PM. The net meets on the Amigo Link. All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments.

Friday, March 23 – W5ES Tech Night – Potluck Supper – 6 PM – it’s Lent; surprise us with non-meat specialty dishes or fish. Program: discuss our QSLs and how to make your own.

Monday, Mar 26 – Monday evening is the WTRA Round Table and Swapnet. Start time is 8 PM. The net this evening meets on the Amigo Link. All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments. NCS this evening is Tony W5AAM.

Tuesday, Mar 27 – 10-10 Net – 8 PM around 28.445 MHz.

Friday, March 30 – Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH) “5th Friday” Night – 7 PM – Details to be provided – 3709 Wickham Ave., El Paso, Texas.

Tuesday, April 3 – WTRA meeting for the 2nd quarter of 2012 – 7 PM at the El Paso Amateur Radio clubhouse (W5ES), 2100 San Diego Ave El Paso, TX.

Tuesday, April 3 – 10-10 Net – 8 PM around 28.445 MHz.

Thursday, April 5 – Thursday evening is the Multiplex Net, sponsored by the Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH). Start time is 8 PM. The net meets on the Amigo Link. All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments.

Friday, April 6 – Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH) Business Meeting – 7 PM – 3709 Wickham Ave., El Paso, Texas.

Saturday, April 7 – North-Easter Parade – the ham radio operators will again be providing communications for this Parade, which travels down Diana. Parade starts at 10 AM, and hams should be there around 8 AM. Repeaters used will be the 147.32 MHz (162.2 PL) and the 442.55 MHz (100 Hz PL), which will be linked.

Saturday, April 7 – VE testing at W5ES – The El Paso Amateur Radio Club (W5ES) holds test sessions at 9:00 AM on the first Saturday of every even month (February, April, June, August, October and December) Sessions are held at the W5ES clubhouse, located at 2100 San Diego (at the corner of Cotton and San Diego streets). Walk-ins are not only welcome but encouraged. Bring photo ID, copies of any CSCE’s, your license and a copy of your license. WE MUST SEND IN A COPY OF YOUR LICENSE!!! For more information please call Clay, K5TRW @ (915) 859-5502

Coming soon – the WTRA “Fox Hunt” – stay tuned for more details. Date to be announced.

***** UPCOMING AREA HAMFESTS *****

None at this time

***** BUY / SELL / TRADE *****

No listings this week.

***** INFORMATION LINKS *****

A list of area clubs and other ham radio related links can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/links

A list of area repeater nets can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/area-nets

A list of area HF nets can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/hf-nets

El Paso Ham Radio phone line – information on Ham Radio in El Paso – (915) 239-5128

***** OTHER INFORMATION *****

John
KA5TRQ

Section Emergency Coordinator’s Report February 2012

HowardCollier — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 03:45:01 +0000

Monthly Section Emergency Coordinator Report to ARRL Headquarters

ARRL Section: West Texas Month: February Year: 2012

AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE

Total # of ARES members: 322 Change since last month: 0

DEC’s/EC’s and Net reporting this month: 17

ARES nets active: 11

ARES nets with NTS liaison: 4

Calls of DEC’s/EC’s reporting:

W5NPR WA5ROE WA5NBP N5SQK KJ5DX WT5C KE5UAL KE5GRQ K5DWS KD5KBU WB8LBZ AF5S KB5HGM KC5NOX KB5HPT KC5NHV NL7C

Number of drills, tests and training sessions this month: 10 Man Hours: 33

Number of public service events this month: 2 Man hours: 30

Number of emergency operations this month: 0 Man hours: 0

Total number of ARES operations this month: 12 Total Man hours: 63

SEC Comments:

The semi-annual combined Texas ARES Communications Exercise is scheduled for May 4^th and May 5^th. This event will include all of the West Gulf and Delta Divisions. This test will feature “RF ONLY” no Internet communications allowed. ALL EC’s and DEC’s are expected to participate in this event. This exercise will test our ARES group’s ability to pull together and send and receive ICS-213 formatted messages, digitally. More information is shown below. Expect more direct e-mail information to be shared with all staff members.

Keep yourself prepared for those emcomm situations, it would be a good idea to check

through your Go-Kits: Charge batteries, check the radios, chargers, coax lines, portable

antennas, ARES procedure booklets, frequency charts, phone contact lists printed out.

Having an up to date phone list kept in your glove compartment sure is a good thing to have.

Signature: Howard Collier Call sign: WB5EKW

Title: West Texas Section Emergency Coordinator

____________________________________________________________

BIG BEND EMERGENCY NET

Every Sunday Morning at 08:30 Central time on 3922 Khz.

Net Control Station is hosted by Bob Ward, WA5ROE in Alpine.

February check ins = 190 Total time = 120 Minutes ( 2 hours )

_____________________________________________________________

Big Bend Wednesday Night 2-Meter Net (February)

VHF 146.62, 146.72, 146.82, 146.92, 147.02

November Checkins: 67

Total Time: 125 minutes (2 hours, 5 minutes)

Traffic Report (February)

National Traffic System

Region 5 Cycle 2

KM5VM Session 1-15 Checkins; Session 2-11 Checkins

W5NPR Session 1-16 Checkins; Session 2-16 Checkins

Traffic Delivered

KM5VM- Midland 2

W5NPR Fort Davis-1

Marfa-1

Seminole-1

Slidell, LA-1

San Angelo-1

El Paso-2

Booker-1

Other Net Participation KM5VM & W5NPR

Big Bend Emergency Net

KM5VM-4 Checkins

W5NPR-3 Checkins

Big Bend 2-Meter Net

KM5VM-4 Checkins

W5NPR-3 Checkins

Texas Traffic Net

W5NPR-2 Checkins

Texas ARES Net

W5NPR-3 Checkins

7290 Traffic Net

W5NPR-7 Checkins

K5PSA Hospital Net

KM5VM 1-Checkin

W5NPR-1 Checkin

Bill Roberts W5NPR

WTX Section Manager/WTX Traffic Manager

____________________________________________________________

Greetings,

Here is the summary of net activity for the El Paso area
for the month of February 2012.

WTRA (K5ELP) Monday Night net
4 sessions 79 check ins

10-X Ten-Ten International net on 28.445 MHz Tuesday Night
4 sessions 60 check ins

El Paso (W5ELP) D-Star Net on Wednesday Night
5 sessions 33 check ins

SCARC (K5WPH) Thursday Night net
4 sessions 74 check ins

El Paso County (WX5ELP) Skywarn Friday bi-monthly net
2 Sessions 28 check ins

QCWA Chap 64 (W5RO) Saturday Morning net
4 sessions 35 check ins

Thanks to all that relayed check in information to me for this report.

73, Larry WB8LBZ

_____________________________________________________________

ARES Communications Exercise to include the West Texas Section – 89 Counties:

May 5^th Texas Combined ARES Exercise Version 1.0 March 6, 2012

Exercise Name: Communications Drill: Spring FIELD DAY 2012

Exercise Description: Begins May 4, 2012

Spring Field Day 2012 is a semi-annual Texas statewide communications

drill to establish communications inter operability between all Amateur Radio organizations (MARS, ARES and RACES) that support the Communications Coordination Group during emergencies . Participants are encourages to operate under emergency conditions using portable antennas and back-up power systems. EOCs can be staffed or simulated by individual stations. This drill will operate under a no internet, radio only

environment.

Schedule: May 5^th 8AM to 2PM. Traffic objectives may be started at 6PM May 4^th.

Goal: Exercise ARES readiness of agency installations, ARES Mutual Aid Teams and other ARES stations in partnership with Texas ARMY MARS and RACES organizations in an RF only exercise.

Scenario:

A large solar storm has occurred resulting in wide spread power outages and a failure of the Internet and cellular networks. Two days have passed from the solar storm allowing for restored HF conditions but RF only conditions persist. Providing situational awareness to the state operation center from all areas is critical.

Digital Strategy:

With the Internet outage, digital communications becomes considerably more complicated. Regional “hubs” running RMS Packet with RMS Relay will be useful for exchanging Winlink email within the regional hub area. (See: Appendix A.) (Note: Make sure to set RMS Relay to “Simulate Internet failure” or otherwise disconnect the Internet for the exercise.)

Provisions must be made to route mail that must go beyond this regional hub.

Normally, RMS PACTOR HF stations are NEVER run with RMS Relay to prevent mail from being stranded at a station when others are available. For this exercise, the N5TW Winlink station (including RMS PACTOR) will be setup and run using RMS Relay and this station will act as a central hub for all of Texas. It is anticipated that two HF RMS PACTOR stations will be run to increase the effective HF bandwidth which will be critical. The three N5TW RMS Packet stations will be used by the SOC and other local stations to preserve HF Bandwidth for stations outside the area.

