[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] FW: July Section Manager's Report (Covering June)

[don.ki4d at gmail.com]

Mike stop by our VHF/UHF station to see us at Field Day 2022.  He is starting off to an active start as the new ARRL VA Section Affiliated Club Coordinator.

73
Don, KI4D

-----Original Message-----
From: ARRL Members Only Web site <memberlist at arrl.org> 
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2022 9:43 AM
To: don.ki4d at gmail.com
Subject: July Section Manager's Report (Covering June)

Greetings,

As this is the report that includes Field Day, it will have a different format than usual.

I trust you all had a great Field Day Weekend. From reading the reports so far from Ed KW4GF, Wayne N4HCR, Mike WA8AHZ, Wayne N1WR, and many others, it was a resounding success. The folks I spoke with were all thrilled that we as a section are engaged and listening to them. The response to Ed’s GOTA For Life initiative, as well as Mike’s WA8AHZ’s efforts to help with rebuilding the clubs has been greatly appreciated. One of the comments I heard repeated was that there has never been this level of communication and involvement from leadership in memory. For all of your efforts, thank you! 

 I managed to get to Massanutten ARC, Valley ARC, Page ARC, a few individual sites, Charlottesville/Albemarle ARC, Greene ARC, and Culpeper ARA. At many of them there was Emergency Management personnel on site, and the conversations had were hopeful and disappointing all at the same time. More on that in moment, but they do see our value, and want our capabilities. 

We now have a new Section Emergency Coordinator. Marty Krupinski KE4KEW has kindly accepted to take on the position. He brings a great deal of experience as a Command Master Chief of an Amphibious Ready Group, and understands the importance of leadership, timely communication, and realistic training. Please take a moment to thank him for taking on this challenge. I’m going to take on as interim District 2 DEC while the search continues, and I will have several other appointments and re-appointments to announce in the next few days as well. We still need someone for D4, so anything you can do to twist some arms and find someone for D1 (more on this one later), D2 and D4 would be of great help. At some point, we’ll need someone for D3 as well, but Marty has done great work there in rebuilding bridges, so I don’t want to pull him out of that yet. 
We also have a new EC for Culpeper County. Mike K4MVM has accepted the position as an interim solution, and will be working with several other ARES members in Culpeper County to get them trained up to take over the position in the future. There are several others that have offered their assistance in this, but they came in after the end of the month, so they’ll be in next month’s report.

Some things I’d like to cover are our outreach programs (PIC/PIO, TC/TIS), and recruiting efforts for Amateur Radio and in particular, ARES. Also, how to recruit non-traditional volunteers to help us out with some tasks (and maybe get some new hams in the process!). The ARRL is a 501(c)(3), and many colleges, universities, and high schools require a certain amount of qualifying volunteer hours. This is a talent pool we should be working to develop as a link to our communities. Ed has pointed out that I need to develop some training videos for the emcommwiki.org, and similarly we could get some folks to develop some for POTA/portable activations, RF calculations, etc. I’ve spoken with several of our NTS folks about working on a training package for ARL Radiograms that can be delivered in three formats: Video, “classroom” (such as Zoom or in person), and an “on the air”
version that could be used as Just In Time training. This is not intended to make someone an expert, but to get operators functional in an emergency, should NTS traffic become necessary.
I have been exceptionally heartened to have so many people express gratitude for all that you have done, and the amount of positive comments greatly outweighs any criticisms I’ve heard. Thank you!

++ Affiliated Club Coordinator ++

ARRL still has issues pulling the FCC data base of new hams in a timely fashion, so I’ve scraped the list from our friends at HamCall for the month of June, and it’s attached for your action.  I’m getting good vibes that a number of you are using the list to contact new hams in your local area, and invite them to your Club meetings.  Thanks for that effort and expense as I know you have to do it by snail mail as email addresses are few and between on the FCC listing at this time ... Thou, as I note when I’m doing monthly VE testing w/ the Arlington Club, most of those testing are including their email address on their application form.  

