Tropical Storm Beryl Response

July 8-13, 2024

After Action Report

James 'Skip' Straus - W5TXT

ARES® District Emergency Coordinator - STX District 2

Austin/San Antonio https://www.weather.gov/ewx/skywarn

Corpus Christi https://www.weather.gov/crp/skywarn

Houston/Galveston https://www.weather.gov/hgx/skywarn_schedule

 “No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.”

A centuries old truism often attributed to Mark Twain — it is applicable to any elected organization with the power to alter the lives and rights of others — public, private, or governmental — including the ARRL Board of Directors.

While the Agenda for the Board Meeting is always published before a Board meeting, the many motions to be considered by the Board have rarely ever been published before a Board Meeting. The most recent and notorious exception occurred before the January 2018 Board meeting when the Executive Committee and Lisenco motions intended to juice the 2017 “Code of Conduct” were leaked to the general Membership. The overwhelming Membership outrage resulting from the unintentional disclosure was instrumental in the punitive proposals being withdrawn. The 2017 Code of Conduct was itself overturned by a newly elected Board in January 2019.

The Members’ voices were heard — and their wishes were honored.

It is my belief, that of a small minority of Directors, and Vice Director Lee Cooper’s, that the Members should be permitted to have advance notice of the substantive matters to considered by the Board of Directors at its meetings.

To that end, the West Gulf intends to publish to its website the substantive motions scheduled to be considered at the January Board meeting and subsequent meetings.

It is our intent to discuss each known January 2024 motion in a separate email, although we will publish to the website each motion as it becomes available.

At present, there are three known motions. The Agenda for the January Board meeting and each of these three motions are available for review and download at: https://westgulfdivision.org/motion

The first motion we wish to discuss is the: 

Motion To Honor Membership Contracts

In July 2023, the Board voted to raise the annual dues from $49 to $59 and to eliminate the delivery of a printed copy of QST or On The Air, effective January 2024, unless a Member paid an extra $25/year. 

The West Gulf Division, the Atlantic Division, the Southeastern Division, and the Southwestern Divisions voted against both proposals, but the two proposals passed by an 11-4 vote.

While a dues increase was long overdue and actually needed, the West Gulf Division voted against it because it was tied to the termination of the delivery of a printed copy of QST/On The Air unless a Member paid an extra $25/year.

The four divisions argued it was a breach of the ARRL’s legal contract with those Members — both annual memberships and 3-year memberships — to terminate their promised printed copy of QST/On The Air before their membership contracts expired. The membership applications in use at the time promised, in writing, the delivery of QST/On The Air magazines by “standard mail.”

Besides the risks attendant upon a breach of contract, Article 11 of the ARRL Articles of Association prohibits the Board from terminating or reducing the rights of any Member. The stripping of the delivery of printed copies of QST/On The Air from unexpired Memberships constitutes a reduction in the rights of the affected Member.

Both the Membership Application and Article 11 are promises — and the League should stand on its promises. That is the reason we have filed the Motion To Honor Membership Contracts.

The ARRL is a membership organization, and the opinions of the Members are important.

I have been asked by each of the West Gulf Division Section Managers — NTX SM Steve Smith (KG5VK), STX SM Stuart Wolfe (KF5NIX), WTX SM Dale Durham (W5WI), and OK SM Mark Kleine (N5HZR) — to share that they each support the Motion To Honor Membership Contracts.

If you believe the Motion has merit and it should pass, it would be important for you to share your support for the Motion with the ARRL President, Rick Roderick, and the other Directors. All of their email addresses can be found on Page 15 of QST or at http://www.arrl.org/divisions . If you choose to share your views, please be respectful — we choose to disagree, but need not be disrespectful.

John Robert Stratton
N5AUS
West Gulf Division Director

Lee H. Cooper
W5LHC
West Gulf Division Vice Director

Go to www.ariss.org and ARISS social media posts to monitor for pass information.

