About Comm Academy

Comm Academy 2021 is a free, virtual training conference for anyone interested in learning more about emergency communications technologies and practices. Taking place April 10th and 11th, 2021, Comm Academy will be organized around the theme “Disasters Here, There and Everywhere – Are We Ready?”

As it has in all of its 22+ previous iterations, the conference will feature expert speakers on a wide variety of topics, from radio and messaging technologies to communications techniques to tales from the “trenches.”

More than just a collection of online presentations, Comm Academy 2021 will be an interactive event, with participants able to converse with presenters and other attendees.

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I hope all have enjoyed a happy beginning to 2021. Some of have had a couple setbacks but it’ll get better.

From what I have heard the Emergency exercise held on the 30th of January had some hiccups but that is why we have “practices”.  Thanks to Ernie Venis (WØLTC, whom I believe is the ARES local representative) for allowing me to post information here on the website. I look forward to posting more information about other programs being held by ARES. Oh, BTW ARES, for those of you who may not know, stands for Amateur Radio Emergency Services. If you would like more information on what ARES is and does check out ARRL by clicking HERE.

Would like to give a big welcome to the new members
Ralli Mottar – W9TPA
Judy Mottar – KC9YUH

Okay, Don’t forget the upcoming meeting on Wednesday February 10th AND our emergency net at 10:00 AM that same day on repeater 146.730 (127.3) and at about 10:10 AM on the 146.955 repeater.

Also the Eat’n Meet’n location has be updated.

That’s about all folks . . .

A District F-wide exercise is planned for Saturday, 30 January 2021, between 0900 and 1100 Local time. The Exercise will be run out of the Audrain County Radio Club (ACRC) communications trailer located in Mexico,Missouri. All District F amateurs are encouraged to participate.  ARES membership is not required.

For more information click here

Updated Eat’n Meet’n for January 29th and February 5th.

Would like to welcome the new club officers

Gary Sundstrom KE5JTL – President
Steve Bouck KDØSB – Vice President
Cheryl Bland KDØEYQ – Secretary/Treasurer

FCC has made TWO changes to AMATEUR LICENSING :

1. FCC to Require Email Address on Applications Starting on June 29, 2021. (Click HERE for more info)

2. FCC Reduces Proposed Amateur Radio Application Fee to $35 From $50 (Click THIS this for more info)

   • Here are two article that gives a little insight KB6NU and Buy Two Way Radios

WOW! Great start to 2021 HUH?

Just found out that Director Ron Gentry of Camden County, Emergency Management Agency Retired as of 31 December. Good luck Ron, thanks for all you did for the Agency and LOARC.

Okay, hope to see you all at the Eat’n Meet’n this Friday.

Don’t forget the Emergency Net on 146.730 at 10 AM and 146.955 at ~10:10 AM on Wednesday the 13th of Jan.

AND our club meeting at 7 PM on that same Wednesday. I look forward to hearing some opinions expressed at the next meeting on the two items listed above. Last week I read an article where the FCC has a bidding war going on for mid-range spectrum from 3.7 to 4.0 GHz price at the time of the article was $66.4 BILLION, HMM, should we as amateur radio operators be concerned? I’d entertain some emails on this subject and maybe discuss this at the next Eat’n Meet’n or club meeting.

The gang here at the website headquarters hope you all had a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HOPE YOU HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

OOPS! Almost forgot, my NEW YEAR started like this:

My HEX Beam didn’t survive the ice storm on January 1, 2021

Are you interested in participating in ARES? Do you have time during the winter months to do some online training? During our November meeting, Ernie (WØLTC) gave a brief overview of ARES and other Emergency Communication opportunities such as SkyWARN and Red Cross. 

ARES is sponsored by the ARRL and may require additional training depending on the level of participation. Any licensed amateur can participate in ARES radio nets. If you would like to be a bit more involved, consider taking some optional courses for Level 1 participation. Level 1 training involves two optional online courses offered by FEMA. These courses are prerequisites before taking the course offered by ARRL. The ARRL Level 1 course is EC-001, Introduction to Emergency Communications.

In order to take the FEMA courses, you need to get a FEMA ID. The instructions for obtaining a FEMA ID are found at the following link: https://cdp.dhs.gov/FEMASID

Once you have your FEMA ID, you can then take the courses at the FEMA training site. The following link will take you to the online course catalog: https://training.fema.gov/is/crslist.aspx , you can then search for the courses from the catalog main page.

The prerequisites for the ARRL course are the following: IS-100.c- Introduction to Incident Command System (2 hour course) and IS-700.b Introduction to National Incident Management System (3.5 hour course).

Once you have completed the FEMA courses, you can then go to the ARRL site for online training. http://www.arrl.org/online-course-catalog  The first course to take is ARRL EC-001 Introduction to Emergency Communications.

If you are interested in Storm Spotting, you can take SkyWARN Spotter training (2 hour course) at the following link: https://www.meted.ucar.edu/training_course.php?id=23

At the October meeting Glenn (K0KER) gave a presentation on Parks On The Air (AKA, POTA), it was very interesting and everyone was very attentive. If you missed the meeting and therefore the information Glenn disseminated, if you contact him I’m pretty sure he would be happy to enlighten you (or  go to Parks on The Air web site by clinking here).Send an email to the above address and I’ll forward your request to him.

