September 2017 - arrl-odv - reflector.arrl.org

[arrl-odv:26748] CNN First Story on ARRL Hams Aid to Puerto Rico
by Gallagher, Tom, NY2RF (CEO) 27 Sep '17

27 Sep '17

Scroll down the story to see the part on hams. http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/26/us/puerto-rico-maria-recovery/index.html Tom Gallagher - NY2RF Chief Executive Officer ARRL Headquarters ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio(tm) 860 594 0404 cell 704 907 7158 tgallagher(a)arrl.org<mailto:tgallagher@arrl.org>

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[arrl-odv:26747] YASME Ham Aid Contribution
by Gallagher, Tom, NY2RF (CEO) 27 Sep '17

27 Sep '17

The following press release from the YASME Foundation: THE YASME FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES GRANT TO HAM AID The Board of Directors of The Yasme Foundation is pleased to announce that it has made a grant to ARRL's Ham Aid Fund in support of the amateur radio response to the recent hurricanes in the United States and Caribbean. The Ham Aid Fund was created in 2005 in response to the need for equipment and resources to support the amateur radio response to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. Ham Aid equipment is available on loan to amateur radio organizations during disaster response when communications equipment is unavailable. The Yasme Foundation encourages all amateurs to consider a donation to Ham Aid (www.arrl.org/ham-aid<http://www.arrl.org/ham-aid>). The Yasme Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation organized to conduct scientific and educational projects related to Amateur Radio, including DXing (long distance communication) and the introduction and promotion of Amateur Radio in developing countries. For additional information about The Yasme Foundation, visit our website at www.yasme.org<http://www.yasme.org>. Ward Silver, NØAX, President The Yasme Foundation Tom Gallagher - NY2RF Chief Executive Officer ARRL Headquarters ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio(tm) 860 594 0404 cell 704 907 7158 tgallagher(a)arrl.org<mailto:tgallagher@arrl.org>

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[arrl-odv:26746] Hartford Downgraded Further Into Junk Status - WSJ
by N5AUS 27 Sep '17

27 Sep '17

https://www.wsj.com/articles/hartford-downgraded-further-into-junk-status-1… Sent from my iPad

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[arrl-odv:26743] Update PR
by Gallagher, Tom, NY2RF (CEO) 27 Sep '17

27 Sep '17

Twenty-five ham aid kits left HQ this evening bound for Atlanta where they meet up with ham Force Fifty volunteers and depart for San Juan on Thursday. Possibly the largest single equipment deployment in our history. Also included were two repeaters plus repeater antennas coax and connectors. A dozen HT's and five mobile radios to serve police and electric utility crews. Ham Aid donations today were $ 22,000.00 and we are still counting. The entire staff pitched into opening boxes fitting Pelican cases and hauling it all to Bradley airport. Tom Sent from my iPhone

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[arrl-odv:26740] ARRL Ham Aid
by k5ur＠aol.com 26 Sep '17

26 Sep '17

Hi gang: Just a reminder about the need for donations to ARRL's Ham Aid program. Here's what we put in the email that went out yesterday. It has the link to make a contribution. I made my contribution and hope you do, too. Thanks. 73 Rick - K5UR Donate to Ham Aid. ARRL’s Ham Aid program loans Amateur Radio equipment kits to established Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES®) groups and partner agencies during disaster response, in order to establish Amateur Radio communications support. Ham Aid is supported by donations from individuals and corporations – including many of our ham radio industry partners. ARRL has previously staged Ham Aid equipment in Texas, and in the last few weeks, we have supplied kits in Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. Our supply of Ham Aid kits has been rapidly depleted. Your donation to Ham Aid will help us now. Your contributions to Ham Aid are 100% tax deductible. To make a donation online, go to www.arrl.org/arrl-donation-form and select “Ham Aid” from the ARRL donation form. To donate by mail, print a donation form, and mail it with your check payable to ARRL, noting “Ham Aid” on the memo line of your check; mail to ARRL, 225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111 USA. ...