Hope all you all had a great time at Field Day this year.  I can speak for Jack and Ed (and myself)  that our visits to about 10 of  the VA Section clubs by the VA Section was well worth our time ... thanks for sharing your ideas, and appreciate the many comments made that the SM team has amped up the collaboration and communication w/ the Cubs in the Section.  

Club President’s Roundtable:  We are hosting a second roundtable discussion between the Section leadership, and the VA Affiliated Club Presidents (or designated Club officials) on July 16th at 7:30 pm.  If that date/time is booked, then consider joining us on Jul 20th, at 7:30pm.  The meeting will be by Zoom and the URL will be distributed to
the Club Points of Contact shortly.   At our first roundtable in April,
there was interest in further discussions between Club leadership, and potentially establishing a Section-wide Speakers bureau.  An update on the Speakers’ bureau, and demonstration of an IT collaboration tool will be discussed.  

Amateur Radio Summer Cross-Potomac BBQ:  The VA and MDC Section Managers, along with HamCommunnity.com are hosting a BBQ event for interested Amateur Radio operators and their guests on Sunday, Aug 21st from noon to 5pm, at Seneca Creek State Park, Gaithersburg, MD.  While the picnic is aimed for those Hams who border the Potomac River, certainly the invite is open to all VA Section Hams.  Details and to register (necessary for a head count), see:  Potomac BBQ 2022 - Temporary pages - Ham Community 

Welcome New Hams to the Community!  Did you know that 87 new hams were licensed in June alone across the Commonwealth?  Look for Hams operating with 2x3 call signs with the prefix KQ4, and be sure to welcome these new hams to the hobby.  Looking for Hams in your neighborhood? Try out the following app:  https://haminfo.tetranz.com/map
 
Mike WA8AHZ

++ Contests ++

For VHF enthusiasts, the CQ World Wide VHF Contest is coming up next weekend, starting at 1800 UTC on Saturday, July 16 and running through
2100 UTC on Sunday, July 17. The event is open to amateurs around the world using the 6- and 2-meter bands. Complete rules are available at www.cqww-vhf.com/.
Also, next weekend is the first of three mode-based summer North American QSO Parties (NAQPs). The NAQP RTTY contest starts at 1800 UTC on Saturday, July 16, and concludes 12 hours later at 0559 UTC, Sunday, July 17. See the rules page at ncjweb.com/naqp/ for more information.

++ Upcoming Events ++

Tidewater Hamfest and Swap Meet, 13 August. For more information and tickets in advance, go to http://www.virginiabeachhamfest.com

++ Get On The Air (GOTA) For Life Initiative ++

Ed KW4GF has been reviewing videos and scouring websites for GOTA  FOR LIFE ideas. Also, Ed and Terry Buzzard KA8TNF DEC 5 took a 117 mile  FD trip around traffic congested Southeastern VA and visited the Chesapeake Amateur Radio Service, Western Tidewater Radio Association, Peninsula Amateur Radio Club, Southern Peninsula Amateur Radio Club, the Hampton Public Service Team, The Radio Amateur Society of Norfolk, and their home club, The Virginia Beach Amateur Radio Club. Ed and Terry observed terrific fellowship and awesome station and antenna builds. At RASON, Ed specifically observed Rich Davis W4NMH Section Technical Specialist teaching two relatively new  licensed YLs to solder connections. Ed also worked with VBARC's GOTA station and assisted two Boy Scouts to make contacts. VBARC invited a Boy Scout troop to receive Merit Badge instruction and to meet their required time on the air in order to receive their Radio Merit badges. All in all, an impressive FD in SEVA.

Thank you, Ed and Terry!

++ ARES ++

Due to the explosive growth of reporting and information, future ARES comments will be in summary format here, with a Virginia ARES eLetter to go out separately with copies to the ARES ECs for distribution to their operators and local served agencies.

George WB4VWR, District Emergency Coordinator for District 1 (DEC-1) has asked to be released from his duties for personal reasons, and I fully support his request. George has been a tremendous asset to us, and will continue to support, but in a reduced capacity to suit his needs. He will be missed as DEC-1, but if anyone is available to take this on, George has offered to assist in an effective transition. George, thank you for all you have done, and will continue to do.

