Cameron County Adopts New Portable HF / VHF / UHF Ham Gear
May 7th, 2009 Posted in SPARCS | Comments Off
Our local RGV Cameron County EmComm team was contacted this week with a huge surprise, just in time for drills and tests in the upcoming HUREX 2009 and other events that will span Summer 2009 as we head into Hurricane Season.
Once the County contacted our group a committtee was quicly formed and reported to the secondary EOC location for the County, located in Harlingen, Texas. KB5TMC, KE5YYY and K5REW met with Cameron County Office of Emergency Prepardness Officials as the portable equipment was delivered by the vendor. The 3 hams each assisted the commercial radio techs as they were testing additional portable radio gear meant to follow the Office of Emergency Prepardness in various hurricane situations.
Equipment received and now being tested as this artice is written is a Kenwood TM-710 Dual Band VHF-UHF fixed station; and a Kenwood TS-480 HF to 6 Meter fixed station mounted in a commercial radio cabinet along with their respective power supplies. In addition, a highly portable antenna system was purchased and chosen by the radio communications vendor however it’s performance is leaving much to be desired considering that the antenna performs best at 20 meters and above which broadcasts right over the top and beyond where our signals need to be the strongest in a disaster. Since our target for HF disaster communications is 80 Meters night time and 40 meteres daytime, our antenna requirements are for dipole and NVIS antennas in the horizontal plane.
Steps have already been taken to correct the antenna issue in ordering a 90 ft. B&W folded dipole which is designed for up to 400 miles range, fitting exactly the requirements for establishing communications to the State EOC, Camp Mabry in Austin and FEMA Federal Regional Center in Denton not to mention various MARS and SHARES stations across the countryside.
Coast Guard Station South Padre Island is hosting a National Weather Service spotter seminar this coming Tuesday, April 28th 2009. Seating is now full and no addtional reservations being taken. Coast Guard members will be participating during the morning session that day, and the evening session will be taught for first responders along with 6 seats reserved for Cameron County ham radio licensees. To determine if seats are available to register please call U.S. Coast Guard Station South Padre Island at 956-364-7400. Tell the individual that is standing watch that you would like to register for the storm spotter class at 7 p.m. Tuesday night, if there are seats still available. Be sure and let them know the organization you are with is “ham radio operator”. The seminars are being led by National Weather Service personnel from the Brownsville Weather Service Office. Joe Tomaselli will be instructing the evening session and Barry Goldsmith will lead the morning session for Coast Guard members. 
On April 6-10, Amateur Radio had its largest presence ever at the 2009 National Hurricane Conference in Austin, Texas. Representatives from the ARRL, WX4NHC, the Amateur Radio Station at the National Hurricane Center (NHC), the Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) and VoIP Hurricane Net (VoIPWXNet) completed several presentations at the conference as well as a presentation at the local Austin Amateur Radio Club. According to ARRL Emergency Preparedness and Response Manager Dennis Dura, K2DCD, the workshops were very well attended with more than triple the participation of prior conferences. You can 
April 1, 2009: The sunspot cycle is behaving a little like the stock market. Just when you think it has hit bottom, it goes even lower. 2008 was a bear. There were no sunspots observed on 266 of the year’s 366 days (73%). To find a year with more blank suns, you have to go all the way back to 1913, which had 311 spotless days: plot. Prompted by these numbers, some observers suggested that the solar cycle had hit bottom in 2008.
Mar 23, 2009) — 
With hurricane season approaching, the various organizations that assist the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami are gearing up for what could be a very active storm season. One organization that assists the NHC is the Hurricane Watch Net (HWN). To better assist the NHC, HWN Manager Dave Lefavour, W7GOX, told the ARRL that the HWN is looking for new members. “The Hurricane Watch Net relies on volunteer operators — our members — who serve as our net control stations,” he said. “HWN members are hams who have above-average stations, are capable of effectively conducting HF net operations and are willing to commit their time to operating in support of the HWN’s mission during Net activations. The Net sessions can be long, and, in the recent absence of sunspots, pretty grueling.” 