Where to find us on the air

DeKalb ARES operates a weekly training net every Sunday at 8:00 PM local time on our primary repeater — W4BOC 146.760 (-) PL 107.2. The net is open to any licensed amateur; membership is not required to check in. If you can't hit the repeater, you can reach it through EchoLink on W4BOC-R · node 330246.

The repeater facilities are provided courtesy of the Alford Memorial Radio Club.

Net Control schedule

Each active member is expected to take a turn as Net Control or Alternate Net Control at least once per year. Contact ke4qcm@arrl.net (Tom Fuller, KE4QCM) to be added to the rotation. The schedule below shows this Sunday plus the next seven; past weeks drop off automatically. Any week showing TBD still needs a Net Control or Alternate, so treat it as a standing invitation to volunteer.

→ Net script for Sunday practice net (PDF, updated Nov 2025)

Primary frequencies

Simplex Net First Sunday of the month

• Emergency Power. If available, members check in running on battery or generator to verify emergency-power capability.
• Simplex net. Right after the repeater net, we run a simplex reception test to map who can hear whom directly, without the repeater. See how it works below.

How the monthly simplex test works

On the first Sunday of each month, right after the regular net, we stay on the W4BOC repeater and run a simplex test. The goal is to learn who can hear whom directly, station to station, without the repeater. If the repeater ever goes down, that map tells us which operators can still pass traffic to each other on simplex.

1. Check in. When the regular net wraps up, stay on the repeater. Net Control announces the simplex test and takes a roll call: give your callsign and name only. Nothing else is needed at this stage.
2. When told to do so by Net Control, everyone else switches to reverse (REV). Reverse makes your radio receive on the repeater's input frequency, so you hear the transmitting station's own signal directly (simplex) instead of the repeater's retransmission. That is what turns this into a true simplex reception test. Whoever is transmitting stays in normal repeater mode.
3. Net Control goes first. Net Control transmits on the repeater, gives their callsign, and then counts "1 2 3 4 5 5 4 3 2 1 0", which gives everyone a few seconds of steady signal to judge. Everyone else, listening in reverse, notes how well they copied it.
4. Then one station at a time. Net Control calls each callsign from the roster in turn, and each station does exactly the same thing: transmit on the repeater, give your callsign, then count "1 2 3 4 5 5 4 3 2 1 0". Everyone else except the station calling the countdown stays in reverse and rates what they hear.
5. Note who you heard. As each station transmits, write down every callsign you copy on reverse and rate the quality of each transmission, using the readability scale below.
6. Log your results. After the round, enter your reports using the reporting form, which feeds the simplex map.

A note on frequency. For the monthly test we listen on the repeater's input, simply because every station already has the W4BOC repeater programmed, so no one has to retune. Our designated simplex frequency for an actual emergency, when the repeater is unavailable, is 146.460 MHz. Program it now so it is ready when you need it.

Readability scale

The "R" in an RST signal report. Rate each station you hear; if you received nothing at all from a station, log it as not heard.

Winlink stations

DeKalb ARES operates three Winlink RMS gateway services across two sites, moving email over radio when the internet is down. Stone Mountain gained plain packet in October 2026, so an operator without VARA FM now has a local path there.

The SSID is the mode. WD5EMA-10 is packet wherever you reach it, at Fire Rescue HQ or on Stone Mountain. WD5EMA-15 is VARA FM. You do not have to remember which site is on which frequency: pick the mode you are set up for and the SSID follows. This replaced an earlier arrangement, on 4 October 2026, in which -10 meant two different modes depending on where you were calling.

Stone Mountain also digipeats. Called as WD5EMA-4 on 145.530 MHz, the same station relays a connection onward to a station you cannot hear directly, in either mode: as a VARA FM digipeater, or as an AX.25 packet digipeater. It is not a gateway itself and holds no mail. It has two uses. One is to reach a Winlink gateway you cannot reach directly, which matters most if the internet is down at the mountain and its own gateways cannot forward. The other, on the packet side, is keyboard-to-keyboard chat with another station using a simple AX.25 terminal program such as EasyTerm. Do not confuse it with the W4BOC-1 APRS digipeater, also on the mountain but on 144.390: that one repeats APRS position and message packets for everybody automatically, while this one relays a connection you set up to one station you name.

Sunday Winlink Net

We run a weekly digital net on Winlink that runs all day Sunday, with a check-in window from 12:00 AM to 8:15 PM local. To check in, send a Winlink message to our WD5EMA tactical address at WD5EMA@winlink.org, not to a gateway SSID. Checking in over an RF path (rather than Telnet) is the practice that pays off in an activation. There are three ways to do it:

• RMS Express (Winlink Express), the desktop client, using the standard Winlink check-in template.
• VarAC email gateway, checking in over VARA using VarAC's VMAIL feature.
• APRSLink, sending your check-in from an APRS radio with no computer required.

→ How to check in to the Sunday Winlink Net

The Winlink Net Control rotation is maintained in a separate schedule:

→ Winlink Net Control schedule (Google Sheets)

Need help setting up a Winlink digital station? Contact Greg Mann, WC4Y, our AEC for Digital Communications — wc4y.greg@gmail.com .

Monthly VarAC + APRS net

About once a month on a Sunday evening, DeKalb ARES runs a practice net for the digital-mode crowd in two parallel parts: a VarAC net on 40 m HF and an APRS net on 2 m. It is open to anyone, and operators from neighboring groups such as North Fulton ARES and Georgia ARES regularly join in. This is a separate net from the weekly Sunday Winlink Net above.

The net typically runs 6:00 to 8:00 PM local. Because the date and the exact frequency are set month to month, the current details are posted in the Groups.io announcement (subject tagged #varac) before each net. Volunteer net-control operators are always welcome.

VarAC net (40 m HF)

• Frequency: 7.119.750 MHz (40 m), the shared DKARES and NFARES calling frequency for the net.
• Check in with a VarAC broadcast message directed to KK4ODA in the form Callsign,Name,Location,County,Power status,Group. For example: KK4ODA,Facundo,Tucker,DeKalb,Battery Power,DKARES. Use the group code for where you are checking in from: DKARES (DeKalb), NFARES (North Fulton), GAARES (Georgia), and so on.
• Set the frequency in VarAC by editing VarAC_auto_qsy_allowed_frequencies.conf and VarAC_frequencies.conf in your C:\VarAC folder with a text editor, or download the ready-made versions from the VarAC folder under Files on Groups.io and drop them in.

APRS net (2 m)

• Frequency: 144.390 MHz, the national APRS frequency.
• Check in by sending a short APRS message to DKARES, for example KK4XYZ CHK IN.
• The APRS side is run with Graywolf APRS; see the Graywolf activity entry for more on it.

Neighboring ARES nets

E = PL encode required for repeater access. D = repeater transmits tone; Tone Squelch may be used.