It's that time once again for Winlink Wednesday!

This Wednesday is my wedding anniversary. Since most of the participants are, or were, married, I would like to know how long you have been married. Whether you're still married, or formerly married, how long has your longest marriage lasted? If you're not married, well, you're not in a bad situation.

Other instructions:

Use the same template when checking in.  As a reminder, to use the template, when the New Message screen is opened, click on the menu items Select Template --> Standard Templates --> GENERAL Forms --> Winlink Check In.txt.

Make sure in the Send To box to put my call sign, KF5VO.

In the location box, put the name of your city/town, and which gateway you're connecting through (if known).

IF YOU ARE USING SOMETHING OTHER THAN WINLINKE TO CHECK IN:
In the body of the message, place the following information separated by a tab. Include the info between the stars below. This is how the information is sent if you are using the Winlink form. It makes it much easier for me to tally the results. I have a script that tallies the check-ins, and it looks for the information below, between the strings "TAB Delimited:" and "Semicolon Delimited:"

***********************************************************************************

TAB Delimited:
title (or blank)<tab>date time <tab> call sign <tab> call sign <tab> location <tab> GPS Coordinates (or blank) <tab> Grid Square <tab> ham band <tab> session type <tab> Comments (please do not put tabs or line spaces in the comments)

Semicolon Delimited:
***********************************************************************************


Happy Winlinking!


Please visit the Winlink Wednesday NTX web site for more info on how to check in to the net:
https://bit.ly/2TfJNJE

If you haven't already, please join our mailing list on Groups.IO
https://groups.io/g/WinlinkWednesdayNTX

Thank you to Rob KD2GRS for assembling the results from the division clearing houses.

Our division (SWARM - Southwest and Rocky Mountains Division) was the lead in accurate messages.  Incredibly only 2 folks in our division did NOT follow the directions (one of the objectives of the test.)

Failure generally meant that you sent no attached form, or sent it using another tool (e.g. Microsoft Word - ouch).

Division:

Rob also plotted this map from the GIS data provided:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1Ep-rXb_aOExZAZSlXb0Jx6DRyRuqgfp4&usp=sharing

And HI

Thank you for great participation in our Division and Esp. TEXAS!!!

🦃 Happy Thanksgiving 🦃

Kevin KF5FUZ / TXRCAUS-DST

American Red Cross serving Central and Southwest Texas &
Texas Gulf Coast Regions

Just a huge thank you to all the volunteers that are engaged across the county in the unprecedented year of natural disasters. The partner of the year who has done the most for their people is the State of Louisiana.  They have been in the bullseye three times, and have been a great Disaster Response partner.  Really care, and have stepped up to every disaster client need.

As we begin Thanksgiving week I thought I would give you an update.  Operations last a lot longer than the attention span of media. 

I don’t think many of us will miss 2020 with nostalgia.  And it is not over yet.  We are still reeling from Hurricanes, Floods, and Wildfires.  Today as I write this there are 38 active Red Cross National Disaster Operations:

    Continental US active Disaster Relief Efforts in progress

Closer to home and looking at Louisiana Hurricanes we are 94 days since we started this Disaster Relief Effort

We still have in Hotel Shelters:

Laura      1,900
Delta        154
Zeta          35

So more that 2,000 evacuees are still in Hotel shelters.  That number gets smaller daily as repairs are made or FEMA solutions for housing are available. 

     Sorry for the eye chart.  Each "H" is a Hotel Shelter.

To give you an idea of the magnitude of the problem these are the Major and Destroyed homes from our Damage assessment teams:

Laura     12,244
Delta       1648
Zeta         537

      Damage assessment map HUR Laura Louisiana

And an additional 700 Major Damage and Destroyed Homes in Far East TX.

    Damage Chart HUR Laura Far East TX

This is one of the areas that Federal, state, and local Government as well as other charities rely on the Red Cross for this specific damage by address information.  To gather this info Red Cross disaster assessment teams visited more than 70,000 dwellings.

Supporting these clients we have 118 trained Red Cross disaster workers on the job.  There are an additional 20 folks that are in transit for Thanksgiving week.  Most rotations are two weeks.  This includes Mass Care, Recovery, Health, Mental Health, spiritual care, and logistics personnel.

On a personal note I did one more rotation on a disaster assignment, but was released Friday 11/20 (Yeah!).  So I am looking forward to Thanksgiving with close family. 

National Exercise

Thank you for all that participated in the National ARES / Red Cross EMCOMM exercise November 14.  We are still collecting the data, and I promise a read out when all the Division Clearing Houses report.  So just some headlines:

•         47 States and 3 territories participated
•         Literally thousands of messages
•         With just a partial mapping of divisions that have reported so far:

 

Have a great Thanksgiving week!

