Green Bay Mike And Key Club

Link to Brown County ARES/RACES Website
For those who are interested in learning more about Emergency Communications, check out the Kentucky ARES Training Material

News and Upcoming Events
Membership roster
I have added the membership roster to the site. Click on Membership Info of the left, then click on view membership roster. Don't forget to renew your club membership or download the Membership form if you want to join the club.

Tall Ships Festival August 13-15th
ARES/RACES will be worked the 2010 Tall Ships Festival at the port of Green Bay. The club trailer was located at the north end of Leicht Park, near the police command trailer. The weekend started out with gusty winds and rain keeping the ships in port. Here's a link to some pictures 2010 Tall Ships Festival.

Reforestation Ramble August 22nd, 2010
If you are looking for an opportunity to volunteer at a fun event, your chance has arrived. The "Reforestation Ramble" run/mountain bike race will be on 08/22/2010 at the Brown County Reforestation Camp. The Titletown Flyers bike group (the race coordinators) have asked the Green Bay Mike & Key Club for radio support on the course. The race is sponsored by WORS (Wisconsin Off Road Series). Last year when we helped out, we had net control in the trailer and monitors out on the course. Times are a bit tentative right now but it appears that we would need to be at the Brown County Reforestation Camp at around 7:30AM. We would finish and leave by 3:30. If you are interested in helping out, please contact Mark Salmon (KC9MPG) at SALMMR03@UWGB.EDU or at 920-264-4628.
Field Day June 26-27th, 2010
The 2010 Green Bay Mike & Key Club Field Day was held at Ashwaubomay park once again. The contest ran from 1:00PM on Saturday to 1:00PM on Sunday. We had a pretty good turn out for the event despite some nasty weather coming through early Sunday morning. I'll be posting the statistics soon. You can see a great multi-media slide show about last years event online at www.greenbaypressgazzette.com . The club had both the old and new trailers setup. They operated two stations. One station operated strickly from a deep-cylce marine battery charged from a solar panel. The other station and laptops operated from a generator.

147.360 Repeater Off the Air
The 147.360 repeater is off the air for the time being. It was pulled from Bellin Hospital and was programmed to replace the aging 147.120 repeater. The club is looking at purchasing a replacement for the 147.360 repeater in the near future. The 147.120 repeater is still being "tweaked", so be patient! Thanks to all those who put the time in to make the transition a smooth one!

VHF Propagation Maps Promoting VHF/UHF in Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest
APRS-IS servers gather information from networks of VHF and HF Amateur Radio packet stations. This information from the packet radio network is gatewayed into the Internet and made available as a constant stream of real-time data from a set of network servers. Packet radio stations provide two bits of information that are useful for studying propagation. A station's latitude and longitude is typically transmitted with each data packet, pinpointing the transmitter's location. Also included in packet radio transmissions is the path, a list of hops between stations, that a message takes before reaching an Internet gateway.
By saving the location of each station, that information can be used to determine the distance and direction between hops in the packet path. There are a sufficient number of packet radio stations on VHF frequencies in much of Europe and North America (typically on 144.39 MHz) to show real-time propagation over large portions of these continents.
There is also a beacon listing worth bookmarking is at www.newsvhf.com. The 6m list is specifically at www.keele.ac.uk/depts/por/50.htm and the 144 and higher beacons are at www.newsvhf.com/beacons2.html. If you try listening for the WD9BGA beacon just SW of Madison, WI on 144.297 and don’t hear it, it’s not your radio — that beacon has been off for a few months. The 144.290 WA9HCZ beacon out of La Crosse is operational, but not a really strong one.
For more information about VHF/UHF simplex and SSB nets in Wisconsin see the kc9bqa.com website
Brown County Emergency Management Alerts
Brown County Emergency Management Brown County Emergency Management's Nixle program is up and running. Sign up for text and email alerts for free. Stay connected to Brown County, from public safety alerts to important neighborhood advisories. Free. Simple. Nixle Sign up
Storm Spotter Training Video
The National Weather Service conducted training for storm spotters at St. Norbert College, Boyle Hall, Room 122 on Thursday, March 25th, 7 - 9 PM. The training was open to the public with the emphasis on amateur radio operators.
Here is a good Power Point presentation on Storm Spotting as it relates to Severe Weather Nets for those looking to refresh their skills.
CERT Training (Community Emergency Response Team)
We have two CERT training sessions coming up to tell you about! Now is a great time to get your family members, friends and coworkers involved in CERT!! The dates are as follows:
Session 1
Monday, June 14
Wednesday, June16
Monday, June 21
Wednesday, June 23

