Congratulations to Dustin Hetzel, KI4MQD. Recognizing what Amateur Radio can do for the community, he has included ARES in many CEMA activations and invited ARES to take part in training operations.



From the Chatham County Emergency Management Website:

On November 9, 2010, two CEMA Staff members received awards from the Emergency Management Association of Georgia (EMAG). Assistant Director Dennis Jones received the President’s Award for outstanding support and leadership for his efforts to lead EMAG in assuming direction and coordination for the 2010 State Emergency Management Conference. “While the top of the water seemed smooth as glass, we were working our hardest to manage the turbulence underneath. The success of the conference is directly related to Dennis’ leadership,” said EMAG President Kenny Calhoun.

Emergency Management Specialist Dustin Hetzel received the Jack Hobb’s Award for his support and dedication to the Amateur Radio Community throughout Chatham County and Coastal Georgia. Dustin was signaled out for his efforts to work closely with regional amateur radio groups and to coordinate effective partnerships between the groups and the emergency management community.

“CEMA is indeed fortunate to have staff with a level of dedication, knowledge and commitment that is so far above the norm it is recognized at the state level for its excellence,” said CEMA Director Clayton Scott.

"Flying Fortress 5K" Communications Support

Had a great time providing communications support for the "Flying Fortress 5K" race this morning at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum.  Nine members of the Coastal Amateur Radio Society (CARS) positioned at strategic locations along the race route to provide any necessary communications from the route back to the start/finish line.  Several of us met at the Cracker Barrell at 0630 to have some pre-race breakfast.  About 0730 we headed over to the museum to get our location assignments and agree on a frequency to use.  Once we all had maps and location assignments, we headed out on the course.  Steve-K4SDJ stayed at the start/finish line and acted as net control.  Once all operators were in place we all got good comm checks with net control and waiting for the race to start.  After a short kids race, the "Flying Fortress 5K" got underway at 0830.  Operators provided status of the lead runner as he passed the various check points and also kept thier eyes open for any injuries along the route.  It was a beautiful morning with temps starting on the upper 30s and rising to just about 40 by race end.  The winning runner finished the race in just over 15 minutes but the last runner completed to course by about 0930 or so.  Once the last runner passed each check point, each operator made thier way back to the start/finish line.  Awards were presented and all activites completed around 1030.  What a great event to raise money for the restoration of the B-17 "City of Savannah" and a great opportunity for us to practice our net procedures in other than normal conditions and without the benefit of our repeaters.  Thanks to the following radio operators:

Steve - K4SDJ
Sue - W4SWJ
Russ - K4YGD
Lynn - KD4POC
Mac - AF4KL
Irene - KF4RFF
Paul - KJ4FAV
Ken - W4JKG
Guy - K4GTM

Oct 2010 GA Baptist Disaster Relief Training

On Thursday, Oct 21st, Doug-KF4EFP and I traveled to Norman Park, GA to attend the Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief Unit Director Roundtable and Phase 2 training session.
I drove out to Doug’s house in Rincon arriving around 1015. We loaded up in Doug’s truck and headed over to Statesboro to pick up the GA Baptist Comm Unit 5C which we keep stored at the Statesboro Bulloch County Airport. The Ogeechee River Baptist Association sponsors the communications unit and worked it out with the airport for us to store the unit under one of their open hangers. We arrived at the airport around 1130 and checked in with airport personnel. After checking out the tires, lights, and such we hitched up Doug’s Dodge Ram to the trailer and pulled out.

After a brief stop at Subway for a sandwich we were on the road toward Norman Park. We decided to drive down through Claxton, Baxley then Alma where headed east traveling through Douglas, Ocilla, and Tifton before arriving at the Georgia Baptist Conference Center in Norman Park, GA. We pulled in right around 1600. Plenty of daylight left so we scouted out a place to setup the unit and got it unhitched for the truck.

Doug and I checked in and received our rooms keys, agenda, and assorted paperwork for the conference. Now that we were all checked in we went back out to the comm unit and setup the local repeater frequencies in our 2 meter and 70 cm radios and got some comm checks. Then decided to go ahead and put together a 40 m hamstick dipole and put it up on a mast to give it a try. Got it up and operational and coordinated to try and make contact with Mac-KF4LMT in Brunswick. Conditions were not the best but we did manage to contact Mac. Satisfied with things, we went ahead and broke down the antenna and closed up the unit for the night.

