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)

Submitted by Paul H. Teel WB5ANX, Emergency Coordinator - Tulsa County

ARES Tulsa County will conduct the annual Simulated Emergency Test (SET) on Saturday, October 7, 2023, from 0900 – 1200.  We will have multiple ways for everyone to participate in Tulsa and Rogers Counties and around the state.

The objectives are to test communication skills during emergency power conditions, Net Control Operations (NCO) management of resources, stress accuracy in message passing, and to have some fun, all with a scenario ripped from recent headlines.

Included in this year’s SET;

• VHF/UHF FM operations,
• Simultaneous operations on various nets requiring multiple NCO’s,
• Joint exercise with Rogers County,
• Winlink and NTS message traffic (multiple nodes for access, also HF operations for long haul),
• DMR on talk group 3140 statewide,
• Oklahoma link (which is also available on DMR TG 341022),
• Hospital Net (Tulsa only),
• Pilot programs of new ways to send digital pics of damage assessments to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) (if you are interested in this mode, let me know)
• Using ICS and NTS forms.

How do you prepare?

• To participate in the Winlink portion of the exercise, email Jeff Scoville AE5ME, at AE5ME@winlink.org by September 29.
• Check your equipment and software to prepare you for Winlink and NTS message traffic.
• Watch for the ICS-205 that will contain the frequencies for the SET. Then, program your equipment as appropriate.
• Examine your ability to operate on emergency power.
• Saturday morning, Oct 7, follow the check-in processes as the SET unfolds, starting at 0900. All NCOs must check in on the staging net at 0900.
• ARES OK officers are also welcome to check in and participate.
• ARES Tulsa volunteers should make every effort to participate.
• Questions?  Please email me at paulhteel@gmail.com.

Paul H. Teel WB5ANX, EC Tulsa County
Amateur Radio Emergency Service
paulhteel@gmail.com
918-998-8032 (cell)
6100001096 (Hamshack Hotline)

The 2023 Oklahoma QSO Party is this weekend, on March 11th and 12th. This will run from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm on Saturday and from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on Sunday, Oklahoma time. Note that Daylight Savings Time starts this weekend. If you are an Oklahoma station, please consider going mobile this year to help get all 77 counties on-the-air in a big way!! Connie Marshall K5CM has all the details on his OK QSO party web page. Grab your HF radio and get on-the-air.