Regional RMS Packet hubs equipped with PACTOR III TNCs will be able to connect with N5TW’s RMS PACTOR station(s) to automatically route outside traffic in and out. This is normally the most effective approach but may require too much bandwidth in this RF only exercise where we are constrained with only one server. Forwarding only outside traffic manually is preferred if there is considerable local only traffic.

A second alternative for handling traffic outside the local hub is to establish local liaison stations with PACTOR capability that can be used to forward traffic to N5TW. We would ask that any such stations poll N5TW for replies very sparingly to preserve the limited bandwidth.

A third alternative for handling traffic outside the local hub is to establish local liaison stations with WINMOR (Winlink HF sound card mode) capability that can be used to forward traffic to a WINMOR equipped station in central Texas. Stations would list traffic on the HF exercise voice net and be sent off to a suitable digital frequency to pass point to point WINMOR traffic. The central Texas station would forward the message via VHF RMS Packet to not use HF bandwidth. These stations will periodically check for reply traffic and will list this traffic on the HF Exercise voice net. We will insure that multiple WINMOR equipped central Texas stations participate in the exercise.

Alternatives 1-3 are detailed in Appendix B.

A forth alternative for handling traffic outside the local hub is to team with a MARS portable station. MARS stations will be able to pass traffic directly to the MARS station at the SOC, to a MARS central Texas liaison station capable of sending the traffic to N5TW via RMS Packet or to the N5TW RMS PACTOR stations directly using their amateur call.

A fifth way to handle traffic is to use voice to pass traffic to a liaison station with digital capability. This is a slow, error prone alternative that should be used only as a last resort. See appendix D for formatting.

Objectives:

The following are the state wide exercise objectives.

ECs are encouraged to bring up a local net per their plan and to activate or simulate activation of local agencies where activation is not possible. Individual member participation should be encouraged. Exercising county Communications Response Teams with simulated local deployments is also encouraged. (Consider deploying these teams to areas needing assistance with digital communications outside your area.) Establishing liaisons to other participating areas and organizations is also encouraged.

Each county is to send an ICS-213 form with simulated situational awareness to the State Operation Center (SOC) via their DDC if their DDC is participating and able to send digital traffic without the Internet. If the DDC is not able to handle the traffic, it should be sent to the SOC directly. The SOC will be using KF5EGJ@winlink.org for amateur sent Winlink traffic. Each county must receive a reply back from the SOC during the exercise to meet this objective. Please copy your SEC on all traffic. It is not expected that the SEC will receive this traffic during the exercise. SEC email addresses:

North Texas: KE5SOO@Winlink.org

South Texas: N5TW-1@Winlink.org

West Texas: WB5EKW@Winlink.org

This traffic may be sent beginning at 6PM May 4^th.

Coordinate with other ECs, DECs and MARS members to insure digital communications at the local and HF level as outlined in the digital strategy. Areas needing MARS or other outside assistance for digital communications should make those requests known to their DEC. Any assistance requirements for outside the district assistance should be communicated by the DECs to the SEC as called for in the Section Emergency Communications Plan. For this exercise, these requests should be coordinated well in advance of the exercise.

Each county is asked to establish an HF liaison expected to check in and monitor the Texas HF Exercise net and handle any expected traffic.

HF Voice operations:

The Texas Exercise net will operate on 7285 KHz from 8AM to 2PM. Unlike other recent exercises, we will limit check-ins and not ask for the lengthy check in information to allow for the significant exercise related traffic anticipated. Check-ins will be taken for liaison stations and stations wishing to list digital traffic. Suggested procedures for handling digital traffic are described in Appendix A.

Saltgrass and Armadillo Intertie networks

The Saltgrass and Armadillo Intertie networks are being made available for this exercise as it is in actual emergencies and will be operating in an RF only configuration. (All Internet linkages will be disabled.) A net control for these networks will be established and local groups with access to these are encouraged to establish liaisons with this net.

After Action Reports

Each EC for participating groups will be expected to submit an after action report. Reports should contain the following information:

Name of county participating
Number of participants
Agencies participating
Were you able to submit an ICS-213 to the SOC?
SOC ICS-213 reply received?
HF Exercise net liaison established?
Liaison to Saltgrass or Armadillo networks established? (N/A if no local coverage in your area.)
Summary of local operation
What went well?
What did not go well?
Lessons learned
Suggestions for future exercises

Safety:

Safety will be the prime objective in this exercise. Deploying members should exercise special care in erecting antennas especially in areaswith exposure to the public. Exercise caution with generators including proper grounding, fuel storage and fire safety.

Notes:

ICS-213 Forms should be edited and saved in a format to minimize size to improve transmission speed. Editing with Wordpad and saving in RTF (Rich Text Format) results in a file around 4KB versus 50KB for Word. Simple plain text versions of ICS-213s are especially efficient and acceptable. Keeping these forms small is CRITICAL to the success of this exercise!

Appendix A: West Texas RF Only Digital Message Operating Procedure

PURPOSE: Facilitate maximum effective use of limited bandwidth during periods of operation where the Internet is unavailable and all links are by amateur radio RF pathways only.

REQUIREMENTS: This is a system level document. Individual hardware and software requirements vary based on the specific application within the overall system.

PROCESS REQUIREMENTS: Locations where significant local traffic is expected should develop an appropriate VHF/UHF packet radio capability and utilize a dedicated location operating with RMS Relay to provide local hubbing of email traffic. Additionally, there should be one or more stations equipped with both packet and HF Pactor III capability for long haul connections to other similarly equipped hubbing locations.

TERMS:

Relay point – a station running the combination of RMS Pactor, RMS Relay, and RMS Packet for purposes of acting as an email server in the absence of an Internet connection.

Designated HF Relay Station – a station that can send and receive email traffic via HF radio. Pactor II is a minimum requirement for this station and it is strongly desired that this be a Pactor III equipped station. If external traffic is relatively light, a WINMOR filing station may be used instead.

WINMOR filing station – a station that can send and receive WINMOR (sound card) messages on HF radio and also contact a relay point via VHF packet for purposes of re-filing a peer to peer message received on HF with the relay point.

APPLICATION SCENARIOS:

Down Range Deployment. This is a Type I Mutual Assistance Team and will have local hubbing capability for a VHF/UHF RMS Packet node running RMS Relay. It is expected to have minimal local traffic and will need to make regular connections via HF Pactor to the Relay Point to process message traffic in both directions. Generally traffic management is not required unless there is a large amount of local traffic on the VHF/UHF connection.
Local EOC Deployment. This is in a larger area with perhaps several stations processing local email via VHF/UHF. A Type I Mutual Assistance Team is preferred due to the increased bandwidth with Pactor, but may be served by a Type II Team if there is relatively little traffic into and out of the area. There should be a Designated HF Relay station here.
DDC Support Deployment. This is similar to the Local EOC Deployment except it is within VHF/UHF range of the DDC and can establish a link with them via the local RMS Packet node. The amount of HF traffic sent through the Designated HF Relay Station will depend on the link available between the DDC and the SOC. It will be higher if the DDC does not have a direct link, possibly substantially higher.

PROCESS SUMMARY:

Setup a hubbing location running RMS Relay with RMS Packet to allow local users access to email processing. Email must be restricted to other users who can access the same RMS Packet node in order to interchange local emails. This can link local EOCs, hospitals, shelters, etc. with email capability.
Make sure that users understand that ONLY local email addresses are useful.
Designate one or more stations equipped with HF capability (preferably Pactor III) as a Designated HF Relay Station to send and receive out of area email.
All local email with an out of area recipient must be sent explicitly to the Designated HF Relay Station to forward such traffic.
All replies are routed by the Designated HF Relay Station back to the originator via RMS Packet.
Local stations operate Winlink normally through the hubbing RMS Packet station.
Out of area traffic is processed by the Designated HF Relay Station.
For areas with light out of area traffic requirements, or if there is no alternative, a WINMOR Filing Station may be used instead of the Designated HF Relay Station.

