Ham radio simplex exercise March 26

    MILO — The Piscataquis Amateur Radio Club and Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) will be conducting a ham radio “simplex” test from Milo on Wednesday, March 26 starting at 8 p.m. The frequency will be on 146.400 Megahertz FM.

    Simplex communications is “line-of-sight” versus the use of amateur radio repeater systems. During natural or manmade disasters; existing repeater systems, cellular phone and landline systems, and other normal means of communications is often disrupted. Large solar flares can also temporarily disrupt the longer-range high frequency bands. Simplex operations in the Very High Frequency (VHF) and Ultra High Frequency (UHF) bands could be the only means of communications under certain conditions.
    A statewide initiative to encourage ham radio groups in all regions of the state to schedule occasional simplex “nets” started last month in Washington County. The goal is to eventually get enough FCC-licensed ham radio operators participating to enable short messages to be relayed from anywhere in Maine to Augusta without using repeaters. George Dean, call sign WA1JMM, is the emergency coordinator of the Piscataquis County Amateur Radio Emergency Service, an affiliate of the American Radio Relay League. Dean will conduct a simplex test this month from Milo.
    “I’ll be calling the test net from K1PQ at the EOC [Emergency Operations Center] Bunker in Milo.  Since the bunker is the place our ARES group is home based and where we operate for Field Day as a 2F station, it is the ideal place for our county to run our simplex tests,” Dean said.
    For more information on the March simplex test, or questions about the Amateur (Ham) Radio Service in the Milo area, call Dean at 441-6112.
    If your ham radio club or ARES/Emergency Communications group would like to schedule a simplex test in your part of Maine in any month between April and December, contact w1kmg@qsl.net or visit the Ham Radio Down East web site http://www.qsl.net/hrde.