ARISS hopes enthusiasts will have fun downloading the images and follow along with the event.   

**IMPORTANT: Please, all hams should hold off from using the ARISS Voice Repeater for voice contacts during the event times.   

About ARISS:  

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program (SCaN), and the ISS National Lab—Space Station Explorers. The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics topics. ARISS does this by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities take part in hands-on learning activities tied to space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see http://www.ariss.org. 

Media Contact: 

Dave Jordan, AA4KN 

ARISS PR 

Find us on social media at:  

Twitter: ARISS_Intl 

Facebook: facebook.com/ARISSIntl 

Instagram: ariss_intl 

Mastodon: ariss_intl@mastodon.hams.social 

Check out ARISS on Youtube.com. 

Full article on ARRL website: ARRL Hails FCC Action to Remove Symbol Rate Restrictions

Dated: September 21, 2023

 Jeffery A Walter - KE5FGA

ARRL STX SEC

Note that your messages posted to the group are forwarded to 600+ members of the group.  Due to the private nature of some of our Served Agencies, the emails are not open to the Public.

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To join this group, simply use the above link and use the Join This Group button or Log In If You Are Already a Member.

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https://youtu.be/nclcQxddGNk

Mr. David Rice, NB5K, has accepted the position of Emergency Coordinator (EC) for Bexar County in District 12 of the South Texas Section. David is recommended by the District 12 Emergency Coordinator (DEC) Ms. L. Ruth Lewis, KE5MHJ, and approved by the STX Section Manager Mr. Stuart Wolfe, KF5NIX.

District 12 is composed of Atascosa, Bexar, Comal, Gonzales, Guadalupe, Kendall, and Wilson counties. Greg Lewis, N5XO, outgoing EC, will remain very active in our radio hobby.

Mr. Rice grew up in a mixture of Florida, Nebraska, and Texas. While in San Antonio, he attended three high schools: MacArthur, Marshall, and O’Connor. In 2005, David graduated from Baylor University with a degree in economics and business. After college, David managed a flower store in San Antonio.

David is married to Therese Frentz. Therese was an officer in the Air Force but was medically retired as a result of a suicide bomber attack. They have a small terrier-mix dog named Gilbert. Gilbert appears to be part Yorkie and wiener dog but he’s keeping his secrets.

In 2006 David was first licensed as KE5LOU. David comments “I started volunteering at various public service events around San Antonio to support marathons, biking tours, and trail runs.” “I Learned about my current job, a State Park Police Officer, while volunteering for the Texas Water Safari with Gordon K5SUZ (SK).”

“In 2009 I was hired by Texas Parks and Wildlife as a park specialist and assigned to Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site. I completed law enforcement training in San Antonio at Alamo Area Council of Governments and State Park Police Academy at Bastrop State Park. Therese and I moved into a house on Seminole Canyon.”

“In 2014 I transferred to Government Canyon State Natural Area in San Antonio. Therese, Gilbert, and I currently live on Government Canyon.”

“During my time with TPWD I’ve worked temporarily at numerous state parks for special events, holidays, and natural disasters.” “I deploy a few times a year to the border to conduct marine patrols to deter crossings.” “Additional TPWD trainings that I have completed are EMT, wildlife fire, and interpretive guide.”

This appointment is effective August 1, 2023.

Welcome David, you are our first park ranger!

Regards,

Jeffery A Walter – KE5FGA

ARRL STX SEC

RACES 16-201-U

Mr. George Fletcher, AD5CQ has accepted the position of Emergency Coordinator (EC) for the Southeast Unit in District 14 of the South Texas Section. District 14 is composed solely of Harris County subdivided into 4 quadrants. I-10 is the north-south divider. I-45/HWY 288 is the east-west divider. George replaces Mr. Andrew Downing, WB5TAD. Andrew remains active with his local clubs.

This is George’s 2nd round of EC appointments. District 14 EC (DEC) Mr. Sherwin Klemp, K5SEK, and Section Manager Mr. Stuart Wolfe, KF5NIX, approve of the new appointment.