PROCESS DETAIL:

This process applies only in the event of an Internet outage over a wide area where the normal use of Winlink is not possible.
With the RF Only scenario described here, bandwidth will be at a premium at the Relay Point. It is essential that the local group develop email management processes that restrict the use of local email from being sent out of the area.
A local station (preferably one that can run more than one VHF/UHF channel) is designated to run RMS Relay. This provides a local hubbing capability for all stations that can connect with it. If bandwidth is an issue, limit or eliminate digipeating into the station or consider adding more frequencies to increase the number of available channels.
For efficient channel use, out of area traffic going to and from the Relay Point should be channeled through a minimum number of stations. Email should be pruned to the smallest possible size and formal documents kept to a minimum where plain text will suffice.
Local traffic designated to an out of area recipient will be sent to the Designated HF Relay Station. See the South Texas HF Relay Operating Procedure for suggestions on how to create the messages.
The Designated HF Relay Station will create a new email to be sent to the Relay Point for processing.
That station will also retrieve any incoming messages. These messages will be then forwarded to the appropriate local user via RMS Packet email.

_____________________________________________________________

Monthly EC Report

Jurisdiction: El Paso, County Month: February Year: 2012

AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE®

Total # of ARES members: 5 Change since last month: 0

Local Net Name: El Paso County ARES: Man hours:

NTS liaison in El Paso, County: 0

Number of drills, tests and training sessions this month: Man hours:

Number of public service events this month: 1 Man hours: 25

Number of emergency operations this month: Man hours:

Total number of ARES operations this month: 1 Total Man hours: 25

Comments: This month we participated in the El Paso Affiliate Susan G Coman Race for the Cure. We set up HSMM-MESH nodes to provide the race officials video coverage for the 5K Walk/Run Event. In cooperation with the local HSMM-MESH Special Interest Group we had eleven nodes, nine camera equipped nodes on the course, one node at the Radio Communications Center and one node on a flood control dike to provide a redundant path for the farthest nodes on the course.

The node and computer in the Radio Communication Center was running IPView Pro camera software. This software allowed the video from the nine cameras along the route to be displayed on the computer screen as a group, and could be selected individually for a larger view. Some cameras with software that was not compatible with IPView Pro was opened in a separate web browser and viewed separately.

The race officials were extremely pleased with the service we was able to provide them this year, and are planning to expand our participation in the future using data transfers from the start/finish line and other points.

Signature: Lew Maxwell Title: ARRL Emergency Coordinator, El Paso County

Call sign: KB5HPT

_____________________________________________________________

Monthly EC Report

Jurisdiction: TAYLOR COUNTY Month: FEBRUARY Year: 2012

AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE

Total # of ARES members: 38 Change since last month: 0

Local Net Name:

NTS liaison is maintained with the:

Number of drills, tests and training sessions this month: 1 Man hours: 3

Number of public service events this month: Man hours:

Number of emergency operations this month: Man hours:

Total number of ARES operations this month: 1 Total Man hours: 3

Comments:

Our annual Skywarn training was conducted at ACU on Saturday February 28, 2012. We had approximately 105 in attendance, which ranged from the Dyess Weather Service office, interested individuals, Taylor County and Callahan County ARES members, 2 members from the San Angelo Radio Club, Taylor county Judge, all 3 TV station personalities, and the National Weather Service folks. We covered Basic Spotter Training, Advanced Spotter training, and Fire Weather. Hector Gurrero showed the group some new website products that can be used by spotters and a new website showing winds and RH values for fire weather. The plans are for us to go to the local Abilene EOC and check out the radios and computers/software prior to the upcoming severe weather season.
We have sad news to report. Glen Cummings K5GC was one of our assistant EC’s. Glen is now a silent key, as of March 1, 2012. Funeral services are pending.
We are working on some issues with the Skywarn repeater located in Clyde Texas. Ron KB5HGM, Jim KK5MV and I have been corresponding with each other to formulate a game plan to correct any issues with that repeater.

Signature: Bill Shaw Title: Taylor County EC Call sign: KJ5DX

_____________________________________________________________

Monthly EC Report Jurisdiction: Month: February Year:2012

Upton CO.

AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE

Total # of ARES members: Change since last month:

Local Net Name: Big Bend Emergency Net

NTS liaison is maintained with the: Big Bend Emergency Net

Number of drills, tests and training sessions this month: 2 Man hours: .30 Min

Number of public service events this month: 0 Man hours: 0

Number of emergency operations this month: 0 Man hours: 0

Total number of ARES operations this month: 2 Total Man hours: .30 Min.

Comments:

Signature: John M. Babb Title: EC Call sign: ke5ual

____________________________________________________________

Monthly EC Report

Hemphill County, February, 2012

3 Members, 1 Changes

Panhandle ARES Net

Liason maintained with the Panhandle ARES Net

0 Drills, 0 Manhours

0 Public Service Events, 0 Manhours

0 Emergency Operations, 0 Hours

0 total operations, 0 hours total

Comments: Technician Class is progressing well. We are now up to 9 taking the class, and they will test in April. WD0GSV, Earl, is being processed into the ARES network for the panhandle. While my son was in the hospital here in Canadian with pneumonia, I got to see where the dual-band VHF/UHF radio was installed and met the 2 people designated from the hospital to receive the training to use the radio. I informed them about the class, and they will be joining us this Tuesday. I will find a time to get them caught up with what they have missed, and they can test when the rest of the class does. 73

Bryce W. Victory, EC, KE5GRQ

_____________________________________________________________

Monthly EC Report

Jurisdiction: Lubbock, TX Month: February Year: 2012

AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE

Total # of ARES members: 32 Change since last month: 0

Local Net Name: K5LIB LARC NTS liaison is maintained with the: Lubbock Amateur Radio Club

Number of drills, tests and training sessions this month: 4 Man hours

Number of public service events this month 0 Man hours: 24

Number of emergency operations this month: 0 Man hours: 0

Total number of ARES operations this month: 4 Total Man hours 24

Comments:

Started a weekly net on 147.300 Hublink Repeater System.

Signature: James Hargrave & Lewis C. Lehman

Title: Lubbock County EC/DC

Call sign: K5DWS (Hargrave) K5LCL (Lehman)

____________________________________________________________

Monthly EC Report

Jurisdiction: Jeff Davis County, TX Month: February Year: 2012

AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE

Total # of ARES members: 4 Change since last month: 0

Local Net Name: Big Bend Emergency Net

NTS liaison is maintained with the:

Number of drills, tests and training sessions this month: 1 Man hours: 1

Number of public service events this month: 0 Man hours: 0

Number of emergency operations this month: 0 Man hours: 0

Total number of ARES operations this month: 1 Total Man hours: 1

Comments:

Signature: James R. Fowler Title: Emergency Coordinator Call sign: KD5KBU

____________________________________________________________

Monthly EC Report

Jurisdiction: Childress County Texas Month: February Year: 2012

AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE

Total # of ARES members: 4 Change since last month: 0

Local Net Name: N/A

NTS liaison is maintained with the:

Number of drills, tests and training sessions this month: 1 Man hours: 1

Number of public service events this month: 0 Man hours: 0

Number of emergency operations this month: 0 Man hours: 0

Total number of ARES operations this month: 1 Total Man hours: 1

Comments: Very quiet month.

Signature: JAMES L. MOODY, JR. Title: EC Call sign: AF5S

_____________________________________________________________

Monthly EC Report

Jurisdiction: Callahan Co Month: Febuary Year:2012

AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE

Total # of ARES members: ? Change since last month: 0

Local Net Name: n/a

NTS liaison is maintained with the:

Number of drills, tests and training sessions this month: 1 Man hours:3

Number of public service events this month:0 Man hours:0

Number of emergency operations this month: 0 Man hours:0

Total number of ARES operations this month: 1 Total Man hours:3

Comments:

Signature: Ron Harden Title: Callahan Co EC Call sign: KB5HGM

_____________________________________________________________

Monthly EC Report

Jurisdiction: Nolan County Month: February Year: 2012

AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE

Total # of ARES members: 9 Change since last month: 0

Local Net Name:

NTS liaison is maintained with the:

Number of drills, tests and training sessions this month: 0 Man hours: 0

Number of public service events this month: 1 Man hours: 5

Number of emergency operations this month: 0 Man hours: 0

Total number of ARES operations this month: 1 Total Man hours: 5

Nolan County ARES has been working on a Skywarn training Class with the NWS San Angelo. The class is scheduled for March 19, 2012 @ 6pm at the Sweetwater Nolan County Health Dept.

We are also work with the Health Dept. on tabletop exercise for Sweetwater’s and Nolan County’s Emergency Management for some time in March.

Signature: Title: EC Call sign: KC5NOX

____________________________________________________________

Midland Hamfest (St. Patrick’s Day Hamfest)

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Midland Lion’s Club, Midland, TX

http://hamfest.w5qgg.org

*** INFORMATION LINKS ***

A list of area clubs and other related links can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/links

A list of area repeater nets can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/area-nets

A list of area HF nets can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/hf-nets

That’s all the news I have from the West Texas Section for February 2012

Signed: Howard Collier

West Texas Section Emergency Coordinator

Callsign: WB5EKW

Email: wb5ekw@arrl.net

Ham Radio News – Week of 11 March 2012

HowardCollier — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 20:19:43 +0000

Hello Everyone!

