[South Florida DX Association] Monthly Southern Florida Section News Summary

[Bill Marx]

Hi Everyone,

First -- Hurricane IKE
Do NOT self deploy.  Do NOT contact your EC to volunteer to go to TX or LA.
You will be advised if personnel from long distances are needed to assist 
and
I will send an e-mail asking that you contact me directly.  At this time
everyone in the SFL section needs to stay close to home in case we are hit 
by
a strong storm.  Please verify all statements regarding Amateur Radio
involvement and refrain from spreading rumors.

This is copied from the ARRL web site: Saturday September 13, 2008 0100 GMT
     Anticipated staffing requests are expected to exceed resources in the
Hurricane Ike recovery areas. ARRL will be coordinating these requests for
our Field Organization. Staff and will look first to states close to the
areas involved. These would be NM, KS, TN, AR, MO, MS and others out of the
path but closer to Texas and Louisiana. The actual levels of need for
resources will not be available until after the storm passes and assessments
are made.
     Section Managers and SECs in specific areas have been asked to begin
collecting information on the availability of ARES volunteers now. The 
actual
first movement of personnel is not expected to begin until after Sunday
morning dependent on conditions in the area.
     Volunteers can make their availability known to their Section Manager,
SEC or home section delegated contact. Be sure they have your name, call,
when you can begin travel, for how long you could be deployed, and any
important considerations you may have. Even if you are not in a Section near
the impacted area, you can still make your availability known.
     Do NOT self deploy - you will be turned back
     When travel is authorized, you will be notified with the specific 
contact
information (name and locations) and to whomto report.
     There is no reimbursement for volunteer expenses.
     If additional staffing is required, we will expand the call-up to
Sections further away from the impacted areas.
-----------------------------
What's in your toolkit?
Noted psychologist Abraham Maslow said: To the man who only has a hammer in
the toolkit, every problem looks like a nail.  We should have many things in
our toolkit; several modes to pass emergency traffic, several modes to work
the DX, spare batteries, spare microphone, key, keyboard, headphones, extra
coax, pens, pencils, ICS forms, radiogram forms, etc.  You get the idea. 
For
more ideas attend the forum on EMCOMM training at the Melbourne Hamfest 
where
David Fowler, K4DLF will present:  Save Money and Have Fun Assembling a Go
Kit.  Melbourne Hamfest also offers many other forums, meetings for various
organizations and a Youth Corner.  For full details go to www.pcars.org and
click on Hamfest.

Soapbox: Many people I speak with, whether or not they are hams seem to say:
Too Much E-mail and Lots of off-subject E-mail.  Before you hit send please
ask yourself if you are posting the correct message in the right place.  If
it is off-topic for the list and you feel someone on the list might help
answer your question put  a phrase such as, A Bit Off-topic, in the subject
line.

The weather has been fairly good to us so far this season.  Several counties
had flooding and tornadoes from some storms but we have had limited ARES
activation.  For the next 30 days we are at the peak of the season so do not
let your guard down.  Thank You to all who responded to local activations 
and
standby lists.
---------------
REPORTS:
Total ARES members in the 7 counties reporting: 753.
There were 8 ARES nets active, holding 27 sessions. Three ARES nets had NTS
liaison.
DECs/ECs reporting:  N4LEM, KF4MJJ, WA4ASJ, WA4GUK, AI7Q, AD4RZ, WN7YJJ
reporting for Osceola
Number of drills, tests and training sessions: 38, Person hours: 106.
Number of emergency operations: 5, Person hours: 476.
Total number of ARES operations: 53, Total Person hours: 633

(This does not reflect our August activity in any way.  For T.S. Fay alone, 
I
estimated 3000 man hours, including Skywarn activity.  SFAN had several
special sessions and we had 39 check-ins, representing all 3 Florida
sections, during one of the special sessions.)
=========
SARs August 2008 -- KA4FZI 137, KE4CB 106, AA4BN 55, KC4TM 26, W7GXW 5

PSHRs August 2008 -- AA4BN 144, KA4FZI 120,KE4CB 105
Congratulations to Jim, AA4BN, whose high PSHR reflects his hours of service
with ARES during Tropical Storm Fay.

Net Reports for August 2008
Total Check-ins 2375 (up an even 100 from last month) Total QTC 526

NET,  ABB, SESS, QNI, QTC, MGR
All Florida CW Traffic Net,  QFN, 62, 521, 291, AD4DO
Florida Amateur SSB Traffic Net, FAST, 31, 288, 61, K4SCL
Florida Medium Speed Net, FMSN, 31, 209, 27, AG4RJ/AB4XK
Jupiter-Tequesta Repeater Group, JTRG, 7, 86, 23, AG4BV/W4FK
Palm Beach County Ares Net, PBCAN, 8, 105, 18, K4DLF
Saint Lucie Repeater Association, SLRA, 5, 58, 0, KE4UEI
Southeast Florida Traffic Net, SEFTN, 33, 763, 41, AG4RJ/KI4IQZ
Southwest Florida Traffic Net, SWFTN 27, 345, 65, KE4CB/N9WS
========
It is refreshing to see many groups offering Technician classes beginning 
this
month.  Several teaching teams are composed of members from several counties
and clubs.  Think about teaming with another nearby club to broaden the pool
of instructors, the publicity opportunities, and the pool of prospective
students.
========
Try a new band. Try a new mode. Get on the air and have a QSO.

I thought I'd share this with all of you:
At the Greater Norwalk ARC, 'GNARC' of Norwalk,CT  monthly meeting, the
president, K1WYQ said he would like to play devil's advocate and asked all
present what they say when non hams say there is no need for ham radio since
they have their cell phone.
One fellow summed it all up rather well. He said: A cell phone is for 
calling
a friend. Ham radio is for making a friend.

That's all for now. News is posted on a flow basis to the web page so check
often.  Most of the news has been storm related and several clubs canceled
meetings due to storms. Hopefully next month things will be active with
events other than storms.  Send me your club news and encourage traffic
handling, ARES participation and appointee reporting in your area.  Web news
is at www.arrl.org/sections/SFL.html  Till next time, stay safe and stay on
the air.

73,
Sherri, W4STB


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