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

  1. There will be NO in person meeting on June 25. We will hold our regular 8:00 PM net meeting on the MARA “15”
  2. 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/
  3. 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

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.

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.

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.