Welcome to your October 2023 RI Section Newsletter

https://ri-arrl.org/welcome-to-your-october-2023-ri-section-newsletter  

Welcome to your October 2023 RI Section Newsletter

Announcing two RI Section Cabinet appointments 

Rhode Island Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC)

Jeremy Taylor, K1JST was appointed Rhode Island Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC) on October 25, 2023. Most recently Jeremy did an outstanding job leading RI’s official Section Emergency Test (SET) exercise, done in collaboration with MARS. Jeremy’s inspired momentum rebuilding RI ARES continues in November with a Winlink training scheduled for Wednesday November 1st at 7:30pm via Zoom; training on getting started with SSTV digital image messaging is planned for December. Links are available on the RIARES.org website calendar. All are welcome to join. 

A 41-year old Rhode Island native, Jeremy Taylor, K1JST brings 20 years of experience as a Technology and Management professional in a wide range of roles in Education, Broadcast, Public Safety, and Retail industries. He enjoys building and maintaining repeaters and other amateur radio infrastructure, and many will know Jeremy K1JST from his work supporting the state-wide NB1RI repeater network. Jeremy is Treasurer and Control Operator for the Narragansett Bay Amateur Radio Club (NB1RI), Managing Director of the RI AREC Foundation, Secretary for the NE Spectrum Management Council, and serves on the boards of several other local non-profits. Jeremy enjoys mentoring new hams and founded a radio club at Exeter-West Greenwich Regional School District. He is a member of several local radio clubs, and first licensed in 2017. 

Jeremy looks forward to meeting old and new hams ready to jump in and help collectively rebuild RI ARES as a reinvigorated state-wide team network of well-trained radio amateurs prepared to deliver on our Public Service mission. 

Rhode Island Section ARRL Affiliated Club Coordinator (ACC)

John Brewer, N1SXB  was appointed Rhode Island Section Affiliated Club Coordinator (ACC) on October 18, 2023. A recently retired IT executive who has moved back to Rhode Island, John N1SXB is a current or former member of each of the state’s three largest radio clubs. An active ham, John has stepped up to be the ACC, as well as our Section representative reaching out to welcome and orient new hams to the various ways they might get involved, find mentors, and join the club or clubs that fit their interests. John will also be a liaison between the local clubs and the statewide skills training opportunities supported by RI ARES. We are a small state, and fostering this kind of information sharing and collaboration will help our entire RI amateur radio ecosystem. 

Congrats to last month’s 2 new FCC licensed Rhode Island Radio Amateurs and 1 new FCC Extra License. 

(September 5 – October 5, 2023 report of 2 new RI hams and 1 license upgrade.)

• Kevin McCarthy, KC1TLP – Pawtucket > New Technician

• Robert Yates, KC1TJR – Cumberland > New Technician

Let’s welcome these 2 new RI hams and help them get active on the air in 2023-2024. 

• Robert Hart, KC1NAB – Cranston > Upgrade to Extra  

Congrats to Robert, KC1NAB for earning your new Extra license!

RECAP: In the seven months, April 7 – October 5, 2023 >

• 31 new FCC licensed RI Radio Amateurs 

• 30 FCC License Upgrades 

Don’t forget the new ARRL First Contact Certificate you can download here:

https://www.arrl.org/files/file/Awards/ARRL_First_Contact_Certificate.pdf

Get licensed! Upgrade? Upcoming Rhode Island In-person VE Sessions 

Many thanks to these RI Clubs offering in-person VE sessions during November and December 2023. https://www.arrl.org/find-an-amateur-radio-license-exam-session

W1AQ (Associated Radio Amateurs of Southern New England) on Saturday November 11, 2023 and Saturday December 2, 2023 at 9:30am (Rumford, RI)

Blackstone Valley ARC (BVARC) on Saturday December 9, 2023 at 9am  (Woonsocket, RI)

Newport County Radio Club (NCRC) on Saturday December 9, 2023 at 10am (Portsmouth, RI)

License Exam Prep via HamStudy.org. License prep has never been easier than with this transformational learning platform offering self-paced study and practice tests. Available on demand, for free. 

NEW RI POTA parks c. November 11th

Watch for the pile-ups this November 2023 when about six or seven new Rhode Island POTA parks are officially added to the list of POTA parks available to hunt and activate. (There are currently 53 POTA parks across RI, so the new total of RI POTA parks will be around 60.)

In October 2023, POTA HQ lifted its hiatus on adding new US (domestic) parks and invited each state’s POTA Mapping Representative to designate new parks to add.  

