During February and March 2011 the Middle Peninsula Amateur Radio Club in Gloucester County sponsored a technician class held at the Abingdon Volunteer Fire-Rescue Station #3 in Hayes, VA.  The class had two instructors, club president Joe Imburgia, KI4LXT, who is also the Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator for Districts 5-7-8-9, and Will Grant, WS3G.  All students successfully passed the technician class exam while one also passed the general exam.

     Two of the successful students were KK4AUT, Shelby Alto, and KK4AUS, Tyler Safranek.  Shelby is in the eighth grade at Peasley Middle School and nine year old Tyler is in the fourth grade at Bethel Elementary School.  Shelby’s dad is Lee, AJ4ZU, and her mom, Greta, KK4AUU also received her technician license after attending this class.  Tyler’s sister, Elizabeth, KJ4CYD, also in the eight grade at Peasley Middle School, originally received her technician license at age 11.  Tyler and “Lizzy” are the grandchildren of Joe, K4JJS, ARRL VA Assistant Section Manager At Large and Joy, W2JMS.  Tyler and Lizzy are now enrolled in a general class being offered by Joe, KI4LXT.

     It is really great to see young folks successfully enter the hobby striving to learn not only scientific and mathematical knowledge which will help them in school but also communications skills that they can use later in life learning to talk with people from all types of backgrounds.

     Please submit any stories you have pertaining to the wonderful accomplishments of our young people. Use the "Submit an article" menu selection or send them to PIC Rick Ross, KG4TAX, or ASM Joe Safranek, K4JJS, if you need assistance getting them loaded onto the website submission queue.

What if we had a major earthquake off the Virginia coast and had little to no warning? Anyone living here knows it takes about three days to evacuate if we have that kind of advanced notice. With a major earthquake and tsunami, we very likely would have hours or even just minutes to seek shelter. So in this scenario, we would have to fend for ourselves just like Japan is for a few days until large amounts of help could arrive.

Every year Hampton Roads residents go through the drill of preparing for hurricane season in May. This year is a little different in that we have witnessed events in Japan that have captured the world’s attention. Events such as this can spur someone sitting on the couch into action.  This year the Portsmouth Amateur Radio Emergency Service (PARES) in conjunction with Portsmouth CERT and a few regional city emergency responders are hosting a regional exercise called CERTEX 2011.  It will be held in the Portsmouth City Park on May 7^th and running much of the day. 

PARES operates at events such as this every year in order to maintain their skills and to learn how to interoperate with other organizations. Just this year PARES have taken ownership of a new large portable radio tower that will be used to support the event.  The ability to provide emergency communications in outages is critical to any community after events that debilitate normal services. First responders and governments will require all willing and able bodies assist in the best way they can.

Also in support of the event will be the Portsmouth Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) group.  They provide neighborhood level support after major storms and other emergencies if first responders cannot arrive in a timely fashion. Recent events in Japan really illustrate the level of help that neighbors helping neighbors can make in dealing with large disasters.  In the city of Portsmouth the two groups CERT and PARES interoperate in a coordinated fashion so as to streamline communications and facilitate interoperability. In a large scale disaster it will involve all agencies and organizations no matter how ready they are.

Public information about joining either CERT or PARES will be available to anyone interested at event display tables.

David Hurley
Public Information Officer
Portsmouth Amateur Radio Club
(757) 673-3527 (h)
(757) 619-5470 (c)
KJ4KUD@arrl.net 

Charlottesville, VA – (February 18, 2011) The Albemarle Amateur Radio Club was selected last evening as the Amateur Radio Club of the Year for the entire United States.   The club received this award by unanimous vote of five independent judges representing the Dayton Hamvention, the largest meeting of amateur radio operators in the United States.

Hamvention Chairman Michael Kalter, W8CI, telephoned Jim Crosby, K4JEC, club president, Thursday evening shortly before 9 p.m. to announce the honor.  He said that the competition was fierce. 

Frank Beafore – WS8B, Dayton Hamvention Awards Chairman, stated, “This is the ‘Academy Awards’ of the Hamvention.  In the past number of years, no matter that the winner was an obscure public servant or a world renowned astronaut, the humble surprise is always the same – ‘I cannot believe I am a Hamvention award winner.’  Last year we experimented with a new award – The Club of the Year – with great success. Because of the number of great clubs nominated and their big contributions to the growth of Ham Radio, we elected to make this award a permanent addition to the Hamvention Awards event."

And for 2011, they picked the Albemarle Amateur Radio Club – a local club serving Albemarle and its contiguous counties and the City of Charlottesville.

The Dayton Hamvention Committee recommends that we take a delegation of members next May to Dayton to receive the award.  They also suggested that we present a forum there on the subject of “How to become the ideal radio club.”

Club President Crosby said, “Our club has just walked into the spotlight of the amateur radio world stage.  We now have a tiger by the tail and how we respond will only validate our members’ efforts of the past that have served to earn the award!”

The Albemarle Amateur Radio Club, Inc was formed in 1963, incorporated in 1970 and determined by the IRS to be a public charity as defined in the Internal Revenue Service Code 501 (c) (3) in 2009.  The club has over one hundred members in Central Virginia.

As usual at this time of the year, there are several bills being proposed in the Virginia House of Delegates, all making the use of personal communication devices while operating a motor vehicle illegal in VA.  Only the first two, HB 1404 and HB 1424, exempt amateur radio (two way radio). HB 1630 exempts citizen band radio but, by omission, not commercial or amateur radio!  You can read the bills on the following links:

 http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?111+sum+HB1404

 http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?111+sum+HB1424

 http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?111+ful+HB1489

 http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?ses=111&typ=bil&val=hb1546

 http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?111+sum+HB1630

 These are all very similar. These may not be the only ones that might affect amateur radio.

 Two major issues: (1) If a non-exempted bill passes and is signed into law, or (2) If any of the bills pass with the exemption deleted, then mobile amateur radio operation in Virginia will be outlawed.

Use the following link to contact your legislature:

 http://legis.state.va.us/1_cit_guide/contacting_my.html

 We need to make sure our representatives understand the importance to exempt “all two-way mobile and portable operations” from bills intended for cell phone operation while operating a motor vehicle.  Additional general reference information can be found on the ARRL website at: http://www.arrl.org/files/file/MobileAmateurRadioPolicyStatement.pdf