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

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