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NTX ARES Newsletter - September 2020

Posted by: SM Category: Newsletter

 Greetings fellow North Texans! *** Many of you are already aware that the ARRL Now has a new CEO You may not know that he is a very active On The air amateur Radio operator. He is a Lifetime member of CWOPS group and a fellow DXER and Contest OP. He received over 2/3rds of the Votes by the Board of Directors, which to me shows the over whelming majority of our Board Members at ARRL have confidence in him. He is David Minster NA2AA *** The Board also seated a member to a brand-new position at Headquarters.... The ARRL ECOM Director is Paul Gilbert KE5ZW We can all be proud that Paul Gilbert KE5ZW is a fellow Texan. Paul is the current South Texas Section Manager, he has a wealth of background in Federal, State and Section Level ECOM and will be a valued asset to all of us. A new Section Manager will be elected for South Texas, watch ARRL News for more info. *** The Second West Gulf Director Round Table meeting with ARRL NTX Club Officers and myself was held on the 29th of this past month (August). Due to COVID19 this round table was held virtually by way of Zoom conferencing. We had over 24 club officers represented, and I feel it was a very progressive meeting. Your Club officers gave Director John Stratton and me more than a few issues we could work on. Per the request I have formed an On-Line discussion area where club officers can have a working dialogue with myself and the rest of the North Texas Section Management Staff on any topics that their members wish addressed. A couple of your officers mentioned what happen to the ARRL Club Coordinator position that the Board of Directors were working on. This position was not seated before we found the need to find a new CEO.  Now that Mr. Minster NA2AA has been appointed as the CEO and once he has found his way around the inner working of Headquarters, we hope to see some momentum on this new position. The Club Coordinator at Headquarters will allow greater attention towards affiliated club needs. *** Once again, I make my plea for Safer Tower Climbing to everyone. If you think Free climbing, or climbing with a Climbing Belt is Safe, you are only kidding yourself. Every Ham Radio Club should take time out to present a video or two on Safe Tower Climbing. Every amateur radio OP owes it to their family and loved ones and them self to learn the right way to climb and work on towers. By the way, Climbing Belts have not been OSHA approved for many years. The right Gear begins with Boots and a Climbing Harness that has two Fall arrest lanyards and a positioning lanyard as well as the knowledge of when it is safe and unsafe to climb. The recent fatality was from only a 50-foot tower! Here is a link to an Excellent Video https://youtu.be/uJO-L3td_p8 If you are unable to view the Video, please email me for another link. I implore Clubs to help promote Tower Safety, even an OSHA approved climbing kit for member use, everything but the Boots. *** ARES and ECOM Please never self-deploy, you will only burden resources that are not prepared for your arrival. Greg Evans K5GTX and I work closely with all neighboring Section Leaders and we would love for everyone to take heed of the following message he and I have created on this subject... "If you are considering volunteering as an ECOM resource during any emergency, please make sure you first notify Section Management (SM & SEC) within your Section before expressing your willingness and readiness to any served agencies and/or other Sections. We appreciate willingness; however we need to do our part as a Team. Please, allow us to do so by communicating with us first. Steven Lott Smith KG5VK ARRL NTX Section Manager Greg Evans K5GTX ARRL NTX Section Emergency Coordinator" One should also consult their respective County ARES EC and if your an EC up channel to the District (DEC) *** ARRL North Texas Ham of The Year 2020/2021 As of Today (September 3,2020) I have received only one Nomination!!! I am again accepting nomination packages for the ARRL North Texas Amateur of the Year award. Please title the email with the Nomination "ARRLNTX 2020 HOY". The Nominee must be an ARRL member and Reside in North Texas. Deadline for nominations is 1 October 2020. Nomination packages emailed to me and should include the full name and call sign of the Nominee and Bullet statements of accomplishments with short paragraphs or a few sentences of justification under each bullet statement.  Again, the Deadline for nominations is the First of October. Please remember I am available to attend any Virtual Club Meetings while we all continue to Social Distance, my last announcement of this last month netted only Two invites to attend meetings. Most important I still come bearing a Door Prize or two, dependent on how many attendees are in the meeting. I can bring a presentation that last about 15 minutes or just be on hand for questions your group may have. Of course you can always drop me a line any time, email is preferred but I am welcome to phone calls as long as you are willing to leave a message if I do not answer with the topic. No sign of Fall weather, yet.  So please stay safe in this heat. Hydrate, Hydrate, and take cool breaks away from the heat. 73 Steve KG5VK Tele 318-470-9806 KG5VK@ARRL.ORG