Jim Garman, KC1QDZ is our POTA Mapping Representative for RI. 

As of late October, Jim KC1QDZ is wrapping up the democratic process he used to solicit suggestions from the POTA community on what parks to add. (Subject to the POTA constraints about what was an eligible park.) After gathering the responses into a long list, Jim KC1QDZ worked with a team to test the conditions at each potential location and report back. This helped get the list shortened to about six or seven parks that will be announced around November 11th. 

POTA Hunters may have already noticed the recent pile-ups around the new 5-digit POTA parks just opened for activation in some other states. So, heads-up that these brand new RI POTA parks will likely prompt similar interest by mid-November. 

Jim Garman, KC1QDZ would like to thank the following activator team that helped in this vetting process: Briann Swann N1BS, Fran Kelly K1NDQ, Scott Toner N1SWT, Willy Maclean W1LY, and Jonathan W. Winokur KY1K. 

The new RI POTA sites are spread across our state, so plan a portable op road trip this November before the snow falls. 

ALSO: Don’t forget to check out the ARRL’s own new book on POTA for beginners: 

The Parks on the Air Book

How would you help a POTA beginner get started? 

Contesting Season Update by W2DAN

Dave Neal, W2DAN – AVID contester and RI’s Representative for YCCC shares this write-up on Contesting Season:

“Well, we have been waiting for the CQ Worldwide DX SSB Contest, October 28, 0000Z to October 29, 2359Z. This is why they call this time of year Contesting Season! 

The CQ Worldwide DX Contest is the largest amateur radio contest in the world with over 35,000 participants. The challenge is to make as many contacts with as many DXCC entities and CQ Zones as possible, while competing against the world’s elite contesters. Not into SSB? The CW portion of the contest is next month from November 25 – 26. 

3830scores.com is a great place to see how well you did and check out the results of your fellow contesters. Personally I did not get to spend full time in the contest but did spend about 16 hours and worked 864 QSO’s, 82 Zones and 305 Countries working on 10, 15, 20, 40 and 80 meters. This is just my submitted scores, but others did much better. Contesting is a great way to add DX contacts to your log.” Go for it!

Here is the website for 3830scores:  https://3830scores.com

Here are the results for the regional Yankee Clipper Contest Club and the RI contesters among us:

http://www.3830scores.com/editionscores.php?arg=xBgmy6zBvvqvr&cs=27&loc=11

              

New England Mesh Networking Initiatives & Rhode Island Microwave Skill Building Opportunities

Rob Leiden KI1U, Assistant Director for Spectrum Protection & Utilization, continues to share important updates on the maturing collaboration underway across various New England mesh networking initiatives. Interested in joining the conversation?

“As always, the New England Division of the ARRL will help to bring interested hams together to promote mesh network expansion. The nemesh group  (nemesh @ groups.io) meets every other month via zoom and you are invited to join and contribute to the discussion.”

• Rob Leiden KI1U writes in a pending Beacon article: 

“Last October, we noted that the Maine and Rhode Island sections had received grants to expand their mesh networks.  Since then, New Hampshire has also received a grant to expand its mesh network including sites that position the network to grow into Massachusetts.  In particular, the partnership between the New England Digital Emergency Communications Network (NEDECN) has proven especially productive, providing both high sites for long haul mesh network backbones as an emergency facility but also providing a link between repeater sites independent of the commercial internet.  Rhode Island is also making use of mesh networks to link repeaters located on fire towers to enhance their emergency services utility.  Mesh networks can provide radio amateurs with our own “intranet,“ should the commercial internet become unavailable due to natural or man-made disasters. These networks offer served agencies tools that they already depend on using the commercial internet operated by hams that understand how best to use them.

The New England Division has made the growth of mesh networking a priority, both for these reasons and to make productive use of the frequencies to strengthen amateur radio’s position against encroachment by commercial interests.

We note that the progress made thus far is largely due to the efforts of a few dedicated individuals who have obtained grant funding and established partnerships to deploy new network nodes.  As the transition from building these networks to operating and maintaining them occurs, we need to answer some questions: …. “

• On October 19, 2023 Rob KI1U shared:

The Merrimack Valley Amateur Radio Association has received a grant award of $46,125 from Amateur Radio Digital Communication, a California-based foundation, to expand its current 7-node microwave network in southern New Hampshire. The project includes extending the New Hampshire network into northeastern Massachusetts and southwestern Maine as a bridge between states towards the larger goal of a New England-wide network.

