There is a group of Vincentians – and this group is increasing – that enjoy communicating wirelessly, some as a hobby, others as a service, but at the end of the day they all join forces to provide emergency communications services, on a volunteer basis, as their contribution to national safety, many going the extra mile.

Just before 3 AM on Whit Sunday, May 19, 2024, a clear signal on VHF radio from J88CU – Sean Patterson broke the silence of the quiet but breezy environment of the YWAM compound in Mayreau, to signal the start of another communications readiness exercise, designed to prepare local radio amateurs (Hams) for the 2024 storm season.  Meteorologists are predicting that this will be an above normal year for named storms, as the earth is registering higher temperatures, and high sea temperatures are the ‘fuels’ for storm formation.

The communications exercise tested the use of field stations, including the Grenadines, some operated by battery power only.  In the case of Mayreau, there is communications equipment available but a lack of trained volunteers, not their fault.  A training session was organised and volunteers from Mayreau ready to be trained but the person conducting the training had their property on St. Vincent broken into and had to return pre-maturely, and has since not been able to get another opportunity to pass on these vital skills.

Therefore, on this occasion the RRL/YRM took the opportunity to use the equipment donated by Barrett Communications AU, to ensure it was operational and to provide basic training for local volunteers should an emergency arise and phone service compromised.  Contacts from Mayreau were made with stations from Fancy, Rose Hall, Belmont, Biabou, Bequia, Canouan, Calder, Dorsetshire Hill, Vermont, Kingstown and further afield including stations from Tobago, Dominica, St. Thomas, St. Lucia, Grenada and USA:

The following is a list of all contacts made by J88CD from Myreau via HF using the 40M frequencies: 7.175, 7.177 and 7.188:

9Y4COR – CURTIS
J88DM – RENI
J88CU – SEAN
J88NFG – JEDI
J88DA –  JUSTIN
J88NEK – ELNA
J69R – ROCK
J88SE – ARINGTON
V44MS – MILTON
J88NMB – MONTE
J73TP – TONY
9Z4UC – ULRIC
KE2HK. JEFF
KM4XG – JIM
KD5WT – BILLY
J88DT – SYLVESTER
KP2J – HENRY

A Vincentian radio amateur in the US,   Herbert “Jeff” English – KE2HK also made contact with his nephew Arington Raguette – J88SE for the first time since the latter became a licensed radio operator about a month ago.

Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of this readiness exercise was the use of Winlink, a free software that allows licensed radio amateurs to send and receive emails wirelessly and independent of the fibre internet service.   So if a hazard impacts and compromises our fibre internet service, radio amateurs, once they have power/electricity, can send/receive emails. This is the first year that the RRL/YRM has experimented with Winlink and did so successfully.

List of stations emailed via Winlink

Pioneering Winlink  were Sean – J88CU, Reni King – J88DM and Arington –J88SE with international contacts including Paul Lowman – K9PSL and Jeff KE2HK in the US and Frans Santibrink – J69DS among others .   It is the intention of the RRL/YRM to expand the number volunteers using Winlink in the future, but this depends on funding from corporate society to provide some laptops running Win 10 or above to provide a reliable service.  These laptops can be refurbished units in working condition.

The success of this readiness training exercise was in great part achieved by sponsorship from the Bank of St. Vincent & the Grenadines – BOSVG which provided support to cover logistic and travel expenses to ensure that the Grenadines were not left out from this training activity.  The Director of the RRL/YRM uses this medium to express profound gratitude to BOSVG for living up their their corporate responsibility to ensure that Vincentians across our territory are not left out in matters of preparedness and safety, both on land and sea.  Thanks is also expressed to  Youth With A Mission – YWAM on Mayreau for the use of their grounds to erect temporary antennas and radio equipment, it was the ideal location for that exercise.

The Director of the RRL/YRM Donald De Riggs – J88CD said that he was pleased with the outcome of the readiness exercise and that there is a corps (group) of Vincentian radio operators who are now in a state of readiness for the 2024 hurricane season which officially begins on June 1^st.

