North Carolina
ARRL
Section Information

Ladies & Gentlemen: Here we go again with another winter storm, but the difference with this one is that it may cover the whole state with some form of winter precipitation, from snow, sleet, freezing rain. The North Carolina Emergency Management has activated under Level 4. For ARES, this means on Standby. So be prepared. Monitor your usual local communications channels for ARES activations in your area. Also check the Tarheel Net web page for any updates. Good Luck to All 73
--Bernie, WA4MOK
 
The potential for significant wintry weather across the Central Carolina SKYWARN coverage area exists for Friday and Saturday, January 29 & 30. Central Carolina SKYWARN will activate at the onset of the event across the CCS coverage area to take initial reports and then hold directed nets at the bottom of each hour for the duration of the event or until such time the National Weather Service directs us to deactivate. SKYWARN will temporarily cease operations after the 11:30 pm directed net on Friday night and resume operations at 5:30am on Saturday. The NWS will be looking for the following criteria from spotters:

• Precipitation type -- snow, sleet, freezing rain, rain
• Rate of precipitation -- light, moderate, or heavy
• Changeover in precipitation type
• Snow accumulation or ice accretion
• Temperature
• Measured wind speed and direction
• Sustained power outages (not blinking)
• Road conditions

The National Weather Service is especially interested in hourly and event totals and any changeover in precipitation type.
 
We will activate on our primary repeater, the 146.88 repeater. Should this repeater go offline, our backups for this event, in order of use, are:
147.105 (Tone of 82.5 Hz) - Broadway, NC
147.135 (Tone of 82.5 Hz) - Chapel Hill, NC
Carolina 440 UHF Linked System - Visit www.carolina440.net for a list of those frequencies.
 
Reports may also be emailed to the NWS atrah.reports@noaa.gov.
 
Spotters are encouraged to stay listen to NOAA weather radio or visit www.weather.gov/rah for the latest weather information.
 
Virginia Enzor
NC4VA
Emergency Coordinator
Central Carolina SKYWARN

Keep an eye on the main ARRL home page for the most current information.
From the ARRL home page:
Please remember to keep these frequencies clear at all times, even if you do not hear any activity.

January North Carolina Section Update from Tim Slay, N4IB (pdf document)

For the latest information on SATERN activation, see http://www.satern.org
 
The following two messages have been passed on to us by N4IB:
From RSOE Emergency and Disaster Information Service Budapest, Hungary:
Event: Earthquake
Location: Haiti Capital City Port-au-Prince area
Situation: A strong earthquake has hit the impoverished country of Haiti where a hospital has collapsed and people are screaming for help. According to CNN the area is also under a Tsunami alert for the Dominican Republic. Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the island of Hispaniola. The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 and was centered about 14 miles (22 kilometers) west from the capital of Port-au-Prince, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. An Associated Press videographer saw the wrecked hospital in nearby Petionville, and a U.S. government official reported seeing houses that had tumbled into a ravine. No further details on any causualties or other damage were immediately available. "Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken," said Henry Bahn, a visiting official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "The sky is just gray with dust." Bahn said he was walking to his hotel room when the ground began to shake. "I just held on and bounced across the wall," he said. "I just hear a tremendous amount of noise and shouting and screaming in the distance." Bahn said there were rocks strewn all over the place and he saw a ravine where several homes had been bui
 
From SATERN:
Subject: UPDATE - EMERGENCY ACTIVATION of SATERN Net For Haitian Earthquake
TO: All SATERN Operators, Southern Territory, The Salvation Army
CC: All ARRL Leadership in the Southern Territory of The Salvation Army
Greetings:
National SATERN Director, Major Patrick McPherson - WW9E - reports that 20 meters is no longer viable for this evening. He has asked all active SATERN Operators with HF privileges to monitor 7.265.0 MHz and 3.977.7 MHz. SATERN Operators in the Southern Territory are in a generally excellent geographic position to hear any signals from Haiti on those frequencies - particularly on 75 meters.
 
Again, normal SATERN Net protocols apply. That is, there should be a Net Control who will be in charge of the frequency. All transmissions should be directed to the Net Control. Please listen for a Net Control on those frequencies. If you do not hear a Net Control or a relay to Net Control, but do receive formal EMERGENCY or PRIORITY traffic from Haiti (e.g. traffic with a name and a telephone number or e-mail address for the addressee and the same information about the sender), please contact me at 601.421.1496 with that traffic and I will pass it on to the appropriate authorities. But please try to work through Net Control if you can hear them or a relay to Net Control. Passing traffic to me is a LAST RESORT.
 
Beginning, tomorrow, as 20 meters opens up, you should again monitor the 20 meter frequency of14.265 MHz whenever possible.
 