Session 2
Tuesday, July 27
Thursday, July 29
Tuesday, August 3
Thursday, August 5
Classes will be held at: Northeastern Wisconsin Technical College Public Safety Training Center Tactical House, 2565 Larsen Rd. Green Bay, WI For registration and more information, visit www.fvtc.edu/CERT.
The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Program educates people about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. Using the training learned in the classroom and during exercises, CERT members can assist others in their neighborhood or workplace following an event when professional responders are not immediately available to help. CERT members also are encouraged to support emergency response agencies by taking a more active role in emergency preparedness projects in their community.

C.E.R.T. is not affiliated with ARES/RACES and you are not required to be a member of ARES/RACES to be a C.E.R.T. volunteer. We do work with the C.E.R.T. volunteers. Several of the ARES members are C.E.R.T. trained and both groups work closely with the county emergency manager. If your interested in CERT Training contact Dennis (KC9OIS) at kc9ois@arrl.net or Marty Menghini, Volunteer Brown County CERT Coordinator, bccert@yahoo.com. For more information see Brown County C.E.R.T. (Community Emergency Response Team) or C.E.R.T. (Community Emergency Response Team)
Arrow Dual Band J-pole Instructions

Many of you have asked about the plans for the Arrow J-Pole I built from scratch. Here are the plans I used from Arrow. The 3/8" aluminum rod I bought from Fleet Farm (3 pieces 36" long for around $3.59 each. I had some 2" x 2" aluminum angle stock but Fleet carries some 1" x 1" and 1.5" x 1.5". The nuts and other connectors and u-bolt you can get from Tower Electronics or online.
Want to know more about Digital Voice Radio?

Any one interested in D-Star should get a hold of Jason, N9PAV or Steve, KB9MWR(callsign@arrl.net). They have an experimental homebrew UHF D-Star repeater along with the Amateur Video Radio News Digital Voice DVD for loan out for anyone interested. Below is an older video on Digital Voice Radio.

