Be Ready Utah – The Great Shakeout

Posted on

During our net this evening, Dan (N7XDL) mentioned that the Great Utah Shakeout is coming up on 15 April 2021.  This event is an annual exercise across the state where government and civilian agencies practice what they would do in the event of a large scale earthquake.

Dan advised us to check out the Be Ready Utah site for twelve basic things we can all do to prepare for a large scale natural disaster.  As members of MARC, we are encouraged to be prepared and ready in all of these areas.  Additional information for each area is available on the site.  The areas detailed include:

  • Make a Plan
  • Get a Kit
  • Be Informed
  • Get Involved
  • Earthquake
  • Special Needs
  • Children and Disasters
  • Pet Preparedness
  • Social Media
  • Food Storage
  • Water Storage
  • Evacuation

Check out the site, click on each area and read about what you can and should be doing to "be ready, Utah!"

In addition, Brad (KJ7RPV) mentioned that Be Ready Utah has a Youtube channel and they recently published a collection of podcasts with excellent information.  Click that link, check out the channel, and watch some of their great "prepcasts."  Also on that channel you will find eight hours of recorded webinar from April 9th and 10th.  Lots of great information is there for your viewing.

Advanced Topics Class – 8 April 2021 – Radio Linking via Internet (IRLP and EchoLink)

Posted on

Slides:  IRLP_and_EchoLink
Link to the IT Crowd episode referenced in the presentation:   https://youtu.be/iDbyYGrswtg

Links from the presentation:

Basic Topics – 1 April 2021 – Parks On The Air (POTA)

Posted on

Dan (N7XDL) briefs us on the Parks On The Air system.  POTA is a contest and logging exercise where people either travel to and operate from national, state, and regional parks or try to contact those who have done so.  Dan walks us through the POTA web site, how to register, and how to see what parks are out there.  The system keeps track of contacts made to and from parks (and the elusive "park to park" contact) and facilitates operators making these types of contacts.

While primarily taking place on the HF bands, there is some VHF/UHF POTA operations that Technician class licensees can enjoy, as well as 10m.  Ragnar (N7LCR) talked a bit about 10m radios and using them to break into HF operating for Technicians and those who have never experimented with it.

Go visit the Parks On The Air site, sign up for an account (it's free), and get involved!

Advanced Topics Class – Using MMANA-GAL Antenna Modelling Software

Posted on

This evening, we watched the presentation on MMANA-GAL antenna analysis software that was presented to the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) by Steve Nichols (G0KYA) on 10 October 2020 as part of the RSGB 2020 Online Convention.

The video is available here:

Here are some of the links mentioned during the presentation for easier clicking:

 

Web Site Changes

Posted on

FYI, I have made some changes to the organization of the club web site.

I modified the menus to put the events calendar and club membership information page under the Meeting Schedule and Location menu, and the standard load page and a new neighboring clubs page under the Radio and Other Resources menu.

I intend to start populating the events calendar again... I apologize for being a little lax on that the last several months.

Upcoming Events

Posted on
  • WINLINK BASICS VIRTUAL CLASSES
    Dave G., W0DHG; Dan T., NR6V, and David A., KK6DA, bring back a series of classes in Winlink basics. If you're interested in state-of-the-art emergency amateur radio communications and you've heard of Winlink, this series of classes is for you. If you can do email, you can learn to do Winlink with all of its powerful capabilities to move emergency traffic digitally. No pre-requisite. No cost. Open to all licensed amateurs from all organizations. Feel free to invite interested amateur friends. Each class will be archived for later viewing.
    This will be a 4-5 week roughly one-hour classes Fridays repeated the following Sunday. Join us for one or both each week.
    Friday, March 12, 2021, 2pm: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9905081876?pwd=UDhpenoxeXkzZXpMYTJXK2NNRGpsZz09
    Sunday, March 14, 2021, 2pm: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9905081876?pwd=UDhpenoxeXkzZXpMYTJXK2NNRGpsZz09
  • COMM ACADEMY
    Disasters are here, and everywhere – Are we ready?
    April 10-11 2021
    Fully Online
    Link: https://www.commacademy.org (Waiting List??)
    This 2-day event is totally on-line and it is FREE. The schedule looks quite interesting as well!
  • DYFI (DID YOU FEEL IT) PROGRAM
    Today the American Geophysical Union (AGU) published an article in Eos by USGS and ARES LAX Northeast on how amateur radio operators can help fill the information donut hole by providing DYFI reports via Winlink.
    The full article is available here:
    https://eos.org/science-updates/amateur-radio-operators-help-fill-earthquake-donut-holes
  • HAMFEST – ONLINE EDITION
    Hamfest is already selling early tickets.
    They can be purchased here:
    https://www.qsotodayhamexpo.com/
    However, before you do that, you may want to check out the speakers and see if there are any you would like to listen to:
    https    ://ww2.eventrebels.com/er/CFP/AgendaAtAGlance.jsp?CFPID=1195&ScreenID=963&Token=V3E6V5BC8 - this link no longer works, but is included here for posterity
    March 13-14

MARC Version of Salt Lake County ARES “Standard Load” Available

Posted on

The Salt Lake County ARES has published their new "Standard Load" of radio frequencies.  This is a standardized set of frequencies assigned to specific radio memory locations with the intention of reducing confusion when operating in support of a SLCo ARES incident.

The Standard Load includes a section for local club use, and MARC has identified a set of frequencies that are typically used in our club.  This modified Standard Load (including MARC frequencies) is now available.  SLCo ARES Standard Load Mar 2021_MARC

The Standard Load also includes a section for individual frequencies....  You should create your own files of frequencies to load into your radios that include your own preferred frequencies in this section.

As they become available, versions of the Standard Load for Chirp, RT Systems, and a DMR Codeplug will be posted as well.

Find the Standard Load here.

Monthly Meeting – 18 Feb 2021 – WebSDR

Posted on

On our Monthly Meeting Zoom for February, we checked out WebSDR and particularly the Utah SDR site.  You can  check out where the site is located on Google Maps.

Main Antenna at Utah SDR site. (Picture from Google Street Maps)

WebSDR is a Software Defined Radio receiver hooked up to a web server so that anyone can access it over the Internet.  We talked a little about the history of the Utah SDR site and then checked out some of the receivers on the site and tried listening in  to some transmissions on various bands.

We tuned in to the .62  repeater and experimented with making a few test transmissions to hear what the received audio sounded like.

Finally, we looked at a couple of other sites, including the one at Half Moon Bay in California and did some comparisons between received signals in  California vs. Utah.

The general consensus was that the WebSDR systems were great resources to experiment with HF listening and getting familiar with what HF sounds like, as well as to test and evaluate our own transmissions, reception, and propagation.  They can also be used as an auxiliary receiver in the shack to help us out when wanting to monitor multiple frequencies at the same time.