Growing up in Houston, Texas, George earned his Novice ticket in 1965 and his General ticket a year later. His first antennas were inverted Vs on 80 and 40 meters, 30 feet on top of the house, with no RF choke, and no tuner. Going off to college required letting the license lapse. Fast forward to 1995, he earned Technician, General, and Extra class in quick succession.

Volunteering has been an important component in George’s amateur radio journey. An untold number of hours have been spent supporting public service events like fun runs, CERT Rodeo, Extreme Weather Expo, Harris County Health Department CASPERs, and hamfests just to name a few. He became an ARES volunteer eventually rising to the rank of Emergency Coordinator. George was previously the Emergency Coordinator for southeast Harris County for almost 11 years.

George has been active in the responses for Hurricanes, Rita, Katrina, Ike, and Harvey. During Hurricane Rita, he worked 12-hour shifts as net control at Transtar and slept in a closet. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, he helped coordinate radio volunteers to assist during the influx of refugees from Louisiana. During Hurricane Harvey, he volunteered for a 6-hour shift at Transtar and was unable to return home due to flooding stranding him at Transtar for 4 days.

George is an active member of both the Clear Lake and Johnson Space Center amateur radio clubs. In his spare time, he likes to build loop antennas. He is currently working on his 5-Band Worked All States award. Parks On The Air is another amateur radio pastime for George.

George is married to Jean and together they have three married daughters, six grandchildren, and one cat.

This appointment is effective July 17, 2023.

Welcome back, George.

Regards to all,

Jeffery A Walter – KE5FGA

ARRL STX SEC

RACES 16-201-U

The 3873 net is held on Monday each week immediately following the Texas Traffic Net at about 7:30 PM.

A bit about David.

Mr. Fanelli has been licensed in the Amateur Radio Service since April 1991 and held an Amateur Extra Class license since September 1991.

David is also an active Volunteer Examiner in the ARRL/VEC who has participated in over 470 test sessions since accreditation in October 1991. He also acts as the VE Liaison for both the Clear Lake Amateur Radio Club and Johnson Space Center ARC and has held that position since July 1996.

Mr. Fanelli has been active in public service events and local ARES organizations since 1991 and presently is the Assistant Emergency Coordinator for Training for the Harris County – Southeast Unit. He also holds the Official Relay Station designation for his activities in the National Traffic System.

Professionally, Mr. Fanelli earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Houston's Cullen College of Engineering in August 1996. He has worked at the Johnson Space Center in the capacity of software engineer for Lockheed Martin, Hamilton Sundstrand, and Jacobs Technology since February 1997 in both a facility testing International Space Station Guidance, Navigation, and Control flight software and at the Energy Systems Test Area. He has earned both a Group Achievement Award and a Space Flight Awareness Team Award from NASA Headquarters for his efforts in software development for tests at the Energy Systems Test Area.

We will be looking for additional net control and scheduled relay staff as we move forward.

This appointment is effective September 5, 2022. 

Jeffery A Walter – KE5FGA

ARRL STX SEC

RACES 16-201-U

Wayne was originally licensed in 2005 as KE5FYO, operated as W3DGE from 2006 to 2017, and grabbed the K5OB vanity call soon after earning his Extra ticket in 2017.

Wayne was born in El Paso and became an avid follower of the XEROK and XERF/XERB border blaster stations during the sixties. When the family moved away from the border, he started building antennas to receive the border stations. The family moved all over the States, so there was the opportunity to build antennas in different environments. This evolved into shortwave listening. In the seventies, he became involved in CB radios and started “repairing” them to ensure the best propagation.

Interesting reading at this link for border blaster station XEROK:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XEROK-AM

Most of Wayne’s undergrad and graduate work (public administration, geology) was at UT El Paso, with an MBA added much later. He has worked mostly in public service and healthcare. Wayne has supported contracting activities at UTMB Galveston for 24 years, serving as its Institutional Contracting Officer for the last 10 years.

