LWRA President’s Message – Week of 6/17/24

Good Monday Morning!

A great weekend! The weekend was bussing with Father’s Day celebrations, if that applied to you, I hope you had a great day. Others enjoyed fairly good weather, a few showers in areas but over all a good weekend.

THANK YOU! For all who attended last week’s monthly LWRA meeting we had a GREAT time. If you missed, we should have some of the information available on the web page soon. A great turnout with the room nearly full, the Google Meets room was 10 or more the equipment worked very well for our second try with this new format. Thanks Dave, Dan and others who made it happen. Guest in the room! New members in the room! Seasoned members in the room! WOW a great time. John W4JFS did an outstanding job informing us about the various capabilities of APRS; The uses and interest in the format made the program a success. With folks asking John for additional information, his power point and other information is always a good sign of a good program.

If you are new to the area and need assistance in what is needed for the storm preparation and the recovery, we can certainly direct you to the proper resources and agencies. A good place to see emergency operations would be to join us at the Polk ARES meeting this month. The fourth Thursday at 7 PM doors open at 630 information at www.polkares.org/meetings for a map and information. Remember hurricane preparedness takes planning and time.

A great tool for preparation would be to have LWRA SIGNAL on your phone for questions and or updates. See Russ or John W4JFS for more information. Welcome to the several new folks who have joined us this week on SIGNAL.

FIELD DAY 2024! Coming up this weekend. This will be in place of the typical QRP. COME OUT AND JOIN THE FUN!

Important; IF YOU PLAN ON OPERATING AT THE FIELD DAY OR WILL HELP, PUT UP OR TAKE DOWN THE STATIONS, PLEASE SEND ME AN EMAIL AT jml610@comcast.net for additional information. June 22nd PLEASE LET ME KNOW ASAP IF YOU PLAN ON WORKING A RADIO , EVEN IF FOR A FEW MINUTES, AFTERNOON, EVENING OR OVER NIGHT

PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF AND WHEN YOU WANT TO OPERATE. OPERATORS ARE NEEDED. WE WILL NOT HAVE A QRP IN JUNE IN LIGHT OF THIS EVENT. JML610@COMCAST.NET

The flyer should be up on the webpage this week for the event.

HEADLINE June testing was a success again this month!

The VE , a great dedicated bunch as well, had to make an emergency move to a temporary location at the last minute. The Red Cross is making a few updates and remodeling the facility we normally use. After a brief search KO4FRZ came to the rescue. We will be testing in JULY at the Masonic lodge on Recker Highway. The times will remain the same beginning at 9AM.

Winter Haven F&AM Masonic Lodge Nos. 186; 3596 Recker Highway; Winter Haven, Fl 33880
WALK IN NOT ACCEPTED! PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED! ve@lwra.us more information at www.lwra.us/ve

Don’t forget the nets:
Monday: We have the Hardee County ARES Net, KT4WX will be NC on the WC4PEM repeater network at 7PM https://polkares.org for frequencies and repeater locations.

WCF ARRL ARES NET with KN4WXX on the NI4CE repeater network www.ni4ce.org for frequencies and repeater locations.
Local ‘Polie Bottom” NXDN net with Jimmy KJ4KJG as host on the W4CLL NXDN South Lakeland repeater at 8PM on 442.025 RAN 45 NXDN ICOM Or Kenwood radio required.

Tuesday Net opportunities are:
GMRS Net 462.725 141.3 +5 CTCSS 7 PM KB4FHP/WRCP675 is the NC. I NEED TWO MORE NET CONTROL OPERATORS; it is fun and a great way to practice.

LWRA TACO TUESDAY NET
The LWRA Net will be at 730PM on the 442.425MHz repeater + 5MHz using CTCSS Tone squelch 127.3 The net controller will be Rick KB4FHP Mike will be NC. I will announce the location of the informal that follows the regular net with a great topical question.

We have GREAT NETS with LWRA, if you are a SNOWBIRD on the way or already back up there; don’t forget we have SIGNAL. This is for you to let us know you ‘would if you could’ be a part of the net. Check in on SIGNAL just to let us know you are OK.
(of course, you can ‘would if you could’ check in even if you are here.)

Wednesday net opportunities:
W4PSR Polk Schools Radio Society radio net. This is a great chance to encourage youth. It is operated by youth under the supervision of Ham clubs in the schools. They operate on various modes to let students become aware of the types of systems available. We will announce the mode on our net on Tuesday as well as on Signal Chat for the LWRA. The net begins at 2:15PM each Wednesday during the regular school year.
NET OFF FOR SUMMER VACATION WILL RETURN EARLY SEPTEMBER

Polk County ARES net on the WC4PEM linked repeater systems. The net begins at 7PM with WX4NEX Norm. Always a great net. More information can be found at https://polkares.org
Wednesday Continued

NI4CE NXDN net on the NI4CE NXDN radio network. This net requires a NXDN radio, and more information can be found on the www.ni4ce.org/nxdn. This net is hosted by NB9X Paul and starts at 730PM.

Thursday net opportunities:
LARC Fusion with Bob on the 146.685MHz -.6 Mhz C4FM. This requires a Fusion radio to participate.

LARC Traders net at 730PM on the LARC repeater 146.685Mhz -.6 Mhz 127.3 Tone Squelch.

WCF TECH Net. Listen- Learn-Inquire and Inspire. The wealth of knowledge out there is usually only a question away. ON the NI4CE network is the TECH NET. This net allows questions to our WCF Technical Specialist on a variety of subjects and or problems. Join in at 9PM every Thursday evening. www.ni4ce.org /nets for more information and frequencies. www.wcfarrl.org . www.ni4ce.org for more information. We have several Tech Specialist from our area on the net frequently.

And of course, daily 365 days a year at 830 PM we have the Eagle Net the WCF ARRL Traffic Net on the NI4CE radio network. www.ni4ce.org for more information.

One last thing,

Check out the WINLINK Monday with Gary today, you can find more information on the
www.polkares.org/WINLINK

73 and I hope to ‘see ya on the air.’

Mike
KB4FHP