Kevin @KF5FUZ

The following files have been uploaded to the Files area of the section@arrlntx.groups.io group.

• /ICS 205 W5MCT-20201112-065406L-3.pdf
• /ICS-205A COMMUNICATIONS LIST.pdf
• /ICS-205 WGD-NTX_SET_14NOV2020_.pdf

By: Greg Evans, K5GTX NTX SEC

Description:
Fall 2020 SET: Additional ICS-205s and ICS-205A Files

By now you have received instructions from your ARES leadership on the SET activities in your Counties and Sections. 

This drill is tomorrow - Saturday 11/14/2020

For those of you who are Winlink pros may feel that this exercise is simple.  Understand that from a Red Cross perspective we have two objectives

1) To build Winlink Skills, and

2) To see if operators can follow directions.  (Always a challenge for me!)

This is based on our experience with recent deployments, and it is no accident that drill leadership has been led by operators having direct experience in Puerto Rico.

Remember that depending on where you are - you may not have experienced the need to support Red Cross in TX lately.  However, across this great nation it happens 6 to 10 times a year, and just yesterday in Florida.

http://www.arrl.org/news/eta-isn-t-done-yet-florida-ares-group-asked-to-staff-shelters

Two more requests:

A) Please participate, and

B) Follow the directions provided by your local ARES leadership.

Proud to be your Disaster Services Partner since 1935.

Kevin KF5FUZ
American Red Cross of Central and Southwest Texas

Greetings fellow North Texas ARRL Members

Our Section Management Technical Team is currently working with a fellow Amateur Radio Op 
to solve his station RFI issues that he has been putting up with for almost two years.
Thanks to John Hamilton KD5INM and Cody Bailey KI5EYA for their continued work
with this amateur to a happy conclusion.

We have a New Section Ham of the Year
This was a tuff choice for the Selection Team
Jo Ann Keith KA5AZK is our new ARRL North Texas Section Amateur Ham of the Year 2020 
I spoke with her a few minutes ago, informing her that she was our new amateur of the year.
She was surprised and actually shocked, for those that do not know Mrs. Keith,
she has been the mainstay of the 7290 traffic net for more years than I am sure
she would care for me to mention.
She of course does so much more than just the 7290 traffic Net for the
Ham Radio community and her community at large. 
I am thrilled the committee chose her as the ARRL NTX Ham of the Year.

I have been helping a fellow amateur in a nearby County 
get his first Ham Radio antenna tower up.
This past weekend, I played for a few hours in the recent
ARRL Sweepstakes CW contest.

Reminder:
I and the rest of the Section management staff are available for virtual club presentations.
Just drop us an email invite.

I remain sheltering and very much social distancing during the increased COVID19.

I do not recommend running scared, I do recommend a safe common sense approach.

A very good friend from out of state almost died recently from nothing more than COVID19, 
while he is home now, he has a long road to full recovery and is on O2 almost continuously.

Two other amateurs I know are also in the hospital, both of which,
were not social distancing and were non mask adoptees. 

I ran across an old Raspberry PI CPU while cleaning the Shack clutter,
then got inspired to do more with it as well as an Arduino board while
watching a New ARRL Learning Network video on the subject
and am about to undertake a small sketch or two (Arduino Lingo for a Schematic),
once my new books from the ARRL Arrive on the Arduino and the Pi
http://www.arrl.org/arrl-learning-network

Reminder the West Gulf Division S.E.T. (Simulated Emergency Test) is this Saturday
Contact your local ARES EC and find out how you can participate
https://arrlntx.org/WP/public-service/ares/

You can also find more on the subject at
https://arrlntx.org/WP/event/ares-fall-simulated-emergency-test/

The complete S.E.T. package is here...
https://arrlntx.org/WP/blog/2020/11/09/fall-2020-set-incident-briefing-package/

Please Exercise safety in whatever you do.
Old man Winter is around the corner, time to consider protecting that
new outdoor plumbing you decided to put off adding a winter wrap on.

Last but far from the least.....
From one Veteran to all other Veterans,
I proudly salute you for your service to our great nation.

73
Steve
KG5VK
Tele 318-470-9806
--------------------------------------------------------------------
ARRL North Texas Section
Section Manager: Steven Lott Smith, KG5VK
kg5vk@...
--------------------------------------------------------------------

It's that time once again for Winlink Wednesday!

November 11 is Veterans Day in the US, or Armistice Day or Remembrance Day in other countries. One of the penalties that Germany faced as a result of the war was to make reparations to pay for the war. What year was the last reparation payment made?

Other instructions:

Use the same template when checking in.  As a reminder, to use the template, when the New Message screen is opened, click on the menu items Select Template --> Standard Templates --> GENERAL Forms --> Winlink Check In.txt.