Wayne joined the SW ARES unit four years ago and has served as AEC for the last two years. He has also been an official relay traffic station for the past year. He is also interested in supporting emergency communications for neighborhood-level groups.

He has been married to the brilliant and kind Lisa Christion for over 30 years, has family and kids scattered around the country, and has a houseful of pets in the Katy area. His interests are classic cars, blues and jazz, barbeque cook-offs, geology, ham radio, child advocacy, Texas history, and travelling back roads.

This appointment is effective July 3, 2022.

 Jeffery A Walter – KE5FGA

ARRL STX SEC

• The candidate must have completed AUXCOM within the past three years
• The candidate must have completed the Task Book (more on that)
• The candidate must have completed current ICS courses (No longer than 3 years ago)
• OR Must be willing to take and complete the Texas AUXCOM course
• Then they will take an AUXCOM T-T course
• DPS then will certify them to offer AUXCOM training

Each individual meeting these qualifications and wishing to become an AUXCOM instructor must email me, KF5NIX@ARRL.ORG  with their name, callsign, their qualifications, and any references they have.

There have been several new EC’s appointed and a few DEC’s as well this year. We still have a few openings for EC’s throughout the section, so if you are interested check out the map on our ARRL STX Depot website to see what is available:

https://www.arrlstxvps.org/vault_area/vault_gateway/site_gateway/vault_map.php

If you are interested in becoming an EC, please look over the requirements at the link below to decide if it is for you. If you are an EC and submitting your monthly reports, Thank you. If you are not submitting your monthly reports or have nothing to report then simply put you have nothing to report when submitting your report. Every EC needs to be submitting a report each month:

http://www.arrl.org/emergency-coordinator

If you would like to join ARES in your local county, please sign up at the ARRL STX Depot site at the link below. As soon as you register, your local EC will look over your application and approve you as a member:

https://www.arrlstxvps.org/vault_area/vault_gateway/site_gateway/vault_gateway.php

During this past year the number of reported traffic nets have increased in number, and as such, we as the South Texas Section have been able to report back to ARRL HQ’s a significantly higher number of Amateur Radio operators who are learning how to send and receive traffic. Also, the number of training sessions for handling traffic has increased, and I applaud the effort on everyone involved. I say this as I personally see the results as some of these training, and exercises involved myself as one or more of the individuals receiving the messages.

If you would like to learn more about traffic handling, please contact the ARRL STX Section Traffic Manager

Ron Bosch – KE4DRF at KE4DRF@ARRL.NET

There are several newsletters each ARRL member can subscribe to each month, and there has been a new one that has only been out for a few months now. It is the ARRL Club News and can be found under your Edit Email Subscriptions tab under your profile.

If you are a club with news you would like to see in the ARRL Club News newsletter, please submit it to clubs@arrl.org .

The clubs that are holding online or virtual meetings and would like any of your Section or Divisional leaders to attend, please send an invite to them. I am including our info below.

• West Gulf Division Director – John Stratton – n5aus@n5aus.com
• West Gulf Vice Director – Lee Cooper – w5lhc@arrl.org
• ARRL STX Section Manager – Stuart Wolfe – kf5nix@arrl.org
• ARRL STX Section Emergency Coordinator – Jeff Walter –jawalter6@yahoo.com
• ARRL STX Traffic Manager – Ron Bosch – ke4drf@gmail.com

Thank you,

Stuart Wolfe – KF5NIX

ARRL South Texas Section Manager

KF5NIX@ARRL.ORG

Does your club have a club call sign? 

Is it used for Field Day, QSO parties, other contests, Special Events, like JOTA, Schools on the Air, Hamfest Talk-in, or on your club repeater(s)?

Most of us know that ARRL members use their call@arrl.net but this can be requested for your club@arrl.net

To set this up just have a Club officer fill out the on-line form and submit it to the ARRL. If your club doesn't have a call they will get the club's initials and 3 numbers.

