In this age of GPS, cell phones, and the Internet, many have lost the ability to read a paper map. I like the conveniences all those modern technologies provide and use them myself. But, what happens when the power grid goes down, your GPS and cell phone don’t work, and you need to find or […]
Flint Hills Amateur Radio Club returned to Beaumont, Kansas on October 23, 2021 with a special event station (WØT) in honor of the Beaumont Historic Hotel. The city of Beaumont built a beautiful community center where we set up our base of operations. The community center represents an old Frisco Railroad depot that used to […]
Contesting may not be one of your favorite parts of amateur radio, but it can be useful to improve your amateur radio skills in case of emergency. The goal of Amateur Radio contesting is to contact as many stations as possible during the contest period. Contests regularly take place on the HF bands: 160, 80, […]
T-Rex … wow, was that a wild 48 hours? And, it wasn’t even real. I can’t imagine the chaos and confusion that would accompany a real world emergency. I’ve spoken to one person who experienced the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma and he described overwhelming chaos and confusion. Another friend shared with […]
Image Courtesy KFØBFUWichita AmRRon members joined the WØVFW Radio Club on 4/24/21 to “activate” Cheney State Park (K-2331) for a Parks on the Air ® (POTA) event. POTA is a popular outdoor activity for HAM operators across the country to practice their skills and promote emergency awareness and communications from national/federal and state/provincial level parks. Visit […]
Participated today in the AmRRon FTX21-3 exercise using JS8Call program. This exercise simulates a National Signals Center (CigCen Nat) attempting to fill an information void by having remote stations report Priority Information Requirements (PIRs) within their area of operation (AO) while consuming as little power and radio spectrum as possible. Multiple Listening Posts (LP) will […]
Participated today in the AmRRon FTX 4 exercise using JS8Call program. JS8Call is software using the JS8 Digital Mode providing weak signal keyboard to keyboard messaging to Amateur Radio Operators. Here was the scenario: The 2020 Presidential election has been one of the most (if not the most) divisive elections in U.S. history. No matter […]
The SATERN International 20 meter Phone Net for Hurricane Delta was activated Thursday, Oct. 8, 2020. Hurricane Delta made landfall in Mexico Wednesday as an extremely dangerous Category 2 storm, coming ashore near Puerto Morelos along the northeastern coast of Yucatan Peninsula. It is later expected to arrive near the Louisiana Coast about 4 pm […]
A Simulated Emergency Test (SET) is a training exercise where the primary purposes are to evaluate strengths and weaknesses in emergency preparedness and communications, and to demonstrate amateur radio to the public. On October 3, 2020, Johnson County ARES, Johnson County Emergency Communications Service (ECS) (the County RACES organization) and the Kansas/Western Missouri Division of […]
I joined other members of the WØVFW club for this year’s field day activity. It was held at club president, Pat Schneweis’s (KCØZRY) home where he had ample space and antennas for making contacts. I really didn’t prepare any project for this year and mostly participated for the fellowship and food. And, I must say, […]