NVIS Day

We will be meeting at Union County EMA Station 720, 20900 North West Parkway in Marysville at 10am to participate in NVIS Day. 
Below is information from the arrl-ohio website about NVIS Day  
NVIS Day, 2025 

It’s coming! 

Ohio NVIS Day 2025 will be held Saturday April 26,

from 10AM until 4PM EDT.

The purpose of NVIS day is to construct and try various antenna ideas, all working as NVIS (Near Vertical Incident Skywave) antennas.  These antennas are low to the ground and provide coverage generally within a 400 mile radius- extremely important for regional HF communications in an emergency.

Take a big step forward and build upon the concept to answer the question, “How would we actually use these antennas?” 

For 2025, we have added a couple operating scenarios that will make your day more fun and be a learning event for actual disaster communications.  We propose a commercial power blackout, with the need to communicate within your ARES district and to ‘The Sarge” at the Ohio EOC in Columbus.  Here’s the deal:

1. The event runs from 10 AM until 4 PM local time.
2. Stations will construct and test NVIS antennas.
3. Transmit power is limited to 100 watts.
4. Power for the station will be any form of “off-grid” supply: typically, generator, battery or solar or whatever form you might have in an emergency setup. (Optional, but preferred)
5. Stations may test antenna coverage as in the past by contacting as many different locations as possible. This year, we are adding collecting Grid Squares and S-Meter readings as part of the exchange .
   1. Stations are to originate a message to their ARES District, local net, OHDEN, OSSBN and to W8SGT reporting their location and county, stating if you are “Participating or Not Participating”.
   2. This message may take any form: ARRL message form ICS 213 or radiogram must be used. If you’re going to use the traffic system, ARRL message radiogram is recommended.
   3. Each county is to send a message to the SARGE with a sitrep of their operation.
   4. The message should contain the call sign, operating location (include county) and number of operators. Any other brief antenna information is optional but appreciated!
   5. Contact with the District net may take place on VHF or HF (Repeaters OK).
   6. WinLink may also be used as long as it sent via RF, local node (VHF, UHF) or an HF node to KD8SCL and or W8SGT.
   7. For more information on node locations, visit org.
6. Operating frequencies are proposed to be in the 80 and 40 meter bands. Voice is preferred for testing.
   3. Optimum frequencies centered around but not limited to: 902 and 7.240
   4. Digital messages may be passed to OHDEN Net as available.
   5. Digital OHDEN frequency: 3584.5 (typical is Olivia 8/500)
   6. OSSBN frequency: 3972.5, Net Times: 10:30, 16:15, 18:45

You can create your own log (Excel preferred) or Word format.  Be sure to include a photo of your group or your antenna!  Submit your results to contest@n8ara.org

Have fun!  Take a lunch break!  I hope to hear you!!

For this announcement in PDF format, click HERE

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Near vertical incidence skywave, or NVIS, is a skywave radio-wave propagation path that provides usable signals in the medium distances range — usually 0–650 km (0–400 miles). It is used for military and paramilitary communications, broadcasting,[1] especially in the tropics, and by radio amateurs for nearby contacts circumventing line-of-sight barriers. The radio waves travel near-vertically upwards into the ionosphere, where they are refracted back down and can be received within a circular region up to 650 km (400 miles) from the transmitter.[2] If the frequency is too high (that is, above the critical frequency of the ionospheric F layer), refraction is insufficient to return the signal to earth and if it is too low, absorption in the ionospheric D layer may reduce the signal strength.