The program is a free download for radio amateurs from a Linux repository provided by SCS. Easy-to-follow instructions, program information and documentation are provided on this SCS web page:
https://www.p4dragon.com/en/PMON.html

Thank you to John Huggins and Gordon Gibby, MD for their original decoding programs, and to Hans-Peter Helfert and the SCS team for this needed contribution to the amateur radio community!

--The Winlink Development Team

My usual jobs with Red Cross and ARES are assisting with Communications at Red Cross HQ, EOC Contact, Shelters, and Disaster Assessment.

What Red Cross Expects from ARES on Deployment

 Starting up:

1. Get a briefing from the Red Cross Manager/COML
2. Establish ARES and Red Cross Liaisons to manage traffic
3. Agree on the fastest way to exchange messages – paper, thumb drive, keep messages short, etc.
4. Find out where you should set up
5. Inform the Liaison of your capabilities, voice, data, and who you can contact
6. Confirm with Red Cross Your Tactical Call Sign & Cell number
7.  Make sure you are in contact with the correct county EOC
8. Check-in with Red Cross HQ
9. Conduct all actions safely and protect confidential information
10. Start your logs

Ongoing operations: What Red Cross will expect:

1. Prompt delivery of messages to the intended recipient
2. Prompt delivery of replies and acknowledgments to RC liaison
3. You must keep a
   1. Unit Log ICS 214 (Personnel & Events) and
   2. Communication Log ICS 309 (messages with date and time)
4. Make sure you have the equipment or resources to rapidly copy and deliver messages
5. Notify RC Liaison of any communications outages or delays
6. Confirm delivery of Digital Emergency communications by voice or acknowledgment

Shift Change:

1. Notify Red Cross on any personnel changes
2. Make sure logs are up to date
3. Ask if there is any way to improve service during the coming shift.

End of Deployment:

1. Get permission to secure
2. Delivery all logs to RC liaison
3. Clean up
4. Return to ARES resource Net

A fact of the post 9/11 world is that you cannot work in an EOC or with the Red Cross unless you have a completed background check. So please have your credentials showing a completed criminal background check.

To Learn More: Red Cross ARRL MOU

Jeffery A Walter – KE5FGA

ARRL STX SEC

Up until now, every individual ARES group has pretty much decided what and how they wish to train.  The result was that our served agencies did not know what background any of us had, particularly if we were moving to another jurisdiction.  We found that those agencies were spurred on largely by the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and were looking for some form of standardization.

By adopting this standard, we can begin a process where ARES members can be identified as obtaining a minimum level of training.  The training itself is similar to that utilized by the COML (Communications Unit Leader) and COMT (Communications Unit Technician) that have been standardized at the Federal level.

Utilization of the training plan is optional, and participation by ARES members is also optional.  However, we are urging all county ARES groups to adopt the terminology and recognition by the title of their members.  The South Texas ARES database will be updated to reflect these standards, record progress, and recognize those who attain various levels in the training.

There are two aspects to the training:  one is a set of training items, and the other is a workbook to record progress towards recognition at each level.  This material makes a good training outline for ARES meetings.  There is sometimes a lack of direction or structure to local training.  I would certainly supplement the core training materials with other topics, and more depth than is covered in the outline, but over some period all ARES groups should cover each of the items in the training matrix.  Even those who may not yet aspire to one of the higher levels can find useful information in each of the topics.  I recommend setting up a schedule to cover all of the topics over some specific time period.

Training Workbook

Training Matrix

The benefit to ARES and our members is that we have a standard that we can incorporate so wherever we go within the WGD we know the minimum standard based on the level achieved.  Each ARES group can feel free to add additional requirements at the local level.  In some specific cases, it may be necessary to modify or substitute requirements based on a local situation or need.  Requests for this should be routed to the Section Emergency Coordinator through the local Emergency Coordinator and District Emergency Coordinator.