Please keep the people of Haiti and our Salvation Army personnel and other disaster relief personnel already in that country in your prayers.

Tim Slay's (N4IB) presentation at the October 17 2009 State ARES meeting (pdf)

I would like to THANK all persons who participated in this two day drill. It was amazing as I was at the Eastern Branch for awhile yesterday to hear all the stations checking in, and listening to the net while mobile going to work. It really showed what we can do when all work together to accomplish one goal, which is to provide our citizens of NC backup, and sometimes primary communications to emergency management. Special thanks to those who attended many hours of meetings with emergency management officials who were planning this drill. Also to those who helped in getting the very valuable Winlink System setup at the State EOC, and the Western Branch, and soon to be at the Eastern Branch, which really came through.
 -- Bernie Nobles, WA4MOK

North Carolina ARES members are currently participating in a "graded" North Carolina Emergency Management/FEMA exercise involving an earthquake centered in Buncombe County. The Tarheel Emergency Net is activated, operating on 3.923MHz earlier this morning and has now moved to the daytime frequency of 7.232MHz. Stations from across the state are encouraged to check in and help relay traffic from the affected areas in western NC. In addition to the Tarheel net, stations in western North Carolina are using VHF repeaters in the area linked together on the Piedmont Coastal Repeater Network. Packet and Winlink is also in use. While the drill began this morning, most of the activity will occur tomorrow (June 24) with an agency interoperability exercise which will overlay the western branch earthquake exercise and promote testing of facilities/pathways between various government agencies and the Amateur Radio community. This event is the first statewide interoperability test across disparate facilities and will form the basis for follow-on exercises to test overall interoperable capabilities across the range of State agencies and the Amateur Radio community.
 
The drill runs today, June 23 until 8:00pm and will run tomorrow, June 24 from 7:00am to 5:00pm.

The Tar Heel Emergency Net will be activated in coordination with the statewide emergency drill beginning at 7:00am Tuesday, 23 June. This drill will be used to evaluate working relationships between ARES and served agencies, evaluate equipment and techniques used to respond to specific scenarios, introduce new operators to ARES, evaluate participation and interest in ARES programs at all levels, and to evaluate cooperation between ARES and other programs of the ARRL Field Organization.
More information is available on the THEN Page.

If your club is interested in having visitors and media, be sure to register your site at arrl.org so that it can be found.
If you are not part of a field day group check out the site to find a place nearby to participate.

Attached as a PDF file is the 2009 proclamation from Gov. Bev Perdue proclaiming Amateur Radio Appreciation Week June 21-28. Please pass along to your affiliated clubs. HINT: a printed out copy of the proclamation on display at your club’s Field Day public information table makes a nice 100 point contribution to your club’s total FD score.
Governor's Proclamation (pdf)
--Bill Morine, N2COP

The Tar Heel Emergency Net now has its own web site. Take a look. It is linked from the menus of the NCARRL pages and the NCARRL ARES^® pages.

Here are the PowerPoint Presentations from the May 2 Statewide ARES Meeting: Bob Conder would also like to add that the ban on sending Text Messages while driving passed the legislature. This ban has absolutely no effect on Amateur Radio. (ETA except to make the roads safer for us -- web master.)

A new Section Guide with handy information needed during Emergencies or traveling around the section is now available on the right hand menu and here. Print copies to put in every car, your desk at work, your briefcase, your emergency box and anywhere else you may need this valuable information.
NC Section Guide (Word Document)

The Dayton Hamfest has selected our own Danny Hampton, K4ITL, as "Amateur of the Year". Danny is the architect of the Piedmont Coastal Repeater Network, established in the early 1970s, which today sports more than 40 machines in North Carolina. The system is heavily used for public service work. Hampton has enhanced the network's utility with custom audio processing boards and RF components. The North Carolina Office of Emergency Management and SKYWARN have recognized the network's vital role in emergency communications. Recently, Danny helped coordinate the development of the "CARES" system - a local hospital-based Amateur Radio emergency repeater system that ties 10 facilities together. A ham since 1958, Danny is the Southeastern Repeater Association (SERA) technical committee chairman as well as the ARRL North Carolina Section Technical Coordinator.

SKYWARN Recognition Day takes place on December 6, 2008. Over 100 NWS offices across the country will participate in the event, including the Raleigh National Weather and Central Carolina SKYWARN.
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James (Jim) Rogers N4EUX Area 12 DEC passed away early Sunday morning, November 22, at Caldwell Memorial Hospital. He passed on after having surgery last Wednesday on an aenurism on an artery. The service will be at 3pm Tuesday, November 25 in Lenoir.

The Statewide SET is Saturday, October 4, 2008. Contact your local or district EC for information on participating. The plan for the statewide exercise is attached below.
  2008 SET Plan (Microsoft Word Document)