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[arrl-odv:26738] Status Report from Puerto Rico--Oscar Resto SM
by James F. Boehner MD 26 Sep '17

26 Sep '17

Tom, I've been asked where we stand on the 50 requested volunteer operators. Are we full yet, or are there still spaces to be filled? '73 de JIM N2ZZ Director - Roanoke Division Serving ARRL members in the Virginia, West Virginia, South Carolina and North Carolina sections ARRL - The National Association for Amateur RadioT From: arrl-odv [mailto:arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org] On Behalf Of Gallagher, Tom, NY2RF (CEO) Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2017 8:01 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:26737] Status Report from Puerto Rico--Oscar Resto SM <mailto:o.resto@live.com> The situation in PR is very devastating across all the island. Communications via land phone or Mobiles are almost null. In respect to the local Ham repeaters we may have a few working partially with damage antennas. So we are using simplex frequencies 146.52MHZ. Even the Police Headquarters are down in their repeaters. Moreover the State Police are in the Ham VHF frequency. Driving toward the temporary American Red Cross (ARC) HQ due to flooding a no operational generator at their quarters. The ARC stablished an incident center at the Marriott Courtyard San Juan Miramar. The may move to a new site tomorrow. Driving 25 miles from my home to San Juan I heard the PR Power Authority on 146.52 coordinating fuel and Diesel for the offices at the Monacillo Control Center and several power plants. The power system is fully shut down for all the Island. Most gasoline Service Stations are destroyed or have run out of fuel with lines of people of more than 200 people long. What we need? --Oscar I have attached the report of Oscar Resto, PR Section manager received last evening from San Juan. The principal communications problems stem from loss of electrical power with total outages throughout the island. Hams are providing 2-meter communications to both the police and the power company since their trunked UHF systems are not operational. Oscar needs: 1. Portable generators powered by gasoline which is available to Oscar from the Red Cross (we are sending seven); 2. One or two VHF repeaters to be placed on a mountain top for wide-area coverage for police and power company use (we are attempting to locate); 3. Lots of coaxial cables, fitted with connectors (no soldering available) in 100' lengths; 4. Diamond dual-band antennas to replace damaged repeater antennas; 5. solar powered kits for use in the more rural areas. We are supplying this from HQ in addition to 25 Ham Aid kits ordered yesterday from DX Engineering for delivery in HQ today. These units will travel with the 50 volunteer operators deploying on Thursday More as it becomes available. Tom

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[arrl-odv:26737] Status Report from Puerto Rico--Oscar Resto SM
by Gallagher, Tom, NY2RF (CEO) 26 Sep '17

26 Sep '17

[The situation in PR is very devastating across all the island. Communications via land phone or Mobiles are almost null. In respect to the local Ham repeaters we may have a few working partially with damage antennas. So we are using simplex frequencies 146.52MHZ. Even the Police Headquarters are down in their repeaters. Moreover the State Police are in the Ham VHF frequency. Driving toward the temporary American Red Cross (ARC) HQ due to flooding a no operational generator at their quarters. The ARC stablished an incident center at the Marriott Courtyard San Juan Miramar. The may move to a new site tomorrow. Driving 25 miles from my home to San Juan I heard the PR Power Authority on 146.52 coordinating fuel and Diesel for the offices at the Monacillo Control Center and several power plants. The power system is fully shut down for all the Island. Most gasoline Service Stations are destroyed or have run out of fuel with lines of people of more than 200 people long. Phone land lines are down, and only a few cell site are operational and unstable. At the moment I am at the temporary ARC and they have internet and phones as well cell phone. We are trying to get the information assessment from the 12 zones that includes the 72 municipalities. Heath and welfare traffic is very difficult due that we can only contact people by driving to their address. Cleaning of the roads are been work as we speaks, but it will take still some time. Also flooding at Toa Baja and the crack of the Quebradilla dam is in process of evacuation. Casualties are in a small number, at the moment the ad said from the Security Commissioner Mr. Pesquera. Almost all radio AM and FM stations and one TV station (running low power) are off air. H/W are one of the most needed public service requirement. Drinking water and sanitation need to be reestablish. A sort of family reunification system is need to be establish ether by local network VHF/UHF as has been perform in HF 3.803 MHz. and 7.188 MHz. In my personal assessment, just lost one antenna (tribander) and my reserve of drinking water for the house (a pipe was kicked by something). It took me three days to chains saw the 50 trees just on my property road. What we need? Everything.... solar panels, repeaters, and most important transmission lines and antennas. Some base or mobile VHF/UHF radios. 1 to 2kW Power generator. --Oscar I be back to the ARC close to 8:00 tomorrow morning. 73 Oscar Oscar Resto Specialist in Scientific Instrumentation University of Puerto Rico Department of Physics, IFN Nanoscopy Facility PO Box 70377 San Juan PR 00931 Rocket Satellite Specialist NASA Puerto Rico Space Grant Consortium ARRL Puerto Rico Section Manager o.resto(a)live.com kp4rf(a)arrl.org kp4rf(a)live.com Tel. 787-764-0000 IFN Lab 7387, RockSat Lab. 4222 Cel. 787-345-6088]<mailto:o.resto@live.com>I have attached the report of Oscar Resto, PR Section manager received last evening from San Juan. The principal communications problems stem from loss of electrical power with total outages throughout the island. Hams are providing 2-meter communications to both the police and the power company since their trunked UHF systems are not operational. Oscar needs: 1. Portable generators powered by gasoline which is available to Oscar from the Red Cross (we are sending seven); 2. One or two VHF repeaters to be placed on a mountain top for wide-area coverage for police and power company use (we are attempting to locate); 3. Lots of coaxial cables, fitted with connectors (no soldering available) in 100' lengths; 4. Diamond dual-band antennas to replace damaged repeater antennas; 5. solar powered kits for use in the more rural areas. We are supplying this from HQ in addition to 25 Ham Aid kits ordered yesterday from DX Engineering for delivery in HQ today. These units will travel with the 50 volunteer operators deploying on Thursday. More as it becomes available. Tom

