It is summer. We are busy. Many of us will be working Dairyland Dare on August 2, so we won’t be having our in-person meeting on the last Wednesday of July. We’ll have our regularly scheduled Weekly Net at 8pm on the MARA “15” repeater. See you on the radio!
Dane/Iowa ARES/RACES Nets during Field Day
During ARRL Field Day exercises this year we will be exercising the frequencies on our ARES Communication Plan. We will conduct a series of Nets starting at 4:00 PM on Saturday, June 28. If all goes according to plan we should be done by just after 4:30. I have a document outlining the times and purposes of each net. We would like to see how we propagate both with our repeaters as well as with Simplex frequencies. If you are available on Saturday at 4 please plan on joining us.
The plan and timing as well as the ICS205 can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wNo8SmguZ6o-fQ93Kqa8Nz1hjWjqYvaIv9BUT_mBCZ4/edit?usp=sharing
Let me know if you have any questions at me@k9unz.me (k9unz@arrl.net)
73,
Jeff
Severe Weather Reporting
I admit, even after a number of training sessions, I am still a little (just a little) uncertain what to report and what is important. I learned this week that the Sullivan Committee which supports the teams of storm spotters for NOAA in Milwaukee, whose area includes Dane and Iowa Counties. In addition to a who lot of interesting links and information (see http://www.sulcom.org/) there is a form that lists the types of weather events in order of importance that we report. It is worth a look see and worth printing a few copies to keep in your storm spotter notebook (you do have a storm spotter notebook don’t you). Please click the image/link below for a copy of the form.
http://www.sulcom.org/summer_procedures/sullivan_net/report.pdf
ARES Activities for June 2025
Hey there Communicators!
3 things for June 2025
- There will be NO in person meeting on June 25. We will hold our regular 8:00 PM net meeting on the MARA “15”
- Instead of meeting at the Dane County Emergency Operations Center, you are strongly encouraged to at least visit and participate in ARRL Field Day being organized by the Four Lakes Amateur Radio Club. Field day will be held at Badger Prairie County Park in Verona. Every year on the last full weekend of June hams around the country take to the parks and fields and wilderness and set up their equipment disconnected from commercial power and make as many contacts as possible. While doing a bike event in the Driftless also challenges us to set up in unfamiliar places, another opportunity that coming to field day affords is the operating modes that you may not normally be able to. A technician or someone otherwise limited by space can operate on HF and watch and try out digital modes. For more information take a look at the FLARC website: https://w9jz.org/field-day/arrl-field-day-2025/
- We are planning to have a few different ARES net meetings during field day. This is still in planning. Different frequencies, repeaters and some simplex. You will hear more about scheduling soon.
Jeff, K9UNZ
No In Person Meeting May 28
There will be NO in-person meeting on the last day of the month this month, May 2025, however the normal ARES/RACES Net Meeting will be held at 8PM on the 28th as it is every week on the MARA “15” repeater.
There WILL be a net this week – March 26
As part of our becoming familiar with the EOC Amateur radio room, we WILL have our regular net at 8:00 pm this week (March 26). If you are unable to be with us at the EOC for our regularly scheduled in-person meeting, turn on your radio as you normally would and join us for the Net Meeting. It will be part of our demo of the equipment.
Bike the Barns 2025 – Save the Date
Save the date! Bike the Barns will be run on September 21, 2025. We’ll post more information for volunteer communicators here as it becomes available.
Chicago Marathon 2025
This year the Chicago Marathon will be on October 12, 2025. We are looking for a new coordinator to gather the troops to support the event. If you are interested in coordinating the volunteers (it is a small enough group to fit in one car), drop a note to kb9orn@gmail.com.
Trek 100 – 2025
Trek 100 will be held on June 7, 2025. This ride starts and finishes at TREK Bicycle Corporation Corporate Headquarters, Waterloo, Wisconsin. If you can help with Communications, SAG, Pick up vehicle, sweep radio vehicle, shadow operator and other positions on that day please send an email to John, n9guu@hotmail.com.
Horribly Hilly Hundreds 2025
HHH will be on June 14, 2025. There are opportunities for SAG vehicles, Net Control, Rest Stops and more. This year we are also looking for a new coordinator to wrangle radio volunteers. If you are interested in taking on the role of communications volunteers drop a note to the Dane ARES EC at KB9ORN@gmail.com. Save the date.