Getting hungry by now so we decided to head over to Moultrie and grab a bite to eat at Zaxby’s. Doug’s GPS and my GPS were not exactly in agreement on how to get to Zaxby’s and we ended up calling to get directions. After chow we headed back to Norman Park to get some sleep.

Friday morning we met the rest of the attendees in the cafeteria for some breakfast. After breakfast we gathered in the conference room for our Unit Director Roundtable. Unit Directors from around the state who have responsibility for supporting, maintaining, and operating the various feeding units, cleanup and recovery units, shower units, supply units, and comm units met to provide updates on their ministry area and to discuss future activities. The roundtable finished up around 1600.

At 1700 everyone gathered for a Volunteer Appreciation Dinner with entertainment. Good food and fellowship. At 1930 each ministry area broke out into various sessions to provide Phase 2 training to Disaster Relief volunteers. Larry-W4WLT led our session with three HAMs going thru the training. In addition to Doug and me, we also had Horace and Ed representing Communications Unit 14C which is positioned up in North Georgia. We were able to spend a little time in the comm unit before shutting down for the night around 2100.

Saturday morning came early with breakfast at 0700. Then we all met at the comm unit at 0800 and began the Phase 2 training and unit familiarization training. Larry kicked things off and then handed it over to me and Doug to carry on. Doug gave instruction on providing external power to the unit and walked the team through the power up sequence. Once powered up, I walked the guys through the contents of the unit including radios, antennas, and all of the various support equipment. We also walked through typical use of the unit when deployed to the scene of a disaster. The guys were very attentive and asked lots of great questions.

Once everyone felt comfortable with the layout of the unit, we set up the same 40m hamstick dipole that Doug and I used the night before. We let the guys put the mast and antenna together and then we put the analyzer on it and made a few adjustments to bring the SWR down. We connected the antenna to the HF radio and Jonah tuned up to the South CARS net and began to try and check in using the call sign of the unit, N4GBC. The band was in very good shape and the noise floor was very low. While Jonah manned the HF radio, we brought up the VHF and UHF radio up and tested to the local repeaters again. We raised a local HAM, Tom who was in Moultrie. Tom said he would come by and visit us later in the morning.

I contacted Mac-KF4LMT back in Savannah on the phone and asked him if he could meet us on 40m. He was all too happy to oblige and we had a great QSO. Jeff and Jonah were about to chat with Mac as well as they got familiar with the Kenwood HF radio.

As the morning progressed we received a call from Mike-KE4FGF on the local repeater. Mike said he was heading over to visit with us after having breakfast in Moultrie with some fellow HAMs. Mike is the SEC for the GA ARES program and we were very happy to have him coming over to see us. Right about the time Mike arrived so did Tom James-W4TBJ, his wife Theresa-KJ4NBG, son Tommy-KJ4SWI and daughter Taylor. Had a great visit with all of them and enjoyed showing them around the comm unit. Tom and Theresa expressed interest in joining the disaster relief ministry and we gave them info on the next Phase 1 training to be held in Waycross on Jan 15th.

As 1130 rolled around, we began to break down the unit and stow everything so that we could meet the other ministries for lunch in the cafeteria. We said so long to Mike, Tom, and Theresa as well as Horace and Doug who decided to get an early start back to North Georgia. It was a very successful session and I think we all benefitted greatly.

Had lunch with everyone else at noon then hooked the trailer back up to Doug’s truck and pulled out of Norman Park just before 1300. Took the same route back to Statesboro and on the way talked to Dan-KF4MND on 2 meters as we passed by Glennville. Got to Statesboro around 1600 and stowed the unit at the airport. Another hour to Doug’s place in Rincon to pick up my truck and I was on the way back to Savannah. I was home around 1800 or so. What a great trip.

Learn more about our ministry at http://www.georgiabears.com/.

Oct 16 KT4ZB Antenna Work

Here is a nice summary from Jere-KT4ZB about the antenna work day at his QTH last weekend.  Great time was had by all.