Don’t forget Daylight Savings Time and to set your clocks tonight. It’s also a good time to test your smoke detectors.

Here’s what’s going on in the Ham Radio community in the El Paso and Southern New Mexico area the next couple of weeks.

***** QUICK EVENT SUMMARY *****

- Friday, March 16 – K5WPH Business Meeting – 7 PM

- Saturday, March 17 – Midland Hamfest – Midland, TX

- Friday, March 23 – W5ES Tech Night & Potluck supper – 6 PM

- Friday, March 30 – K5WPH “5th Friday” – 7 PM

- Sunday, April 1 – W5ES Palm Sunday Breakfast – 7 to 11 AM

- Saturday, April 7 – North-Easter Parade – 8 AM – Diana Street

- Saturday, April 29 – Mesilla Valley Radio Club Bean Feed (Las Cruces)

***** NEWS, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND OTHER STUFF *****

Here’s a little quiz: What year was “Frequency-Hopping Spread-Spectrum” patented? And who was one of the inventors?

If you never heard the story, you will be surprised. You can read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr and http://www.inventions.org/culture/female/lamarr.html
60 Meter Band (from the ARRL) – As of March 5, US amateurs have new privileges on the 60 meter band. In addition to an increase in effective radiated power from 50 to 100 W, hams can now transmit CW and PSK31 on the following channel-center frequencies:

Channel 1: 5332.0 kHz
Channel 2: 5348.0 kHz
Channel 3: 5358.5 kHz
Channel 4: 5373.0 kHz
Channel 5: 5405.0 kHz

Amateurs can also transmit USB voice and PACTOR III on the following suppressed carrier frequencies (the frequencies typically shown on transceiver displays):
Channel 1: 5330.5 kHz
Channel 2: 5346.5 kHz
Channel 3: 5357.0 kHz
Channel 4: 5371.5 kHz
Channel 5: 5403.5 kHz

If you have anything appropriate for this section, please send it to me.

***** DETAILED EVENT SCHEDULE *****

Monday, March 12 – Monday evening is the WTRA Round Table and Swapnet. Start time is 8 PM. The net this evening meets on the Amigo Link. All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments. NCS this evening is Brad KA5CDJ.

Tuesday, March 13 – 10-10 Net – 8 PM around 28.445 MHz.

Wednesday, March 14 – Wednesday evening is the El Paso D-Star Repeater Net. Start time is 7:15 PM. The net meets on the W5ELP (East El Paso) 145.110 D-Star Repeater (port C). All with D-STAR capability are welcome to participate.

Thursday, March 15 – Thursday evening is the Multiplex Net, sponsored by the Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH). Start time is 8 PM. The net meets on the Amigo Link. All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments.

Friday, March 16 – WX5ELP Skywarn Net – starts at 9:30 AM on the Amigo Link. All amateurs are welcome to check in.

Friday, March 16 – Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH) Program Night – 7 PM – 3709 Wickham Ave., El Paso, Texas.

Saturday, March 17 – Midland Hamfest (St. Patrick’s Day Hamfest) – Midland Lion’s Club, Midland, TX. Website http://hamfest.w5qgg.org

Saturday, March 17 – Midland Hamfest (St. Patrick’s Day Hamfest) – Midland Lion’s Club, Midland, TX. http://hamfest.w5qgg.org . The Midland ARC W5QGG will host the 57th Annual St. Patrick’s Day HamFest and West Texas Section Convention on March 17th at the Midland Lions Club Building. The HamFest, which is an ARRL Sanctioned Event, will include ARRL awards, ARRL license exams, flea markets, door prizes, and snacks! West Gulf Director David Woolweaver will be attendance. An additional activity this year is the First Inaugural “Cruise In” Competition. A $100 Prize will be presented to the best overall looking/performing mobile setup. If you have a mobile setup you are especially proud of, apply for the “Cruise In” competition near the front desk. Participants are reminded that the oilfield boom has reduced the number of available rooms in the area, and that advance reservations must be made as soon as possible.

Saturday, March 17 – QCWA Meeting, 2:00 PM @ the Golden Corral on Transmountain Road (next to Walmart). 2 PM lunch, 3 PM meeting. (QCWA membership optional).

Monday, March 19 – Monday evening is the WTRA Round Table and Swapnet. Start time is 8 PM. The net meets on the 146.88 solar powered repeater on North Mt. Franklin (El Paso). All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments. NCS this evening is Martin WB5LJO.

Tuesday, March 20 – 10-10 Net – 8 PM around 28.445 MHz.

Thursday, March 22 – Thursday evening is the Multiplex Net, sponsored by the Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH). Start time is 8 PM. The net meets on the Amigo Link. All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments.

Friday, March 23 – W5ES Tech Night – Potluck supper – 6 PM- it’s Lent; surprise us with non-meat specialty dishes or fish. Program: discuss our QSLs and how to make your own.

Friday, March 30 – Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH) “5th Friday” Night – 7 PM – Details to be provided – 3709 Wickham Ave., El Paso, Texas.

Saturday, April 29 – Mesilla Valley Radio Club 2012 Bean Feed – MVRC Club House 6609 Jefferson Las Cruces NM – Admission is free – including tailgating. The Bean Feed is one of the major activities of the club. It is usually held on the last Sunday of April. It is the usual hamfest featuring tailgating and a feed of beans near noon. The MVRC Clubhouse is located at the intersection of Wilt and Jefferson in Hacienda Heights. This is east of Las Cruces. Take the Porter exit on US 70. It is about 5 miles from the I 25 interchange, near the firehouse. Almost immediately south of the south frontage road on the south side of US 70, turn left toward the mountains on Cortez until you come to Wilt. Turn right. There is a jog in the road, but at 0.35 miles you should come to Jefferson. Look for the tower and beam. Parking is across the street. Tailgating is in the club parking lot. Talk in frequency is the 146.640 (100 Hz PL). 7:00 AM Set up and selling (in the parking lot), 10:30 AM Food is served (in the dining room), 1:00 PM VE Session (In the dining room) ($14.00 cash and photo I.D. issued by a government agency)

Coming soon – the WTRA “Fox Hunt” – stay tuned for more details. Date to be announced.
***** UPCOMING AREA HAMFESTS *****

Midland Hamfest (St. Patrick’s Day Hamfest)
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Midland Lion’s Club, Midland, TX

http://hamfest.w5qgg.org

***** BUY / SELL / TRADE *****

No listings this week.

***** INFORMATION LINKS *****

A list of area clubs and other ham radio related links can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/links

A list of area repeater nets can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/area-nets

A list of area HF nets can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/hf-nets

El Paso Ham Radio phone line – information on Ham Radio in El Paso – (915) 239-5128

***** OTHER INFORMATION *****

John
KA5TRQ

8 New Satellites Reach Orbit

HowardCollier — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 04:16:23 +0000

At 1000 UTC February 13, a European Space Agency Vega rocket lifted off fromKourou, French Guiana on its inaugural flight. It carried the Laser Relativity Spacecraft (LARES) to orbit along with eight student-built MicroSats and CubeSats. The student satellites will transmit telemetry in the VHF, UHF and microwave amateur bands, with one satellite also including a voice repeater. The lineup includes:

ALMASat-1 from the University of Bologna, Italy, transmitting 1200-baud packet data at 437.465 and 2407.850 MHz.

Xatcobeo, a collaboration between the University of Vigo and INTA, Spain, transmitting telemetry at 437.365 and 145.940 MHz.

Robusta, from the University of Montpellier, France transmitting 1200-baud packet telemetry at 437.325 MHz with one 20-second data burst every 3 minutes.

E-St@r, a project of Politecnico di Torino, Italy, sending 1200-baud packet telemetry at 437.445 MHz.

Goliat, from the University of Bucharest, Romania, transmitting 1200-baud packet data at 437.485 MHz.

PW-Sat from the Warsaw University of Technology, Poland, which includes a voice repeater mode in addition to its telemetry functions. The voice repeater will listen for transmissions at 435.020 MHz FM and retransmit at 145.900 MHz SSB. PW-Sat telemetry will be sent as 1200-baud packet and CW at 435.020 MHz.

MaSat-1 from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, sending 625/1250 bps GFSK data at 437.345 MHz. Ground station software is available here.

UniCubeSat GG from the University of Rome, which will transmit 9600-baud data at 437.305 MHz.

What’s Happening – February 12, 2012

HowardCollier — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 02:54:07 +0000

Hello Everyone!