At the November meeting Glenn informed me he was going to activate a local park, I asked him if he minded if I (Jack [WJ0TM]) came along. After some HEM-HAWING around he agreed. So Thursday (11/19/20) I met Glenn at a Conservation area near the town of Fortuna called Manito Lake.

It took about 20 minutes for us to get set up. Glenn was using a Xiegu G90 HF Amateur Radio on 20 meter with 20 watts of power from a 12Ah LiFePO4 battery. His signal was sent out via a Hustler 20 Meter mobile antenna resonator attached to the receiver hitch on his vehicle.  I had the high honor of being his “logger”.

Glenn started calling CQ at five minutes to 1300 hrs (that 1 PM for you non military types) and stopped calling CQ at 1400 hrs (need I spell this out?). In that hour he made 39 contacts. The one contact he made that really made his day was from ALASKA. He also made several contacts from Canada and all across the USA.

BTW, see the blue and white chair in the last picture? That’s me in stealth mode. The weather was blistery with a sustained wind speed of around 15 MPH and gust well over 40 MPH. We had setup behind the parks outhouse to keep out of the wind.

All in all it was a really fun day . . . thanks Glenn for the really neat introduction to mobile HF work. I look forward to doing some mobile work myself . . . SOON!

Well this has been on heck of a year . . . and it is almost over. YA!!!!

Okay, a couple of things happened in the past month or so.

1. Robert (KE0TTL) has sent me a third update to the members list. I’d like to welcome:
   Craig Kerns KF0BGP
   Patrick McDonald KD0USI
   Don Weaver KF0BZU
2. Election of Officers for 2021; their term begins on 1 January 2021 Thanks to all.
   Gary Sundstrom KE5JTL as President
   Steven Bouck KD0SB as Vice President (2nd Term)
   Cheryl Bland KD0EYQ as Secretary
3. Eagle Days is coming on 9 January (need I say it) 2021. Anyone interested in participating send Robert (KE0TTL) an email and let him know. I think we are going to use the Camden County Emergency Center located at 12 VFW Rd, Camdenton, MO 65020. Thanks Director of EMA Ron Gentry and Ernie Venis (W0LTC) for letting us use the Center.
4. Our annual Christmas Party is kinda up in the air. Robert is having a hard time finding a restaurant that will allow a group as large as ours in. Watch your email for information from Robert on this issue.
5. Still looking for recommendation on how to protect our Como Van. Currently it is being stored at Fred’s (K0FG) place. Check your copy of the Meeting minutes for more information.
6. Updated the Eat’n Meet’n for 20th and 27th of November.
7. Finally, the repeater now requires a CTCSS code 127.3.

Okay gang, that’s about it for now. Remember if you have anything you would like to see posted here simply send Jack (WJ0TM) an email at the address above.

73

I now know what it is like to have “WRITER’S  BLOCK”, I’ve been sitting here for the last 10-15 minutes trying to come up with something to write.

Okay . . . here goes:

Robert (KE0TTL) , being the diligent secretary he is, sent me information about the study session the club conducted, the winner of the Baofeng HT at the testing held in conjunction with the secession, and the emergency simulation held on the 10th. So with out further ado . . .

Members of LOARC hosted a study session on October 3 at the EMA building in Camdenton. There were 4 attendees. Congratulations to Dennis, Don, James and Sheila for passing their technician licenses.

Dennis was the winner of the Baofeng HT. Thanks to all who participated in this event!

Robert (KE0TTL) also sent me an updated members list and I posted it. I’d like to welcome three new member to the club, Steve Eden (K0SRE), Ray Myers (WB0PYF), and Jim Nugent (KE0ZMY), Oh! I almost forgot Steven Bouck formally known as AA4SB is now KD0SB. 

There was a bit of excitement on the club repeater on October 10th at 10am. Amateur operators from the Lake area participated in the Missouri Troop “F” Shakeout simulation. The Shakeout was an earthquake simulation at the New Madrid fault. The net opened at 10am and local amateurs were invited to check in and give a damage assessment of their local community. Our local ARES repeater was still down at the time of the simulation, so the drill switched over to the 146.73 club repeater. There were 13 local check-ins along with damage reports for this event. We had check-ins from Benton, Camden, Miller and Morgan Counties. We were part of the Troop “F” simulation that had a total of 76 check-ins. Great job everyone!

Last month I listed some videos I felt was of importance to ALL HAMs. I again listed them below and hope ALL HAMs in the area watch them. These deal with the possibility of the FCC increasing the fee for license to $50. K6UDA outlines the problems. The seconded one is a little long because he is actually in a live feed and is covering many topics. Simply click on them to watch, will open in new tab.;.

1) FCC rate hike

2) Live feed covering many topics including FCC fee hike.

3) FCC hike and how to make you opinion heard.

Here are links to two ARRL articles on this subject, again simply click on them to read, will open in new tab;.

Proposal to raise FCC fees

Fee Proposal comments
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Don’t forget, if you have information you think would be interesting to not only club members but also HAMs in general, send it to me via email and I’ll post it.

73