Legislation Will Increase Communication Options During Natural Disasters

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Richard Blumenthal, D- Conn., and Representatives August Pfluger, R-Tex., and Joe Courtney, D-Conn. announced their joint re-introduction of legislation in the Senate and House to restore the right to Amateur Radio operators to install the antennas necessary to serve their communities.

Here in Oklahoma, we ask all amateur radio clubs and individuals to visit https://ok.arrl.org/hoa/. This page has all of our contact information and template letters. Please note that all letters should be sent to the email and address listed. Letters emailed to legislators tend to get lost in the cleansing process. ARRL will aggregate these letters and deliver them directly to our senators and representatives. If you don’t live in an HOA, please complete a letter to make sure those in the HOAs will be there to contact you.

Please fill out the letters as soon as possible.

Winter Field Day is among us. Field days are a great way to learn how to operate your radios or other peoples’ radios. Typically, a field day operation starts mid-day on Saturday and operates for 24 hours straight. I’ve listed all the Winter Field Day sites I’m familiar with, so you can join the fun no matter where you live. Also, you can operate from your house to contact as many folks as possible. More information (and the new rules for this year) are available at https://winterfieldday.com/. Visit one of these sites, or fire up your radio to make some noise on HF!

 

OKLAHOMA CITY

Oklahoma City Emergency Management will be standing up an Outdoor “2O” Winter Field Day operation on Saturday, January 25th, from 10 a.m. to Sunday, the 26th, at 3:30 p.m. You are invited to drop by and visit or sign up to operate.

Location: 4600 N M L King –  The OKC Regional Multi-Agency Coordination Center RMAC/EOC. The operation will be in a tent above the underground facility with a generator-providing 120 VAC source. ( …and some heat) Come to the second gate east of M L King on Meyers Place and press the intercom button. You can’t miss the huge, heavily loaded radio tower site.

Lt David Storer and Officer Kevin Long are providing this as an opportunity for those who volunteered and attended the AUXCOMM training course to begin completing activities required in their Position Task Books.  But you do not have to be one of their volunteers to come by and visit or operate. If you wish to sign up to operate one of the stations, you can do so. The link to sign up is

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0A45AEAE2AA6FEC16-54149977-winter#/

Times are set up in 6-hour blocks to help them with scheduling operators.

No food will be provided.  Operators should bring sufficient food to be self-sustaining, as per the training for deployments.

 

MID-DEL

Event by Mid-Del Amateur Radio Club
Joe B. Barnes Regional Park
8700 E Reno Ave, Midwest City, OK 73130
Duration: 2 days
Public  · Anyone on or off Facebook

The Winter Field Day event runs on Saturday and Sunday. We are still making plans, so times are subject to change. We will finalize our schedule at our Monday, 1/13 club meeting.

The Mid-Del Amateur Radio Club will host a public Winter Field Day event on Saturday, 1/25, and Sunday, 1/26.

We will be open to the public on Saturday from Noon to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 10 am to 4 pm.

All are welcome to visit, chat, observe, or get on the air.

On Saturday, we will also hold a VE Test session from 3 to 5 p.m. for those wishing to obtain or upgrade their Amateur Radio license.

Where: Joe B Barnes Regional Park in Midwest City. South of the Fred Quinn Happy Trails Dog Park. 8517 E Reno Ave, Midwest City, OK 73110. Look for the Mid-Del Club banner.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/547QSNBZdrdMWpt9A

The day will help enhance the essential skills of those who generously volunteer their time and equipment to these organizations. Preparedness is the key to a professional and timely response during any event, and local and state authorities expect this when they reach out to emergency service groups that offer their services.

Members: Setup will be on Saturday at 10  a.m. All help will be appreciated. Tear down will begin at 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Please come by and help with the event if you are available. Also, please bring your own chair, as the club chairs will be dedicated to operator use, testing, and guests.

 

TULSA

The Tulsa Amateur Radio Club (TARC) will operate Winter Field Day at Haikey Creek Park,

11327 S Garnett Rd, Broken Arrow, OK 74011-9600, starting at noon on Saturday.

 

TECUMSEH

Name: Tecumseh Amateur Radio Club

Callsign: KD5WAV

Category: O

Visitors are welcome!

We will be operating on the oval of Oklahoma Baptist University and would love for people to come by and observe and ask questions.

 

LAKE EUFAULA STATE PARK

Crossroads Amateur Radio Club

Callsign: AD5MC

Category: O

Visitors are welcome! See info below for more details.

Winter Field Day January 25-26th

Lake Eufaula State Park at Yurt on Longhorn Loop

Talk in on 146.52 or KB5QAI repeater 443.9750 +5 PL 100.0

carcradio.org

facebook.com/ad5mc

 

BARTLESVILLE

Name: Bartlesville Amateur Radio Club

Callsign: W5NS

Category: I

Visitors are welcome!

https://bartlesvilleamateurradioclub.com/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/barcbartlesville

The public is welcome to visit on Saturday, although the best time to see the action is from Noon to about 5 pm.