Here’s what’s going on in the Ham Radio community in the El Paso and Southern New Mexico area the next couple of weeks.

***** QUICK EVENT SUMMARY *****

- Sunday, February 12 – HSMM-MESH in the park – 1:30 to 3:30 PM – Meet in the parking lot of Western Technical College on Diana Dr. We will be setting up the MESH nodes in preparation for the Susan G Koman Race for the Cure on Sunday, February 19.

- Friday, February 17 – K5WPH Program night – 7 PM – “Tower Building and Safety”

- Saturday, February 18 – HSMM-MESH in the Park – 9:30 AM – Meet at the Western Technical College at 9468 Diana Drive. This will be the final dress rehearsal for the Race for the Cure on Sunday.

- Sat, February 18 – QCWA Meeting – 2:00 PM @ Golden Corral on Transmountain Rd.

- Sunday, February 19 – Susan Komen Race for the Cure – Ham Radio operators will provide communications along the race route, as well as providing HSMM-MESH video coverage.

- Monday, February 20 – President’s Day (Federal Holiday).

- Friday, February 24 – W5ES Tech Night & Chicken Dinner – Time ???

***** NEWS, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND OTHER STUFF *****

The Susan Komen Race for the Cure is coming up on the morning of Sunday, February 19. We are still looking for ham radio operators to help out with communications along the race route, as well as providing HSMM-MESH video coverage. Volunteers must fill out a volunteer form. E-mail Mike KB6JYF at kb6jyf@gmail.com and let him know you would like to volunteer. He will e-mail you the volunteer form and provide instructions. There will be some HSMM-MESH dry runs on Sunday, Feb 12 and again on Saturday, Feb 18. Read more below in “Detailed Event Schedule”.

Earlier this week we reported that Jim KF5JUG suffered a heart attack and was in the hospital. Jim is now at home recovering and resting. He appreciates everyone’s prayers and concerns.

Here’s something interesting! Have you every heard of SNOTEL? SNOTEL stands for “SNOwpack TELemetry”. It’s run the by Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and is designed to collect snowpack and related climatic data in the Western United States and Alaska. SNOTEL uses meteor burst communications technology to collect and communicate data in near-real-time. VHF radio signals are reflected at a steep angle off the ever present band of ionized meteorites existing from about 50 to 75 miles above the earth. Satellites are not involved; NRCS operates and control the entire system. Pretty cool technology! You can read more about it at http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snow/

If you have any information appropriate for this section, please send it to me.

***** DETAILED EVENT SCHEDULE *****

Sunday, February 12 – HSMM-MESH in the park – 1:30 to 3:30 PM – Meet in the parking lot of Western Technical College on Diana Dr. We will be setting up the MESH nodes in preparation for the Susan G Koman Race for the Cure on Sunday, February 19.

Monday, February 13 – Monday evening is the WTRA Round Table and Swapnet. Start time is 8 PM. The net this evening meets on the Amigo Link. All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments. NCS this evening is Lew KB5HPT.

Tuesday, February 14 – Valentine’s Day

Tuesday, February 14 – 10-10 Net – 8 PM around 28.445 MHz.

Wednesday, February 15 – Wednesday evening is the El Paso D-Star Repeater Net. Start time is 7:15 PM. The net meets on the W5ELP (East El Paso) 145.110 D-Star Repeater (port C). All with D-STAR capability are welcome to participate.

Thursday, February 16 – Thursday evening is the Multiplex Net, sponsored by the Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH). Start time is 8 PM. The net meets on the Amigo Link. All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments.

Friday & Saturday, February 17-18 – ARRL Southwestern Division Convention – Yuma, AZ

Friday, February 17 – WX5ELP Skywarn Net – starts at 9:30 AM on the Amigo Link. All amateurs are welcome to check in.

Friday, February 17 – Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH) Program Night – 7 PM - 3709 Wickham Ave., El Paso, Texas. The program tonight will be on “Tower Building and Safety”.

Saturday, February 18 – HSMM-MESH in the Park – 9:30 AM – Meet at the Western Technical College at 9468 Diana Drive. This will be the final dress rehearsal for the Race for the Cure. All camera nodes and relay nodes will be set up and tested. We will need additional volunteers for the additional nodes used.

Saturday, February 18 – QCWA Meeting – 2:00 PM @ Golden Corral – El Paso Chapter #64 QCWA. Our Chapter has a monthly luncheon meeting on the third Saturday of each month at 2:00 PM (lunch) and 3:00 PM (meeting) at the Golden Corral located near the intersection of the North-South Freeway (US 54 South) and Transmountain Road (Woodrow Bean) next to the Wal-Mart store in Northeast El Paso.

Sunday, February 19 – Susan Komen Race for the Cure – Ham Radio operators will provide communications along the race route, as well as providing HSMM-MESH video coverage. Stay tuned for more information. More information will also be provided on the Monday and Thursday night El Paso repeater nets. Volunteers must fill out a volunteer form. E-mail Mike KB6JYF at kb6jyf@gmail.com and let him know you would like to volunteer. He will e-mail you the volunteer form and provide instructions.

Monday, February 20 – President’s Day (Federal Holiday).

Monday, February 20 – Monday evening is the WTRA Round Table and Swapnet. Start time is 8 PM. The net tonight meets on 146.88 solar powered repeater on North Mt. Franklin (El Paso). All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments. NCS this evening is Charles K2CED.

Tuesday, February 21 – 10-10 Net – 8 PM around 28.445 MHz.

Wednesday, February 22 – Wednesday evening is the El Paso D-Star Repeater Net. Start time is 7:15 PM. The net meets on the W5ELP (East El Paso) 145.110 D-Star Repeater (port C). All with D-STAR capability are welcome to participate.

Thursday, February 23 – Thursday evening is the Multiplex Net, sponsored by the Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH). Start time is 8 PM. The net meets on the Amigo Link. All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments.

Friday, February 24 – El Paso Amateur Radio Club (W5ES) Tech Night and Chicken Dinner – ? PM at the W5ES Clubhouse, 2100 San Diego Ave, El Paso, TX.

Monday, February 27 – Monday evening is the WTRA Round Table and Swapnet. Start time is 8 PM. The net this evening meets on the Amigo Link. All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments. NCS this evening is John KA5TRQ.

Tuesday, February 28 – 10-10 Net – 8 PM around 28.445 MHz.

Wednesday, February 29 – Wednesday evening is the El Paso D-Star Repeater Net. Start time is 7:15 PM. The net meets on the W5ELP (East El Paso) 145.110 D-Star Repeater (port C). All with D-STAR capability are welcome to participate.

Thursday, March 1 – Thursday evening is the Multiplex Net, sponsored by the Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH). Start time is 8 PM. The net meets on the Amigo Link. All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments.

Friday, March 2 – WX5ELP Skywarn Net – starts at 9:30 AM on the Amigo Link. All amateurs are welcome to check in.

Friday, March 2 – Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH) Business Meeting – 7 PM – 3709 Wickham Ave., El Paso, Texas.

Saturday, March 3 – VE testing at K5WHP – 9 AM - The Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH) holds VE test sessions usually on the first or second Saturday of January, March, May, July, September, and November. The K5WPH Clubhouse is located at 3709 Wickham Ave, El Paso, Texas. Testing will begin at approximately 9 AM, so applicants should arrive 15 minutes early to fill out forms prior to testing. The clubhouse doors will NOT be locked at any time during the testing. Any person arriving after testing begins MAY be allowed to test, depending upon their arrival time. The cost of the test is $15.00 for year 2012. Each applicant will need to bring a photo ID or two non-photo IDs. Licensed applicants must also bring the original and a copy of their license. Walk-ins are welcome.

***** UPCOMING AREA HAMFESTS *****

ARRL Southwestern Division Convention
February 17-18
Yuma, AZ
http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/southwestern-division-convention-1

Midland Hamfest (St. Patrick’s Day Hamfest)
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Midland Lion’s Club, Midland, TX
http://hamfest.w5qgg.org

***** BUY / SELL / TRADE *****

No listings this week.

***** INFORMATION LINKS *****

A list of area clubs and other ham radio related links can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/links

A list of area repeater nets can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/area-nets

A list of area HF nets can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/hf-nets

El Paso Ham Radio phone line – information on Ham Radio in El Paso – (915) 239-5128

The “Amigo Link” repeater system is comprised of the following area repeaters: 146.700, 147.240, 147.280, 444.200, 442.825, 442.950, and 443.400 repeaters in El Paso, the 145.230 repeater (near Cloudcroft, NM), and the 448.500 repeater (Caballo Mountain). This is an open system.

