NVIS Day Information

By CountyEC, 19 April, 2025

We will be meeting at Union County EMA Station 720, 20900 North West Parkway in Marysville at 10am to participate in NVIS Day. 
Below is information from the arrl-ohio website about NVIS Day  
NVIS Day, 2025 

It’s coming! 

Ohio NVIS Day 2025 will be held Saturday April 26,

from 10AM until 4PM EDT.

The purpose of NVIS day is to construct and try various antenna ideas, all working as NVIS (Near Vertical Incident Skywave) antennas.  These antennas are low to the ground and provide coverage generally within a 400 mile radius- extremely important for regional HF communications in an emergency.

Take a big step forward and build upon the concept to answer the question, “How would we actually use these antennas?” 

For 2025, we have added a couple operating scenarios that will make your day more fun and be a learning event for actual disaster communications.  We propose a commercial power blackout, with the need to communicate within your ARES district and to ‘The Sarge” at the Ohio EOC in Columbus.  Here’s the deal:

  1. The event runs from 10 AM until 4 PM local time.
  2. Stations will construct and test NVIS antennas.
  3. Transmit power is limited to 100 watts.
  4. Power for the station will be any form of “off-grid” supply: typically, generator, battery or solar or whatever form you might have in an emergency setup. (Optional, but preferred)
  5. Stations may test antenna coverage as in the past by contacting as many different locations as possible. This year, we are adding collecting Grid Squares and S-Meter readings as part of the exchange .
    1. Stations are to originate a message to their ARES District, local net, OHDEN, OSSBN and to W8SGT reporting their location and county, stating if you are “Participating or Not Participating”.
    2. This message may take any form: ARRL message form ICS 213 or radiogram must be used. If you’re going to use the traffic system, ARRL message radiogram is recommended.
    3. Each county is to send a message to the SARGE with a sitrep of their operation.
    4. The message should contain the call sign, operating location (include county) and number of operators. Any other brief antenna information is optional but appreciated!
    5. Contact with the District net may take place on VHF or HF (Repeaters OK).
    6. WinLink may also be used as long as it sent via RF, local node (VHF, UHF) or an HF node to KD8SCL and or W8SGT.
    7. For more information on node locations, visit org.
  6. Operating frequencies are proposed to be in the 80 and 40 meter bands. Voice is preferred for testing.
    1. Optimum frequencies centered around but not limited to: 902 and 7.240
    2. Digital messages may be passed to OHDEN Net as available.
    3. Digital OHDEN frequency: 3584.5 (typical is Olivia 8/500)
    4. OSSBN frequency: 3972.5, Net Times: 10:30, 16:15, 18:45

You can create your own log (Excel preferred) or Word format.  Be sure to include a photo of your group or your antenna!  Submit your results to contest@n8ara.org

Have fun!  Take a lunch break!  I hope to hear you!!

 

For this announcement in PDF format, click HERE

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Near vertical incidence skywave, or NVIS, is a skywave radio-wave propagation path that provides usable signals in the medium distances range — usually 0–650 km (0–400 miles). It is used for military and paramilitary communications, broadcasting,[1] especially in the tropics, and by radio amateurs for nearby contacts circumventing line-of-sight barriers. The radio waves travel near-vertically upwards into the ionosphere, where they are refracted back down and can be received within a circular region up to 650 km (400 miles) from the transmitter.[2] If the frequency is too high (that is, above the critical frequency of the ionospheric F layer), refraction is insufficient to return the signal to earth and if it is too low, absorption in the ionospheric D layer may reduce the signal strength.

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NVIS Day April 26

By CountyEC, 3 April, 2025

NVIS Day is Saturday, April 26, 2025 from 10 A.M.–4 P.M. 
Location: Marvin C. Gilbert EMA Operations Building - EMA Station 720 
20900 Northwest Parkway Marysville, OH 43040 
Google Maps Link: https://goo.gl/maps/9hT7PZfubpR2

April 26th marks another significant event in the Ohio Section, the Ohio NVIS Antenna Day. As you are aware, this day presents an opportunity for enthusiasts to gather and evaluate their antenna configurations. Kicking off at 10:00 AM, while this event is not a formal competition, its primary objective is to simultaneously engage multiple counties in Ohio, testing their antennas and facilitating communications among them. We anticipate that this gathering will provide an enjoyable platform for camaraderie, experimentation, and testing within our beloved hobby.

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About the Union County Ohio ARES Group

Welcome to the ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) group in Union County Ohio. We work with the Union County EMA ( Emergency Management Agency ) and their RACES group. The RACES group meets regularly on Wed evenings around 6:30ish at the Marvin C. Gilbert EMA Operations Building - EMA Station 720.

The ARES group meets monthly on the 3rd Monday of the month at 7pm at the Marvin C. Gilbert EMA Operations Building - EMA Station 720. Most ARES and RACES volunteers are part of both groups. 

Marvin C. Gilbert EMA Operations Building - EMA Station 720
20900 Northwest Parkway.
Marysville, OH 43040

Google Maps Link:
https://goo.gl/maps/9hT7PZfubpR2

Information about Ohio ARES (Ohio ARES Section Website)
http://arrl-ohio.org/SEC/

FEMA Traning courses:
https://training.fema.gov/is

If you are interested in becoming part of the Union County ARES group stop by on a 3rd Monday evening meeting, fill out the online application form on the Ohio ARES Section Website,  or contact the ARES Union County EC, Ed Liddle at ed.liddle (at) gmail.com 

Weekly ARES NETS

  • Sundays at 8pm on the N8IG repeater  - 145.350 MHz  Tone:127.3Hz
  • Digital Simplex Net - Immediately follows the repeater net 145.650 MHz

     

Here are some links with additional information about ARES and RACES.
ARES vs RACES FAQ - http://www.arrl.org/ares-races-faq
Basic RACES information - http://www.usraces.org/
ARRL ARES Information - http://www.arrl.org/ares
Ohio ARES training information links - http://arrl-ohio.org/SEC/
ARRL Public Service Training - http://www.arrl.org/public-service-training
ARRL Licensing, Education & Training - http://www.arrl.org/licensing-education-training
Nation Traffic System 2.0 - https://nts2.arrl.org/

Ohio ARES frequency information can be found at oh217.us

AndFLDigi is FlDigi and FLMsg for android. It can be found here:  https://sourceforge.net/projects/fldigi/files/AndFlmsg/

Union County ARES 217 form 

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