Hi all - It was fantastic Saturday afternoon at the KT4ZB station. Lots of folks showed up to put up antennas and such. Kevin - K4WB, Paul - KJ4FAV, Dr. Ken - W4KJG, Peter - KJ4FAW, John Lewis, Mark - KD4PDX, Lester - KF4JBQ, and Guy - K4GTM all came and donated their time.Paul climbed the tower and untangled some drop lines, leveled the bottom yagi and redid the strain reliefs for the two beams. See the pictures on facebook that Guy took (thanks Guy, they're great). Although Steve - K4SDJ and Bill - K4WP didn't make it, the coax that Bill prepared did and Steve sent along some much needed drop line and PL connectors. Lester installed a serial port pci card in my computer and Mark laid out coax and drop line.

Ken constructed a new 160m dipole after considering my design (which sucked?) and Kevin brought along his "potato" bazooka to shoot lines over 90 foot trees. Conni was amazed (as I, you had to be there!). Later Saturday night, Conni and I were watching the current episode of "Bones" which featured a victim killed by an Bean Bag shotgun and we both yelled, "It's Kevin's air gun!".

One of the highlights of the day, and early evening, was putting up the 40m Bobtail Curtain. It is a huge antenna consisting of two 67 ft horizontal phasing wires and three 1/4 wave vertical elements. Peter and I worked on all the tie lines and tried to get the right antennas on the correct side of the tower. The 40m antenna is on one side and the 80m wire is on the other; both going to a pully arrangement tied to neighbor's tree (what good neighbors we have). While the curtain still requires a center support line, it plays well. Saturday night I made contacts with five German stations.

The 160m dipole went up, came down for adjustments, went back up and then came back down for one more change. No easy feat when you consider it is 270 feet long and goes over the house. Ken had a huge smile when the analyzer showed a SWR of 1.14 at 1.856 MHz.

Today the flux was at 86 and 10m was open this morning into Africa; worked South Africa and Mozambique. I notice Mac reported openings into Africa on Saturday too.

Again thanks to all who came, I hope I didn't leave anyone out. Having that many hands really makes things go well. Remember, whenever I report great contacts or good scores, much of that is only obtained because of the help of good friends.

CU on the bands - Jere

Zane Rockin in Baghdad

My son Zane and his buddy Sam have been writing and recording some tunes in between missions in Bahgdad. Sam is singing and playing acoustic (Taylor) and Zane is wailing on the electric (Epiphone). Hoooaaah!

Planning Continues for SET on Oct. 2nd

Hello ARES Team and fellow radio operators,

Still looking for some operators to assist with the SET on next Saturday, Oct 2. The exercise runs from 0900 til 1700 local. You don't need to participate the entire time but we do need folks to setup and operate radio stations at each of our served agencies.


   


- CEMA EOC - Chatham Parkway Annex
- Savannah Red Cross - Chatham Parkway
- Memorial Medical Center
- Candler Hospital
- SouthSide Fire Station #1 - WhiteBluff Rd.

If you can help during the SET please email and let me know a timeframe that you are available. And let me know if you have a preference of which location to operate at.

If you can't assist at one of the served agencies, you are certainly welcome to be a part of the exercise from home or mobile. We will be holding a local net(s) and will begin on our primary ARES frequency of 146.970. Our secondary frequency is 147.330 (203.5 pl). If repeaters are not available, of course we will meet on 146.520 simplex.

There will also be HF nets convening throughout the day on the GA ARES frequency of 3.975 at 0900, 1100, 1300, 1500, 1700. Each served agency station will be checking in to these nets and anyone else is welcome to check in from your home or mobile station.

You can see a complete list of frequencies on the SET Scenario attached to this email and posted at the Georgia ARES website at http://www.gaares.org/ . Click on the "Breaking News" tab.

Once again, please let me know if you can participate and of course let me know if you have any questions.

Guy McDonald, K4GTM
DEC Southeast District
ARES Emergency Coordinator
Chatham County GA
www.k4gtm.blogspot.com/

Georgia Statewide ARES Simulated Emergency Test (SET) on Oct 2

Hello fellow Chatham County (and surrounding counties) amateur radio operators and ARES members,


We are just a few weeks away from the annual statewide Simulated Emergency Test (SET) which will be held on Oct.2. This exercise gives us a great opportunity to practice our craft as amateur radio emergency service operators.

We will be operating from several of our served agencies here in Chatham County including CEMA, Savannah Red Cross, Memorial Medical Center, Candler Hospital, Southside Fire Department. The test will run from 0900 till 1700 local. In addition to the served agencies, we will need operators at a shelter and at a POD (point of distribution). These sites are to be determined.

