I would like to take this opportunity to thank our WPA Section Emergency Coordinator, Harry Bloomberg for 8 years of service as an ARES Section leader. Beginning as Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator in the spring of 2009, Harry led the section into the age of on-the-air data communications. He played a pivotal role in the widespread adoption of the NBEMS collection of digital communications tools, and took every opportunity to promote and teach its use in Amateur Radio communications.

In mid-2013, Harry was appointed Western Pennsylvania Section Emergency Coordinator, and continued his digital communications initiative at conferences, club meetings and workshops. Recently, Harry made the decision to step down from his ARES leadership role after his many years of service. Please join with me in expressing our Western Pennsylvania Section’s most sincere thanks to Harry for a job well done!

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Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator Bud Plants from Washington County will be filling in after Harry’s departure on March 31st. Bud has agreed to take care of the SEC responsibilities until a replacement SEC is appointed. Please forward your March Monthly Reports to Bud by email to bud@n3tir.com, and join with me in expressing our support, cooperation and confidence to him as he takes on these challenging, additional duties.

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SKYWARN training classes are forming up now. Please be sure to check with your local office of the National Weather Service for details on classes near you. Please pass along this information to all ARES members in your area. Current SKYWARN training is one of the mandatory components of the ARRL EC-001 Emergency Communications course.

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If you are planning drills, exercises or training sessions for your ARES group, and would like to have a WPA Section official present, please drop me a line to w3bc@arrl.org, with the street address, date and time of your event. I’ll do my very best to accommodate your request and show section support for your activities.

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I have made it a goal for myself to attend every WPA hamfest this year, and set up an ARRL and WPA presence. All ARRL Field Organization appointees are encouraged to stop by the ARRL location at their local hamfest, and help present our unified cooperation to those in attendance. Remember, our WPA motto is “Service – Integrity – Excellence.”

73 and Press On!

de W3BC