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.

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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. 

Final Session of Technician Class

We held the final session of our Technician Class last night.  We covered Licensing and Operating Regulations as well as Electrical and RF Safety.  What a good group of students.  I'm sure everyone is ready to test on Saturday morning at Field Day.  Hopefully some of them will be able to stick around for Field Day and get on the air. 

Congratulations to two of our students that passed the exam last week.

John Lewis-KJ4WBF.  New Technician Class Operator

Jeff Delaney-KJ4WBG.  New General Class Operator.  Jeff passed both tests at the VE session.

June 19 Antenna Work at the CEMA EOC

Had breakfast with some of the guys this morning....as usual. Then over to the CEMA EOC to install a new HF antenna. We also installed a new Kenwood Dual Band radio and tested it as well as a new LDG Z-11 Pro auto tuner for the TS-2000.  Once we had the new G5RV antenna installed we hooked things up and tested it with the new tuner and the TS-2000.  Tuned up fine and recieved well on all bands.  No one one really on the bands this morning to test with but we did make contact on 40 and 20 with John-N2DRL in Midway.  I'll go back out there one day this week and check in to the Georgia Traffic Net and get some reports.  Thanks to Steve-K4SDJ, Kevin-KW4B, Mac-KF4LMT, Mark-KA4CID, and Dustin-KI4MQD.  Shoulda taken a few more pics at the EOC but forget..........de K4GTM

June Technician Class Update

The Technician Class is going well. We're up to 11 students in this class. We held session #3 this past week and will finish up with session #4 on Tuesday. Students are scheduled to test on June 26th at Field Day. We actually had two of our students test this past week! John passed the Technician exam and Jeff passed both the Tech and General! Great job guys. They should have thier call signs anyday now.
Now we just need to do some good followup and be sure we help the new HAMs get involved in the local clubs and radio activities. Hope to see some of them stick around and operate at Filed Day.
That's it for now.......de K4GTM

June 2010 Technician Class

We started a new Technician Class here in Savannah on June 1st. Still time to attend. We will meet Jun 8, 15, 22 from 6:00pm til 9:00pm at Memorial Medical Center Hoskins Building. Email me for more info at k4gtm@arrl.net.

May 25 Savannah Area Hospital Hurricane Exercise

We had a successful comm drill today in support of the Hurricane Evacuation Exercise at Memorial Medical Center. This was an annual table top drill for the leadership and EOC staff at Memorial. We set up the amateur radio station K4MUM to demonstate our communications capabilities in the event of loss of primary modes of communication.


We also took the opportunity to include Candler-W3SJC and St. Joseph's-K4SJH Hospitals in the exercise. Both of these hospitals have new radio station equipment and this is the first time they have been included in a local exercise. Thanks to Kevin-KW4B for his leadership in acquiring the equipment, coordinating the installation of antenna and feedline, installation of the HF antenna, configuration and testing of the radios, etc. What a great asset Kevin is to the ARES program.

The comm portion of the exercise went very well with operators arriving onsite at the three locations around 0800 to setup and test. The exercise kicked off at 0900 and we established communications between all three hospitals and tested all of the available VHF and UHF repeater systems. We also made sure to test operating on simplex which went very well. We also established HF comm between Memorial and Candler. All three locations operated very well today.

The exercise wrapped up right around 1100 at which time all equipment was disconnected and stowed to be ready for the next drill or emergency activation. Thanks to the following operators for participating today. We have a great ARES program in Chatham and surrounding counties.

Kevin - KW4B
Raymond - KJ4HAE
John - N2DRL
Peter - KJ4FAW
Steve - K4SDJ
Lester - KF4JBQ
Carl - KC4UHM
Guy - K4GTM
Ken - W4JKG

Very Special Contact During Today's Special Event

During today's special event at the benefit for a wounded warrior we had a very special contact with the son of a WWII B-17 pilot.  Rick-N2ETJ heard us talking about next weeks special event station that we are having at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum and told us about his father, Raymond Firmani, who completed 25 combat missions in the B-17 as a pilot in the 8th Air Force.  Wow, this is awesome considering our current work on restoring a B-17 and it's radio compartment at the museum.  Ricks father is still alive and is in his 90s.  The staff at the museum would sure love to talk to Mr. Firmani as they continue to chronical the history of the 8th Air Force.  Rick is planning to make contact with our station, W2W, next Saturday.  We'll see if there might be a way to coordinate for Mr. Firmani to talk with the museum historian.  Rick sent us this picture of his dad's "shadow box" of pictures, insignia, and medals.  Thanks Rick!

May 8, 2010 Special Event Station W4W

Had a great time today operating Special Event Station W2W at the benefit for SSgt Jason Letterman of the 3rd ID who was wounded in Iraq and lost both of his legs.  The benefit was held at Red Gate Farms here in Savannah and it couldn't have been a better venue.  Lot's of live music and food as well as volleyball and horse shoes.  Laura Mackey was a gracious hostess.  A group called Homes For Our Troops (homesforourtroops.org) is raising funds to build SSgt Letterman and his family a handicap friendly home.  What a worthy fundraiser this was.  We set up our station and operated from about 10:00am til 7:00pm and spoke with folks all across the country who asked us to pass on thier appreciation to SSgt Letterman's service and sacrifice.  Thanks to Steve-K4SDJ, Lester-KF4JBQ, Kevin-KW4B, Jere-KT4ZB, and all those who made contact with us.  Learn more about SSgt Letterman at http://redgateevents.wordpress.com/.

B-17 "City of Savannah" Special Event Station W2W on May 15th

The Coastal Amateur Radio Society in Savannah, GA will be activating Special Event Station W2W on May 15th from 9:00am til 5:00pm in conjunction with the Armed Forces Day festivities at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum. CARS is working with the B-17 "City of Savannah" restoration team to restore the radio compartment of this legendary WWII aircraft. We will have our station setup under the wingtip of the aircraft and hope to stream video of the event throughout the day. As a special treat we will also be running a WWII era BC-348 reciever for the public to listen to.


You can learn more about this project at the museum website http://www.mightyeighth.org/b17_restoration.htm.

May5, 2010 B-17 Radio Work Day

We spent a few hours at the museum this afternoon. Steve and I installed pulleys and pull line on two lamp posts on the museum grounds for use in hoisting up a long wire antenna. Which we plan to do for special event stations that we will be having at the museum, the first of which will be on May 15th in conjunction with thier Armed Forces Day festivities. Bruce, the museum facilities manager, was able to get a lift for us to use for the day. All of the museum staff and volunteers have been so accomodating to us.


We were also able to get a first look at two additional BC-348 recievers that the museum has. One of which was just donated to the museum last week and one that they've had in a display case since 1995. Carroll had his tube tester with him today so was able to begin assessing the condition of these radios. Neither one is in as great a shape as the first one that we've got working but Carroll is confident that we can make them operational.

Productive day!