KC9OIS-10 TelPac/RMS Packet Node is back up
I'm running an omni-directional antenna at 75 feet. Current power is still 25 watts but I hope to have 100 watts by the end of summer. I have a fully functional TelPac/RMS Packet Node up and running now at my house for use with WinLink 2000. Dial up 145.610 and connect to KC9OIS-10 using AGWPE, a soundcard and Winlink 2000, PacLink & Outlook Express. You can find information on the WinLink Live RMS Packet Stations Map.
Winlink 2000 & Packet Information Link added
I have added a link to a new page for information on Packet and Winlink 2000 as it relates to emergency communications in Wisconsin. We are currently trying to obtain a tower site in Green Bay that will cover Brown County. The WI-ARES/RACES is utilizing Winlink 2000 and PacLink & Outlook Express or Airmail as a means to provide digital messaging over VHF simplex locally and HF world-wide. Perhaps interest in packet BBS can be revived. If enough people are interested, maybe we can have a presentation at a future club meeting. KB9BYP-10 145.610 is the simplex RMS TelPAC node in Appleton for WI-ARES Winlink.
WinLink 2000 is a system that utilizes enabling technologies (VHF/UHF Packet, HF Pactor l, ll, lll, D-Star, 802.11) and sound operating practices to provide a full-featured radio digital message transfer system, worldwide. E-mail transfer with attachments, position reporting, graphic or text-based weather bulletins, and emergency communications are now available separately to the Amateur radio, Army Military Affiliate Radio System (MARS), and UK Cadet Forces communities by linking radio to the Internet.
For anyone interested in an inexpensive TNC that will work with PacLink (Win 2000), check it out at TNC-X. You can buy it in kit form for $45 plus $17 for the pre-drilled case and $5 shipping. They will also assemble and test it for an extra $30. It's the same unit that MFJ sells assembled for $129. There are several options including APRS, digipeater and a daughter board. There are quite a few AGWPE (Soundcard Packet Engine) users using TNC-X with success. AGWPE is not required in order to use TNC-X but it does work well when using Paclink and Outlook Express for WInLink 2000! TNC-X (and other KISS mode TNC's) are supported directly by a wide variety of packet radio programs including, UI-View, WinTNC, WinAPRS, and PR4WIN. However, using AGWPE does allow you to use an even wider variety of programs with TNC-X including AGWTERM (a general purpose packet radio terminal program). Using AGWPE allows you to set up a client node on the WinLink 2000 system by also using PacLink. I have assembled and tested one and have it up and running using an old IC-255 2 meter rig (no tone board.. circa 1980) I bought for $30 at the hamfest this weekend. Pretty simple for a kit and you can't beat the price!
I have added a realtime APRS tracking map on the Brown County ARES/RACES page
You can enter a callsign or zipcode and it will dispaly all active APRS units in the area.
I have recently put together a Byonics TinyTracker3+. The TinyTrak3Plus is an APRS GPS position encoder which, when connected to a serial GPS and a radio, will transmit its location at an adjustable rate. TinyTrak3Plus is the fourth generation in TinyTrak series, and is available as a kit construction project, or as a built and tested unit, providing an inexpensive way to build a mobile tracker without the need for a full TNC. It is configured by connecting to a computer's serial port, and running a simple configuration tool which allows setting of all user options. After that, the computer can be disconnected, and a GPS connected in its place for operation. You can purchase the kit and a GPS for $98 plus shipping from Byonics.
Wisconsin Interstate Network Repeater online in Green Bay
This is a new repeater in town: 443.400 PL 100 Repeater in GB - Echolink node 18006 The Wisconsin Interstate Network consists of the following repeaters:

442.100 Rice Lake
442.200 Wausau
442.300 Janesville
442.400 Fond du Lac
442.500 La Crosse
442.700 Richland Center
442.725 Coloma/Hancock
442.800 Eau Claire
442.075 Minneapolis,MN
441.400 Madison
443.025 River Falls
443.400 Green Bay
443.550 Black River Falls
443.900 Baraboo
444.400 Sayner/Minoqua
444.550 Hollandale
444.800 Tomah
440.150 Watertown

Here's a link to the website: Wisconsin Interstate Network. If you click on "Repeater Guide" at the top, you'll see what a large system this is.

Monthly Siren Test Net
Just a reminder - If you are available, please check into the Brown County Siren Test Net -- The test happens every second Wednesday of the month starting at ~11:50 on the 147.120 repeater. Be able to give the location of the siren that you are monitoring. If you can do this, it will be a great help in aiding our friends and families. Net Control is W9CEA - Al

August 5th Airport Disaster Drill with ARES/RACES a success

12 members of the Brown County ARES/RACES group participated in a mock airplane crash at the Austin-Straubel Airport on Wednesday, August 5th. The event simulated a commercial jet crash with 96 passengers and 4 crew members. ARES members provided communications between the Emergency Operations Center at the airport terminal, four area hospitals and buses used to transport victims and families. 46 passenger and crew members were taken to hospitals and 52 family members were transported to the Familiy Assistance Center which was set up at the Executive Air hanger at the airport. The exercise ran from 8:00 AM until 2:00 PM. Here is a link to the Brown County Emergency Management Face Book page with photos of the event. Smile KB9KIX!
Here is another nice video from the 2003 Airport Drill.

February 2010 KeyClicks
February 2010 KeyClicks

Weekly News!

Last updated August 19th, 2010
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