EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

--BULLETIN~BULLETIN-- Thanks to the team at the Jackson County, Mississippi "American Radio Association" that we met May 17th at the Mobile hamfest, we are excited about a new project using a Raspberry Pi computer as an email "server" that will allow anyone to send a radio email via Winlink when all other communications assets are down after a disaster such as a hurricane. The user will simply access the email server on their personal cellphone via WiFi and the message will be transmitted over radio to a Winlink station that will get it delivered via a gateway that is outside the "affected area" and still has an internet connection. We will be experimenting with this new concept in the very near future! Stay tuned...

ARCWV's primary goal is to become an asset to our local retirement community of 250+ residents and staff. We intend to accomplish this goal by advancing the art of amateur radio and encouraging our residents, staff, and members of the local community outside our village, to become amateur radio operators. We provide training classes, conduct license examinations, and provide a club station where they can become active and participate in any ham radio activities in which they have interest.

The ability to provide emergency communications in the event of a disaster, when all other means of communications are inoperative, is the greatest asset we can provide to our community. To this end, ARCWV members are actively engaged in local Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) nets and exercises that support the Baldwin County (AL) Emergency Management Agency (EMA) and the county Emergency Operations Center (EOC). Most of our members also belong to the Baldwin County Amateur Radio Club (N4MZ) which maintains a station inside the EOC.

ARCWV operates a weekly simplex emergency net on 146.52 MHz every Saturday morning at 0900 local time. All amateur radio operators are encouraged to participate.

ARCWV also sponsors and maintains a Winlink VARA HF and VARA VHF FM station located at a remote site near our village. The VARA VHF FM antenna is at the 600 foot level on an 800 ft tall broadcast tower and covers a wide area including other nearby counties in AL, FL, and MS. The VARA VHF FM gateway operates on 145.020 MHz with AB4WV callsign. VARA FM Users may also digipeat through our gateway station to connect with other users via AB4WV-10. The VARA HF gateway also uses AB4WV callsign and operates on frequencies in the 80m, 60m, 30m, and 10m bands.

The VHF gateway uses an Alinco DR-135T running 50 watts with a DigiRig interface and is capable of 9600 baud operations. The HF gateway uses an Icom IC-7100 radio running 70 watts with an external LDG autotuner and an 80m inverted vee antenna up approximately 30 feet at the apex.

The map below displays connections to our Winlink HF gateway station since October 2024.

Below is a list of Area 2M repeaters - Thanks to Bryan, N4FBO (VP of the Mobile ARC) for sharing this list. Also, we have a relatively new repeater in Bay Minette on a tall tower that is easily accessible from most of Baldwin and Mobile counties... The W4TP System Fusion repeater is on 145.170 (-600 kHz) with a 210.7 Hz tone. You don't have to have a System Fusion radio to access this repeater, it will also respond to common FM wideband signals, but you should set your radio to encode AND decode the 210.7 Hz tone so you don't hear the digital signals if you're running conventional FM.