The following stations have checked into the weekly VHF net on the Columbus and Lancaster repeaters.

01 April 2013
Columbus
Headcap 1
Columbus 832

Lancaster
Columbus 804

02 April 2013
Columbus
Columbus 30
Columbus 824

Lancaster
No checkins

15 April 2013
No nets held

16 April 2013
Columbus
Columbus 824

Lancaster
No checkins

The Central Ohio VHF net is open to all communicators. It is held the first and third Mondays of the
month. The Columbus repeater is held 20:00 (L) and the Lancaster net is at 20:15 (L). Please feel free to
test your equipment and check into this net.

Capt Anthony Weaver will be conducting VHF confidence / practice nets on the first and third Mondays and Tuesdays of each month beginning 01 April 2013.  Nets will be conducted on the Columbus repeater at 2000 at the Lancaster repeater at 2015.

This Saturday 15 December 2012 from 1500-1700, Ohio Wing will be conducting an online communications meeting.  This meeting will satisfy the requirements for a communications meeting as listed in CAPP 214 for the communications specialty track.

Note that current safety is required to receive credit for this meeting.

Please sign up for the meeting using this form:

http://goo.gl/DoQaZ

An email invitation to the online meeting will be sent prior to the meeting time.

Director of Communications
Ohio Wing, Civil Air Patrol

Ohio Wing will be conducting a communications effectiveness test over the next six days in conjunction with mission 12-T-7539.  This test will fulfill the requirements of a communications effectiveness test per CAPR 100-1 and will fulfill requirements for participation in a communications exercise per CAPP 214.  Details of this test will be forthcoming; however, the following can be released:

Range : Approximately 100 mile line of sight radius from central Ohio via airborne tactical repeater
Exercise Channel: Repeater R64
Exercise Net Control: "Columbus NCS" (Capt Anthony Weaver in Columbus OH)
Exercise Participants : Any ground, air, fixed base, vehicle, or handheld authorized to transmit on R64.  Contact will be made with adjacent wings via DC channels.  Other wing stations are authorized by OHWG/DC to participate in this Ohio Wing communications effectiveness test as allowed by their chain of command.
Exercise Duration : The exercise will commence when "Ohio Highbird" has made contact with "Columbus NCS" on channel "R64" with the message "Ohio Highbird is on station with Highbird Sortie ##".  NCS will record the sortie number in the exercise log.  This sortie number will be used to correlate the orbit and altitude from the sortie list provided to mission staff.  Exercise will conclude when "Ohio Highbird" notifies "Columbus NCS" on channel "R64" that "Ohio Highbird is leaving station".
Message Format : All stations will call "Columbus NCS" on analog repeater channel "R64" and indicate approximate geographical location (city and nearby intersection), type of equipment (handheld, base, aircraft, etc), type of antenna or other relevant antenna details (vehicle, aircraft, 3db gain fiberglass, etc), height of antenna (BASE STATIONS ONLY).  Stations unable to contact net control will email anthony.weaver@ohwg.cap.gov with the above information as a "negative contact report".  Both positive and negative contact reports will count for exercise credit.  NCS will record signal strength and readability for each station reporting whenever possible.
Exercise Participation Credit: Units with members participating in the communications exercise must email christopher.kovacs@ohwg.cap.gov with the callsign and CAPID of each member participating in the exercise to obtain proper credit.  This information will be correlated with the NCS log.
Director of Communications
Ohio Wing, Civil Air Patrol

In the last few weeks, many changes have been made to the CAP Communications Program.
 
The first changes I would like to point out is the release of the new CAPR 100-1, Radio Communications Management.  It is important for all members involved in the CAP Communications Program to review this new regulation and become familiar with it.  It was updated in its entirety.
 
The next change is the release of the new CAPP 214, Specialty Track Study Guide - Communications Officer.  This pamphlet has also been updated in its entirety.  All Communications Officers, as well as all members pursuing ratings in the Communications Officer Specialty Track should become familiar with the new  requirements.  If you already hold a rating in the Communications Officer Specialty Track, there is no need to re-accomplish the ratings, but any new ratings need to meet the new requirements.
 
With the revision of CAPP 214, new online tests for the Senior and Master Ratings have also been published.  A new test for the Technician Rating should be released in the next few days.
 
National Headquarters has also made revisions and published new versions of CAPF 105 and CAPF 110.  Previous versions of these forms are now obsolete and may not be used.
 
If you have any questions regarding any of these changes, please feel free to ask.

(Text used with permission of INWG/CS)

Christopher Kovacs, Capt, CAP
Director of Communications

I just received this information from Space Weather. There may be interference with HF communications due to the CME:

EARTH-DIRECTED X-FLARE: Big sunspot AR1520 erupted on July 12th around 16:53 UT, producing an X-classsolar flare and hurling a CME directly toward Earth. Forecasters expect the cloud to arrive on July 14th. Its impact could spark moderate to severe geomagnetic storms, allowing auroras to be seen at lower latitudes than usual. Check http://spaceweather.com for more information and updates.

AURORA ALERTS: Would you like a call when geomagnetic storms are underway? Aurora alerts are available from http://spaceweathertext.com (text) and http://spaceweatherphone.com (voice).

Anthony Weaver, Capt, CAP
Deputy Director of Communications, Ohio Wing