ARRL-SC News Archives 2009

Greetings to all Amateur Radio Operators. This is Marc, N4UFP with the January 2011 South Carolina Section Manager’s Report. Please remember that the SC Section website can be found at: www.arrl-sc.org/ where my full SM report will be listed as well as up-to-the-date information on Amateur Radio in South Carolina.

I’d like to begin this month with the SCHEART network. Most of you are familiar with SCHEART, a linked repeater system accessible from almost any point in the state that allows amateurs in SC to provide emergency communications support for more than 50 hospitals. South Carolina Educational Television (SCETV) played a pivotal role in the implementation of SCHEART, providing engineering support and manpower for the installation of the wide area repeaters, allowing SCHEART to use its statewide digital microwave system for repeater linking and taking on responsibility for maintenance of the equipment. Now SCETV, which has helped amateurs so much, needs our help. The SC Legislature is considering defunding SCETV as a cost-saving measure. This would mean the end of SCETV and the end of SCHEART. If you believe that the SCHEART network is important, please tell your local State Representative and State Senator to support funding for SCETV.

Here is a link to an application that will let you find your State Representative and State Senator: http://www.scstatehouse.gov/cgi-bin/zipcodesearch.exe

Use this link to send a message to your State Representative: http://www.scstatehouse.gov/html-pages/houseemail.html

Use this link to send a message to your State Senator: http://www.scstatehouse.gov/html-pages/senateemail.html

Ms. Alene Wilkins, an eighth-grade science teach at DuBose Middle School in Summerville, SC, asked me to send you an email about the upcoming "School Club Roundup" - the radio contest for school clubs, which will occur during the week of Feb 14th. Her radio club, K4DMS will participate all week except on Wednesday and she encourages all SC amateurs to take a moment to work K4DMS as well as other school clubs on the air next week.

Vice Director Jim Boehner N2ZZ and I will be traveling around during Field Day weekend visiting Field Day sites across SC. Jim will be visiting sites in SC east of I-77 and north of Charleston, as well as sites in eastern NC. I will be covering the rest of the state. Please let us know where and when you will be operating, so that we can add you to our itinerary. You can send the information to us at n4ufp@arrl.org and/or n2zz@arrl.org

As I mentioned in my last report, we have a new PIC, Tammy Livingston KI4PTJ. She reported an interesting solution to the problem of trying to hold a meeting in a restaurant without a PA system. At their annual Christmas Party, the Columbia Amateur Radio Club requested that attendees bring their hand-held radios all set to the same simplex frequency. The use of the hand-helds brought odd looks from the other restaurant goers but allowed the club president to communicate the past year's achievements, give out awards and door prizes, all without needing to use a PA system.

The weather here is South Carolina sure has been making the news lately, and SC amateurs have been doing their part to help the National Weather Service. Bobby, W4KSD reports that at the request of the NWS office in Charleston, Low Country amateurs activated their SkyWarn net on 10 January at 4:00 am in advance of an “approaching weather event”. The net ran until 1:35pm, taking 76 reports from 41 amateurs who had checked into the net. Two amateurs, k4gtm and kf4mnd relayed information into the Georgia counties served by this NWS office. This was no drill: at one point during the morning, all major bridges in the Charleston area were closed, bringing road transport in and out of Charleston to a standstill. The NWS Charleston office would like to thank all amateurs in SC and Georgia who participated, SCHEART and the Charleston Amateur Radio Society for the use of their repeaters.

Here is an update on EMCOMM activities in SC from Charlie Miller, AE4UX SEC:

The SC Section and SCEMD have signed a new Memorandum of Understanding.

The backlog of RACES ID cards has been discussed with SCEMD Director Platt this past Wednesday. He will help remove roadblocks delaying the printing of the new cards.

The SC Statewide exercise normally held the first week of June will be held during May this year. We will be participating in a national level exercise at that time. The dates are May 16, 17, and 18. The scenario is an earthquake on the New Madrid fault.

DHEC region 5 will hold a hospital evacuation exercise on April 14th.

DHEC region 3 has scheduled a hospital evacuation exercise for April 20th that will likely be rescheduled to coincide with the national level exercise. The most likely date is May 18th.

There will be a Radio Response Team training class in Bamberg on February 16th.

There will be an AREA 3 ARES training class on Saturday February 19th at SCETV in Columbia. Others may participate. If you plan on participating, please contact Charlie, AE4UX, and ae4ux@arrl.net .

The South Carolina Emergency Managers Association (SCEMA) will hold its Coastal Workshop in Georgetown County on March 21 thru March 23. Charlie Miller, AE4UX, will attend.

NET REPORTS:
York County 2m Net
Nets called: 52
Traffic passed: 6
Check-ins: 760

TRAFFIC REPORTS:

Traffic report W4JLE - January 2011
Originated      0
Received   269
Sent          237
Delivered     32
Total          538

Until next month…..

73 de Marc Tarplee N4UFP

ARRL Section Manager, South Carolina Section
www.arrl-sc.org

Net	Check Ins	Traffic	Sessions	Reported By
Anderson Radio Club 2M Net	670	28	25	KJ4BSJ
Anderson/Abbeville ARES Net	90	8	5	KJ4BSJ
Beaufort VHF ARES Net				KB1CTC
Blue Ridge Amateur Radio Net	2157	49	31	K4SUG
Carolina’s Net	201	95	60	K4IWW
Carolina State Line Net				W8SC
Columbia ARC				KI4PTM
Grand Strand ARC 2M Net	140	16	14	KI4HEE
Greater Pee Dee 2 Meter Net	685	45	31	K4DTT
Greenwood ARC 2 Meter Net	128	6	4	W4DEW
Kershaw ARC 2 Meter Net	58	5	5	KF4UKC
Lancaster County 2 Meter Net				N4WMB
PALS Net				KJ4IKQ
SC SSB Net	1793	93	31	AJ4RK
SC State ARES Net				KC4YI
Upstate Carolina ARS	336	35	12	KT4NY
York Co. ARS 2 Meter FM Net	883	10	53	KG4CDF

Station	Sent	Received	Delivered	Originated	Total
AJ4RK
K4GLT	79	50	1	0	130
N4MEH	6	44	2	1	53
W4JLE	178	267	89	17	551
W4KLB	110	88	2	0	200
WS4P	8	29	0	0	37

Station	Cat1	Cat2	Cat3	Cat4	Cat5	Cat6	Total
N4MEH	40	40	10	0	0	0	90
W4KLB	40	40	10	0	0	10	100
WS4P	40	37	0	0	0	0	77