Here is your ARRL Tennessee Section Update for 2/28/23:
With the warmer weather, the hamfest season is also starting to heat up. The MTARS Tullahoma hamfest is on March 11 at the First United Methodist Church on West Lauderdale Street in Tullahoma. For more information, please visit http://qsl.net/mtars
The Sevier County Amateur Radio Society Hamfest will be on March 18 at the Sevier County Fairgrounds on Old Knoxville Highway in Sevierville. For more information, please visit https://seviercountyars.com
The Greeneville Hamfest, sponsored by the Andrew Johnson Amateur Radio Club, will be on April 15 at the Greene County Fairgrounds in Greeneville. For more information, please visit http://greenevillehamfest.com/
The year-long Volunteers On The Air (VOTA) operating event is really starting to pick up speed. VOTA allows you to earn points when you log a contact with league volunteers, officials, and other ARRL members. VOTA is an easy event to participate in as all you have to do is upload your contacts into Logbook Of The World (LOTW), which will automatically calculate your points daily. The leaderboard is now up and running for you to keep track of your VOTA points: https://vota.arrl.org/
As part of the VOTA event, W1AW (the Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station) will operate portable from all states this year. In Tennessee, we will have W1AW/4 active from March 22-28. In an effort to allow the most folks possible an opportunity to participate, section leadership is reaching out to clubs and ARES groups from across the state to schedule blocks of time for them to divide among their members. If you would like to operate as W1AW and do not have a participating club nearby, please contact me (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and we will add your name to the schedule.
We are pleased to welcome some new Technical Specialist appointments in the section. John McMahan K4JTM is our new DMR specialist, Lyle Juroff K9FIK is the new Direction Finding / Fox Hunting Specialist, and Stan Kozlowitz AA5XO joins the team specializing in Antennas, Transmission Lines, and Tuners. The Tennessee Section ARRL has a team of Technical Specialist volunteers who are available to help you with technical advice and guidance on a variety of specialized topics. To check out the entire list, please visit https://www.tnarrl.org/index.php/section-cabinet/technical-coordinator/technical-specialist
The ARRL Tennessee Section welcomes our newest Affiliated Club: AL4US, the American Legion Amateur Radio Club (Post 104) in Sevierville, TN. This is an active and growing club that’s been reaching out to other American Legion posts to tell them about the hobby and encourage them to establish and sponsor their own ham radio clubs.
Many of you have asked for an update on the son of our Affiliated Club Coordinator, Tom Bridgewater NA8X. Cooper is doing much better, has been released from the hospital and is now back home. However, he still has a long way to go to recover from his accident. The Bridgewater family appreciates our continued thoughts and prayers.
The Tennessee Section welcomes two new DXCC Card Checkers. Paul Mandel (W4PGM) and Wayne Houser (WV4TN) of East TN. They will be available to check your QSL cards at the Sevierville Hamfest in March. They join Chuck Talley (KJ4KVC) in Middle TN and Tom Vickers (N4TV) in West TN in card checking duties for the state.
In closing, I want to encourage everyone to get on the air and participate in the VOTA operating event this year and help celebrate 2023 as “The Year Of The Volunteer” as we show our appreciation to all the folks who donate their time and talent to promote amateur radio.
73,
David Thomas KM4NYI
Volunteers On The Air (VOTA)
2023 will be celebrated by ARRL as “The Year of the Volunteer.” More information will be available throughout the year as the details are confirmed. However, the first adventure has been announced as a project called “Volunteers On The Air (VOTA).” Here we get ‘points’ for each contact made with another ARRL volunteer. So, if two ARRL members contact each other, they will each receive a point for that QSO. No special codes, sequence numbers, or section information needs to be passed. Make contact with a fellow ARRL member, and you each receive a point. Each of you must upload the contact to the Logbook of The World (LoTW), and your points are calculated when the QSO is matched. This could be an FT8 contact, a CW contact, a simplex 2M FM contact, an RTTY contact, or an SSB rag-chew.
To add more interest to the contest and help demonstrate the ARRL volunteers’ value, each level of volunteer activity has been assigned a point level, shown in the table below.
So, get your HF gear running, make sure your LoTW connection is working, and see you on the air!!!
VOTA Program Rules
I’m sure these rules will be extended or revised, so please return here to check for updates.
- This contest starts January 1, 2023, at 0000Z.
- This contest ends December 31, 2023, at 0000Z.
- You must be an ARRL member. You can join or renew at https://arrl.org/join/.
- All QSOs must be uploaded to the ARRL QSO matching system, Logbook of The World (LoTW).
- No repeater contacts are allowed.
- Contacts can be made on any band (except the WARC bands of 12M, 17M, and 30M).
- Contacts can be made on any legal mode of operation.
- You receive ‘points’ based on the volunteer level of the ARRL member you contact. Points range from 1 point for an ARRL member to 300 points for Rick Roderick K5UR. The point levels are listed below. (Your favorite Section Managers are worth 175 points.)
