GA Baptist Disaster Relief Training in Toccoa

Lorie and I drove up to the Georgia Baptist Conference Center in Toccoa, GA this weekend to attend some advanced disaster relief training. This was "Phase 2" training for all of the ministry areas and Unit Director "Blue Cap" training for those who will lead a ministry team during deployments. I recieved my Unit Director Blue Cap which authorizes me to lead a Communications Unit. I appreciate Chris-AE4XO for recommending me and for Larry-W4WLT for clearing the way for me to become a Unit Director. I also got to meet Felton-AF4DN who calls our weekly Baptist Emergency Amateur Radio Service net each Sunday. The training was great and the conference center is really awesome. After the session, Lorie and I went over to Toccoa Falls for a little while before heading home to Savannah.

Amateur Extra Class

We started a new Amateur Extra Class Operator course tonight. Carroll Baker - WX4Y is the instructor. The class will meet for four consecutive Thursday evenings from 6:00pm til 9:00pm. Carroll is teaching from the ARRL Extra Class Study Guide. We had a great turnout tonight with 11 operators in attendance. There will be a VE Session on Nov 14th. Those in attendance were:

W4REQ- Ralph
K4GIV- Tom
KJ4FAV- Paul
KJ4FAW- Peter
KI4RXW- Chuck
KJ4EGZ- Ted
KI4DZD - Edward
KC2NYU- Paul
KJ4KOB- Keith
KC2HXJ- Bill
KJ4HAC- Aric

Oct 17 JOTA

Had a great time at the Boy Scouts Jamboree on the Air yesterday at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum. Got there after breakfast around 8:30 or so and found a spot to set up the radios and put up and antenna. Ran my station off the generator this time and discovered some noise that I'll continue to troubleshoot. Made some contacts on voice and PSK-31 but mainly spent the time teaching scouts about amateur radio. The weather was cooler than we've had in a while but really made for a nice day. We had as many as 15 or so HAMs and 80 scouts throughout the course of the day. Looking forward to next year.

Call Signs Issued for New HAMs

The call signs have been issued by the FCC for the new HAMs from our recent Technician Class. Congratulations to all!

Fred Kuhn - KJ4PST
Charlie Maynard - KJ4PPE
Tim Bulick - KJ4PSS
Will Griffin - KJ4PSU
Kirk Meals - KJ4PTP

Final Day In Douglasville Disaster Relief

Well I made it home this evening from Douglasville. Hated to leave but got to get back to my real job. Boy I sure had a great time working with all the great people who share a passion for disaster relief. Was awoken this morning about 0430 with the sound of heavy rain on the metal roof of the Family Life Center at Beulah Baptist Church. Boy was it coming down! But I managed to roll over and sleep till about 0600. Got up and packed up all my stuff and straightened up the Sunday School class that was my bedroom. Went downstairs and had a great breakfast prepared my a new feeding crew from Baxley, Patterson, and Blackshear, GA. They done good. Fired off a few emails then heading over to the Comm Unit GA 14C. The high today was in the 60s and the rain continued all day. I got the comm unit up and running and did some radio checks. Talked to Horrace-AE4VY on the W4CBA repeater a couple of times. The weather radio went off when the flood watches and warning were issued for most of metro Atlanta. Hung around in the unit until lunch time. After lunch went back to the unit and began to prep for my departure. Got everything packed up and then checked into the GA Traffic net at 1300 on 3987.5. Those Hamsticks did a pretty good job. Shortly after the net, I loaded up the truck, hugged the Operations ladies from Alabama then hit the road. Talked to Chris-AE4XO on the Macon repeater as I passed thru then Bob-WN4Q on the Twin City repeater as I passed by there. Rained all the way home to Savannah. Rolled in about 1845 and my wife had a nice plate of spaghetti waiting on me! Sure had a great time and have a great sense of accomplishment in playing a small part in this disaster relief effort. See this link for the official stats of this response.

http://www.gabaptist.org/contentpages.aspx?parentnavigationid=4774&theparentnavigationid=4773&viewcontentpageguid=e2fd4c83-4165-4791-8566-8ddead856b3a

If you have a love for the Lord, a passion for serving others, and an interest in communications and Amateur Radio, then you should seriously consider joining this ministry.

Disaster Relief Continues

Continued to work in Douglasville on Saturday and Sunday. Not much official communicating going on so I had plenty of time on Saturday to play with the radios. I talked to Mark-KA4CID in Richmond Hill Saturday on 40 meters. Also talked to Jere-KT4ZB in Savannah on Saturday on 80 meters. Good to talk to both of them. I played around a little with the 80 meter ham stick antenna that we have up on a 20 foot mast to try and get it resonant at the middle of the band. Luckily I brought my analyzer with me. I also got Echolink running so that I could talk back to the 146.70 repeater in Savannah. Worked fine and used it to check into the CARS 2meter net on Sunday night. I also talked with Chris-AE4XO in Bryron on Echolink. It was good to catch up with him. I brought my little 7 inch TV with me so I watched alot of football on Saturday and the Nascar race on Sunday. I was able to check into the South BEARS, GA Baptist, and the GA ARES nets on Sunday from the comm unit. Had a new radio operator to work with on Sunday. Mike-N4REL came down from Cartersville and spent the day. This was his first deployment with the GA Baptist team so I spent some time going over procedures and such and them familiarized him with the Comm Unit. After that I sent him to one of the other churches that we are working from and we stayed in touch on the 2m repeater throughout the day. Still plenty of work for the cleanup and recovery crews in the Austell, Powder Springs area. Not sure how long the communications unit will be needed. It's been a blessing to be able to play a small part over the last few days. Got to work with some good folks from all over Georgia and even a crew from Alabama. Continue to pray for the families that have been impacted by these floods.

Atlanta Flood Relief

Still up here in Douglasville running comm for the relief effort. Not much happening today. I ran the Comm Unit today and had radio operators at two other churches in the area. Bill-KJ4O headed home to Warner Robins after being here onsite for a full week. Less-K4OL worked all day then headed home before dinner. I have another operator that will be working here with me tomorrow. I'm planning to head back to Savannah either Sunday night or early Monday morning. Here are a few pictures.

Activated for Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief

I've been activated to support the continued cleanup effort in the Atlanta area due to the recent floods. I'm running communications support for the various units that are stationed at four different churches in the area. We are operating Communications Unit 14C stationed at Beulah Baptist Church in Douglasville. http://insidebbc.com/templates/cusbeulahbc/details.asp?id=34505&PID=344798

I should be here for three or four days. I'll post more info and pictures as I have time.

Final Session of Technician Class and VE Session

Well, this past Thursday night we had the final 3 hour session of the current Technician Level License class that we started the first week of Sept. We covered License Regulations, Operating Regulations, and Radio Safety. We even had a little time to do some review and test prep. This has been a very good group of students and I felt good that everyone was ready for the test.

Most of the students gathered at the testing location on Saturday morning to take the exam. Several folks couldn't make it as they were out of town or had other commitments. The testing went very well and we now have five new technician class Amateur Radio operators and one new General Class operator! Congratulations to all. We look forward to hearing all of you on the air very soon. Callsigns should be issued over the next week or so.

Thanks to the following Volunteer Examiners for delivering the exam.
AF4KL, W4WTO, K4YGD, W4KTN, K4DJD.