Thanks to all who came to Badger Prairie Park on Aug 31 for a show and tell on setting up outside. We all learned something from each one of the setups. I was asked if I could provide a breakdown of some of what we learned. It wasn’t recorded and I wasn’t taking notes and although I don’t usually open posts for commenting I will on this one so I can rely on people who were there to comment below on any interesting take aways they had from the evening.
Event Timing: Sunday, September 24, 2022
Event Address: 6000 American Parkway, Madison
The Badger Challenge (formerly The Ride) consists of a cycling event (100mi, 100k, 50k, 25k, 5k) and a Run/Walk event (13.1mi and 5k).
The Badger Challenge would not be possible without its numerous caring and dedicated volunteers! This year, it takes place on Sunday, September 24, 2022 at the same location, 6000 American Parkway, Madison (American Family Insurance).
We are looking for volunteers for staffing communications support for traffic direction and parking for the event, Course Sweeper Vehicles, Bike mobile for patrolling the Run/Walk event, Rider transport, net control/dispatch. We will try to accommodate your availability as much as possible.
To volunteer please browse to this address: https://forms.gle/Bcx5CdeZBPBcZPhY9
Join us on the last Thursday of the month, August 31, at 7:00, at Badger Prairie Park County Park in Verona for a show and tell. When we asked what people wanted to see during the year one of the requests included ideas and examples of setting up outside and operating. If you have a way that you set up outside bring it along and we’ll set up a few stations outside on Thursday Evening. I’m not exactly sure where in the park we’ll be so come on down and drive along the main road through the park until you see what looks like a bunch of hams!
Please note, there will be no zoom connection available for this meeting.
A whole bunch of you are enjoying your summer vacays and can’t come to the July meeting anyway…so, don’t! Take the last Thursday of the month (July 27) off this month, we won’t be meeting, However….
Aug and Sept Are On!
Auxilliary Communications training will be available in person in October. This class adds to our credentials and expands on how we can provide additional communications capabilities during an incident. The class will be held on the weekend of October 21-22 in Oshkosh. More information can be found in the PDF, below as well as by logging to your account at https://www.trainingwisconsin.org (you do have an account don’t you!) and searching for AUXCOMM.
We’ve got plenty to do this month what with Field Day and Horribly Hilly Hundreds so we will NOT be having our regular monthly In-Person (and Virtual) meeting on the last Thursday of the month. Since Field Day helps us to practice setting up and operating off the grid you are STRONGLY encouraged to participate (see below). Make sure July 27 is on your calendars we will plan to meet then. I’ll send out more info next month
Only a few days left.
Everyone,
The WI ARES / RACES store is now open for a limited time (only until May 24th) so please distribute this flyer widely and encourage everyone to place an order right away and not to procrastinate.
There needs to be a minimum of 24 items ordered for screen printing and 18 for embroidery.
The closure date will allow enough time for the items to be ready before Field Day. and the items can either be shipped to your home (for a fee) or you may pick them up in person from Eagle Graphics in Kaukauna’s northside industrial park along I-41.
At our next meeting we’ll hold a clinic of sorts. One thing I’ve heard consistently from folk is how hard it is to configure their hand held radios. At our next meeting, May 25, at 7:00 PM, BYORTC (Bring your own radio to configure). We’ll meet at UW Space Place 2300 South Park Street, Madison. Come in the central doors and down the stairs, down the hall and Space Place is the first door on the left. If you want to join us by zoom, the connection information is below.
We’ll have software loaded and a bunch of cables and as much expertise as we can muster. We plan to have many of the local repeaters to load into your radios if you don’t already have them.
Software – Chirp as well as a number of manufacturer’s packages. Personally I can help with ICOM, Alinco, Yaesu, Kenwood and Baofeng. If we have any additional expertise out there please come along and bring your stuff.
Please also stay tuned for some additional local nets. We’ve also heard that many of our new hams don’t feel confident enough to push the mike and when they do they don’t even hear crickets. We hope to add some new no-judgement nets that are informal and friendlier to new hams so they can get experience and confidence with their newly configured radios. We will welcome some of our more experienced hams to listen in and respond when the calls are made to the repeater. Can anybody find me some Elmers?
More to come. Stay tuned.
Madison Area Repeater Association is holding their hamfest on April 15 this year and you can still get tickets at a reduced price. Order yours today. For more information go to https://w9hsy.org/hamfest-2023/
The date has been set for the Horribly Hilly Hundreds for 2023. The bikes will ride on Saturday, June 17, 2023. Tom, W9TDP is already compiling a list of hams who are interested in volunteering for the day. If you can staff a rest stop, drive a SAG Vehicle, staff Net Control, ride “shot-gun” or various other communications tasks we have for the day drop a email to Tom at W9TDP <at> arrl.net.
3 responses to “Setting Up Outside Show and Tell”
I have a hard hat. Never throught to bring it. I have steel toe boots too which might come in handy. I do have a large amount of equipment to bring, but it often gets trimmed to meet the needs of my role. A list of what to bring for different assignments would be good. I forgot to mention that I also have a pair of FRS radios. Store batteries in a baggie with the light/radio etc., with all of it in a second baggie. This will protect the equipment if the batteries leak.
Might come in handy when working with non-hams.
Look for Public Safety Library in either the Apple App Store or the Android App Store. From the Library, I have downloaded, ‘Wisconsin Interoperable Communications Field Operations Guide’, ‘National Interoperability Field Operations Guide’, and ‘Auxillary Communications Field Operations Guide’. aka WI eFOG, eNIFOG, and eAUXFOG. Open each one while you have WiFi access; the files will download and you will have them when you need them in the field.
Here’s my take aways:
Put a Hard Hat in my go kit.
Make a list of stuff to take with me… I can’t set aside stuff just for deployment so I found I forgot obvious stuff for our evening I need to create a go kit list
Deployment manuals can be found by installing the Public Safety Library app on Iphone or android. (More on this later)
Bring a camp chair
WEM Go-Kits can be requested through the county EOC.
Everyone should create a Winlink Account. There are two parts to Winlink. You can create an account and install the software and use WinLink WITHOUT a radio. Create an account and get familiar with the software. Once you get that down, then wrestle with doing RF winlink (because wrestle you will!)