Ed KD0FYV, Assistant DEC for the First Colony area has asked to be released so that he can really retire. Ed, thank you for your years of service. Terry KA8TNF and the folks down there will surely miss your hard work.
Marty KE4KEW has compiled his first major Section ARES Report since he took over. Again, this has been a team effort, and thank you to everyone who contributed your reports. There were a couple of late ones that were not included in the report for June, but they will be tallied in the annual report. A late report is better than no report! For June, we had
21 reports, encompassing 28 jurisdictions. A total of 1696.5 training hours, on the air and in person. This represents a “free chicken”
training value to our communities of over $41,400, not including the value of the communications equipment that we provide.

Thank you to (in order of districts): George WB4VWR, David KN4LQN, Mark N4MDR, Al KC2UZM, Glenn KY4LP, Norm N3MJC, Steve K4MVM, Scott KN4RPA, Steve KN4AOB, Chris KN4LQQ, Mike KQ9P, David AD4TJ, Bryan K4RMY, Geep W4RTS, Terry KA8TNF, Chris KC4F, Wayne N1WR, Jeff K4JTN, Bill W4BOT, Ron KG4KRB, David KG4GIY, Brendan KM4HRR. Mark KD6AKC got his in after the cut-off, but it will be included in the annual report. The report will be posted to the emcommwiki.org site for archival purposes, with late reports included. There is also a map of monthly reports, EC vacancies, and other helpful data that will posted soon as well. This will be both a “live” map, and an archival map. For a view of the June end of month reporting, you can see the map here:
https://paintmaps.com/user-maps/14130

Steve KX4EF participated in an exercise (Thunderbird and Whale) designed to help Native American Tribes in the Pacific Northwest cope with the aftermath of disasters, in this case a Cascadia Event. George WB4VWR and John WB4AXY were representing the District 1 and Section on this. The non-profit “United States Volunteers”, a relatively recently formed non-profit, has its Joint Training Center in Virginia. 

I have been in discussions with the Virginia Dept. of Emergency Management (VDEM) leadership at various levels, from the Statewide Interoperable Coordinator (SWIC), the Voluntary Agency Liaison (VAL), our Amateur Radio Service Liaison, and a handful of exchanges with many others on a range of topics. To say that I’ve been playing catch-up is an understatement. VDEM wants our help, we are written into their emergency communications plan, and are eager to work with us. 

I have also been rebuilding our connections to the American Red Cross, and the Virginia Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters (VOADVirginia.org). The ARRL is a member at the national level of the VOAD movement, and was one of the first members, but here in VA we had only been a member for one year. To show how important we are to the national response, one has only to look at FEMA doctrine, in particular Emergency Support Function 6 (Mass Care), where we are THE communications asset for the VOADs.
https://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nrf/nrf-esf-06.pdf We can leverage these ties by working cooperatively on training and planning with those other organizations, and maybe we can get some of them interested in the amateur radio service, and some of our folks interested in supporting the other VOADs more directly, too.

Greg KW6GB of Winlink Wednesday fame has been working with VDEM and the VEOC, along with several Counties/Independent Cities, to conduct a communications exercise to show that the Amateur Radio Service (ARS), including ARES, can provide critical communications links that are not only reliable, but resilient. The last few phases of the exercise were conducted at the various EOCs and the VEOC, with the representative officials participating. This was a resounding success, even though the bands were not helpful. The SWIC and VDEM leadership, are eager to see this expanded out to the rest of the Virginia VDEM Regions and Counties/Independent Cities. Greg, thank you for taking the initiative to make this project a reality.

Liability Insurance for ARES units: I have consulted with ARRL Field Organization and the ARRL partner regarding insurance for ARES units. It is available, being a “501(c)3” is not required, and it’s easy to do. I have compiled a paper with some information in it from those discussions, and I can send it to any ARES EC who is interested.

73,

Jack R. Smith, VaPEM
KE4LWT
American Radio Relay League®
Virginia Section Manager
434-218-3393
ke4lwt at arrl.org or
va.section.manager at gmail.com
“We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.” 
― Archilochus

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ARRL Virginia Section
Section Manager: Jack R Smith, KE4LWT
ke4lwt at arrl.org
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