We also plan to establish comm with our surrounding counties to include Effingham, Bullock, Bryan, Liberty, Long, Beaufort, and any others in the region.

Our primary goals of the test will be to establish communications between our local EMA and the State Operations Center (SOC), the shelter facility, and the POD. We will do this using a variety of modes and methods.
Please mark this day on your calendar and let me know if you can participate. You don't need to commit for the entire day so let me know what period of time that you are available and I'll put together a schedule.
Take a look at the statewide scenario that is posted at http://www.gaares.org/ and let me know if you have any questions. I'll be putting together a schedule and a frequency plan for us to follow.



Guy McDonald, K4GTM
DEC Southeast District
ARES Emergency Coordinator
Chatham County GA
www.k4gtm.blogspot.com/

Georgia Regional Coordinating Hospitals Net

Successful tests of the amateur radios stations at Memorial Medical Center (K4MUM) and Candler Hospital (W3SJC) today. Thanks to Kevin-KW4B and Guy-K4GTM. Both stations checked into the monthly Georgia Regional Coordinating Hospitals Net on 3.975 and tested all of the regional VHF and UHF repeaters to include several in the South Carolina linked repeater system.

CEMA Continues to Monitor Hurricane Earl

CEMA partially activated the EOC at 0700 this morning to monitor the conditions of Hurricane Earl. Thanks to Steve Jonas-K4SDJ, AEC for Chatham County, for manning the CEMA HAM Station N4CEM until noon today when the partial activation was terminated. CEMA remains in OPCON 4 Monitoring Hurricane Earl.

Hurricane Watch Net Active on 14.325 USB

Hurricane Watch Net Active on 14.325 USB


The Hurricane Watch Net activated at 0800 Eastern Time this morning for Hurricane Earl. Information on the net and streaming audio of the net can be found here.

CEMA Enters into Operating Condition 4

Savannah, GA – August 29, 2010 – 12:00 PM
At 11:00 AM, Hurricane Earl was located near Latitude 17.2 North, Longitude 58.4 West or about 1,650 statute miles SE of Chatham County and was moving toward the W at 17 mph. A gradual turn to the WNW with a gradual decrease in forward speed is expected over the next several days. However, due to the storm’s proximity and frequent changes in the forecast track over the last several advisories, CEMA is advancing to Operating Condition (OPCON) 4.

OPCON 4 is the advanced stage of readiness and indicates the storm is approximately 120 hours away from Chatham County. This action is precautionary, and all interested parties are encouraged to monitor this storm through local media and internet resources.

A thorough check of emergency supplies and evacuation plans is in order. Emergency response agencies should review hurricane plans and determine the availability of assets, resources and personnel. Those agencies that have the responsibility to share information should be doing so at this time.

Follow CEMA on Twitter @ChathamEMA and subscribe to email distributions through CEMA_Alert and CEMA_Signal.

QSL Card from Pentagon MARS Station WAR

I recieved another QSL card today from MARS station WAR confirming my contact with the Pentagon during the 2010 Military to Amateur Crossband Test back in May.

Military to Amateur Crossband Test QSL Card

I recieved a QSL card today from station NBL verifying our contact during the 2010 Military to Amateur Crossband Test back in May.

New Transmitter System for the B-17 "City of Savannah" Restoration

On Monday, Aug 9th, Steve Jonas-K4SDJ and Bill DeLoach-K4WP of the Coastal Amateur Radio Society made a trip to Charleston to pick up the "new" 60 year old transmitter system (BC-375) that was recently purchased and generously donated to the restoration project by Tommy Garcia.

Guy McDonald-K4GTM met Steve and Bill at the museum later in the day to unload and store the equipment until it can be inventoried and logged into the archives.

The radio guys from CARS can't wait to assess the operational condition of this transmitter system and ultimately install it in the radio compartment of the "City of Savannah".

Hello fellow radio operators,

Many of you have been asking for us to have a "new operator orientation session" now that you have your license. Well here's your opportunity to learn more about getting on the radio, following operating protocol, learning the local area repeater frequencies, and anything else that you would like to know about the hobby. This will be a great chance to learn from other HAMs in a very relaxed environment.

