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.