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.
Dane/Iowa ARES/RACES In-Person Meeting Feb 26
We are meeting in person this week at the Dane County EOC for our monthly in-person meeting. Tom Kucharski, W9TJK, who coordinates Amateur Radio volunteer communicators for the National Weather Service Milwaukee/Sullivan (https://www.weather.gov/mkx/), WI under whose umbrella we reside, will join us to describe how they work with counties in our area. When reviewing the role of Amateur radio communicators in this part of Wiesconsin one of the most frequent concerns that comes up in conversations is related to weather events. We don’t get hurricanes but we get weather which has consistently been a concern on the county and state level. We will meet both in person and virtually on Wednesday evening March 26 at 7PM at the Dane County EOC, 2982 Kapec Rd, Fitchburg, WI 53719. See below for the virtual connection information.
Please also consider these weather related events.
- Dark Skies Severe Weather Seminar
- 9:00 am – 3:30pm at Madison College on March 8th. for more information: https://sites.google.com/view/midwestsstrc-darkskies/home
- Additional Spotter Training Opportunities https://www.weather.gov/mkx/spotter-schedule
- Iowa County – April 2
- 1:30 & 6:30, 109 E Leffler St, Dodgeville, WI 53533, USA
- Dane County – April 16
- 1pm – Fitchburg-Dane County, 2982 Kapec Rd, Fitchburg, WI 53719, USA
- 6pm – Marshall-Dane County, 119 Industrial Dr, Marshall, WI 53559
- Iowa County – April 2
Connection information for In Person Meeting
We do not publicize connection information in this space. If you are interested in joining us for this event and need the connection information please email kc9unz@arrl.net and include your name and call sign.
Dark Skies Severe Weather Seminar – 2025
The Dark Skies Severe Weather Seminar sponsored by the Midwest Severe Storm Tracking/Response Center will be held this year on March 8, 2025 from 0900 CST to 1530 CST at Madison College, 1701 Wright Street, Madison, WI, Room D1630. It looks to be an interesting program including Alex Harington – Chief Meteorologist, WISC Channel3000, some presentations from Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences; Director, Space Science & Engineering Center UW Madison just to name a few. You will also be able to satisfy the SKYWARN Spotter training on your ARES Standardized Training Plan Task Book. For more information please refer to the Seminar website at: https://sites.google.com/view/midwestsstrc-darkskies/home
Hamword
This one is just for fun. If you are committee to Wordle you will love this. Each week a new word is chosen. Once you submit your guess on the quarter-hour you will receive your result and you can guess again. See the URL for instructions and scoreboard.
To: HAMWORD
Subject: Anything you want
Body: A 5 letter word
Florida Winlink Net
Name: Florida Winlink Net
To: All information at: W4AKH.NET
URL for more information: W4AKH.NET
Day(s)/Time of Week to check in: Runs 24/7, but Tuesday 0900 ET is the break-point for the ‘next week’
Additional Notes: All information at: W4AKH.NET
Runs 24/7, but Tuesday 0900 ET is the break-point for the ‘next week’
They encourage battery or solar power sources.
Checkin by regular RMS, or by P2P sessions.
They have a daily schedule of P2P stations around the US, with varying times on several frequencies, including the upper midwest (WI and MN)
AMLEGNELCO Post 42 Winlink Net
Name: AMLEGNELCO Post 42 Winlink Net
To: AMLEGNELCO
Subject: AMLEG Post 42 Winlink Check-In (or the subject line generated by the Form)
Body: Call Sign, Name, City, County, State or Country (2 Letter abbrev), Band and Mode (See the instructions in the URL)
URL for more information: https://tinyurl.com/AMLEGNELCO-WINLINK-NET
Day(s)/Time of Week to check in: 0001 ET Tuesday and 2359 ET Sunday
Additional Notes: Please check the URL above for additional instructions as the task changes on a weekly basis.
Winlink Wednesday
Name: Winlink Wednesday
To: KN4LQN
Subject: Winlink Wednesday Check-In
Body: call sign, first name, city or town, county, state (HF or VHF, etc.)
URL for more information: https://winlinkwednesday.net
Day(s)/Time of Week to check in: Wednesdays 0000 to 2359ET
Additional Notes: Be sure to check the above URL or the reminder notice you will get each week as the assignment may change.
They have both P2P and regular check-ins; P2P stations around the US
They vary the information; sometimes a simple message, sometimes Weather form, sometimes ICS-213
Please do not use a “Telnet Winlink” connection (which defeats the purpose of Winlink). The goal is to have the message leave your station via RF.
OH Winlink Net
Name: OH Winlink Net Reminder
To: K8EAF
Subject: OH Winlink Net Check-in
Body: callsign, first name, city, county, state and via what mode/band (VHF, UHF, HF, SHF, TELNET, APRS, AREDN, ARDOP, VARA, VARA FM)
Day(s)/Time of Week to check in: You can check-in anytime day or night between Monday and Thursday of each week
Additional Notes: This is a good time to test drive the Winlink forms. Many operators like to use the Winlink Check-In form located in the General Forms tab (Templates Tab > Standard Templates > Mapping GIS Forms > Winlink Check In). Include your current GPS Lat and Long on the form.