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[arrl-odv:26735] Force of Fifty Volunteers to Puerto Rico
by Gallagher, Tom, NY2RF (CEO) 26 Sep '17

26 Sep '17

Ladies & Gentlemen: By now you have received Rick Roderick's bulk membership appeal for experienced operators to deploy to Puerto Rico as well as his appeal for funds for Ham Aid. Today, within 12 hours, we met our initial volunteer requirements. Below is the press release we will send tomorrow morning and post on the ARRL web crawl. If your members ask how they can help, direct them to the Ham Aid Donate button on the ARRL website. Press release follows: Amateur Radio's Force of Fifty Answers the Red Cross Call in Puerto Rico September 25, 2017 Newington CT For immediate release Fifty of the nation's most accomplished Amateur Radio operators have responded within 12 hours to the call of the American Red Cross to deploy to Puerto Rico and provide emergency communications. At the behest of Red Cross, ARRL rallied the US Amateur Radio community to provide up twenty-five, two-man teams of highly-qualified hams. The group's principal mission will be moving health and welfare information from the island back to the US mainland where that data will be entered in Red Cross "Safe & Well" website: https://safeandwell.communityos.org/cms/index.php . The group will deploy the middle of this week and remain deployed on the island for up to three weeks. ARRL will equip each two-person team with a modern digital HF transceiver, special software, a dipole antenna, a power supply and all the connecting cables, fitted in rugged waterproof container. In addition, ARRL is sending a number of small, 2,000 watt portable generators as well as solar-powered battery rechargers of the variety used by the US military on extended expeditionary deployments. The hams and their equipment will be sent to Red Cross shelters extending from San Juan to the western end of the island. "This generous outpouring of response represents the finest qualities of the Amateur Radio community," said Tom Gallagher, ARRL's CEO. "These individuals are dropping whatever they are doing now, heading off to an extended hardship-duty assignment, and offering their special talents to Americans who have been cut off from their families, living amid widespread destruction and without electrical power since Hurricane Maria struck the Caribbean region last week." "In the nearly 75-year relationship between ARRL and the American Red Cross, this is the first time such a request for assistance on this scale has been made", said Mike Corey, ARRL's Emergency Preparedness manager from ARRL's Newington CT headquarters. "Hurricane Maria has devastated the island's communications infrastructure. Without electricity and telephone, and with most of the cell sites out of service, millions of Americans are cut off from communicating. Shelters are unable to reach local emergency services. And, people cannot check on the welfare of their loved ones. The situation is dire." How can you help? In a letter to all ARRL members, President Rick Roderick asked for contributions to ARRL's Ham Aid fund. President Roderick emphasized, "equipment has been flying out the door since Harvey struck the US mainland. From meeting requirements in aid of Hurricane Irma victims in the US Virgin Island and Florida, our stores of ham aid kits are completely depleted." Donate to Ham Aid. ARRL's Ham Aid program loans Amateur Radio equipment kits to established Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES(r)) groups and partner agencies during disaster response, in order to establish Amateur Radio communications support. Ham Aid is supported by donations from individuals and corporations - including many of our ham radio industry partners. ARRL has previously staged Ham Aid equipment in Texas, and in the last weeks we have supplied kits in Florida, the US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. Our supply of Ham Aid kits has been rapidly depleted. Your donation to Ham Aid will help us, now. Your contributions to Ham Aid are 100% tax deductible. To make a donation online, go to www.arrl.org/arrl-donation-form<http://www.arrl.org/arrl-donation-form> and select "Ham Aid" from the ARRL donation form. To donate by mail, print a donation form, and mail it with your check payable to ARRL, noting "Ham Aid" on the memo line of your check; mail to ARRL, 225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111 USA. -- 30 -- Tom Gallagher - NY2RF Chief Executive Officer ARRL Headquarters ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio(tm) 860 594 0404 cell 704 907 7158 tgallagher(a)arrl.org<mailto:tgallagher@arrl.org>

