Emergency Notifications, Tornados and AllStarLink

A couple things came out of our last in-person meeting

  • Severe Weather Activation
  • Connecting to our Weekly Net Meeting through your device

Severe Weather Activiation

While Chad WA4ORM gives us timely predictions of the arrival of severe weather days ahead of time, we may not know if we need Skywarn activation until the “last minute.” We are working on updating our activation plan this year but in the mean time, and during this time of the year when we observe more Severe Weather, we would like a plan to begin communications when weather strikes. It can take extra time for me to create an email or a RAVE announcement when time is short, and emails rarely interrupt what I am doing, but text messages and voice calls are good at interrupting me. I would like us all to set up two steps, which may become part of our plan going forward.

  • Make sure you are signed up with the County Emergency alert system.
    1. For Dane County, Sign up here: https://em.countyofdane.com/emergency-alerts
    2. For Iowa County, Sign up here: https://www.smart911.com/smart911/ref/reg.action?pa=IowaCountyWI
      • Or both. When I went to smart911 it told me that I had already signed up for Dane County and gave me the option of Iowa County
      • Check as many options as you’d like but be sure to include Tornado Watch and Warning
    3. Once you’ve signed up you will start to receive emergency notifications from the county. On the First Wednesday of Each month you should receive a test alert, this is a reminder that you are signed up and it is working.
      • When you receive an alert simply look to see if it has the word Tornado in the text.
      • If it has the word Tornado in it tune your radio to the MARA “15” repeater. It may take a few moments for us all to get there but we will begin a resource Net. If Happy Hour is underway, we’ll shut down happy hour for the day. At that time we may not yet know if we are being activated for Skywarn but while we are checking in whoever is available we will be having conversations with Emergency Management Staff to see if they are activating the EOC. If so the first place you will hear will be on the Resource Net. Once we are activated we will move to the normal Skywarn frequency, 444.375, unless otherwise instructed.

For most other activations we will normally have more time to gather the troops so for those we’ll send out an email with a planned time and frequency for a resource net
Once we see how this works we may or may not update it but for now let’s see how this works for us.

Connecting to our Weekly Net Meeting through your device

From some places it is difficult to connect to the MARA 15 repeater (we hope to fix that soon). For those who have difficulty, for one reason or another, you can join us at our weekly Net Meeting through AllStar. There is an App that installs on your phone, Android or iPhone. The MARA Repeater is node #67384 and you can find instructions on the MARA website at: https://w9hsy.org/all-star-connection-instructions/

That’s All For now. I’ll publish the video from our in-person meeting soon.
I’ll see you on the radio

Jeff, K9UNZ
Dane/Iowa County EC

June 24 ARES/RACES In-Person Meeting

The Last Wednesday comes a little early this month!

We will meet for our monthly In-Person Dane/Iowa County ARES/RACES meeting on June 24 at 7:00 pm at the Dane County EOC at 2982 Kapec Rd, Fitchburg, WI 53719

If you are unable to attend in person please see below for the links to attend virtually.

I am still building the agenda but a couple things that we will discuss will be:

  • The items on the Horribly Hilly Hundreds Post-mortem (no, nobody died)
  • Dane/Iowa ARES/RACES team application
  • Severe Weather Activation
  • Reminder on how to connect to our weekly Net meeting if propagation is difficult

We have created a “curated” list of items for the post-mortem discussion. I am not publishing the address here because, you know, THE INTERNET! If you would like to add to the existing items, Good, Bad or Ugly, please send your list to “me_at_ k9unz.me”

Please let me know if there is anything I’m forgetting

73,
Jeff K9UNZ

May 2026 Dane/Iowa County ARES/RACES In-Person Meeting

This coming week we’ll be having our last Wednesday of the Month In-Person meeting at the EOC. I’ve learned that a mesh network is being built out around the county and I’ve asked Nicholas , KB9SKW to let us know how it has been going, what kind of mesh it is, how we might get involved and I’d like us to consider how we might take advantage of it for emergency and public service purposes.

I’ve been working on some software that I think is ready to share with you all as well if we have time.

Last Month Jeremy, N9VHT walked us through the latest version of skylog.net, which is logging software we use for logging severe weather events and most of our bike events. I have uploaded a copy of his presentation here: youtu.be/MClVh029yo0

I am populating the information for Horribly Hilly Hundreds even as we speak so we can use it and take advantage of all the new features he is building in.

As usual we will meet at the Dane County Emergency Operations Center at 2982 Kapec Rd, Fitchburg, WI 53719 (fillian.net/eocmap) on Wednesday, May 28, at 7:00 pm.

If you are unable to attend there is a Google meet connection that is available. The link information went out in the email I sent along to the team email addresses. If you didn’t receive the email and would like to attend virtually let me know at k9unz@arrl.net.

Can you Help at the Horribly Hilly Hundreds this year?

My, my look at the time!

The 2026 Horribly Hilly Hundreds will ride on June 13, 2026 out of Blue Mound State Park. (Officially) the first riders set out at 6:45 AM and can arrive back at the park as much as 12 hours later. We have 4 rest stops and as many as 7 water stops (if I am counting correctly). In addition to needing communicators at the water and rest stops we will need SAG (Support and Gear) drivers with bike racks and Net Control Officers at the park to manage communications. If you are willing and able to help staff this event please fill out the information form and let me know how you are able to help.  Remember, we get fed after the event and SAG drivers get reimbursed mileage. We also have access to some loaner equipment for those who might need.

The registration form can be found here: https://fillian.net/hhh2026

Jeff, K9UNZ

March 2026 Membership Meeting

Our March In-Person membership meeting will be held on March 25 (2026) at 7PM. This month we will be meeting at the Cross Plains Fire Department, 1501 Bourbon Rd, Cross Plains, WI 53528, which has an Amateur Station. Steve, KC9FKV will introduce us to the station at the fire department and in addition to checking out that station, Kyle, KC9SDK our Wisconsin ARES State Emergency Coordinator will be on hand to tell us what is happening at a state level and answer any questions we might have.

We will NOT be meeting at the Dane County EOC this month.

As usual we will be sending out a reminder with virtual connection information for anyone who is unable to join us in person. You can expect that information about a week before the meeting.