Make sure in the Send To box to put my call sign, KF5VO.

In the location box, put the name of your city/town, and which gateway you're connecting through (if known).

IF YOU ARE USING SOMETHING OTHER THAN WINLINKE TO CHECK IN:
In the body of the message, place the following information separated by a tab. Include the info between the stars below. This is how the information is sent if you are using the Winlink form. It makes it much easier for me to tally the results. I have a script that tallies the check-ins, and it looks for the information below, between the strings "TAB Delimited:" and "Semicolon Delimited:"

***********************************************************************************

TAB Delimited:
title (or blank)<tab>date time <tab> call sign <tab> call sign <tab> location <tab> GPS Coordinates (or blank) <tab> Grid Square <tab> ham band <tab> session type <tab> Comments (please do not put tabs or line spaces in the comments)

Semicolon Delimited:
***********************************************************************************


Happy Winlinking!


Please visit the Winlink Wednesday NTX web site for more info on how to check in to the net:
https://bit.ly/2TfJNJE

If you haven't already, please join our mailing list on Groups.IO
https://groups.io/g/WinlinkWednesdayNTX

Can not bring up.

Good Day Everyone,

 

Here is the final version of the SET Package. Please distribute as you see fit. I look forward to our exercise and working with all of you. 

 

I would like to extend a special thanks to Dave Martin and John Galvin for helping put this package together and the rest of our partners for your support.

 

As always, if you have questions or comments, please feel free to contact us.

 

Have a great, safe week!

 

73,

 

 

STAY PREPARED, STAY READY, STAY SAFE!

Greg Evans, K5GTX North Texas ARES Section Emergency Coordinator   Mobile: 713-410-2376 Email: sec@... Winlink: ARES-NTXSEC   815 Wind Elm Dr. Allen, TX 75002   www.arrlntx.org

Fall 2020 SET Package

 

It's that time once again for Winlink Wednesday!

Here in the United States, our next major holiday coming up is Thanksgiving. As our Canadian friends know, the holiday of Thanksgiving in Canada (Canadian Thanksgiving) is celebrated on the second Monday of October, which this year would have been October 12th. Why was the second Monday of October chosen? Let me know in the comments of this week's check-in. I'm also interested to know if the answer I have matches the answers of our Canadian friends that check in.


Other instructions:

Use the same template when checking in.  As a reminder, to use the template, when the New Message screen is opened, click on the menu items Select Template --> Standard Templates --> GENERAL Forms --> Winlink Check In.txt.

Make sure in the Send To box to put my call sign, KF5VO.

In the location box, put the name of your city/town, and which gateway you're connecting through (if known).

IF YOU ARE USING SOMETHING OTHER THAN WINLINKE TO CHECK IN:
In the body of the message, place the following information seperated by a tab. Include the info between the stars below. This is how the information is sent if you are using the Winlink form. It makes it much easier for me to tally the results. I have a script that tallies the check-ins, and it looks for the information below, between the strings "TAB Delimited:" and "Semicolon Delimited:"

***********************************************************************************

TAB Delimited:
title (or blank)<tab>date time <tab> call sign <tab> call sign <tab> location <tab> GPS Coordinates (or blank) <tab> Grid Square <tab> ham band <tab> session type <tab> Comments (please do not put tabs or line spaces in the comments)

Semicolon Delimited:
***********************************************************************************


Happy Winlinking!


Please visit the Winlink Wednesday NTX web site for more info on how to check in to the net:
https://bit.ly/2TfJNJE

If you haven't already, please join our mailing list on Groups.IO
https://groups.io/g/WinlinkWednesdayNTX

Happy Halloween fellow ARES members.

A few things on this Red Cross Update.

Time change this weekend.  Do not forget to also check your smoke alarms! 

Hurricane Laura / Delta / Zeta

Zeta moved a bit further east, and intensified unexpectedly, making landfall just 10 mph short of being Category 3. 

It also cut a long path of destruction causing more than 1.4 million power outages and spawning Red Cross Disaster Response efforts across 6 states.

Power at noon today 📸 https://poweroutage.us/

We had impacts in other states as I said, and as an example we had 65 folks seek shelter in Mississippi, and 135 additional disaster workers deployed to assist them and provided feeding and disaster emergency supplies and other services there.

There remained 4,000 evacuees from previous storms still in non-congregate shelter.

By the numbers we are up to:
🍱 2M meals & snacks
💲 Financial Assistance 9,800 households

At this point each impact appears to be less severe, but we are not over yet.  So please keep your weather eye out!

It seems like every week I say – We are watching Atlantic Disturbance 1, and that is true again this week.  Hopefully it can be creative and go somewhere else far from us and Louisiana.