***** OTHER INFORMATION *****

John
KA5TRQ

Monthly Section Emergency Coordinator Report Jan 2012

HowardCollier — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 03:11:20 +0000

Monthly Section Emergency Coordinator Report to ARRL Headquarters

ARRL Section: West Texas Month: January Year: 2012

AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE

Total # of ARES members: 322 Change since last month: 0

DEC’s/EC’s and Net reporting this month: 5
ARES nets active: 11
ARES nets with NTS liaison: 4

Calls of DEC’s/EC’s reporting:
W5NPR WA5ROE KB5HPT WB8LBZ KC5NOX
Number of drills, tests and training sessions this month: 3 Man Hours: 15

Number of public service events this month: 1 Man hours: 3

Number of emergency operations this month: 0 Man hours: 0

Total number of ARES operations this month: 4 Total Man hours: 18
—————————————————————————————————————–
SEC Comments:
Keep yourself prepared for those emcomm situations, it would be a good idea to check through your Go-Kits: Charge batteries, check the radios, chargers, coax lines, portable antennas, ARES procedure booklets, frequency charts, phone contact lists printed out. Having an up to date phone list kept in your glove compartment sure is a good thing to have.

Signature: Howard Collier Call sign: WB5EKW
Title: West Texas Section Emergency Coordinator

—————————————————————————————————————–

BIG BEND EMERGENCY NET

Every Sunday Morning at 08:30 Central time on 3922 Khz.
Net Control Station is hosted by Bob Ward, WA5ROE in Alpine.
December check ins = 238 Total time = 153 Minutes ( 2 hours 33 min)
—————————————————————————————————————–

West Texas Section Traffic report:

Big Bend Wednesday Night 2-Meter Net (January)
VHF 146.62, 146.72, 146.82, 146.92, 147.02

November Checkins: 59
Total Time: 120 minutes (2 hours)

Traffic Report (January)

National Traffic System
Region 5 Cycle 2

W5NPR Session 1-15 Checkins; Session 2-16 Checkins
KM5VM Session 1-9 Checkins; Session 2-9 Checkins

Traffic Delivered

KM5VM- Fort Stockton-1
Midland-1

W5NPR Fort Davis-1
El Paso-3

Other Net Participation KM5VM & W5NPR

Big Bend Emergency Net
KM5VM-4 Checkins
W5NPR-4 Checkins

Texas Traffic Net
W5NPR-2 Checkins

Texas ARES Net
W5NPR-2 Checkins

7290 Traffic Net
W5NPR-4 Checkins
Bill Roberts W5NPR
WTX Section Manager/WTX Traffic Manager

—————————————————————————————————————–

Exercise Name: Communications Drill: Spring FIELD DAY 2012
Exercise Description: Begins May 4, 2012
Spring Field Day 2012 is a semi-annual Texas statewide communications drill to establish communications inter operability between all Amateur Radio organizations (MARS, ARES and RACES) that support the Communications Coordination Group during emergencies. Participants are encourages to operate under emergency conditions using portable antennas and back-up power systems. EOCs can be staffed or simulated by individual stations. This drill will operate under a no internet radio only environment.

Point of Contact:
Dave Martin
K5yfo@wt.net
C: 817.313.0800
Date: 05/04/2012
Location: Statewide
Point of Contact: Joseph Martin
Type: Drill
Sponsor:
—————————————————————————————————————-
‭

Midland Hamfest (St. Patrick’s Day Hamfest)
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Midland Lion’s Club, Midland, TX

http://hamfest.w5qgg.org

*** INFORMATION LINKS ***

A list of area clubs and other related links can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/links

A list of area repeater nets can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/area-nets

A list of area HF nets can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/hf-nets

—————————————————————————————————————-
‬Greetings,
Here is the summary of net activity for the El Paso area
for the month of January 2012.

WTRA (K5ELP) Monday Night net
sessions 105 check ins

10-X Ten-Ten International net on 28.445 MHz Tuesday Night
sessions 35 check ins

El Paso (W5ELP) D-Star Net on Wednesday Night
sessions 21 check ins

SCARC (K5WPH) Thursday Night net
sessions 80 check ins

El Paso County (WX5ELP) Skywarn Friday bi-monthly net
Sessions 10 check ins

QCWA Chap 64 (W5RO) Saturday Morning net
sessions 39 check ins

Thanks to all that relayed check in information to me for this report.

73, Larry WB8LBZ
—————————————————————————————————————-
Monthly EC Report
AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE

Jurisdiction: El Paso, County Month: January Year: 2012
AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE®
Total # of ARES members: 5 Change since last month: 0

Local Net Name: El Paso County ARES Net: Man hours: 0

NTS liaison in El Paso, County: 0

Number of drills, tests and training sessions this month: 3 Man hours: 15

Number of public service events this month: Man hours:

Number of emergency operations this month: Man hours:

Total number of ARES operations this month: 3 Total Man hours: 15

Comments: This month we have had two HSMM-MESH in the Park sessions. We are setting up the MESH nodes with cameras along the Race for the Cure route. We have enlisted some other non-ARES operators to help us out so that we will have complete route coverage.

On Saturday January 28, 2012 we participated in the State of New Mexico ARES/RACES Messaging Drill. We exercised our MOU with Dona Ana County, NM and provided support for them. The Message Drill was using NBEMS (Narrow Band Emergency Messaging System). We had two objectives for us to meet on top of the objectives that the State of New Mexico required.

We met all of the objectives. My two objectives were to make sure that our HF stations were properly configured to meet their requirements. This ARES group has been able to use NBEMS in the past on VHF frequencies and pass traffic through a VHF repeater, but we have never passed traffic over the HF bands. It worked great for us. The other objective was to see how easy it would be to adapt NBEMS to Winlink 2000. It turned out that it is a simple task. Just save the message and attach it to a WL2K email as an attachment.

NBEMS is an excellent tool to use in an area that does not have an existing digital infrastructure in place. We have a lot of areas here in West Texas and Southern New Mexico that have no amateur radio operators or one or two in the county. All that is required is a radio and a laptop computer. A soundcard interface could also be used be is not required. NBEMS will allow the passing of a text message, a generic message, a formatted ICS form and a formatted radiogram. NBEMS consists of FLDIGI, FLMSG, FLWRAP and FLARQ. We use MT63 and Olivia. These two programs are forward error correction programs. They can have 25% of their data missing and still give 100% copy. FLWRAP generates check sums so we can tell without a shadow of a doubt that the message is 100% complete. Speaking from experience I don’t recommend setting this system up and then going a year or so before using it again. It’s not difficult to use, but it is easy to forget a step or two. My intent is to deploy an NBEMS station to where ever we need it, and then have it work back to El Paso to another NBEMS station that is co-located with one of our WL2K locations. We can then get the messages into the WL2K system for a more efficient and rapid delivery. Or we can use NBEMS as a gap filler here locally and use a VHF/UHF frequency or repeater in the absence of enough WL2K stations.

With having WL2K as my primary means of message delivery I now have another supplement to the system. Our other tool in the tool bag is D-RATS (D-Star low speed data program). D-RATS interfaces beautifully with WL2K also.

Training a person from a cold start (installing and configuring software to sending and receiving the first message) can be done in about 3-4 hours. So this is something that could be done at a staging area prior to deployment. The operator will become more proficient as they use the program.

Signature: Lew Maxwell Title: ARRL Emergency Coordinator, El Paso County
Call sign: KB5HPT
—————————————————————————————————————-
Monthly EC Report

Jurisdiction: Nolan County Month: January Year: 2012
AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE
Total # of ARES members: 9 Change since last month: 0

Local Net Name:

NTS liaison is maintained with the:

Number of drills, tests and training sessions this month: 0 Man hours: 0

Number of public service events this month: 1 Man hours: 3

Number of emergency operations this month: 0 Man hours: 0

Total number of ARES operations this month: 1 Total Man hours: 3
Nolan County ARES has been working on our EOC room in the basement at the Sweetwater Nolan County Health Department (Which is Sweetwater / Nolan County EOC). We purchase a P25 commercial Land mobile to communicate with local public Safety and fire departments in the county. The Equipment was donated by a private donor. We have started a new program with the Sweetwater Nolan County Health Dept. We are providing Radio Training and support communications for the Medical Reserve Corps.
Signature: Title: EC Call sign: KC5NOX
—————————————————————————————————————-

That’s all the news I have from the West Texas Section for January 2012

Signed: Howard Collier West Texas Section Emergency Coordinator
Callsign: WB5EKW
Email: wb5ekw@arrl.net

================================================================

HAM Radio Activities – Beginning February 4, 2012

HowardCollier — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 03:20:35 +0000

Hello Everyone!