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[arrl-odv:26734] In Newsletter September 22 2017
by Pereira, Carla 22 Sep '17

22 Sep '17

Attached is this week's In Newsletter. Happy Friday! Carla Pereira, KC1HSX Assistant to Tom Gallagher NY2RF ARRL, the National Association for Amateur Radio(tm) Tel:1-860-594-0242<tel:1-860-594-0242> Fax:1-860-594-0259 cpereira(a)arrl.org<mailto:cpereira@arrl.org>

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[arrl-odv:26732] Fwd: Thanks from Amateur Radio
by k5ur＠aol.com 19 Sep '17

19 Sep '17

Hi all: I thought you might be interested in seeing the letter Tom wrote to Brock Long, Administrator of FEMA, regarding some positive coordination with FEMA. 73 Rick - K5UR ... -----Original Message----- From: Gallagher, Tom, NY2RF (CEO), NY2RF (CEO) <tgallagher(a)arrl.org> To: brock.long <brock.long(a)fema.dhs.gov> Cc: Roderick, Rick, K5UR (President), K5UR (President) <K5UR(a)arrl.org> Sent: Mon, Sep 18, 2017 7:48 am Subject: Thanks from Amateur Radio Hon. William B. Long Administrator Federal Emergency Management Agency Washington, DC Dear Administrator Long: It’s with profound appreciation that I write you to thank you for the assistance of FEMA in delivering Ham Aid kits to the US Virgin Islands following Hurricane Irma. In the larger context of the past four weeks, it’s a small matter, but one of great importance to us. ARRL HQ received an urgent request for high frequency digital radio equipment from our USVI official on Thursday, 7 September. The kits enable long-range communications throughout the Island and to the US mainland. While we were able to provision the equipment in 15 hours, we were unable to arrange for its transportation to St Thomas. A telephone call to FEMA’s CTO Ted Okada, K4HNL, also a ham radio operator, connected us with a Virgin Island-bound FEMA CACI contractor in the person of Jeff, N1KBY. He arrived at our HQ on Friday afternoon, taking several kits along with him. He delivered one to the island’s FEMA-fortified PEP broadcast station this week. Without the logistical intervention of FEMA, this vital equipment might still be awaiting shipment. This assistance was repeated for Puerto Rico. >From my earliest recollection, I have admired the efforts of FEMA. My late father served as a deputy administrator of SBA under presidents Nixon and Ford. A man not inclined to gratuitous praise, he always spoke admiringly of FEMA’s joint efforts in the 1970’s Johnston (PA) floods. Much as he spoke about the WWII US Navy. And my experience last week is just a small tribute to your larger efforts. At ARRL we value our relationship with Ted, with Chris Smith and with all our diverse FEMA contacts. First, they help us achieve our primary emergency communications mission by lending FEMA’s unique capabilities as occurred in the US VI last week. Secondly, they have spurred us on to ambitious experimentation with specialized communications techniques harnessed to arrays of sensors designed, built and installed by Radio Amateurs, and other amateur experimenters around the country, to report flood, atmospheric and other conditions. Lastly, they assist us in anticipating, and plotting a path to intercept, the future. In my view, the effort of citizen-volunteers serving their communities in times of disaster is the more powerful model than government, alone. Guided by government agencies like FEMA, these volunteers—whether they operate communications equipment or pilot a bass boat—can be a powerful force projection in the service of their communities and their country. I know that I speak for our 165,000 members and for all 750,000 ham radio operators in the US when I say—thank you. Respectfully, Tom Tom Gallagher – NY2RF Chief Executive Officer ARRL Headquarters ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio™ 860 594 0404 cell 704 907 7158 tgallagher(a)arrl.org

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