The snow is finally melting here in Western Pennsylvania and with the warmer weather the weather service is now predicting some rain for the next few days. This may serve as a need for amateurs to help provide communications in the event of flooding in some of the low lying areas. This might serve as a good time to check your grab and go kit to be sure they are properly stocked and also to charge the batteries on your handhelds. While I am sure we all are hoping that flooding will not take place with the amount of snow melting and the rainfall expected we may experience problems due to run off conditions. Be sure to monitor your local repeaters and be prepared should the local EC need to activate.
In the near future we will be working together with PEMA to combine communications resources into a platform called ACS. This will be a combination of what is currently races, ares, CAP, react and other communications forms. Section emergency coordinator Larry Keller will be posting information as he receives it on to the ARES website and also distribute the info to the DEC’s and EC’s as it becomes available.
A tentative meeting of emergency leaders will be scheduled for early June. Larry is working on the details for the event and we will announce more details in the near future. Part of this will involve a bit of restructuring of the ARES program in the section. Individuals with ideas for topics should contact Larry at ab3er@arrl.net.
A reminder to members is to be sure to check the data you have in your member profile at the ARRL website. If you change your email service be sure to update that info on the members only section of the website. The new website is expected to be functional the end of March barring no further difficulties. HQ wanted to provide the best experience so as problems were found delays were inevitable.
I will be announcing the name of the new section traffic manager in the very near future. This has been a difficult position to fill and I will be glad to finally have someone handling the functions. It has taken a bit longer than I had wished for me to decide on a suitable individual.
Hamfest coming up in our area begins with the Foothills hamfest on Sunday March 14. Information is available at http://www.w3lww.org/ I unfortunately will not be able to attend as I will be with my grand daughter for her fourth birthday. The next hamfest is the Two rivers hamfest on April 25. Additional information is available at http://www.tworiversarc.com. An area of information for hamfest officials is that HQ has a new policy with regard to information brochures for hamfest. The material to be sent from HQ must be
selected by the hamfest chairperson. The info is included in your approval letter. There is NO Charge for this material to be sent to the hamfest. That has been changed and HQ will paid shipping costs. If you need assistance in what to order contact me at n3mse@arrl.org.
As always I encourage you to join one of the various traffic nets and help deliver messages to individuals in your community and throughout the country as operators struggle to keep the keep this activity running strong. The section net is on 3983 every evening at approximately 4:45 PM local time due to poor band conditions. Join the nets and lets all get Radio Active.
73
John V. Rodgers, N3MSE
W. Pa. Section Manager
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Not too sure how I found this blog but glad I did find it. Think I was looking for something else on yahoo. Don’t know I agree 100% with what you say, but have bookmaked and will come back to read to see if you add any more posts. Keep up the good work