Best Kevin KF5FUZ

 

 

 

 

It's that time once again for Winlink Wednesday!

Two weeks ago, I asked about favorite Halloween candies. Surprisingly, Candy Corn ranked pretty high on the list. So, the question for this week, who invented Candy Corn? Let me know in the Comment section of the standard Winlink Check-in template.


Other instructions:

Use the same template when checking in.  As a reminder, to use the template, when the New Message screen is opened, click on the menu items Select Template --> Standard Templates --> GENERAL Forms --> Winlink Check In.txt.

Make sure in the Send To box to put my call sign, KF5VO.

In the location box, put the name of your city/town, and which gateway you're connecting through (if known).

IF YOU ARE USING SOMETHING OTHER THAN WINLINKE TO CHECK IN:
In the body of the message, place the following information seperated by a tab. Include the info between the stars below. This is how the information is sent if you are using the Winlink form. It makes it much easier for me to tally the results. I have a script that tallies the check-ins, and it looks for the information below, between the strings "TAB Delimited:" and "Semicolon Delimited:"

***********************************************************************************

TAB Delimited:
title (or blank)<tab>date time <tab> call sign <tab> call sign <tab> location <tab> GPS Coordinates (or blank) <tab> Grid Square <tab> ham band <tab> session type <tab> Comments (please do not put tabs or line spaces in the comments)

Semicolon Delimited:
***********************************************************************************


Happy Winlinking!


Please visit the Winlink Wednesday NTX web site for more info on how to check in to the net:
https://bit.ly/2TfJNJE

If you haven't already, please join our mailing list on Groups.IO
https://groups.io/g/WinlinkWednesdayNTX

Good morning fellow ARES members.

A few things on this Red Cross Update.  Cold Weather, Atlantic Disturbance 1, and Hurricane Delta/Laura Update.

#1) Cold weather:

We are moving into an area of change in our threat profile.  We have fire weather still, and we have emerging cold weather.  We are also into our mini tornado season #2 where we have to keep our eyes open because of the jet stream moving south.  But the main issue for us will be the onset of cold weather.  As hard as it is to believe after the long hot summer, cold weather is ON THE WAY. Space heater will come out and fires will start.  While space heaters start about a ¼ of fires, those fires carry a higher percentage of fatalities.  Somewhere between 75 – 80 percent of fire deaths can be traced back to space heater started fires.

Along with the time change we will remind folks to check their smoke alarms.  I urge you to do so as well.  Check you furnace during the day.  A reminder that new building materials reduce your time to evacuate down to just 2 minutes.  So get out of burning home quickly.

Look for cold weather to start in the pan handle and spread to the rest of Texas by early next week:

#2) Atlantic Disturbance #1

We are watching Atlantic Disturbance 1, could be in the gulf of Mexico early next week.  There is no consensus in the models right now, and the National Hurricane Center does not have a track.  So we can wait for more accurate information, but we are preparing now.

#3) Hurricane Delta / Hurricane Laura

There was a great comment on my last post, and it reminds me to point out that we do not do this alone.  FEMA has been awesome, TDEM has been great, the state of Louisiana has been great, there are many businesses and charitable organizations that have chipped in.  We owe a special thanks to government at all levels who have enabled us to use hotels for shelters, so that we can reduce the spread of COVID. 

I would observe that we do not have as much company as we are used to.  A lot of volunteer organizations are suffering because they cannot get volunteers to deploy in the current environment.  Many of them do not have the funds and procedures to operate in a COVID safe way.  For example, some of the smaller charitable organizations do not have the logistics in place to get PPE where it needs to be.  One of the heroes in all of this has been the Food Banks.  Already stretched because of COVID-19, they have risen to the challenge in almost every community I have had a chance to visit.  The volunteer issue is the added expense to house and keep safe volunteers.  It is also a natural reticence of volunteers to deploy in a stress area and with the added danger of exposure.  Just a fact in trying to operate in a pandemic.

That said, let me give you an update from a Red Cross perspective.

We are still supporting more than 4,400 evacuees in safe lodging from Hurricane Delta & Laura.

Just to give you insight into the magnitude of the HUR Laura/Delta Response so far:
🍱 1.9M meals & snacks
🏥 759k overnight stays
🧳282k Relief items (Clean Up Kits etc.)
⚕️53,400 Care contacts (Health, Mental Health, Spiritual Care, replacement meds, glasses, assistive equipment…)
⛑️ 3,500 trained #RedCross disaster workers
💲 Financial Assistance 8,570 households

 

Relief supplies destined for East Texas - Newton / Jasper area.

Best Kevin @KF5FUZ ARES / Red Cross