Practice, practice, practice. Contesting may not be one of your favorite parts of amateur radio, but it can be useful to hone your amateur radio skills in case of emergency. Breaking a pile-up when the station you’re calling is very weak can be good practice for when the SHTF. Listening through the atmospheric noise and […]
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 me stories […]
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 […]
On October 3, 2020, Johnson County ARES, Johnson County Emergency Communications Service (ECS) (the County RACES organization) and the Kansas/Western Missouri Division of SATERN participated cooperatively in the Simulated Emergency Test (SET) with a common exercise plan. Due to Covid-19, participants this year will mostly be operating from their homes rather than being deployed to […]
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, […]
The BUTLER COUNTY DIGITAL NET is dedicated to learning and developing digital operating skills and practicing digital traffic handling. Digital communications can become important in an emergency due to a natural disaster or power outage. To support this mission, we focus on three fundamentals: Directed Net protocols, Computer skills, and Digital traffic-handling with NBEMS software. […]
The annual AmRRon T-Rex exercise was conducted April 26-28, 2019. This scenario-based, grid down emergency communications training exercise is an opportunity to test members readiness in the event of a disaster or other emergency. The scenario this year was primarily centered around a cyber attack on PLC’s (programmable logic controllers). These small devices provide computer […]