YRM/RRL Director – Donald DeRiggs (J88CD)

The event is hosted by the Youlou Radio Movement, formerly the Rainbow Radio League and will take place on Sunday May 19, 2024 from 03:00 AM to 06:00 AM EST.

The club’s Director Donald De Riggs, J88CD, says the event “will be a communications exercise designed to test the readiness of our members including the deployment of our field equipment …ensuring that our base and field equipment [are] operational,” He noted that “the activity will be conducted via HF and VHF radio and will also involve radio amateurs from neighboring territories.”

While the 3:00AM start time may seem a bit onerous, De Riggs says “it is also designed to psychologically/mentally prepare our volunteers for operation at any time of the day or night.”

One of the clubs founding members and director of IT, Sean Patterson, J88CU, is spearheading a new initiative to the exercise this year. He is coordinating a Winlink message sending exercise to involve regional amateur radio operations and also those in the wider diaspora. Patterson says that two random messages, at undisclosed times will be dispatched via Winlink. He is encouraging operators to respond to those messages as soon as they are received so that the club can assess the response times and feasibility of this method. Regional hams are already part of a Winlink Net which is held every Wednesday, coordinated by Frans van Santbrink, J69DS, from the island of St. Lucia.

The club is also hoping to get the full support and participation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ National Emergency Management Organization, NEMO.

According to Michael Mann Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science and director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media at the University of Pennsylvania an unprecedented 33 named tropical cyclones, potentially ranging between 27 and 39 is forecasted for the 2024 hurricane season. Mann’s prediction is published in an article titled 2024 Tropical Cyclone Prediction on the University’s website.

Mann says “we’ve seen many hyperactive seasons over the past decade, and in just about all cases, like our prediction for this year, the activity is substantially driven by ever-warmer conditions in the tropical Atlantic tied to large-scale warming.”

The United States based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, will issue its outlook for the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season during a news conference on Thursday, May 23 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC and virtually.

Winlink Wednesday host by J62DX, Primary Net Control Station

WHO: All amateur radio operators
WHAT: Winlink Wednesday
WHEN: Wednesdays  00:00 to 23:59 EST or  UTC: 0400 Wed – 0359 Thu
HOW: This net will accept check-ins via Winlink only. Send a check-in via any RMS during the timeframe above to J62DX.

The preferred method to check in is over RF. The end goal is to have the message leave your station via RF. So we encourage you to work towards that. However all methods via Winlink are accepted inclusive of telnet.

Other instructions:

• Use the Winlink Check In template when checking in.
• As a reminder, to use the template, when the New Message screen is opened, click on the menu items Select Template –> Standard Templates –> GENERAL Forms –> Winlink Check In.txt.
• Make sure in the Send To box to put the call sign, J62DX.
• In the location box, put the name of your city/town, and which gateway you’re connecting through (if known).

All check-ins will be acknowledged on Thursdays, and a net report and complete roster will be published

General Winlink Information:
Download: https://winlink.org/WinlinkExpress
How to get an account is on https://winlink.org main page down the left side.
VARA Download: https://rosmodem.wordpress.com/

73,
J62DX,
Operator J69DS – Frans, Net Controller

This is an IARU, ARRL-affiliated event.

Repeater and Node operators are encouraged to join even if it is for an hour during the day. If you do not want to participate, feel free to disconnect your node and repeaters.

The event will be relayed from 10:00 AM to 10 PM EST.

This includes the Montserrat Amateur Radio Society Morning Net, Peggy’s Chat, and the Youlou Radio Movement 2M Net. 

Other Caribbean Nets will be added in a future update. However, if your Net is currently being relayed via CDARIN and you would like to have it listed on the website, please contact Paul-K9PSL.

CDARIN is the Caribbean Digital Amateur Radio International Network, a system of linked digital amateur radio nodes and repeaters that connect Caribbean Amateur Radio Operators with their global counterparts.

Linked systems include:

• ALLSTARLINK-NODE: 431420 
• DMR-QRM: TG 431420 
• DMR-TGIF: TG 431420 
• ECHOLINK: *CDARIN* #532301 
• HHUS EXT: 94063 
• HOIP EXT: 15034 
• LOCAL VHF 
• YSF-XLX:114 TG 35739