Here’s what’s going on in the Ham Radio community in the El Paso and Southern New Mexico area the next couple of weeks.

***** QUICK EVENT SUMMARY *****

- Friday, February 10 – W5ES Regular Meeting – 8 PM.

- Saturday, February 11 – No Host Amateur Breakfast - 8 AM at the Tejas Cafe.

- Tuesday, February 14 – Valentine’s Day (now you can’t use the excuse that you didn’t know!)

- Friday, February 17 – K5WPH Program night - 7 PM

- Saturday, February 18 – HSMM-MESH in the Park – 9:30 AM – Meet at the Western Technical College at 9468 Diana Drive. This will be the final dress rehearsal for the Race for the Cure on Sunday.

- Sunday, February 19 – Susan Komen Race for the Cure – Ham Radio operators will provide communications along the race route, as well as providing HSMM-MESH video coverage.

- Monday, February 20 – President’s Day (Federal Holiday)

- Friday, February 24 – W5ES Tech Night & Chicken Dinner – Time ???

***** NEWS, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND OTHER STUFF *****

The February edition of the El Paso Amateur Radio Club (W5ES) Newsletter is available for you to download and read. You can find it (and previous issues) on the “Newsletter” section of the W5ES website (http://www.w5es.org/). This is a fine newsletter!

Have you considered being the Net Control for the 8 PM Multiplex Repeater Nets on Thursday nights? It’s really easy. If you don’t hear anyone starting up the net at 8 PM, jump in and take over. Just announce yourself as Net Control for the Thursday night Multiplex Net, and ask for check-ins (call sign and name), with or without comments. Write down the call signs and names, and after you get the first batch of call signs, acknowledge each person that checked in and go down the list one by one and ask them for there comments, just like you hear each week. It’s good practice, and after a couple of times, you can breeze thru it. It would be great to hear some new net controls! Don’t be shy! If nothing else, at least jump in with a “no comment” so everyone knows you are out there.

If you have any information appropriate for this section, please send it to me.

***** DETAILED EVENT SCHEDULE *****

Monday, February 6 – Monday evening is the WTRA Round Table and Swapnet. Start time is 8 PM. The net tonight meets on 146.88 solar powered repeater on North Mt. Franklin (El Paso). All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments. NCS this evening is Tony W5AAM.

Tuesday, February 7 – 10-10 Net – 8 PM around 28.445 MHz.

Wednesday, February 8 – Wednesday evening is the El Paso D-Star Repeater Net. Start time is 7:15 PM. The net meets on the W5ELP (East El Paso) 145.110 D-Star Repeater (port C). All with D-STAR capability are welcome to participate.

Thursday, February 9 – Thursday evening is the Multiplex Net, sponsored by the Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH). Start time is 8 PM. The net meets on the Amigo Link: 146.700, 147.240, 147.280, 444.200, 442.825, 442.950, and 443.400 repeaters in El Paso, the 145.230 repeater (near Cloudcroft, NM), and the 448.500 repeater (Caballo Mountain). All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments.

Friday, February 10 – El Paso Amateur Radio Club (W5ES) Regular Meeting – 8 PM at the W5ES Clubhouse, 2100 San Diego Ave, El Paso, TX.

Saturday, February 11 – No Host Amateur Breakfast - 8 AM at the Tejas Cafe, 9757 Dyer St, El Paso, TX.

Monday, February 13 – Monday evening is the WTRA Round Table and Swapnet. Start time is 8 PM. The net this evening meets on the Amigo Link: 146.700, 147.240, 147.280, 444.200, 442.825, 442.950, and 443.400 repeaters in El Paso, the 145.230 repeater (near Cloudcroft, NM), and the 448.500 repeater (Caballo Mountain). All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments. NCS this evening is Lew KB5HPT.

Tuesday, February 14 – Valentine’s Day – this is your second reminder!

Tuesday, February 14 – 10-10 Net – 8 PM around 28.445 MHz.

Friday, February 17 – WX5ELP Skywarn Net – starts at 9:30 AM on the Amigo Link: 146.700, 147.240, 147.280, 444.200, 442.825, 442.950, and 443.400 repeaters in El Paso, the 145.230 repeater (near Cloudcroft, NM), and the 448.500 repeater (Caballo Mountain). All amateurs are welcome to check in.

Friday, February 17 – Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH) Program Night – 7 PM – 3709 Wickham Ave., El Paso, Texas.

Saturday, February 18 – HSMM-MESH in the Park – 9:30 AM - Meet at the Western Technical College at 9468 Diana Drive. This will be the final dress rehearsal for the Race for the Cure. All camera nodes and relay nodes will be set up and tested. We will need additional volunteers for the additional nodes used.

Sunday, February 19 – Susan Komen Race for the Cure – Ham Radio operators will provide communications along the race route, as well as providing HSMM-MESH video coverage. Stay tuned for more information. More information will also be provided on the Monday and Thursday night El Paso repeater nets. Volunteers must fill out a volunteer form. E-mail Mike KB6JYF at kb6jyf@gmail.com and let him know you would like to volunteer. He will e-mail you the volunteer form and provide instructions.

Monday, February 20 – President’s Day (Federal Holiday).

Monday, February 20 – Monday evening is the WTRA Round Table and Swapnet. Start time is 8 PM. The net tonight meets on 146.88 solar powered repeater on North Mt. Franklin (El Paso). All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments. NCS this evening is Charles K2CED.

Tuesday, February 21 – 10-10 Net – 8 PM around 28.445 MHz.

Thursday, February 23 – Thursday evening is the Multiplex Net, sponsored by the Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH). Start time is 8 PM. The net meets on the Amigo Link: 146.700, 147.240, 147.280, 444.200, 442.825, 442.950, and 443.400 repeaters in El Paso, the 145.230 repeater (near Cloudcroft, NM), and the 448.500 repeater (Caballo Mountain). All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments.

Friday, February 24 – El Paso Amateur Radio Club (W5ES) Tech Night and Chicken Dinner – ? PM at the W5ES Clubhouse, 2100 San Diego Ave, El Paso, TX.

***** UPCOMING AREA HAMFESTS *****

ARRL Southwestern Division Convention
February 17-18
Yuma, AZ
http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/southwestern-division-convention-1

Midland Hamfest (St. Patrick’s Day Hamfest)
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Midland Lion’s Club, Midland, TX
http://hamfest.w5qgg.org

***** BUY / SELL / TRADE *****

ESTATE SALE – The items listed below are from the estate of Jack Scheiderer, W5JHS. If you are interested in any of these items please contact Clay, K5TRW at 915-859-5502 or k5trw@elp.rr.com. All equipment is clean, in working order and digital copies of the manuals are available except the DSP. You can see photos in the February W5ES Newsletter.

- Yeasu FL 1200 Linear 1200 watts
- ALINCO DJ-V5 with spare battery and charger
- Kenwood TS-450S with Shure desk microphone
- Kenwood DSP-100
- Kenwood TS-450S with hand microphone
- Shure desk microphone

If you have any ham radio gear that you are interested in selling, buying, or trading, send me an e-mail with the appropriate information (make/model, condition, accessories, asking price, etc), and a means for people to contact you. Remember that this e-mail is going out to at least 80+ hams in the area (and could be forwarded to anyone), so only provide the information you are comfortable with (phone number and/or e-mail address). It will be posted right here in this section one time only, and I’ll try to put it in the next weekly e-mail newsletter. This will be for ham radio gear only. Please no computer parts, garage sale items, cars, XYLs, animals, etc.

***** INFORMATION LINKS *****

A list of area clubs and other ham radio related links can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/links

A list of area repeater nets can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/area-nets

A list of area HF nets can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/hf-nets

El Paso Ham Radio phone line – information on Ham Radio in El Paso – (915) 239-5128

***** OTHER INFORMATION ***** (nothing new here)

John
KA5TRQ

HAM Radio Activities – Beginning January 29

HowardCollier — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 02:25:27 +0000

Hello Everyone!

Here’s what’s going on in the Ham Radio community in the El Paso and Southern New Mexico area the next couple of weeks.

***** QUICK EVENT SUMMARY *****

- Sunday, January 29 – HSMM-MESH in the Park – 1:30 PM at Sue Young Park, Diana Dr. and Stahala Dr, NE El Paso.

- Friday, February 3 – K5WPH Business Meeting – 7 PM.

- Saturday, February 4 – VE Testing at W5ES - 9 AM.

- Saturday, February 4 – K5WHP Mexican Dinner – 6 PM.

- Friday, February 10 – W5ES Regular Meeting – 8 PM.

