Jeffery Stidham, AL1Q, is stepping down as the Washington State
Emergency Net Manager at the end of November 2021 and we are looking for
a leader with organizational skills to become the new WSEN Net Manager.
Prior to the Mount Saint Helens eruption on May 18, 1980, there was no
organized HF Coordination Net in Washington State. Because of the
devastating damage in Eastern Washington (EWA) the ARRL ARES leadership
started WSEN to serve as a net where ARES/RACES/ACS EMCOMM stations
could share volcano activity messages. Post Mount Saint Helens WSEN
remained in place to serve the Amateur Radio Service EMCOMM community as
a place to share and coordinate EMCOMM traffic locally, regionally and
statewide. The net has been organized around a Net Manager and then
asking for Net Control Stations from the nine Washington Homeland
Security Regions. This is an important and vital leadership position
that serves our local, regional, tribal and state EMCOMM efforts. Even
with today’s high speed and efficient data systems we need to have an
alternate SSB net in place to provide backfill emergency message
handling services and to provide a statewide place for message
handling/passing coordination. Jeff has worked hard to bring WSEN into
the 21st Century and we need to have a Net Manager who is innovative and
able to work with amateur radio EMCOMM leaders to continue Jeff’s
efforts.
Interested amateur radio operators who would like to have the
opportunity to become an ARRL leader and to contribute to Amateur Radio
Service EMCOMM in the state are invited to email Monte, W7FF at
W7FF@arrl.net .
ARRL Western Washington Section
Section Manager: Monte L Simpson, W7FF
w7ff@arrl.org