The project is a collaboration with the New England Digital Emergency Communications Network to provide microwave radio backup to DMR repeaters in New Hampshire that rely on the internet for primary connectivity between sites. Collaborating on DMR sites also increases MVARA’s capability to support local emergency management organizations with amateur radio operators and equipment. …

Jay, K1EHZ is available to answer any questions about the expansion plan and is a valuable resource for anyone looking to support further expansion of mesh networking in New England.”

https://nediv.arrl.org/author/k1ui/

See also the funded RI mesh experimentation by NCRC’s Paul Fredette K1YBE: “RI is experimenting with mesh network technology using backbones as high as 10 GHz.”

RI Microwave Skill Building Opportunities 

Don’t miss the ARTEN Microwave Grant’s upcoming build night at the Fab Newport [RI] Maker Space this November 3, 2023 from 5-8pm. 

For more information contact Paul Fredette, K1YBE at [email protected]

For more on the ARTEN experimental microwave mesh project see:

https://w1sye.org/?page_id=6690

RI ARES SET & Situational Awareness

The National Incident Management System (NIMS) framework includes three major components relevant to amateur radio:

• Resource Management
• Command and Coordination > Incident Command System (ICS)
• Communications and Information Management 
  • Situational Awareness – maintained through the flow of information

Hams are getting new attention for their skilled ability to accurately report real time, ground truth situational awareness information when other forms of communication may not be available. 

Partnering with the community to provide additional situational awareness underpins the National Weather System’s Skywarn program. It is central to FEMA’s new Community Lifelines. On October 19, 2023 at 10:19am, over 57 million people worldwide participated in the Great Earthquake Shakeout Drill; and this year’s drill included new ways for hams to contribute via Winlink in this global situational awareness exercise.

This August, Tom Kinehan, the US Army Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) Region One Director, reached out to New England ARRL Section leaders to see if any Section might be interested in working together with MARS on an Airport Weather situational awareness SET, or Simulated Emergency Test, scheduled for October. MARS recognizes that experienced, motivated radio amateurs could be a “force multiplier” passing structured traffic. Let’s see what’s possible in post-pandemic 2023. 

Under Jeremy Taylor’s leadership as then Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator, RI ARES stepped up to the challenge. Within days of discussing this with the new and pre-occupied Section Manager and getting the green light, K1JST had completed the necessary administrative documentation and met with key stakeholders. Early communication was sent out here:

https://ri-arrl.org/join-the-ri-ares-mars-airport-weather-exercise-starting-this-weekend/

Jeremy K1JST then planned and led the RI ARES team and anyone interested in a practice exercise over the weekend of October 7-8, 2023. He followed up promptly to implement changes based on some of the challenges reported. Some lessons learned were posted here:

https://ri-arrl.org/rx-on-the-aviation-band/

Two weeks later, the actual SET took place over the weekend of October 21-22, 2023. 

An interim report was posted here:

https://ri-arrl.org/ri-ares-mars-set-underway/

The final SET net closed Sunday at 10pm. The first October 2023 RI-ARES & MARS SET was a resounding success.

• 50 net check-ins 

• 35 reports for 8 unique airports 

• 2 airports out of state in CT and Worcester, supporting regional situational awareness

• Team building success

  • Among RI hams across the state.
  • New and old connections fostered
  • RI ARES – MARS relationships renewed or begun. Many thanks to Tom Kinehan N1CPE, Matt Hackman KB1FUP and John E. Miller N1UMJ.
  • Opportunity to assess RI ARES’ baseline capabilities as of October 2023 to provide situational awareness to a served agency – and how to set a path forward.

• Outreach and communication will take time. RI ARES is a statewide organization where hams can connect on the mission, get a certain kind of training, and bring this all back to help support their local community. 

• Counties are not an ideal organizational unit for RI ARES. 

  • The final SET participation by RI County looks like this (not counting MARS members):
    • Kent County: 39%
    • Newport County: 28%
    • Providence County: 17%
    • Washington County: 17%
    • Bristol County: 0%

• Jeremy Taylor, K1JST – our new RI SEC – has proposed other RI ARES organizational structures, and welcomes your suggestions. 

  • How can we come together to support a state-wide, relevant RI ARES training program that will deliver value to our communities in 2023, no matter where in RI we live? No matter how many different radio clubs or radio interests we also care about?
  • What would you prioritize? 
  • Please join the conversation. Step up and get involved. Take action and help us all succeed. 

Rhode Island’s amateur radio community makes a difference. And we can do more. 

 

73, Nancy Austin KC1NEK

RI Section Manager