North Texas Section July 2020 Newsletter

Posted by: SEC Category: Newsletter

July 2020 Monthly Newsletter from your Section Manager: 3 SKs - Henry Allen, W5TYD; Benjamin Sly, KF5OEB; Tom M. Blackwell, M5GAR Field Day 2020 ARRL Learning Network Virtual Seminars North Texas ARRL Round Table  

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North Texas Section News

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North Texas Section Newsletter September 2020

Sep 8, 2020

The September 2020 NTX Newsletter has been posted here for all to read!

ARRL NTX Newsletter

North Texas Section Newsletter - July 2020

Jul 5, 2020

The July 2020 NTX News letter has been posted here for all to read!

ARRL NTX Newsletter

ARRL Field Day Notes from NTX Section Manager

Jun 13, 2020

With ARRL FD just two weeks away, I wanted to answer the most frequent questions about Field Day.

As always, I want to emphasize that we all do the safest thing for each one of us and for our club members.

Q: Can a club member operate from home using the club call sign?
A: Yes, but the call sign may only be used in one location and the member must receive permission from the trustee of the call sign. However, keep in mind these two facts:

1. Only those members that are within a 1,000-foot circle of the defined ARRL FD Location.

2. No more than one station (Station Defined as a Callsign) can be on the same Band/Mode at any given instant (FCC Rule). So if Jerry W5JJ, Kelly W5KJ and Debbie W5DJ all live within a 1,000 foot circle they can use the same callsign provided they have permission from the Trustee of the Callsign AND they ensure that they do not operate on the same Band-Mode at ANY given instant in order to be compliant with this FCC Rule.

This requires coordination and planning with each other. If anyone does this and they are outside of the 1,000-foot circle, the hams have broken the FD Rule and therefore must submit their log so stating as a Check Log. 

Distributed Multi-OP is beyond most clubs/members capability (Distributed Multi-Op is what we are discussing under item 2.) because of the required coordination to ensure no more than one person per Band-Mode.

If coordination can be done and each member of the team is using the same callsign while  using the same software, such as N1MM+ on linked computers..

However, keep in mind if any of the members of that Distributed Multi-Op team are outside of a 1,000 foot circle then they have broken the 1,000-foot ARRL FD Rule and you will need to state so during Log Submission and therefore submit your Log as a Check Log

*** Most clubs will ask each member to operate on their own, with their own station and callsign. When the operator submits their log, they state the Name of the Club of which they are a member.

Each station can work any other station. For example, W5JJ can work anyone he wants, including other club members operating with their own callsign. Just because W5DJ is a member of the same club does not mean he cannot work Debbie (W5DJ)

The ONLY rule changes for FD 2020 are Class D stations may work anyone else including other Class D stations and Individual scores will be aggregated to Club scores, if those submitting their scores so request it, by naming their club.

 *** Clubs will not need to total the scores of each member and submit a combined log ***

A few clubs will still have a few members that insist on going to a Field Day location and operating just like they have forever. While I do NOT recommend this, it is OK to operate at a location as long as they do not violate any city or county ordinance and respect the social distancing recommendations.

Please, realize sanitizing radios and especially Microphones in the field is almost impossible. If operators recognize their own personal risk and are wanting to press forward so be it. 

Use the Club callsign and submit the log just as previous field days.