We are planning on being at Cabin 3. Look for vehicles with antennas on them.

Hams: Talk-in frequency will be the 146.655 repeater (88.5hz PL).

Note: All vehicles are required to pay to park at the park. There are signs to pay for parking or visit the office as you enter. Seniors and Veterans, please let them know as there are discounts. For more information, call the park office at Osage Hills State Park | TravelOK.com – Oklahoma’s Official Travel & Tourism Site

 

ELK CITY

Name: West Central Ok Amateur Radio Club

Callsign: K5WCO

Category: I

Visitors are welcome!

sites.google.com/view/wcoarc

Visitors welcome!

105 Alee Dr, Elk City, OK

The building is open Friday afternoon/Saturday morning for setup.

VE Testing 1:00 PM Saturday, pre-register on the website.. no fee to test

We have discussed relief for amateur radio operators living in Homeowner Associations (HOAs) and other land use restriction areas. The ARRL has worked to create and have filed a pair of bills, one in the United States House of Representatives and one in the United States Senate. As you remember from middle school civics class, the bill must pass both houses of Congress and then be signed by the President.

We need Congress to approve these bills, and we need your help to encourage our Oklahoma legislators to take action to pass them. Please print out a letter for each Senator quickly and for your specific Representative.

You may have heard of some issues the ARRL has with its digital network infrastructure. This message won’t contain any new information, however, based on the public reports provided on https://arrl.org/, I will try to summarize what’s out there. You may know my training and forty years of “day jobs” are in Computer Science and IT Management. I’ve seen many of these situations and found that these are typically temporary issues. Let’s call them digital speedbumps. Just like driving through a suburban street with physical speed bumps, going too fast can cause additional problems when encountering the next bump.

From the ARRL disruption page, I know this is a network-related computer system outage. While the IT Manager in me wants to see how this started and what devices are involved, none of that matters to those on the outside. I also read that the Logbook Of The World database is secure but offline. That’s good news for the “big picture” of us external users. The ARRL Learning Center is also offline. There isn’t any status update on that system. Finally, they have asserted that no personally identifiable information (PII) is stored on-site. Should any information have been shared with external sources, we would be comfortable knowing any PII would haunt this issue. Job 1 for this rebuild is to find, obtain, and verify the required user and system data. Fortunately, the website https://arrl.org is fully functional.

While there may be structured locations like file servers and databases where users should store their data, most users have bad habits of storing information on their local systems. Sorting through all of these storage locations can complicate any recovery. Then, the old infrastructure must be “burned down” and rebuilt. In today’s modern society, much information is required to run the world. Remember that this is a business, and things like payroll, banking, and accounts payable must start back up quickly so employees and vendors get paid.

These events highlight the need for a business continuity plan for your business and even your personal information. Should something like this happen at your house, would your information be retrievable? Are your QSO logs (and other vital data) stored safely and off-site?

The ARRL has a web page dedicated to this situation. As time passes, you should see additional updates here: https://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-systems-service-disruption. Remember that discussions may be limited due to “bad-guy awareness,” future prosecution, or lack of new information.

Rest assured, your Oklahoma and Texas Section Managers and the West Gulf Division Directors are as engaged as we can be. If you are not in Oklahoma or Texas, please contact your Division Directors https://www.arrl.org/divisions to ensure they are working to mitigate this issue.

This is a reminder that “When all else fails, amateur radio is there.” We are 160,000 hams that are still connected by the ionosphere. Grab your microphone, CW key, or FT8 mouse, and get on the air. (Hang on to your QSO logs and update them when the dust settles.)

A message from our West Gulf Division Director, John Stratton N5AUS. Our Oklahoma/Texas leadership supports this Motion. However, they are currently in the minority. Feel free to contact the leaders that John lists below and contact your friends outside the region so they can review this information and take appropriate action:

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“No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the Legislature
is in session.”
               
        A centuries old truism often attributed to Mark Twain — it is
applicable to any elected organization with the power to alter the lives
and rights of others — public, private, or governmental — including
the ARRL Board of Directors.

        While the Agenda for the Board Meeting is always published before a
Board meeting, the many motions to be considered by the Board have
rarely ever been published before a Board Meeting. The most recent and
notorious exception occurred before the January 2018 Board meeting when
the Executive Committee and Lisenco motions intended to juice the 2017
“Code of Conduct” were leaked to the general Membership. The
overwhelming Membership outrage resulting from the unintentional
disclosure was instrumental in the punitive proposals being withdrawn.
The 2017 Code of Conduct was itself overturned by a newly elected Board
in January 2019.

