23 radio amateurs contributed 26 results during last weekend’s RI ARES MARS Airport Weather Practice Exercise. Thank you!
It was open to all anytime from 10am Saturday to 10pm Sunday October 7-8, 2023. As noted, 23 hams joined in. Two of these reported hearing nothing and one of the 26 submissions was a landline verification report. These are not shown in the data summary charts below.
Given this generous 36-hour window of time in which to submit results from home, 23 hams participated. Is this a large turnout, or less than expected? Too early to say. For comparison, the 2m RI ARES VHF Simplex net last night lasted about 45 minutes and had 15 check-ins from across 4 of the 5 RI counties. The month before, the RI ARES Simplex net had 20 check-ins across all 5 counties. Just FYI as we seek to understand baseline interest and commitment – and work to build aligned skill-development opportunities and continued outreach.
Top Challenge: AM Aviation Band (108-137MHz) awareness & solutions for your FM radio, scanner, or SDR
The Practice Exercise asked hams to listen on their radios and report what, if anything, they heard when tuned to 5 specific frequencies between 120-135 MHz, on the AM Aviation Airband.
Listed below are two of the FM radios used by this weekend’s practice exercise participants. These familiar ham radios do include the ability to receive on the aviation band.
- 5w Yaesu FT-60R (c. $190) w Diamond wide receive SRHF40A
- 50w Icom 5100 base
Add to the mix: reviewing how to program a new frequency, the benefits of a wideband receive antenna, and making time and effort to participate within the timeframe.
Location still matters: Nancy, KC1NEK used the Yaesu HT to clearly hear 4-5 airport weather stations over the last week from Middletown, RI. But then heard nothing when testing from the grounds of the New England Wireless & Steam Museum in East Greenwich.
This Practice Exercise was also an opportunity to learn about FM modulation/demodulation and slope detection. (Thank you, Steve, WA1GVM from Coventry!) Some people got creative with police scanners and planned SDR solutions. Yes, it was a good practice exercise. Stay tuned!
Join us tonight, Wednesday October 11, 2023 at 7:30pm on Zoom to share your experiences and tips. (For the Zoom link and more events, please see the RIARES.org calendar.)
What changes, if any, do you plan to put in place before the actual Simulated Emergency Test planned for Oct 21-22?
| County [ham entries] | TF Green | Newport | N. Central | Block Island | Westerly |
| Bristol* [0] | |||||
| Kent [5] | 5 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Newport [9] | 5 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| Providence* [2] | 2 | 1 | |||
| Washington [6] | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | |
| Outside RI [1] | 1 |
*Requesting ambassadors especially for Bristol and Providence Counties. ARES looks to the team-building leadership role of the DEC and ECs to build this prepared capacity. This is a great opportunity to encourage, mentor, and learn while supporting a state-wide shared mission.
For more, see:
Join the RI ARES MARS Airport Weather Exercise starting this weekend