February 21, 2015 -- One workstation installed in the Amateur Radio Room at the Lee County EOC.
The first of the two identical control consoles.
View from the doorway into the EOC Amateur Radio Room.
Phase Two of the Radio Room rearrangement is half finished. The first of two control console was installed on February 21st. Note that the five 'Zone Radios' are now stacked below the large APRS monitor. The control console enables an operator to listen to any one (or more) of the radios and transmit on any of the radios s/he needs to use. The second control station should be completed in a few weeks. We want to try this one out and work out any 'bugs' before building the second unit.
There will also be some cosmetic improvements to the 'five radio stack' and the wiring under the shelf running the width of the room needs to be 'tied up' before we declare the project "completed."
January 2015 -- Rearrangement is in progress in the Amateur Radio Room at the Lee County EOC.
Phase one of the rearrangement was completed on December 27th. The WinLink equipment for W4LX-10 and W4LX-9 has been moved to the far end of the radio room. And the transceivers for 800 MHz County communications, Marine and CB radios were also moved to their new operating position.
A new Battery Back-up unit for the W2LK units was installed to bridge the gap between a grid power failure and the time the EOC's generators kick in.
Next: Creation of two identical "operating consoles" that will share access to the amateur radio EOC and the four Zone frequencies.
Completion is expected by the end of February.
FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate gave a talk at the ARRL’s Centennial Banquet, on July 18, 2014, about the importance of amateur radio during disasters. Here is a link to the 22 minute YouTube Video of his talk:
Larry Zimmer W4LWZ has been appointed ARRL
South Florida Section Emergency Coordinator,
effective September 20, 2014 email
Larry served as EC in Lee County for five years before being appointed to the SEC position.
Steve Smith W9GPI has been appointed the ARES EC (Emergency Coordinator) in Lee County, Florida,
effective September 20, 2014. Steve has served as Larry's backup and was EC in Fond du Lac, WI prior to moving to Florida in late 2013. email
July 2014 -- New 146.82 Repeater Up and Running (- offset, 136.5 Hz PL)
Larry Zimmer W4LWZ, Tom Muye AC4TM, Paul Ramsden W1RP and Dale Pavlicek WT4T installed the new repeater and duplexer cans on Friday, July 11th. They connected coax and grounds, tested for functionality and then declared the "FGCU Repeater" (because that's where it's located) ready for "Normal Amateur Radio Use." Thanks, guys, for a great job!
The 21' tall
2 meter antenna
is 238' above
the ground!
June 2014 -- Field Day Interview with Larry Zimmer, EC in Lee County, FL
Video copyright 2014 by WINK TV, Fort Myers, FL
During the Fort Myers Amateur Radio Club's 2014 Field Day event, WINK News interviewed Larry Zimmer W4LWZ.
Always concerned for the role of amateur radio in disaster communications, Larry spoke on that subject.
Governor Scott declared June 23-29 "Amateur Radio Week" in Florida. Click the image at right to see a copy of the Proclamation.
March 2014 -- Equipment up and running in the Amateur Radio Room at the new Lee County EOC.
All of the Amateur Radio equipment has now been installed at the EOC. The station, which operates as W4LX, is equipped to monitor all of the ALERT frequencies on VHF as well as regional and state HF frequencies.
There is also equipment to monitor WinLink2000, Marine Radio VHF channels and a Motorola unit which monitors 800 MHz Lee County trunked systems.
Each transceiver is connected to a roof-mounted antenna. The HF rig is connected to a G5RV inverted V supported at its center by the large radio tower alongside the EOC.
