The Alabama Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) will once again conduct a FM Simplex Exercise designed to encourage members to test their range on FM Simplex. This will be a two-hour exercise starting at 4:00PM Central until 6:00PM Central time on Saturday, June 13th.
This test is held during the ARRL June VHF QSO Contest to allow ARES volunteers to have the opportunity to contact more distant VHF contest stations, many of whom run high power and gain antennas. During last year’s event, some ARES volunteers were able to make contacts over 200 miles away from their QTH!
During the event, stations will exchange call signs and “grid squares”. You can also obtain your grid square from www.qrz.com by looking up your callsign and then clicking on “details”. Birmingham, Shelby, and Tuscaloosa are in EM63, Huntsville is in EM64, Montgomery is in EM62, & Mobile is in EM50. Find your grid square today & be ready for the exercise.A typical QSO might go something like:“CQ CQ CQ. This is WX4AL in EM62. Over”
“WX4AL this is N1LF. You are loud and clear in EM63. Over”.
“Roger, roger, N1LF. You are loud and clear here as well. Thank you for EM63”.
ARES groups are encouraged to man their local EOC’s to test the range of our served agencies amateur communications. Other groups will want to set up “hill top” operations in high areas in your community and use Yagi (beam) antennas for greater range. If you’re trying to work a VHF contest station, you may want to rotate your beam to the”horizontal” position as most work done on SSB/CW is horizontal. The difference in polarization can cost you up to 20db of signal strength!It’s also the perfect chance to test your backup power supply, and mobile stations. During hurricanes and winter storms, prolonged power outages can mean that even repeaters equipped with backup power supplies will fail in a few days. It’s important to know the range of your station on simplex, and practice using it often. All ARES members are encouraged to take steps to improve their simplex range.
Frequencies to be used for the exercise are:
Six Meters (50-54 MHz)
52.525 MHz
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Two Meters (144 – 148 MHz)
FM simplex is allowed frequencies:
146.550
146.580
147.555 (This frequency is home of the “Triple Nickel Gang” Friday Night Simplex Net at 10PM Central. These guys are hardcore simplex fans!) Note: You cannot operate on the National Simplex frequency of 146.520 during this exercise.
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1-1/4 Meters (222 – 225 MHz)
223.500
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70 Centimeters (430 – 450 MHz)
446.000
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So, lets program
52.525 / 146.550 / 146.580 / 147.555 / 223.500 / 446.000
Please send in detailed reports of your activities, and consider submitting your log to the ARRL Contest as well. We’ll post an after action report on the state web site in early July. Join us for Alabama ARES Simplex Exercise 2009!
73,
Les Rayburn, N1LF
ARES AL Section Emergency Coordinator
NCS-SHARES NCS-047
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