[nrv-hams] Fwd: December 2015 Virginia Section Manager Report

[Danny Wylam]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ARRL Members Only Web site <memberlist at www.arrl.org>
Date: Thu, Dec 10, 2015 at 9:48 AM
Subject: December 2015 Virginia Section Manager Report
To: dannywylam at gmail.com


Virginia Section Theme---“Moving forward with Amateur Radio for our
Future”

I am writing this on Dec 7th and as well all know, this the day we all
honor those brave men and women who gave their lives for our freedom on
this day in Pearl Harbor as well as all who lost their lives during
WWII. It is with our heartfelt love and prayers that keep these souls
in our memories forever.

Hurricane Season is now gone, the leaves are falling, giving us a good
view of where to hang new antennas, and Christmas is only a couple of
weeks away. Now is the time to carefully plan how you are going to get
that piece of ham equipment you want for Christmas.

With holiday season of Christmas and then the New Year of 2016, now is
the time to layout some of our plans for section during 2016. While we
have been in place only since March of this year, we have worked very
hard to develop some programs that have languished for some years
past.

In our ARES/RACES program, with Ed Krom WD4KHP our SEC we have been
able to appoint several new DEC’s and they in turn have been able to
fill the numerous EC positions that had been vacant. The Commonwealth
of Virginia was able to have one AUXCOMM training weekend and they had
excellent attendance of both ARES/RACES members and other EMCOMM hams
from around the state.

Cooperation between all levels of EMCOMM personnel from all types of
groups and agencies is slowly making headway. This is a big step for us
all and we will continue to pursue this in 2016
We have been working to update the Virginia ARES/RACES E.O.P. which was
initially drafted some years earlier, but was never presented and
implemented. We have taken this draft and with the assistance of
several DEC's and EC's we have updated several items to comply with
today's operational needs. In addition, plans are being formulated to
update our Virginia ARES/Races data base which is several years old and
has a number of SK's as well as inactive members.

CERT---In the New Year, we will be starting a formal program in
Virginia to visit as many CERT groups and local government EC’s as
possible to promote the addition of ham radio to their basic
communications capability. Several local agencies programs around the
state are already working on this with good success. We plan to put
additional efforts and plans working with many more local government
agencies in Virginia. Having ham radio as part of their communications
package will enhance their capabilities not only locally, but
regionally as well as state wide. The addition of increased reliability
is paramount to all citizens of Virginia.

2016 SET---As you are aware there has not been a state wide ARRL SET
for the past several years. Fortunately, private EMCOMM groups, some
small and local, some bigger and regional have developed SET programs
in these vacant years. In 2016, we as ARRL ARES/RACES will be planning
and activating a State Wide ARRL SET in cooperation with Virginia
Department of Emergency services (VDEM) for the first time in years.

Amateur Radio Licensing---This volunteer effort has been growing
steadily over the years, we will be working with the groups like
Richmond Amateur Club who have held schools for several years and
graduate many new hams each year. We have groups like this all over
Virginia and we will work with them to have classes for CERT members as
well other interested persons around Virginia. The plan is to have more
classes and more opportunities for license testing.

Amateur Radio Clubs---While there are over 100 ham radio clubs and
organizations in Virginia, not all have ARRL affiliation. This is OK.
We have visited quite number of clubs since last March, we plan to
visit many more clubs and groups all around Virginia, especially in the
west, south west, and northern parts of the state. Every ham is
important and every ham should have the opportunity for an education,
from the ARRL, FEMA, Homeland Security as well as local EMS and
communications agencies.

We have already started a program for developing ham radio interests in
schools, including colleges and universities in Virginia. I am pleased
to report we already have a group in a Tidewater University that is
being built up as well speak. There still is much work to do here, but
have proved it can be done.

Scouting---We have an appointed scouting representative who has worked
with many scout groups over the years and he is putting together a more
aggressive plan for teaching scouts for their merit badges as well
getting their ham licenses.


We have plans for enhancing Contesting groups, DX groups, and others.
There is not time here to explain in detail all of the plans and
programs this administration has in the works for 2016 and beyond.

Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015-Update.

S-1685 has made it out of committee already. We are now looking for
leglslation to which it can be attached for hopefully, success.  HR
1301 is still gaining support albeit slowly. We still need hams to go
to   www.arrl.org/amateur-radio-parity-act to get their sample letters,
etc..

State Wide Nets

We have a number of nets that originate in Virginia and are great
places to get current information on contests, DX, testing, satellites,
EMCOMM, building projects, etc.. These can be found on the internet very
easily or just google inquiries with plain language.

You can find your SM on the Virginia Fone Net on 3947 KHz at either
4:00 or 7:30 PM daily, the Old Dominion Emergency Net on 3947 KHz at
6:30 PM on the first and third Monday’s of each month, the Virginia
Sideband Net at 6:00PM on 3947K Hz daily, the RATS Net on every
Thursday on the 146.88 (74.4) repeater at 8:00 PM or the District 6
ARES net on the 147.43 (74.4) repeater every Thursday at 8:30 PM.

Be advised, I do sign in to these nets regularly, and I will be happy
to make contact with you.

Remember-----Education is our strongest tool to accomplish our goals.

Dr Joseph Palsa
Virginia Section Manager
K3WRY at ARRL.ORG
804-350-2665

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

To unsubscribe from messages, go to:
http://p1k.arrl.org/oo/d7b83dd3fda145734f1575025ba16d12