     The Members’ voices were heard — and their wishes were
honored.

     It is my belief, that of a small minority of Directors, and Vice
Director Lee Cooper’s, that the Members should be permitted to have
advance notice of the substantive matters to considered by the Board of
Directors at its meetings.

     To that end, the West Gulf intends to publish to its website the
substantive motions scheduled to be considered at the January Board
meeting and subsequent meetings.

     It is our intent to discuss each known January 2024 motion in a
separate email, although we will publish to the website each motion as
it becomes available.

     At present, there are three known motions. The Agenda for the
January Board meeting and each of these three motions are available for
review and download at:

                 https://westgulfdivision.org/motion

The first motion we wish to discuss is the:

   Motion To Honor Membership Contracts

        In July 2023, the Board voted to raise the annual dues from $49 to $59
and to eliminate the delivery of a printed copy of QST or On The Air,
effective January 2024, unless a Member paid an extra $25/year.

        The West Gulf Division, the Atlantic Division, the Southeastern
Division, and the Southwestern Divisions voted against both proposals,
but the two proposals passed by an 11-4 vote.

        While a dues increase was long overdue and actually needed, the West
Gulf Division voted against it because it was tied to the termination of
the delivery of a printed copy of QST/On The Air unless a Member paid an
extra $25/year.

        The four divisions argued it was a breach of the ARRL’s legal
contract with those Members — both annual memberships and 3-year
memberships — to terminate their promised printed copy of QST/On The
Air before their membership contracts expired. The membership
applications in use at the time promised, in writing, the delivery of
QST/On The Air magazines by “standard mail.”

        Besides the risks attendant upon a breach of contract, Article 11 of
the ARRL Articles of Association prohibits the Board from terminating or
reducing the rights of any Member. The stripping of the delivery of
printed copies of QST/On The Air from unexpired Memberships constitutes
a reduction in the rights of the affected Member.

        Both the Membership Application and Article 11 are promises — and the
League should stand on its promises. That is the reason we have filed
the Motion To Honor Membership Contracts.

        The ARRL is a membership organization, and the opinions of the Members
are important.

        I have been asked by each of the West Gulf Division Section Managers
— NTX SM Steve Smith (KG5VK), STX SM Stuart Wolfe (KF5NIX), WTX SM
Dale Durham (W5WI), and OK SM Mark Kleine (N5HZR) — to share that they
each support the Motion To Honor Membership Contracts.

     If you believe the Motion has merit and it should pass, it would be
important for you to share your support for the Motion with the ARRL
President, Rick Roderick, and the other Directors. All of their email
addresses can be found on Page 15 of QST or at
http://www.arrl.org/divisions . If you choose to share your views,
please be respectful — we choose to disagree, but need not be
disrespectful.

John Robert Stratton
N5AUS
West Gulf Division Director

Lee H. Cooper
W5LHC
West Gulf Division Vice Director

By Paul Teel WB9ANX Tulsa Emergency Coordinator and Jeff Scoville AE5ME

Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) Tulsa and Rogers County volunteers.  We are less than one week away from the annual Simulated Emergency Test (SET) on October 7th.  Operations will begin at 0900L time.

The two documents that you will need, the ICS-205 communications plan (pages 1 and 2), are available at https://aresok.org/ics205. The planned participation is growing in Oklahoma, and we encourage you to join in. We also have stations from international locations, including Germany and the Philippines.

In Tulsa or Rogers County

• If you are in the local Tulsa market, please check in to the staging net on 145.110 at 0900.
• Advise Net Control if you are.
  • Operating on emergency power,
  • Have Winlink or NTS message traffic,
  • Are available for additional assignments (meaning you are not a check-in only).  You will be given instructions on what to do next.

Outside of Tulsa or Rogers County

• You may not be able to reach the 145.110 staging net.
• If so, you can still participate in the exercise in the following ways;
  • Check-in with the Net Control Operator (NCO) on DMR talk group 3140 (statewide)
  • Check-in with the NCO on Oklahoma Link talk group 314022
  • Send a Winlink message to Jeff Scoville.  Address it to AE5ME in Winlink.  You can send that message via FM on any Winlink gateway near you (145.03 statewide or 145.04 in OKC).
  • Send a Winlink message to Jeff AE5ME via HF.  Frequencies are in the ICS-205.

This is a very ambitious project and would not be possible without the ARES Tulsa Team—many thanks to them.

• Jeff, AE5ME (Winlink NCO)
• John, N9JYJ  (Winlink NCO)
• Ray, K5CFY (Rogers County Operations NCO)
• Ian, KC9THI (Tulsa County Operations NCO)
• Russ, KF5UZG (Staging NCO)
• James, KI5DAZ (Tulsa Emergency Management Agency NCO)
• Greg, AI5HV (DMR 3140, Okla Link 314022 NCO)