SKYWARN Storm Spotter Training Set

The National Weather Service in Shreveport, LA will provide free SKYWARN training in Rusk County on April 5th, 2018. The training will be held at the Rusk County Sheriff's Department's training room and is open to the public.

 NWS staff will teach both Beginner and Advanced SKYWARN levels including basic storm identification, storm mechanics, severe weather indicators, spotter safety and best practices. The "Advanced" level will include topics on radar products and in-depth meteorology.

The training is required for all active ARES storm spotters in North Texas.

Fldigi Day deemed a "Success"!

Several Rusk County amateurs took part in an "Fldigi Day" Saturday to hone their digital messaging skills. Hams learned to setup the software, connect VHF radios and both send and receive messages.

The day served as an importance milestone in the run-up to a region-wide emergency preparedness drill on April 18th, involving 19 counties across Northeast Texas and dozens of healthcare facilities. Amateurs will provide communications for several locations simulating a power outage due to a massive storm system.

After making sure all the technical details were correct, the hams then fanned out across the city and exchanged messages from their vehicles. The training day turned out to be a success and provide a handful off lessons which will be incorporated into the next round of preparation.

Fldigi Training Day set for Satruday

Club members will have an opportunity to hone their VHF digital skills on Saturday (February 17). We will meet at the South Main Church of Christ (402 S Main) for some classroom time before heading out into the field to put the theory into practice! The training day will be one more step toward training for emergency events such as the upcoming regional hospital communications exercise in April.

We will meet at 9 a.m. at the church building(southeast corner entrance, look for signs). Bring your laptop, android tablet or phone, handheld radio, mobile VHF radio (with power supply and antenna), sound interfaces, cables and we'll load software, configure it and practice sending and receiving digital messages. 

We will work primarily with Fldigi and Flmsg. We'll discuss forms and templates as well as connections and best practiced. (NOTE: If you don't have any equipment, DON'T WORRY, you're still welcome to come and learn what you'll need in the future!)

We'll then head out across town and have a little fun exchanging messages in a "real world" setting. 

Around noon, we'll have lunch somewhere here in Henderson and debrief over a burger. Join us!

New DXCC Mobile award announced

This week, the ARRL announced a Mobile DXCC Operating Award available to radio amateurs who have contacted at least 100 DXCC entities from a working vehicle equipped with antennas and a power source capable of operating while in motion. Previously, the DXCC award had to be earned from a single location.

ARRL Radiosport Manager Norm Fusaro, W3IZ, advised those pursuing the award to put safety first.

“Distracted driving is a serious concern, so we hope all mobile operators exercise care when operating from a moving vehicle,” he said.

Full, official details are on the Mobile DXCC Operating Award page.