UNDR Group wants the public to know about upcoming events so that the local media can hopefully be aware of our mission and goals. Below are recent articles involving UNDR Group and other active focused partner organizations
During the fourth weekend each June is the ARRL Field Day event across the United States along with heavy participation from Canada. The goal of Field Day is to simulate abnormal conditions away from home and use amateur radio equipment from temporary locations to make as many radio contacts over a 24 hour period. Goals are mostly bragging rights thanks to a point scoring system, but most who participate just do it for the fun and experience. This year in Dutchess and Ulster Counties of the Hudson Valley there appears to a record number of "Alpha" class stations participating in this annual event. Any licensed amateur radio operator can participate in Field Day due to different operating classes such as the "Alpha" class mostly reserved for club stations, "Echo" class reserved for those operating from home on emergency power and "Foxtrot" class reserved for emergency operations centers managed by local, state or federal government.
Using the callsign N2HVD, thanks to the Hudson Valley Digital Network, the UNDR team will be purely running equipment from sustainable solar charged batteries for the entire 24 hours and will be using very low transmit power compared to most participants using 180% more power. Logging computers, radio, lighting and everything else will be run from these small environmentally friendly power sources. The extra challenges brought on by camping conditions and a "carry in & carry out" focus along with the lower power transmit limit will allow the UNDR team to score more points in the event and hopefully demonstrate what can be done via the most basic but well prepared field day operation as a teaching tool. Everything from voice, image, data and even Morse code will be used to communicate nationally with simple but effective antennae systems that can fit easily within a backpack. Many other local locations such as those organized by the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club, QSY Society and Orange County Amateur Radio clubs all take different approaches to the event and are also worth visiting to learn more about field radio communications.
FAQ's
What types of communications will be on display?
How many Ham Operators?
When will the radios be active?
When can the public attend?
What can the public do?
Media attendance preferred Sunday Morning, a liaison will be available for you then. Media can show up anytime but may not have anyone available to assist them. Any advance visitor or media questions contact Steve Bossert below. Steve Bossert K2GOG@undr-group.com +1-914-573-1799
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When a disaster happens, it’s helpful to know a variety of forms of communication in the case of an emergency. This weekend, Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club members participated in a 24-hour emergency communications and preparedness event known as Winter Field Day, which is held twice a year to test and improve equipment and skills.
Ferncliff Forest in Rhinebeck was converted to a major communications command center capable of conducting multi-mode communications without any help from standard sources of electricity, permanent locations, or antennas during this process. It allowed those to communicate with anyone around the world.
On the weekend of January 28th the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club of Kingston NY will participate in a worldwide emergency communications and preparedness event known as Winter Field Day (WFD). The purpose of Winter Field Day activities is to practice Emergency or Auxiliary Communications in a simulated catastrophic disaster situation. The assumption is an area has been hit by a calamity such as the severe weather events currently impacting several areas of the US, or something more local like the ice storm that hit Ulster County last year. Disasters like this often destroy local infrastructure (power supply, cellular service, radio towers, communication buildings,) making coordination of government disaster response communications difficult as well as overwhelming standard communication pathways with humanitarian and civilian welfare messages. This is where Amateur Radio Operators (AKA Ham Radio or Hams) come in. Hams routinely train for situations like this and get out in the field (i.e., Field Day) twice a year to test and improve their equipment and skills.
Multiple radio techniques will be used including voice, morse code, location (GPS), radio teletype, satellite communications, and even a way of sending pictures and emails over radio waves. According to the event chairman for the Overlook organization and UNDR Group “This year allows us to take what we learned during COVID times and come out even better prepared and better planned. We will for the first time operate multiple sites to allow more people to participate, even if they are not licensed amateur radio operators yet.” Winter Field Day officially starts Saturday January 28th at 2:00 PM Eastern Time and concludes 24 hours later Sunday. Members of the public are invited to look us up on the official map at www.winterfieldday.com for our main site in Rhinebeck both days plus a mini “pop-up” location at Minnewaska State Park on Saturday only. The public are encouraged to observe and even possibly even participate by getting On the Air under the club license and supervision. FAQ's What types of communications will be on display?
How many Ham Operators? Anywhere from 6 – 10 Hams at a time. We are running 3 locations for this event Ferncliff Forest (Rhinebeck NY)
Minnewaska State Park (Kerhonkson NY)
When will the radios be active?
When can the public attend? Anytime from 2 pm on Saturday until 2 pm on Sunday. We will also be onsite a few hours before and after the event to set up and take down. What can the public do?
Media attendance preferred Sunday Morning, a liaison will be available for you then. Media can show up anytime but may not have anyone available to assist them. Any media questions contact Steve Bossert below. Steve Bossert K2GOG@undr-group.com +1-914-573-1799 Additional Press Photo Kit Images (From 2022 WFD) By Steve Bossert | April 12th 2022, 12:39 PM ET Poughkeepsie, New York - During the weekly Ulster & Northern Dutchess Readiness Net (UNDR Net) on April 11th 2022, reports of an unidentified flying object were detected over the skies of Poughkeepsie by Steve Bossert K2GOG, net controller of the weekly UNDR Net. At approximately 8:15 PM, a high resolution photo of the object was taken by Steve's wife while outside enjoying some fresh night time air. Looking at the member only HVDN Locator ADS-B aircraft tracker did not show any aircraft transmitting a GPS encoded beacon nearby which lead both to think it was some type of spacecraft or military vehicle. The original photo is shown below of what was spotted traveling from west to east before it went out of view.  Allowing for a pause during the UNDR Net after the check in discussion by participants in Ulster County, Steve used amateur radio image sharing technology called SSTV PD90 to share the above image via the wide area WA2MJM repeater operating on 146.805 MHz which is used to conduct the UNDR Net. There was no other way to share the above image since mobile phone networks and internet were experiencing no service in the area at the time. During UFO events, it has been normal that the VHF frequency band is not affected during these communication disruptions compared to HF spectrum as well as the overly complicated networks that many people relay upon today. Continue reading after the jump below. |
