Test of the Illinois ARES GoogleGroup email list

[Pat Ryan KC6VVT, ASEC/IL & ILARES HF Net Manager]

This is a test of the backup Illinois ARES GoogleGroup email list. No
response is necessary, unless you want to update your own listing.

There is no ILARES HF scheduled net until 1630L on August 5, 2012, per
our regular HF Net schedule of the first and third Sundays,

Do take some time to build or check your emergency HF antenna for 3905
and 7230 kHz that you can deploy safely, if your main HF antenna is
unavailable!

Always nice to have a 2M and 70cm dual band or monoband antennas up on
the top of the temporary antenna mast for local net use, too.

Is this ARES antenna system and go-kit ready to take to a temporary
evacuation point, if sheltering in place or at home is not allowed?

In the past, we somehow managed to schedule an extra ILARES HF drill
or exercise net on months with 5 Sundays, those times are history. Yet
July 29th, 2012 is a fifth Sunday, so consider this:

Nothing precludes you, and your local ARES, from having your own local
HF/VHF/UHF communication exercise or drill on a fifth Sunday, testing
your new ARES emergency antenna mentioned under home or field
conditions. Make it a regular event, just for exercise. How about
checking your local Red Cross, Public Health or hospital radio amateur
radio communications network with a routine test. Not a Field Day, or
anything big. Just a small ARES Test of your station, emergency and/or
back up power. Summer is tough on batteries. Remember any Non
Government Organizations (NG0) that your local ARES team supports
under local or ARRL MOU, and you already know how hard it might be to
get anyone to come in an open the office on Sunday. To that, I add, a
parking lot test from there will prove the case for emergency
communications, so mobiles are perfectly okay to test.

Remember, disasters and communications emergencies occur without
regard to the weather conditions. And you can make this test on your
last weekly ARES Net of the month, it is your idea!

Do try and pass a formal Radiogram at least once during any local ARES
exercise or net. Hope it included some ARL Text, even if only an ARL
Sixty Nine ARES.

As a courtesy to Brad W9FX, SEC/IL, following is his latest net notes.
You should be subscribed to the Illinois_ARES Yahoo Group as our main
email alert and have already received this. If not, subscribe now!


== begin copy ==

From: "Brad Pioveson W9FX" <br...@w9fx.net>
Sender: Illino...@yahoogroups.com
--
ILLINOIS ARES HF NET COMMENTS 15 JULY 2012

Thanks to all of you for joining this net on a(nother) hot Illinois
summer afternoon. Lemonade stands and air conditioning service
centers would appear to be the two best investments in Illinois right
now.

Yesterday afternoon at about 1900Z, a Coronal Mass Ejection, or, CME,
collided with the Earth’s magnetosphere. That our best and brightest
scientists with all our technology could only tell us that this cloud
of solar debris was coming, and, give us, at best, a 14 hour window
during which it might hit, says a lot about how little we know about
the workings of our Sun. Oh, and, they missed that prediction by a
couple of hours, incidentally. At any rate once again, we dodged a
bullet – there was not enough energy, not enough high energy
particles, in this blast to take down all or parts of our electrical
grid. I am grateful for that.

This solar cycle, however, is far from over. We could be seeing more
blasts from solar Active Region 1520 in the next few days, and,
doubtless, when 1520 has moved out of Earth’s boresight, another will,
sooner or later, take it’s place. And, again, the cosmic roulette
wheel will spin for us.

Also, the Super Derecho that started in Indiana and made it’s way
through the mid-Atlantic states certainly brought back memories for
those of us here in southern Illinois. These storms, dubbed ‘inland
hurricanes’ wreak all kinds of havoc, with sustained 100 MPH winds and
higher gusts, are something to behold.

As I once mentioned during a speech I was giving to a group of
emergency managers, Mother Nature is a real witch.

Without a doubt, the biggest threat facing you and your community is
not terrorism, gang warfare, or Zombies. It’s some sort of natural
disaster – wind, water, hail, earthquakes, and, yes, solar storms.

For years, we’ve all talked about, read about, and watched, either at
hamfests or by Internet video, ‘Go-Kits’ - you know, the orange,
yellow, or lime green boxes that contain a VHF rig, power supply,
antenna, and, some granola bars. Have you, however, ever given
thought to your ‘Stay Kit?’ By ‘Stay Kit,’ I mean a cache of items
you and your family would need to shelter in place in the event of a
disaster. Resources with lists of food, water, medical and hygiene
items that are recommended to be in your family kit. But, do you have
the necessary items to keep your station on the air if the power goes
out? If your antenna is blown down? If your feedline gets yanked off
the antenna by a falling limb? Or, more simply, if the fuses in your
radio’s power supply blow, do you have spares, and, perhaps more
importantly, can you find them in the dark? What about manuals for
the radios? Can you find them, should you need to reprogram that
latest handheld you bought? Can your radio systems work without
having a computer tied to them and operating? If you have one, is
your generator fueled with fresh fuel, and, ready to be put into
service?

I could go on about this, but, I’m sure you get the idea. You are far
more likely to need to shelter in place than you are to be deployed as
an ARES (or, RACES) communicator.

Odds and Ends: The Peoria Superfest is coming up soon. This ‘fest,
22 and 23 Sept, will officially be the Illinois Section’s ARRL
Convention. A speaker from Newington will be hauled in, tho, I’m not
sure yet who that will be. Look for me there.

__._,_.___

== end copy ==

73 de Pat KC6VVT
ILARES HF Net Manager

FB (Search FB at www.facebook.com for) KC6VVT
G+ (Search Google+ for) pat.kc6vvt