The members that wish to remain safer and operate at home or other secluded location, can operate with their own station callsign and add the club name to their own personal submission.

The deployed club members (In The Field) can work any other stations even if they are a club member, as long as they have not also gone home and worked the deployed station for a QSO.

I know many clubs enjoy providing a GOTA station there are some creative social distancing methods of doing so, however they demand the control op, be on their toes at all times and therefore I do NOT recommend it.

Personally, I will be operating 1E from my home station. I will be accepting traffic addressed to myself as the Section Manager for those seeking those bonus points

I will take traffic on cw and phone. When you work me on Phone, just state you have traffic for me. On

CW just send QRG? When I send QRG without the question mark, you can start sending your traffic.

I will also check Winlink using VARA  P2P  (HF to HF) at 3PM  and 6 PM on Saturday. My VARA Day Time Center frequency will be 3594.500 with the Dial Frequency of 3593.000

You may of course also send Traffic to me via any of the established Nets

Have a Safe and Fun ARRL FD event.

I will be glad to answer any further questions Just drop me an email.

Steve, KG5VK

ARC National CommEX, Saturday May 30

May 28, 2020

The North Texas Section ARES is participating in the American Red Cross Communications Exercise on May 30, 2020.  Please work with your local EC to coordinate your activity. The Incident Action Plan can be found here. Please review Annex E (Pages 14-18) - it is a process flow description and should answer your questions about how to participate.

STAY PREPARED, STAY READY, STAY SAFE

73,

Greg Evans, K5GTX
North Texas Section Emergency Coordinator

Temporary Rule Waivers for ARRL Field Day 2020

May 28, 2020

With one month to go before 2020 ARRL Field Day, June 27-28, the ARRL Programs and Services Committee (PSC) has adopted two temporary rule waivers for the event:

     1) For Field Day 2020 only, Class D stations may work all other Field Day stations, including other Class D stations, for points.

     Field Day rule 4.6 defines Class D stations as “Home stations,” including stations operating from permanent or licensed station locations using commercial power. Class D stations ordinarily may only count contacts made with Class A, B, C, E, and F Field Day stations, but the temporary rule waiver for 2020 allows Class D stations to count contacts with other Class D stations for QSO credit.

     2) In addition, for 2020 only, an aggregate club score will be published, which will be the sum of all individual entries indicating a specific club (similar to the aggregate score totals used in ARRL affiliated club competitions).

     Ordinarily, club names are only published in the results for Class A and Class F entries, but the temporary rule waiver for 2020 allows participants from any Class to optionally include a single club name with their submitted results following Field Day.

     For example, if Podunk Hollow Radio Club members Becky, W1BXY, and Hiram, W1AW, both participate in 2020 Field Day — Hiram from his Class D home station, and Becky from her Class C mobile station — both can include the radio club’s name when reporting their individual results. The published results listing will include individual scores for Hiram and Becky, plus a combined score for all entries identified as Podunk Hollow Radio Club.

The temporary rule waivers were adopted by the PSC on May 27, 2020.

ARRL Field Day is one of the biggest events on the amateur radio calendar, with over 36,000 participants in 2019, including entries from 3,113 radio clubs and emergency operations centers. In most years, Field Day is also the largest annual demonstration of ham radio, because many radio clubs organize their participation in public places such as parks and schools.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many radio clubs have made decisions to cancel their group participation in ARRL Field Day this year due to public health recommendations and/or requirements, or to significantly modify their participation for safe social distancing practices. The temporary rule waivers allow greater flexibility in recognizing the value of individual and club participation regardless of entry class.

ARRL is contacting logging program developers about the temporary rule waivers so developers can release updated versions of their software prior to Field Day weekend. Participants are reminded that the preferred method of submitting entries after Field Day is via the web applet. The ARRL Field Day rules include instructions for submitting entries after the event. Entries must be submitted or postmarked by Tuesday, July 28, 2020.

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