Feb 2026 Membership Meeting – Change of Plans

I realized that I don’t want to step on our PL-259 work or give short shrift to our APRS work.

Soooo….

We will hold the APRS work until a later date. But if we have time I would like to spend a few minutes talking about using AllStar to connect to the MARA “15” repeater. There are Ham purists that might suggest that using the internet to connect to a repeater is cheating but I think it fulfills our “by any means necessary” You’ve heard a number of folks joining us using the AllStar link lately, including me from Connecticut. Let’s also talk about that as well.

See you on Wednesday (2/25/2026). 7:00 pm at the Dane County EOC at 2982 Kapec Rd, Fitchburg, WI.

and for those who cannot be there in person you should have received an email with the virtual connection information, otherwise drop a note to k9unz@arrl.net.

February 2026 General Membership Meeting

Our February meeting will be held on February 25 at the Dane County EOC at 7:00 PM. The Building is behind the KwikTrip and is located at 2982 Kapec Rd. Fitchburg, WI 53719.

Our plan is to demo NVIS (Near Vertical Incidence Skywave), a way to connect to one another at relatively close proximity using HF. Often we need the power of HF for a local incident but HF typically works better for longer distances. NVIS bounces a signal virtually straight up so it will bounce nearly directly down for local traffic.

We also plan to spend some time demo-ing and testing our ability to connect a PL and SO 239 to coax. If you’ve not checked off that capability on your ARES Taskbook, here is a perfect opportunity!

You should receive an email later this weekend with the connection information for those who cannot come in person. If you do not receive that email by Monday please send a note to K9UNZ@arrl.net and let Jeff know.

January 2026 Dane/Iowa County ARES/RACES Membership Meeting

Our January meeting (often referred to as our Meeting of Record) will be held on January 28 at the Dane County EOC at 7:00 PM. The Building is behind the KwikTrip and is located at 2982 Kapec Rd. Fitchburg, WI 53719.

  • We will look at the coming year.
  • Fill out Radiograms or ICS-213s for those who have not already filled them out indicating your interest in participating in ARES activities for 2026
  • We will see how the State ARES Standard Operating Procedures effect membership
  • And (I am quite tardy on this) get final information on those for whom I have not yet requested State IDs. 

I think that will do for the night. 

If you are unable to join us in person you can join us virtually by using the meeting information below. 

Obviously there will be NO net meeting this week!

See you there, 

Jeff, K9UNZ

You should have received the virtual meeting information in a separate email. If you do not have that information and would like to attend virtually, please send an email to K9UNZ@arrl.net and ask. Please be sure to include your call sign.

“Bonus” 10 meter net tonight (Nov 19)


After our usual 2 meter net at 8:00 let’s see how a 10 meter net would work. We need to leave enough time to make the change from 2 meters to 10 meters so let’s plan to start a 10 meter net at 8:30 and see how well we propagate. We’ll plan our frequency so everyone with the proper equipment, technician and above can participate. Jeff, K9UNZ, will be net control (for the 10 meter net, Patrick, NT9A is NC for the 2 meter net this week). We will gather at 28.350 at 8:30 pm and if that frequency is being used we will move to 28.375. This will also be a good opportunity for those who might have trouble checking in on our normal 2 meter net to participate as well.

October 2025 In-Person Meeting

October 29, 2025,  7:00 PM is our next in person meeting of the Dane/Iowa County ARES/RACES team. There will be no Net Meeting on that night. We’ll be meeting at the Dane County Emergency Operations center at 2982 Kapec Rd, Fitchburg, WI 53719. For those who cannot be there in person we will have a virtual connection to the meeting. 

We’ll have a couple agenda items. I have a slide deck that was used for October ARES/RACES Training in the State entitled Volunteerism: What Do Clients Expect from us? I’d like to walk through it and get feedback from the team.  We will also review what 2025 looked like and lessons learned as well as start to get ready for 2026

The virtual connection information for those who can’t be there in person was sent to team members in an email. If you did not receive that information please send an email to kb9orn@gmail.com.

Materials for SET 2025

Starting at 1:00 pm on Oct 4, 2025 Dane/Iowa County ARES/RACES will testing a subset of our activations frequencies, including using the stations at the EOC, Hospitals and operators at home or mobile. For an overview of how the net will be conducted, a list of frequencies (ICS205), the Net Script and to view the log see the links below.