We are planning to have this session on Sunday, Aug 15th in conjunction with the ARRLs "Rookie Roundup" contest. We plan to start the new operator session at 1:00pm and run for about an hour or two with as much time after to answer any and all questions, do demonstrations, get on the radio, etc. This is your chance to pick our brains for anything you want to know about amateur radio.

http://www.arrl.org/rookie-roundup

The "Rookie Roundup" contest starts at 2:00pm and runs till about 8:00pm. This gives new HAMs all across the country to get on the air and gain some experience and most of all have some fun. Everyone is welcome to stick around and talk, listen, look, learn for as long as you like. This is gonna be real fun.
We will be at the Southside Fire Station on WhiteBluff Rd where we have our club HAM station. Call or email me or Kevin with any questions.

We also want seasoned HAMs to participate as mentors (Elmers) for all the new HAMs so come on out and spend some time.

Guy McDonald, K4GTM
President, Coastal Amateur Radio Society
www.k4gtm.blogspot.com/

2010 Georgia HURREX Support

Here is a post from Mac's blog about our involvement in this years HURREX.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Amateur Radio Involvement in the 2010 Georgia HURREX


Posted on June 30, 2010 by kf4lmt

On 28 and 29 June, 2010 the State of Georgia held its annual HURREX (Hurricane Exercise). Amateur Radio operators under the auspices of ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) took part and tested their abilities to provide back up communications to first responders and GEMA (Georgia Emergency Management Agency). Amateur radio operators were positioned in various places throughout the state including the response area in Savannah, a staging area in Dublin, and the GEMA EOC in Atlanta.
Steve Bramham, W4SKB, the ARES DEC (District Emergency Coordinator) for the Georgia State Patrol was located in Savannah with GEMA’s INTEROP 1 communications trailer. Steve set up amateur radio communications via 2 Meter and 70cm repeaters, HF voice communications on 3.975 LSB, and D-Star voice. Unfortunately he had some HF radio issues with INTEROP 1 and that is where local Savannah hams came into the picture. Ralph Quinn, W4REQ, Guy McDonald, K4GTM and I spent several hours out at INTEROP 1 which was located at the Savannah International Airport on Monday evening. Efforts to troubleshoot the problem seemed to point to a feedline issue, so we ended up deciding to put up a temporary replacement using some line and feedline of Ralphs and a G5RV Jr. of mine. We accomplished the task by around 2200 and hoped that everything would work for Steve in the morning. Come Tuesday morning, Steve’s automatic tuner wouldn’t tune the G5RV Jr. for 80 Meters (the Jr. being designed for 40-10 Meters). Luckily we were able to borrow an MFJ-949C from Heyward Lovett, KT4RW; I picked up the tuner from Heyward and carried it out to Steve. The 949C tuned the antenna system just fine. We quickly had INTEROP 1 on the air and were able to check in to the 0900 ARES Net on 3.975 LSB.

After we got the HF radio up and running, I hung around and helped Steve get the D-Star station operational through the Pembroke D-Star repeater on 145.300. Just after 1000, I left the airport and went over to Hutchinson Island to help Steve with a GEMA request; the wanted to see if we would be able to provide backup communications to units in that area with handheld radios through the 146.970 repeater. We conducted a successful handheld radio check from the area of the Trade Center and proved we could do it on simplex mobile to mobile. I was able to talk to Greg Tillman, N4VAD on 146.520 while Greg was west of the airport in Pooler. That capability seemed to make an impression on the GEMA representative and could lead to deeper ARES involvement in further exercises.

I believe that we showed GEMA what Amateur Radio is capable of doing on Monday and Tuesday. A group of amateur radio operators, on short notice was able to overcome difficulty and adapt to a changing situation. Amazingly, almost all of the coordination for troubleshooting the antenna issue and replacing the antenna was done over the air via the 146.970 and 442.700 repeaters; we showed that we didn’t need telephones or cellphones and could accomplish the task with what we had on hand.

New Amateur Radio Operators in Savannah!

Congratulations to all of the folks who tested and passed thier exams this past Saturday on Field Day morning.  We have 11 new operators and one of them upgraded to General Class in the same sitting.

That's a 100% pass rate for our most recent class.  We still have a couple yet to test at a later date. 

Call signs should be out soon and will post them here on the blog.