- Sunday, February 12 – HSMM-MESH in the Park – 1:30 PM at Sue Young Park, Diana Dr. and Stahala Dr, NE El Paso.

- Sunday, February 19 – Susan Komen Race for the Cure – Ham Radio volunteers will be needed to help provide communications along the race route. More details forthcoming.

***** NEWS, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND OTHER STUFF *****

The Worked All El Paso (WAE) Banquet was held on Saturday evening, January 27, at the Golden Corral on Trans Mountain Road. About 22 people attended this very nice event, and several awards were presented to the people and clubs who registered. WAE is sponsored each year by the El Paso Amateur Radio Club (W5ES). Thanks to Paul AE5OJ for putting so much work into the WAE this year. WAE has been around since the 1930’s! Next year we’ll get the word out early so hopefully more of you can plan to participate.

Have you ever heard of “VOACAP”? VOACAP is a free HF Propagation Prediction and Ionospheric Communications Analysis software from NTIA/ITS, originally developed for Voice of America (VOA). There is both a web-based and downloadable version of the software (Windows, Linux, and Mac). It offers things like professional-grade high-frequency (3-30 MHz) point-to-point propagation predictions, a nice users guide, and lots of other goodies. This is a great tool if you are a serious DX’er or Short Wave enthusiast. It takes into account the sunspot numbers, antenna types, transmitter/receiver location, transmit power, etc. The VOACAP website is http://www.voacap.com. Be prepared to spend some some time experimenting with it, reading the user guide, and browsing the website.

I’ve added another good document by Harris Communications called “Radio Communications in the Digital Age – Volume Two: VHF/UHF Technology” – to the website. You can view it and download a PDF copy in the “Files” section of the website http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/files.

If you are interested in what’s going on in the Texas VHF-FM Society, you can sign up for their newsletter by sending a blank e-mail to their list server, TXVHFFM_News-subscribe@rfprojector.com. It will send you an e-mail that you will have to simply reply to, and you will be signed up. You can easily unsubscribe by sending an e-mail to TXVHFFM_News-unsubscribe@rfprojector.com. The Texas VHF-FM Society web site is http://txvhffm.org. (Thanks to Larry WB8LBZ for providing this information)

Do you keep a list handy of the local El Paso repeaters? If not, you can download the “El Paso Repeater Locater,” courtesy of Martin WB5LJO, from the “Files” section of the website http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/files.

There is a funny video floating around on YouTube from the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, where they had a contest to see which was faster – sending a message using Morse Code or text messaging on a cell phone. You probably have already seen it, but if you haven’t, you can watch it at http://youtu.be/Mfyf5Y5AHNc.

If you have any information appropriate for this section, please send it to me.

***** DETAILED EVENT SCHEDULE *****

Sunday, January 29 – HSMM-MESH in the Park – 1:30 PM at Sue Young Park, Diana Dr. and Stahala Dr, NE El Paso. We will be setting up along the Race for the Cure route again. The Race for the Cure will be held on the morning of Sunday, February 19. We need additional volunteers to help with some of the nodes.

Monday, January 30 – Monday evening is the WTRA Round Table and Swapnet. Start time is 8 PM. The net tonight meets on the Amigo Link: 146.700, 147.240, 147.280, 444.200, 442.825, 442.950, and 443.400 repeaters in El Paso, the 145.230 repeater (near Cloudcroft, NM), and the 448.500 repeater (Caballo Mountain). All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments. NCS this evening is Martin WB5LJO.

Tuesday, January 31 – 10-10 Net – 8 PM around 28.445 MHz.

Wednesday, February 1 – Wednesday evening is the El Paso D-Star Repeater Net. Start time is 7:15 PM. The net meets on the W5ELP (East El Paso) 145.110 D-Star Repeater (port C). All with D-STAR capability are welcome to participate.

Thursday, February 2 – Thursday evening is the Multiplex Net, sponsored by the Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH). Start time is 8 PM. The net meets on the Amigo Link: 146.700, 147.240, 147.280, 444.200, 442.825, 442.950, and 443.400 repeaters in El Paso, the 145.230 repeater (near Cloudcroft, NM), and the 448.500 repeater (Caballo Mountain). All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments.

Friday, February 3 – WX5ELP Skywarn Net – starts at 9:30 AM on the Amigo Link: 146.700, 147.240, 147.280, 444.200, 442.825, 442.950, and 443.400 repeaters in El Paso, the 145.230 repeater (near Cloudcroft, NM), and the 448.500 repeater (Caballo Mountain). All amateurs are welcome to check in.

Friday, February 3 – Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH) Business Meeting - 7 PM – 3709 Wickham Ave., El Paso, Texas.

Saturday, February 4 – The El Paso Amateur Radio Club (W5ES) holds test sessions at 9:00 AM on the first Saturday of every even month (February, April, June, August, October and December). Sessions are held at the W5ES clubhouse, located at 2100 San Diego (at the corner of Cotton and San Diego streets). Walk-ins are not only welcome but encouraged. Bring photo ID, copies of any CSCE’s, your license and a copy of your license. WE MUST SEND IN A COPY OF YOUR LICENSE!!! For more information please call Clay, K5TRW @ (915) 859-5502

Saturday, February 4 – The K5WPH Mexican Dinner – 6 PM at the Sun City Amateur Radio Club, 3709 Wickham, El Paso, TX. More information will be provided on the Thursday evening repeater net.

Tuesday, February 7 – 10-10 Net – 8 PM around 28.445 MHz.

Wednesday, February 8 – Wednesday evening is the El Paso D-Star Repeater Net. Start time is 7:15 PM. The net meets on the W5ELP (East El Paso) 145.110 D-Star Repeater (port C). All with D-STAR capability are welcome to participate.

Thursday, February 9 – Thursday evening is the Multiplex Net, sponsored by the Sun City Amateur Radio Club (K5WPH). Start time is 8 PM. The net meets on the Amigo Link: 146.700, 147.240, 147.280, 444.200, 442.825, 442.950, and 443.400 repeaters in El Paso, the 145.230 repeater (near Cloudcroft, NM), and the 448.500 repeater (Caballo Mountain). All licensed amateurs are welcome and encouraged to check into the net, with or without comments.

Friday, February 10 – El Paso Amateur Radio Club (W5ES) Regular Meeting – 8 PM at the W5ES Clubhouse, 2100 San Diego Ave, El Paso, TX.

Saturday, February 11 – No Host Amateur Breakfast – 8 AM at the Tejas Cafe, 9757 Dyer St, El Paso, TX.

Sunday, February 12 – HSMM-MESH in the Park – 1:30 PM at Sue Young Park, Diana Dr. and Stahala Dr, NE El Paso. This will be the final dress rehearsal for the Race for the Cure. All camera nodes and relay nodes will be set up and tested. We will need additional volunteers for the additional nodes used.

Tuesday, February 14 – Valentine’s Day

Monday, February 20 – President’s Day (Federal Holiday).

***** UPCOMING HAMFESTS *****

ARRL Southwestern Division Convention
February 17-18
Yuma, AZ
http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/southwestern-division-convention-1

Midland Hamfest (St. Patrick’s Day Hamfest)
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Midland Lion’s Club, Midland, TX
http://hamfest.w5qgg.org

***** BUY / SELL / TRADE *****

FOR SALE – HF Antenna System - consisting of 40′ tubular crank-up tower, HyGain T2X Rotor, and HyGain TH-7, 7 element HF 20-15-10 meter HF antenna. The rotor and antenna are currently still in production. The antenna system is still up and will require some effort to remove it. Using today’s prices plus shipping, this antenna system would cost over $3000. The asking price is $600. For more information call John N5RK @ 915-584-9662 or email at n5rk@att.net.

If you have any ham radio gear that you are interested in selling, buying, or trading, send me an e-mail with the appropriate information (make/model, condition, accessories, asking price, etc), and a means for people to contact you. Remember that this e-mail is going out to at 80+ hams in the area (and could be forwarded to anyone), so only provide the information you are comfortable with (phone number and/or e-mail address). It will be posted right here in this section one time only, and I’ll try to put it in the next weekly e-mail newsletter. This will be for ham radio gear only. Please no computer parts, garage sale items, cars, XYLs, animals, etc.

***** INFORMATION LINKS *****

A list of area clubs and other ham radio related links can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/links

A list of area repeater nets can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/area-nets

A list of area HF nets can be found at http://www.hamradioelpaso.com/hf-nets

El Paso Ham Radio phone line – information on Ham Radio in El Paso – (915) 239-5128

***** OTHER INFORMATION ***** (nothing new here)

John
KA5TRQ