Hendricks County RACES

From Bill Schini, N9JPS

Hendricks County Monthly RACES Repeater System Test Net

The ARES/RACES groups in Hendricks County will be conducting a monthly test net on the RACES repeater system. These repeaters are located at 147.165 MHz (+600 KHz offset) and 442.900 MHz (+5.0 MHz offset) in Danville, IN. There is no CTCSS tone needed to access either repeater. The repeaters will be linked together for the duration of the test net. The net will be conducted on the LAST Thursday of each month at 7:00 pm (1900 Local time) {2300Z (EDT), 0000Z (EST)}. This test net exercise will be inaugurated with the net control operator of N9JPS, Bill Schini, on July 30, 2009.
The main intention of this monthly test net is to regularly test the operability and capabilities of the Hendricks County RACES repeater system. To this end, a number of required pieces of information are requested when checking in to this net. Below is a list of the required information:
1) Your call sign given phonetically,
2) The status of you station (base, mobile or portable),
3) Your first name,
4) Your approximate location (home QTH or mobile/portable),
5) The repeater that you are using to check-in (2M or 70CM),
6) The power level of your station’s RF output.

The first three pieces of information is standard for any controlled net protocol. The last three pieces of information are needed to test the capabilities of communication between net control and all stations through the RACES repeater system. Number 5 is a little encouragement for stations to check-in on the 70CM repeater (442.900). Number 6 will give us an idea of how well your station can get into the repeater. As a little side information, a request for a general signal report coming from the repeater would be helpful. You can determine this by listening to the repeater’s squelch tail. If the squelch tail audio has a lot of static at your location and usually does not, then there may be a problem to investigate. This piece of information is purely subjective, but will also serve as a means to see if there are problems with the repeater or your station.
The secondary purpose of this monthly test net is the dissemination of necessary information relating to Amateur Radio, ARES/RACES, or other general interest. In the interest of informing Hendricks County amateurs of news from local activities, surrounding communities’ activities and ARES District 5 events, announcements will be made from the net control station. If there any amateur operators wishing to make an announcement or pass other traffic on this net, please check-in and state your business. All amateur operators are encouraged to check-in and participate.
I would like to thank all amateur operators that participate in any radio net activity, either practice or real. You are performing a valuable service to your country, community and hobby. If you have any questions, comment or announcements to be relayed, please e-mail me at n9jps@juno.com or wschini@sbcglobal.net .
73,
Bill Schini, N9JPS, Hendricks County RACES volunteer