- Each QSO will get only one point value. For example, someone who is a member, a life member, and an Assistant Section Manager will be worth the value of the highest role, 35 points for the ASM role.
Logbook of The World (LoTW)
All of the reporting for this VOTA effort will be handled automatically by the ARRL Logbook of The World (LoTD) QSO matching system. If you already log your QSOs from your favorite logging software and it uploads them to LoTW, you will automatically be enrolled in the project. Your QSOs will be verified normally, and the callsigns of the people you work will be searched to find the appropriate points (table shown below) that you receive for each QSO.
But, if you aren’t set up to use LoTW, now is the time to set it up. The LoTW quick-start page is a great place to start, and the “What is LoTW Document” explains the whole process. You must authenticate yourself with the system by receiving a postcard mailed to your FCC-registered address. You’ll run a program called TSQL that is used by your logging program, N3FJP, N1MM, DX Lab Suite, or something else to authenticate and upload to LoTW. You can start the setup process now, and you’ll be ready on January 1st! Or, hold your logs until you get LoTW set up, and you can upload them when you get it all sorted.
Volunteers Point Value Table
Note: These appointments are for current appointees unless otherwise noted. Eg: Assistant Director (AD) is only for the current Assistant Directors. Past office-holders and appointees are only eligible if the title listed includes the word “Past,” such as “Past Section Manager (PSM).”
| Abbreviation | Full Position/Title Name | Point value |
| PRES | ARRL President | 300 |
| PE | President Emeritus | 275 |
| PP | Past President | 275 |
| HVP | Honorary Vice President | 250 |
| VP | ARRL Vice President | 250 |
| DE | Director Emeritus | 225 |
| DIR | Director | 225 |
| PVP | Past Vice President | 225 |
| VD | Vice Director | 200 |
| SM | Section Manager | 175 |
| OFF | Staff Officer, Treasurer, Counsel | 150 |
| PD | Past Director | 150 |
| PV | Past Vice Director | 125 |
| ARRL | W1AW ARRL HQ Station | 100 |
| CLM | ARRL Charter Life Member | 100 |
| PSM | Past Section Manager | 100 |
| DM | ARRL HQ Department Manager | 75 |
| HQ | ARRL HQ Staff Member/Volunteer | 50 |
| MAX | Maxim Society Member | 50 |
| AC | CAC/DXAC/ECAC Advisory Members | 40 |
| AD | Assistant Director | 40 |
| ARDF | Direction Finding Coordinator | 35 |
| ASM | Assistant Section Manager | 35 |
| EMC | Electromagnetic Compatibility Committee | 35 |
| LOTW | Logbook of the World Committee | 35 |
| PRC | Public Relations Committee | 35 |
| RF | RF Safety Committee | 35 |
| YC | Youth Committee | 35 |
| ACC | Affiliated Club Coordinator | 30 |
| DEC | District Emergency Coordinator | 30 |
| NCJ | NCJ Editor | 30 |
| PIC | Public Information Coordinator | 30 |
| QST | QST Columnist | 30 |
| SEC | Section Emergency Coordinator | 30 |
| SGL | State Government Liaison | 30 |
| STM | Section Traffic Manager | 30 |
| SYC | Section Youth Coordinator | 30 |
| TC | Technical Coordinator | 30 |
| DC | Diamond Club Member | 25 |
| LAB | W1INF Lab Museum Operations | 25 |
| LC | W1HQ HQ Operations | 25 |
| CM | Contest Managers/Log Checkers | 20 |
| QSM | Incoming QSL Bureau Manager | 20 |
| VC | Volunteer Counsel | 15 |
| VCE | Volunteer Consulting Engineer | 15 |
| ADC | Area Digital Coordinators | 12 |
| ADEC | Assistant District Emergency Coordinator | 12 |
| ANM | Area Net Manager | 12 |
| ASEC | Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator | 12 |
| ASTM | Assistant Section Traffic Manager | 12 |
| BM | Bulletin Manager | 12 |
| EC | Emergency Coordinator | 12 |
| LGL | Local Government Liaison | 12 |
| OBS | Official Bulletin Station | 12 |
| OES | Official Emergency Station | 12 |
| ORS | Official Relay Station | 12 |
| PIO | Public Information Officer | 12 |
| RNM | Region Net Manager | 12 |
| TCC | Transcontinental Corps Directors | 12 |
| TS | Technical Specialist | 12 |
| TA | Technical Advisor | 10 |
| NM | Net Manager | 7 |
| AM | Awards Manager | 5 |
| CC | Card Checker | 5 |
| INST | Registered Instructor | 5 |
| State Abbrev | W1AW/x around the USA (work each state twice) | 5 |
| VE | Volunteer Examiner | 5 |
| QSL | Incoming QSL Bureau Sorters | 3 |
| LM | ARRL Life Member | 2 |
| AFF | ARRL Affiliated Club Call Sign | 1 |
| MEM | ARRL Member | 1 |
