Winter Field Day, Rob-Long Farm 25January 2025. We will conduct formal training on 25 January and then informal training and hands on experience in the evening and early on 26 January 2025.
Class Scheudle and Signups will be announced in the coming days. However, here is what you can plan for attending and the lead trainers:
1. DRATS (Install/Configure/Use via Internet and experiment with RF) – Bill KO4UQF
2. Winlink Internet, Vara FM, and Vara FM P2P (Install/Configure/Use/Demonstration) - Rod-KO4PWB
3. VARAC (Install/Configure/Use/Demonstration) Bill-KO4UQF and Rob-W1JKU
GA Jewel 20-21 SEPT 2024 Update as of 19SEPT2024 17:18EST
Cherokee ARES will be supporting GA Jewel 20-21SEPT2024. See link below for details and current volunteers. If you would like to volunteer, please notify w1jku@arrl.net
GA ARES Member Expanded Profile-
The GA ARES Membership Profile has been expanded to include a section with some additional fields. This additional information is related to your communications capabilities and deployment availability.
This information will allow us to search for members who can effectively work with supported organizations in areas where they are needed. It is all part of our plan to become a more effective organization by continually improving.
All items are selected with check boxes and will only take a few minutes to complete. These are the steps to update your profile with additional information.
1. Log in on the GA ARES website.
2. Click on the ‘Members’ link in the main menu bar.
3. On the members page, enter your callsign in the Members Search box. (Not the Search in the Right Column).
4. Click on the GEAR icon to the right of your name.
5. Select Edit Profile
6. Scroll down the profile page. The added items below are ‘Biography’.
7. Click on the check box beside the items that pertain to you.
8. Click the ‘Update Profile’ button
25 June 2024
Effective 25June 2024-Please use 146700-K4SJR as the Primary Cherokee ARES Repeater and WX4AUX as the Alternate. Too many ARES members still having issues communicating via WX4AUX.
2 June 2024
ICS-217 updated on Frequency Page. Cherokee ARES will levera 146700-K4SJR as Alternate Cherokee ARES Repeater. This VHF repeater provides very strong coverage for Cherokee County and Northwest GA. Thank you Frank-K4SJR!
We will leverage WX4AUX after interference is confirmed removed. We have moved KG4VUB to the 3rd Alternate Repeater for Cherokee as there is some maintenance that must occur.
Cherokee ARES Preamble has been updated with a few minor changes.
Cherokee ARES rollcall has been updated as of 2 June 2024.
Looking forward to seeing everyone at Field Day 2024.
Field-Day is fast approaching. What do you plan on working on and improving your ability to facilitate Emergency Coms? What do you need help with? Send Email to W1JKU@ARRL.NET, Subject Fieldday Improvement + your Callsign. Include in the message body the details or assistance you require...
18 April 2024
Cherokee County Amateur Radio Society supported ARRIS Contact at Mountain View Elementary School on 18 April 2024.
Thank you to all that made this event possible!
Please watch the whole event and see the professionalism and passion generated with our youth... Actual Contact can be found at 50:45 into the video....
16 APR 2024
For the next 2 weeks or until further notice, we will use the KG4VUB Repeater as our Primary Repeater. Please avoid using WX4AUX until repeater maintenance is performed.
VARAC Update-The following members have successfully captured/intercepted/performed VARAC on our Repeater/Voice Net: KD4KHO, KF4VX, KM4UYM, KO4IFY, KO4UQF, KO4PWB, N4BBG, W1JKU, WX4WCS. We will continue to practice this
exercise over the next several weeks!
Remain Weather Aware- Ensure you are prepared for the low teen temperatures we will experience over
the next week. Should EMA request our assistance, we will make an announcement over Groups.IO, our
Website, and Repeaters...
Our Primary ARES NET has moved back to the WX4AUX Repeater. Thank you K9APD-Jim and KO4UQF-Bill for
your continued work.
GA ARES runs various NETS on Sunday including DRATS, DSTAR, FLDIGI, and 80M-Voice. Consider joining
those Nets from time to time and practice/test your equipment and procedures. The GAARES DRATS
Ratflector is: gaares.ratflector.com
Cherokee ARES and Cherokee Amateur Radio Society wishes each of you and your family a Merry
Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
Using APRS to send SMS Messages
As many of you realized over the last year SMSGTE was taken down and can no longer be used to send
SMS/Text message to your phone from APRS.
However NA7Q has started up a new desintation to route called SMS. However you must follow the
instructions. You send the message to "SMS" versus "SMSGTE"
You must preregister your the cell number you wish to send to in advance. The tool is simple, from
the website, you enter the cellphone number and the recipient will receives a text,
which they must respond as instructed in the text to opt in. This is a one-time requirement.
Consider registering your family cell phone numbers if you would like to send them messages via
APRS. If you participate in GA Death Race, RF is our most reliable method to communicate.
Then you can send SMS messages to that number without ever knowing what carrier they are on (ATT,
VERIZON, etc).
On 18December 2023, Cherokee ARES will initiate the Cherokee ARES NET on the WX4AUX Repeater.
This repeater is positioned to be our Primary Repeater for Cherokee ARES. This is a VHF Repeater and
shall give more of our members access, but you must ensure your radio is properly programmed.
This was an S.E.T. Task we performed in October. So each of you have been given plenty of time and
opportunity to ensure your radio is properly programmed.
The KG4VUB Repeater is our Alternate ARES Repeater at this time.
