[CALV-AUXCOMM] Calvert AUXCOMM Event Planning for 2026

[Shawn Donley]

All,
 
Here's the outcome from our January 2026 meeting where we did some planning for activities this year.  Other ideas are most welcome.  We'll need volunteers to step up to organize these candidate events.  
 
N3AE
Calvert EC
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February 4 - 8PM  
Winlink Message Round Robin
 
Conducted from your home QTH.  Net on the CARA repeater for coordination.  The EC will initiate a Winlink P2P message and send to one of the net participants who in turn will forward to another participant and so on, finally forwarding the message back to the EC.  Digipeaters can be used.
 
APRIL 25  (Rain date May 2)   Time TBD
NVIS Exercise 
 
Members individually or in groups will deploy around the county or southern Maryland and set up NVIS antennas and stations for 40M and 80M.   One team will set up outside of the Calvert Public Service Building and include VHF to the EOC.   We'll see how well NVIS works for communications between stations and the station at the EOC.  Both voice and digital (MT63-500 or MT63-1000) will be utilized.  
 
May - Date & Time TBD
Cooperative Fox Hunt
 
A 2M fox will be set up somewhere in the county.  Hunters should have APRS capability so their positions can be tracked from the EOC.  Bearings to the fox from the hunters will be shared using the CARA repeater to triangulate the fox's location.  
 
July - Date & Time TBD
Joint AUXCOMM/Calvert Emergency Management Exercise
 
If possible, enlist Calvert Emergency Management to conduct a joint exercise using the EOC and WebEOC software.  Practice messaging using WebEOC and transferring messages into and out of WebEOC using our RACES equipment at the EOC.  These objectives might be possible by having Emergency Management set up a training event in WebEOC that we could use.
 
August 4 - Time TBD
National Night Out
 
Set up stations at local community National Night Out events
 
Late September/Early October
Annual Simulated Emergency Test
 
The SET scenario "may" be provided to us by Section emergency management.  If not, we will develop our own.  In that event, Calvert AUXCOMM members are encouraged to generate some interesting exercises we might undertake.