(Gainesville, FL) The amateur radio communications team of the Florida Baptist Disaster Relief has
created a multi-site radio communications exercise designed to bring together volunteers and local authority agencies across northern Florida and beyond, for two hours in the evening of Friday March 19,
2021. Invitations to Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES(R)) volunteer groups, county-level
emergency managers, state communications experts, and volunteers in a federal radio system have been
widely disseminated, including national coverage by the ARRL.

During exercise Whirlwind Boom, volunteers will practice transmitting formal reports about the utility,
water, and safety situations in their county, all sent out of simulated disaster areas supposedly struck by
a swarm of tornadoes and then worsened by a terrorist bombing of a telephone system, without using
cell phones, landlines, or the Internet – only radio transmitters and receivers. Many of the particpants
will make communications across hundreds of miles from portable radio gear powered by car batteries
or small generators, often using the WINLINK data system, and also using anything else that works --
voice, PSK31, etc.

Direct To The Public Service: As part of the two-hour exercise, simulated survivor messages outbound
to friends and family will also be transmitted by WINLINK.

The intensity grows as groups receive secret instructions from exercise management advising them of
unexpected handicaps that mimic what happens during disasters – and their tasks become even more
complicated. Flexibility and ingenuity rise to the top at such moments in these exercises, which are
structured in accordance with Department of Homeland Security training guidelines.

If you would like to obtain more information about this exercise, browse to https://qsl.net/nf4rc/FBDR/2021/2021WhirlwindBoomICS201.pdf

Further information can be obtained:
Contact Gordon L. Gibby MD, [email protected], (352) 246 6183

Current Publications:
Participant Exercise Manual for this year’s exercise:
https://qsl.net/nf4rc/FBDR/2021/2021WhirlwindBoomExercisePlan(Particpant).pdf
ICS Incident Action Plan for this year’s exercise:
https://qsl.net/nf4rc/FBDR/2021/2021WhirlwindBoomICS201.pdf

Hi all,

I was thinking there might be a demand for setting up chess games between members of the Winlink community, so I've set up a site for it!

http://AsciiChess.com is a place for Winlink users to find a game of chess with other members. If you visit the site you'll see a fairly straightforward set of instructions - just specify your skill level (beginner, intermediate or advanced), and your call sign and you'll be matched with an available member of your same skill level. Since I'm not sure yet how much demand there might be for this, it's pretty rudimentary, but I expect to update the site if it seems popular.

Thanks for your interest and looking forward to seeing some chess match ups at Winlink - if this proves particularly interesting to people maybe I'll even be able to set up some kind of tournament at some point!

Best,
Dan Turman, KL5MN

An interesting article by David J. Wald (USGS), Vincent Quitoriano (USGS), and Oliver Dully (K6OLI) published in Eos Magazine details the development and use of amateur radio to report earthquake data to the USGS. Check it out at this link to the online publication:

https://eos.org/science-updates/amateur-radio-operators-help-fill-earthq...

-- The Winlink Team