Many personnel cannot access the WA4EOC at this time, so it will be 3rd in line until we make
further determinations in 2024.
For Frequencies and Code Plugs see our ICS-217 on the Website:
http://cherokee-ares.org/frequencies.html
And Thank You Jim-K9APD and team for the maintenance, testing of the WX4AUX repeater this past week
and for providing us a vehicle to communicate throughout Cherokee County and our surrounding area.
Rob Bruderer
EC Cherokee County
10 Dec 2023
Cherokee ARES Roll-Call Rosters Updated with Active Members including new Member KQ4LXN-Duane. If
your name is not on the Rollcall,
please check the SET Task List Below. All personnel that did not complete the required Contact
Validation with Mark KO4IFY that was due on 11NOV2023, have been removed. All remaining tasks must
be completed prior to our January 2024 Meeting. To be readded, requires
you to update your information and participate.
Cherokee ARES and Cherokee CARS would like to wish each of you and your family a Merry Christmas and
a Happy New Year!
11 Nov 2023
Cherokee ARES Roll-Call Rosters Updated with Active Members. If your name is not on the Rollcall,
please check the SET Task List Below. All personnel that did not complete the required Contact
Validation with Mark KO4IFY that was due on 11NOV2023, have been removed. All remaining tasks must
be completed prior to our January 2024 Meeting. To be readded, requires
you to update your information and participate.
W1JKU has NCS for District Net on Tuesday Night. We will briefly discuss our SET and share some
thoughts with NWGA District.
On Tuesday night, the NWGA District plans on linking the NET to Echolink via the K4WOC Echolink
Node. This is a trial for anyone away from their radio. Dependiing on adoption and use, this may be
repeated on future NWGA Nets in the future. Echolink is an application you may install on your
computer or mobile phone that allows you to use the internet to access a remote repeater.
If you have Winlink RF Capability, please consider configuring the Hybrid Network Paramters within
Winlink. This gives you the ability to send and receive Radio Only messages with other members when
No Internet is available. Sending and Receiving Radio Only messages has an advantage over what is
practiced weekly in the NWDistrict P2P, where both the sender and receive do not have to be online
at the same time. Please see link below for more details.
The Cherokee ARES Roll Call Roster has been updated along with Preamble on the Training Page. To be
on the Roll Call Roster requires you to be an Active Member of ARES with regular participation. If
you would like to be added to the Roster, please ensure you are an Active Member of ARES who
regularly participates in our weekly nets and various exercises throughout the year. All others, may
check in as a late/visiting station. Click on this Link to see Details.
The NWGA Roll Call Roster is also being updated to reflect only personnel that have been regularly
participating first-hand. We must recover lost time attempting check-ins with stations that are not
attending.
The changes above better reflect our teams that are available resources for ARES and our community,
while removing excessive noise or wasting time.
A new ICS217 has been published to the Frequencies Page. This includes the additon of WX4AUX which
will become the Cherokee ARES Primary Repeater in a few weeks. Please download and ensure you update
your radios, and destroy any ICS217 prior to 16OCT2023. We will work on Code plugs over the next few
weeks.
All licensed Ham Operators are available to particpate in both the GA Jewel and Cherokee SET.
6 August 2023
Cherokee ARES SET Rescheduled from 7 October 2023 to 14 October 2023. The Cherokee ARES SET,
Simulated Emergency Training Exercise has been rescheduled, please update your calendar as we will
conduct this event in Cherokee County 1 week later than normally executed. This change is being made
as Rob-W1JKU will be out of town the week of 7 October 2023.
The Northest GA District is continuing their planned exercise on 7 October and will be asking for
members to help support their exercise and check into their nets. Details will be shared when
provided. The NW GA District will also support our SET on 14 October, a win-win for our teams.
We will cover the Winlink Catalog/Position Reporting feature available in Winlink during the
Cherokee ARES Training on Monday 12 June 2023 and during the NWGA District Net on Tuesday 13 June
2023.
NWGA District oprating a Weekly VHF Packet and Vara FM Exercise that starts each Sunday at 18:00 -
Tuesday at 18:00. You must check in during those times to be counted. The object is to experiment
and use as many of the Gateways and Digipeaters as you can in the NW-GA District to check in to the
Winlink net. You should try and find as many paths/combinations to reach a gateway as possible.
You will send a simple text message (no forms) to W4NWG. In the subject line, you will indicate the
path you used to reach a gateway to deliver the message. For example:
If you sent W4NWG a winlink message using the AB4NX-10 gateway, the subject line would read - W4NWG
v AB4NX-10. If you sent W4NWG winlink message though the KK4YLX-15 digipeater to the K4WOC-10
gateway, the subject line would read – W4NWG v KK4YLX-15 v K4WOC-10.
(W4NWG v AB4NX-15 v K4WOC-10).
Leverage the Cherokee ARES ICS217 and Digipeaters to help attempt try additional paths into a Packet
Station operating on the same frquency of the Packet Station.
To Install DRATS go to the DRATS Groups.IO Program Files Page:
https://groups.io/g/d-rats/files/D-RATS%20Program%20Files
When installing, do not install or attempt to run from your Windows Desktop or any other
Microsoft Assigned Folder. There are known issues and conflicts using Microsoft Assigned
Folders including One-Drive Folders. You may have inconsistent behavior. You are best to
install to your C: in folder DRATS. Example: C:\DRATS
