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AE5ME > ARL 26.03.16 07:46l 54 Lines 8069 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : L766HN4XJVCJ
Read: GUEST
Subj: ARRL Letter March 24 Part 2 of 4
Path: IW8PGT<IW7BFZ<I3XTY<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ<AE5ME
Sent: 160326/0414Z 34227@AE5ME.#NEOK.OK.USA.NOAM BPQ1.4.64
Puerto Rico ARES Volunteers Take Part in Caribe Wave 2016 Exercise
For the second year, Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) volunteers in Puerto Rico took part in the annual Caribe Wave exercise (formerly known as the Large Atlantic Tsunami Exercise -- LANTEX), a tsunami communication drill undertaken on different dates on the US East Coast, in Canada, on the Gulf of Mexico, and in the Caribbean Basin. The object of Caribe Wave is to test the reliability of communication systems and protocols among tsunami alert centers and to help emergency management agencies to improve their preparedness to execute a tsunami alert. In Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, Caribe Wave takes place in conjunction with the Puerto Rico Seismic Network (Red Sísmica de Puerto Rico), FEMA, NOAA, and the Puerto Rico Emergency Management Agency (PREMA/AEMEAD).
The scenario for the March 17 drill was a tsunami generated by a magnitude 8.4 seismic event, 15 kilometers deep, off the coast of Venezuela.
Amateur Radio has played an important part on this exercise at an island-wide level in the past, and ARES Puerto Rico, with Section Emergency Coordinator Carlos A. Rosado, KP4CAR, at the helm, is now the major player in these drills.
Net control for Caribe Wave 2016 was Santos Javier Rodriguez, KP4RS, operating from the Oficina Municipal de Manejo de Emergencias (Municipal Emergency Management Office) in Moca, Puerto Rico.
At 10:05 AM on March 17, the Emergency Alert System (EAS) activated on broadcast and cable outlets around Puerto Rico, announcing the "emergency" and emphasizing that it was a drill. Many government, public, school, and senior institutions conducted evacuation drills to test their preparedness to reach their nearest local refugee site. PREMA practiced evacuation procedures in the city of Cataño, which could end up partially underwater in the event of a tsunami.
Amateur Radio's role during Caribe Wave 2016 was to gather reports from other radio amateurs in the island regarding how they learned of the tsunami alert. The reports gathered are delivered to PREMA Headquarters for a later evaluation meeting that includes all agencies and organizations involved.
The main communication took place via the KP4CAR 147.210 MHz repeater in Jayuya, Cerro Puntas -- the highest point on the island. The repeater's emergency power system will permit it to remain on the air for a few days. Read more. -- Thanks to Angel Santana, WP3GW, ARRL Puerto Rico Section Public Information Coordinator
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ARRL Introduces Three New E-Books
ARRL has introduced three new e-books to its growing digital library. The newest titles available in the popular Amazon Kindle format include Work the World with JT65 and JT9 by ARRL author Steve Ford, WB8IMY, ARRL's Small Antennas for Small Spaces, second edition, and Antenna Physics: An Introduction, by Robert J. Zavrel, Jr, W7SX.
Work the World with JT65 and JT9 shows you how to assemble an effective digital communication station and configure the software for best performance. Some operators use these popular digital modes with as little as 5 W RF output and an indoor antenna. The book is filled with tricks and tips to help you get on the air and making contacts.
The fully updated second edition of ARRL's Small Antennas for Small Spaces is a must-have for radio amateurs who live in apartments, condominiums, or houses on small lots. The book is filled with practical advice, and will guide you to finding the right antenna design to fit whatever space you have available.
Antenna Physics: An Introduction has been written to bridge the gap between basic theory and graduate-level engineering texts. Delve deeper into antenna theory, and explore the underlying principles and mathematics of antennas and antenna physics.
All of these publications are also available in print format, directly from ARRL and ARRL publication dealers.
ARRL reminds Amazon shoppers to consider visiting smile.amazon.com when ordering. Amazon will donate 0.5 percent of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to ARRL whenever you shop on AmazonSmile.
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National Parks on the Air Update
National Parks Week is April 16-24, a happy alignment for National Parks on the Air operators, as World Amateur Radio Day is April 18. This would be a prime day to get out and operate from an NPOTA unit, promoting both the National Parks and Amateur Radio simultaneously. If you plan to be on the air from an NPS site for World Amateur Radio Day, e-mail the details to npota@arrl.org.
There are 28 NPOTA activations scheduled for March 24-30, including Big Bend National Park (NP04) in Texas, and the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site (NS71) in Alabama.
Details about these and other upcoming activations can be found on the NPOTA Activations calendar.
Keep up with the latest NPOTA news on Facebook. Follow NPOTA on Twitter (@ARRL_NPOTA).
Hamvention Announces 2016 Award Winners
Nobel Laureate Joe Taylor, K1JT, of Princeton, New Jersey, has been named as the 2016 Dayton Hamvention® Amateur of the Year. Hamvention announced the recipients of the Amateur of the Year, Technical Achievement, Special Achievement, and Club of the Year awards on March 18.
Taylor was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1993 for the discovery of the first orbiting pulsar, leading to observations that established the existence of gravitational waves. Licensed in 1954 as KN2ITP, Taylor served as a professor of astronomy at the University of Massachusetts from 1969 to 1981, and later as a professor of physics at Princeton University. Since his retirement, Taylor has been developing and enhancing digital protocols for weak-signal communication by Amateur Radio, including JT65 and WSPR.
John S. Burningham, W2XAB, of Morrow, Georgia, is the recipient of the Hamvention Technical Achievement Award. A radio amateur since 1970, Burningham has been involved with amateur repeaters for more than 40 years. Following positions in the aerospace industry and for Motorola, he has been in higher education for more than 20 years, and now serves as a senior lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Information Technology at Clayton State University. A Life Member of ARRL and QCWA and a member of AMSAT and TAPR, he currently is active in the digital mobile radio community and is the author of the Amateur Radio Guide to Digital Mobile Radio. He also wrote "Introduction to Digital Mobile Radio," which appeared in the October 2015 issue of QST, and is a contributing author in the 2016 ARRL Handbook.
The 2016 Hamvention Special Achievement Award will go to Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, of Wolcott, Connecticut, for advocating cutting-edge technologies now commonly used in Amateur Radio. Horzepa has authored five books and written more than 1200 pieces for ARRL and TAPR, evangelizing the use of home computers, packet radio, APRS, digital signal processing and software defined radio in Amateur Radio. Licensed in 1969, Horzepa has sampled almost every entrée on the ham radio menu and has served in a slew of roles, including ARRL Connecticut Section Manager. Presently, Horzepa is a director and secretary for TAPR and serves as editor of TAPR's newsletter, PSR.
Rocky Mountain Ham Radio has been named as Hamvention Club of the Year. The organization, based in the Denver, Colorado suburbs, offers its services to other ham radio clubs and ARES groups to help them be successful. Technical assistance, classroom training on a myriad of subjects, mentoring, equipment/system design, and public service are among the services it provides. The group owns and maintains fixed analog and digital/DMR repeater assets, including one of the premier private DMR networks in the nation, which is linked with an amateur microwave network that spans the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to Cañon City, Colorado. The group also owns and operates a deployable communications command post in a 26-foot trailer. Read more.
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