As you probably know, there is a significant overlap between members of the ARPSC and Arlington County RACES. Our RACES is sponsored by Arlington County’s Office of Emergency Management. our goal is to provide support to augment county communications in the case of an emergency.
To join RACES, there are several steps:
RACES Training is available on our website. The training provides for you to learn about several important topics including emergency communications, emergency preparedness and communications procedures.
We are not often activated to help out in an emergency. When one is in such a situation, the training that he/she has had really pays off. Thanks to training and our regular net exercises, our emergency nets can be well-run and and organized.
We look forward to your review of the training materials and your application to help support Arlington.
We were just passed along a great article: With Just a WSPR by Dan Romanchik, KB6NU. If you’ve never read about WSPR, it’s a great way to see which bands are open. Read the snippet below regarding this mode and follow the link to read the full article.
It’s really amazing what you can do with computers in amateur radio, and there’s been an explosion in the number of digital modes. One interesting mode that I’ve recently been introduced to is WSPR, which is short for Weak Signal Propagation Reporting. The protocol and the original WSPR program was written by Joe Taylor, K1JT, and is designed for sending and receiving low-power transmissions on the HF bands to test propagation paths.
The Scout Jamboree On The Air (JOTA) is an on-air event centered around scouting. Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and other members of scouting work with ham radio mentors to make contacts on the air. This is one of the best ways to get the Amateur Radio merit badge.
This world-wide event is in its 57th year and it is intended to introduce scouts to ham radio, and let them talk to other scouts around the world, or around the country. There is a companion event, Jamboree On The Internet.
Lots of information at http://www.scouting.org/jota.aspx
Some of the calling frequencies the JOTA website above lists include:
KI4YBH will be setup with scouts at the LDS Church, 2034 Great Falls St, Falls Church, VA, hoping to get on the air at 0700, until 2200.
All pictures in this post were taken at special event station W4B.
The new repeater in the old cabinet… Significantly more sensitive than the old MFS5000 Motorola.
Left to right: Steve, Dale, Wes, Dwayne. Northern Neck ARC repeater committee members. Pic taken by Dave Jordan, WA3GIN.
CQ’s July Editorial rebuffs ARRL’s inartful attempt to downgrade Emergency Auxiliary Communications Volunteers to a basic Public Service category!
What’s in a name? The name we give to what we do greatly influences how people perceive it. From things like car accidents to supporting local government communications in an disaster, we definitely provide an effective means of emergency communications. Arlington County Races was activated in the 2012 Drecho storm that came through. When 911 didn’t work, we were stationed at fire stations providing needed communications between the county government and its residents.
Rich Moseson, W2VU, reacts in his editorial to the ARRL’s efforts to de-emphasize emergency communications as a term and replace it with public service communications. Rich makes some great points in his editorial. We encourage you to check out what he wrote in the July 2014 CQ Magazine.
