Field Day 2016 #ARRLFD

As Field Day approaches, a number of sites are springing up on the Field Day Locator. 

This year, Eddie, K5EMS reports he is visiting Ponca City, Stillwater, and Enid.  

Your Section Manager can be tracked across Oklahoma on APRS.  He will be on Echolink 7203 and IRLP 9219.  Beginning in Altus, the trip in the general direction of Ardmore or Durant should turn north for visits to Pryor and Bartlesville.

“Don't forget about the NEW social media bonus that is being added to this years Field Day!” http://bit.ly/28LaelC

“Tom Medlin, W5KUB, has announced that his Amateur Radio Roundtable will be webcasting live on Field Day weekend from the all-kids K1D Field Day site in Deland, Florida, and from selected FD sites across the US, and will take calls at its Memphis, Tennessee, studio. Medlin will webcast from K1D on Saturday, June 25, 2000 until 2200 UTC. Live video from various Field Day sites will follow for the next 2 or 3 hours, as he takes calls, Medlin told ARRL.” http://bit.ly/28JFbn0

Don't forget to be safe ... that's worth points too!  

73

Great Plains Super Launch this weekend #ARRL #hamradio

Plan now to listen for the Great Plains Super Launch from Granbury, TX Saturday June 18.

The Great Plains Super Launch will take place at the Pecan Plantation airport south of Granbury, TX.  Several balloon are planned for launch - I've lost count of exactly how many.

APRS will be on 144.39, 144.36, and 144.34 MHz.  There are plans to have local and/or mobile Igates on all three frequencies, so the flights should be well-represented on APRS-IS and the usual tracking websites.

The flights are projected to head generally southwest and landings should be between Hico and Hamilton TX.

Thanks to Mark N9XTN for this information.

Are you on the Automatic Packet Reporting System?

National Traffic System Supports FEMA's Cascadia Rising

The ARRL’s National Traffic System debuted its new National Response Plan this past week during FEMA’s Cascadia Rising exercise.  At the invitation of FEMA’s Disaster Emergency Communications Directorate, more than forty NTS members in the U.S. and Canada demonstrated the ability to relay situational awareness from a simulated disaster area covering the States of Alaska, Idaho, Northern California, Oregon and Washington to their National Response Coordinating Center at Washington, D.C.

Methods used during this proof-of-concept demonstration project included the NTSD digital network as well as traditional radiotelephone and radiotelegraph networks.  All message traffic was transmitted and delivered using RF-only circuits using the universal radiogram format, selected for its proven network management tools and enhanced accountability standards. 

The exercise proved the value of consistent, internationally adopted, standard procedures, practiced through regular traffic handling assignments.  Some observers compared NTS radiotelegraph nets to the best of military and commercial operations.  Transcontinental Corps ops displayed professionalism and skill operating CW under poor propagation conditions.  An initial review of TCC traffic shows near perfect accuracy (>99%) with random, five character groups used for message texts.  Coast-to-coast traverse time averaged less than fifteen minutes.  One message was relayed in less than one minute.

Cascadia Rising will be the first of many exercises with FEMA designed to enhance the ability of NTS to provide efficient and reliable disaster communications services, especially vital situational awareness in the early moments of a communications failure.  NTS enjoys a culture of continual improvement and lessons learned from Cascadia Rising will be used to improve the National Response Plan and provide a basis of comparison for system performance.

Radio Amateurs interested in participating in NTS should check-in to a Section or local NTS net or contact their ARRL Section Traffic Manager.  http://www.arrl.org/sections.

Additional information about NTS and Cascadia Rising may be found at     https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/NTS-CR/info.