MARC SOG – General Meeting – 19 October 2023

Dan (N7XDL) reviews the Murray ARC's Standard Operating Guidelines, which were based on the SLCo ARES SOG.  The guidelines were discussed and future changes considered.  A copy of the guidelines will be presented for comment by the club members and suggestions will be incorporated as deemed necessary.

Slides:  Slides in PDF

MURRAY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB’S STANDARD OPERATING GUIDELINES

NOTE, a draft copy of the document has been created in Google Docs and a "comment" link has been sent to the marc-members mailing list.  If you are a member of the club and you are not on the marc-members mailing list, use the Contact Us link to request a copy of the link.

Upcoming Emergency Alert Test on 4 OCT 2023

MASSIVE EMERGENCY ALERT TEST – OCTOBER 4, 2023

*** GENERAL QST MESSAGE ***

 

On Wednesday, October 4 at 14:20 hours ET (12:20 hours Mountain), every TV, radio and cellphone in the United States should receive an electronic warning tone of an emergency alert, accompanied by a notice similar to the following:

“This is a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, covering the United States from 14:20 to 14:50 hours ET.  This is only a test.  No action is required by the public.”

This test is being run by FEMA to ensure the system is in working order on a national scale.  Local agencies will be participating with FEMA in conducting this test.  This test is being conducted to make sure the national alert system is still an effective means to warn American citizens about emergencies, natural catastrophes, attacks and accidents at the national level.

Salt Lake County ARES will conduct an emergency check-in net immediately following the announcements sent from FEMA.  The check-in net will be conducted on our primary SLCo ARES repeater, 146.700 MHz (100 Hz PL Standard Load ARES1 channel 72).  All stations wishing to participate on this net may do so using normal net-control protocols.  We will also be using our simplex frequency of 147.540 MHz (ARES3 channel 74) to simulate the use-case of the repeater going down during the net.  If you do not hear net control on the repeater this means that we have moved to the simplex frequency.

Any questions about this event, please contact Dan Lundwall via email, n7xdl.dan@gmail.com.

MARC Attending Sandy ARC Meeting This Month

As you may have heard on our net and on the marc-announce mailing list, we have cancelled the club meeting scheduled for 20 July due to a personal conflict.  Fortunately, the Sandy ARC has planned our same agenda for the following week, 27 July 2023, and we have been invited to attend.

If you want to get online with Winlink, this will be a great opportunity!  The meeting will be on 27 July 2023 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM and will be held at the Sandy Fire Department Station #31, located at 9010 S 150 E in Sandy.  Please park in the North parking lot.

The primary goal of this meeting will be to get Winlink Express (the client software) installed and get people configured with at a minimum of telnet access into the Winlink system.  Those who are more motivated and have the equipment will be encouraged to get at least one RF mechanism (VHF Packet, VARA FM, ARDOP, and/or VARA HF) set up and tested.

If you plan to attend, please e-mail Jan (KD7ZWV) [you can also use our Contact Form] your name, call sign, and what equipment you have and can bring.  You'll want (at a minimum) a Windows PC/Laptop to run Winlink Express.  If you have a radio and some kind of interface (e.g. SignaLink or DigiRig, or a radio that has a built-in soundcard), bring that, too!

We have talked about Winlink in a previous class... you can watch the old presentation (from September 2021) here:  Winlink Overview.

JS8 and JS8CALL – Advanced Topics – 11 May 2023

Hey, folks, while we did Zoom the meeting tonight, I did not take a recording because a large portion of the meeting was watching a couple of videos by Jason (KM4ACK) and I didn't want to get into any copyright trouble on Youtube.  If you weren't present (live or virtually) then I'm afraid you missed out on my comments and commentary.  I will post the slides below and link in the two videos we watched.

For those not in the know, JS8 is a protocol based on FT8 and the WSJT weak signal protocol, and JS8CALL is some software that uses JS8 to give a good, useful communications interface.  JS8CALL works on Windows, MacOS, and Linux (including the Raspberry Pi) and lets you make solid digital comms with other stations.  Check it out!

JS8CALL