I’ll begin with a few ARES calendar items and see where this goes.

First the Tech class, held after SKYWARN training is coming up Feb. 27th out at Grayson College on FM 691 at the Center for Workplace Learning. The first day is a half day introduction beginning at 8:30, then on the 19th of March the full day class begins at 8:30 and ends late afternoon with the testing session. Contact Moe, NT7C@arrl.net for more info. He has several folks interested so it ought to be a great class.

Speaking of SKYWARN, if you attended and want it recorded as part of your ARES training (and yes you do as it is recurrent), please send the required document to wade.graves@gmail.com. The training sheet you received has instructions to secure the form on the bottom right corner. There were about 50 hams in attendance and about 148 persons in total, a great crowd for the NWS program which gave us both Basic and Advanced training.

Our Net schedule will be normal for the next two ARES nets, then we will break for Easter Sunday with no net that Sunday. We will be addressing Information Officer duties and your “information” duties as an operator on the next net and then move our focus for the next ones to SKYWARN SOP and Reporting Criteria in preparation for spring weather.

Ours efforts to raise funds for ARES operations has had some success thanks to your support through Amazon Smile. The deposit this quarter was a tad over $38. Your Christmas shopping helped a great deal. We will have expenses coming up soon for web hosting, and this will help. We have also received several donations with help from Shipman Communications and several local governmental entities as radio systems are upgraded and equipment becomes obsolete for continued use in Law enforcement and governmental arenas. We are working with vendors and web resources to sell cavities, Motorola repeaters, cabinets, digital phones and associated equipment that can be repurposed for ham frequencies. We also have two tower removals to do for SK families, so be looking for those events as they become appropriate to do.

Work has been ongoing at the renovated Sherman EOC in the PD building. Thanks to Tom Brown and Bob Fair the Sherman City EM leaders, we have a really nice operating position in the EOC. It is equipped with a Kenwood TM-V71, D700 and an ICOM HF rig, associated power supplies and UPS equipment. There is room for a laptop and desk space for a couple of persons to function. Several folks have helped on a couple of work sessions. Currently Mark KF5UZW and Ben KF5OEB have the HF antenna down for servicing. As with any station there is always some tweaking and that will be done as needed. This give us a total of 4 operating locations around the county: Sherman FD, Sherman PD, Grayson County EOC and Denison FD. Flexibility in locations and equipment really help our team be more capable with multiple stations at the ready.

Your AEC team met Tuesday the 23rd to review current training and plan thru summer and early fall. If you have questions about ARES please check out the website or drop me a note.

As you can see the team is busy, there are chances to operate and ways to help out. We have some plans simmering to create some needed equipment and as those come together you will have a chance to get your hands and minds involved.

Stay tuned up and On the Air,

73
Rick
K5ECX