[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] Fwd: MAY-JUNE 2020 VIRGINIA SECTION UPDATE LETTER

[RICK]

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Subject: MAY-JUNE 2020 VIRGINIA SECTION UPDATE LETTER

May-June  2020  VIRGINIA SECTION UPDATE LETTER

This is a dual month letter due to Covid-19 Virus family problems and a
forced retirement during the virus problems.

As everyone knows the C-19 has created untold problems in everyone’s
health, especially those whose health was challenged to start with.  In
addition, it has created havoc with our economy and caused catastrophic
unemployment problems.

Virtually all hamfests, meetings, and all other meet and greet events
have been cancelled for several months in the future. Many clubs and
other applicable events have resorted to on line zoom meetings. 

Many new local nets have been created by clubs as daily health and
welfare nets because of the virus. These have become very popular and an
example our local RATS club in Richmond has a nightly net at 7 PM local
time on their 146.88/74.4 repeater.  This has already turned up several
requests in the last few weeks. There is also a weekly a Medical Net on
Wednesday’s 0130 UTC on 7.222 band.

The May 30th Red Cross sponsored Emergency Communication exercise was an
event exercise created because last fall, a similar exercise was created
and run with ARES cooperation with stations from South Carolina to
Maine. That exercise utilized all forms of message handling and really
utilized Winlink for one of the first times as a lead message format.
This May 30th exercise was created to show the capabilities of Amateur
Radio on a nationwide basis to pass emergency communications messages 
across the country even IF nationwide infrastructure was DOWN. WinLink
as well as voice messaging and other digital abilities were tested this
time in a more structured, sophisticated drill exercise event. Over 38
states participated with over 2,500 individual amateur radio operators.
A full after action report is being compiled at this time to provide for
the first time real details and statistic’s of a national drill
exercise. I will publish this report when it becomes available.

The FCC announced on April 30, 2020 that Amateur Radio Service Operator
License Examinations May Be Held Remotely. 

ARRL Field Day activities rules have NOT been altered due to many
changes taking changes in local areas concerning social distancing rules
and laws changing daily. Follow your local laws, please.

ARRL has announced a NEW LIFE Membership 70+ program. Details are on the
ARRL HQ web page.

WinLink has been steadily growing in popularity as well as FT8 and other
digital services. Greg Butlers KW6GB  weekly Wednesday Winlink net has
grown to over 278 check ins.

Scott, N8SY at N8Sy.com has released an updated “How To Use ARES
Connect” instruction manual.

Hurricane season is now here and we a second named storm Cristobal
heading for New Orleans as we read this. Forecasts for this year, 2020,
is a 140% in named and major storms.
Some new and recent big sun spots occurred giving some good 6 meter
activity from US to Africa.

Dr Joe Palsa
VIRGINIA SECTION MANAGER
K3WRY at ARRL.ORG
804-350-2665

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ARRL Virginia Section
Section Manager: Dr Joseph G Palsa, K3WRY
k3wry at arrl.org
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