[South Florida DX Association] Section News Extra

[Bill Marx]

Hi Everyone,

I find there is too much information to save for the news summary with
the reports so I'm sending an interim news message this month.

As I type this tropical storm Noel is in the Caribbean and we need to
keep a close eye on it.  Remember we have another month of hurricane
season to concern us. 

The web page at www.arrl.org/sections/SFL.html was recently updated and
is complete with lots of photos from the Melbourne hamfest.  We had a
successful Youth Forum and Youth Corner, thanks to Emily Bishop WE4MB
and Bud Humelsine WA4BUD.  The retirement gathering for Frank Butler,
W4RH on Sunday morning was well attended.  Dennis Dura, K2DCD joined us
for a great ARES forum on Saturday.  The ARES e-letter has a summary of
Dennis' presentation: ARES E-Letter for October 15, 2007
http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/ares-el/index.html?issue=2007-10-15

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Time sensitive news for members in and around the Jupiter/Stuart area:
Jerry, AI4QZ and Norm, W4QN are organizing a CW Training and skill
improvement session. The Plan calls for two sessions a week for 4 to 6
weeks beginning early November (with appropriate Holiday consideration)
and training and practice will be "on the air" - using 10m band. 
The objectives are to learn or improve character recognition skills and
complete familiarity with commonly used CW characters.
Pre-requisites:  A commitment to learn or improve CW skills, currently
licensed ham - prefer at least General class privileges- Tech okay (Ten
meter operation), interest in learning Morse code and improving skills,
HF transceiver for on the air practice - ARRL sessions, and 10m
sessions, - CW code practice keyer and Paddle (maybe built into
transceiver), and earphones for use in group training sessions. 
What we would like to know- 
1- Are you interested in participating? - (please indicate) 
2- Can you make TUESDAY and THURSDAY, 2 hour sessions?  
3- Do you have an HF transceiver and capable of operating on 10m? 
4- Own CW keyer and key? 
We still have some logistics problems to solve, but having some idea of
who and how many might be interested will help us determine how to best
facilitate this program.  This is open to any interested hams in the
area.  Please respond promptly via email- we will base our plan on the
responses received. 
Regards,
Norm W4QN (e-mail: NPAlex at aol.com )
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Our section website is being updated.  Here's a message from our
webmaster: Attention ARRL Affiliated Clubs and ARES groups! 
As many of you know, in August 2007 we launched the new section website
www.sflarrl.org and since that time we have been working to improve the
content and to generate traffic that points prospective members and new
hams to your club. To do this, it is important to have accurate
information on the site. 
I'm asking the President of each Affiliated Club and EC of each ARES
group in the section to either send or delegate a member to send me the
following information to be added to the site. If you would like to see
an example of how this information will be displayed on the site,
follow this link: http://www.sflarrl.com/sflarrl/section/index.htm and
click on Martin County. 
For ARES groups: EC name and call, e-mail address, website, repeater
frequencies, meeting dates, times, locations and net dates, times, and
frequency. 
For Affiliated Clubs: Club President name and call, e-mail address,
website, repeater frequencies, meeting dates, times, locations, and net
dates, times, and frequency. 
I am also looking for QSL cards to add to the section gallery. The
gallery is there to represent the local membership of the section and
to make you a vital part of the site. 
Thanks for your assistance in making www.sflarrl.org a vital resource
to amateur radio and the section! -- de Jeremy Briggs-K4OCD, ARRL SFL
ASM - Webmaster
--------- 
The 2007 ARRL Frequency Measuring Test (FMT) will take place November
15 at 0245 UTC.  It will replace the W1AW normally scheduled phone
bulletin. W1AW Station Manager Joe Carcia, NJ1Q, recommends that those
planning to participate listen to W1AW's transmissions prior to the
event to determine which band--or bands--will be best for measurement
purposes.
The FMT will start with a general QST call from W1AW at exactly 0245
UTC, transmitted simultaneously on three amateur frequencies. The 
approximate frequencies are 1854 kHz, 3583 kHz and 7045 kHz. The test
will consist of three 60-second key down transmissions for each 
band, followed by a series of dits, followed by a station
identification.  The test will last for approximately 15 minutes and
will end with a series of Vs followed by station identification. W1AW
will identify before, during and after the transmissions.    
An article, "Frequency Measuring Test 2007," by Ward Silver, N0AX, in
the November 2007 QST and also available on the ARRL Web site at
http://www.arrl.org/w1aw/fmt/2007/2007FMTSilver.pdf covers this year's
FMT.
Additional information about the FMT--including a list of reference
articles and updates to test schedules--is on the W1AW Frequency
Measuring Test Web page, http://www.arrl.org/w1aw/fmt.
--------
Robin Terrill is looking for about 30 amateur radio volunteers to help
with communications during the Davie Boulevard Grand Reopening, from
441 to I-95 on Davie Blvd. which will be on November 10th from 9:00 AM
to 4:30 PM. There are three staging areas that we need to cover. We
will be tasked to be the eyes and ears for this event, to provide
communications for safety reasons and to provide a source of
information to be given out to the general pubic when asked. You will
receive a T-shirt to identify you as part of the team.   Please contact
Robin Terrill / N4HHP @ 954 249-5343 or email him at n4hhp at comcast.net
to volunteer. If you email him, please send me your name, address, cell
phone number and your callsign. 
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SKYWARN Recognition Day (SRD) is Saturday, December 1, and the National
Weather Service and ARRL are once again  co-sponsoring the on-the-air 
operating activity.  An article about this operating event will be
featured in December QST's Public Service column. 

Worthwhile Reference: State Liability Laws for Volunteers -- The
document starts off with general things including the national
Volunteer Protection Act of 1997. In addition to a summary of each
state's volunteer law, it goes into some recent case law. Do not rely
solely on this publication, it is not an exhaustive list of either the
Statutes or the case law interpreting the Statutes. 
http://nonprofitrisk.org/downloads/state-liability.pdf

Please continue to send me electronic versions of your club and ARES
newsletters and add me to the club's reflector.  This makes it easy for
me to get news of club events, classes, officers, etc.  Also add the
Affiliated Club Coordinator, Jeff WA4AW to these lists.

That's all for now.  Stay safe and stay on the air.
73,
Sherri, W4STB

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ARRL Southern Florida Section
Section Manager: Sharon T. Brower, W4STB
w4stb at arrl.org