LATEST UPDATE – October 14th 2024 @ 1530Z

Mille Lacs ARES Net Moves To Ogilvie Repeater

Effective Wednesday October 16th, the Mille Lacs County ARES Net will move to the KDØCI Repeater at Ogilvie.

Mille Lacs County ARES Net originally operated on the 147.075 repeater at Foley, in Benton County. However, with recent technical problems on the Foley repeater, and after consulting with KDØCI System Custodian Ken Broshofske KJ9W, the decision was made by Net Manager Denice Gadacz, KFØKER, to move the net to the Ogilvie repeater.

With coverage across a large area in East Central Minnesota, including all of Mille Lacs County and adjacent areas as far west as St Cloud, the move to Ogilvie from Foley is not expected to adversely impact the coverage area of Mille Lacs ARES.

The Mille Lacs County ARES Net will begin operating on the Ogilvie repeater starting Wednesday October 16th at 7:30 PM.

A GREAT Turnout For The Great KDØCI Picnic!

Saturday September 28th, MORA’s Great KDØCI Picnic was held at Lions Park in Mora. It was about as perfect as a day in late September can be, with clear sunny skies and warm temperatures.

After several years of sparse attendance, this year’s picnic was by far the best turnout. This event also shows that the club is rebounding from the devastating effects of the COVID pandemic.

With the strong turnout, it appears this will continue as an annual event on the club calendar.

A brief informal meeting took place during the picnic.

FCC Adds Security Layer to License Database –

The Federal Communications Commission has announced the additional layer of security to its licensing database.

This additional layer will – in addition to requiring standard Username and Password entries – require anyone accessing the files to be able to receive a 6 digit verification code either by phone or email. This addition is similar to systems used by banks or other institutions where sensitive data is stored.

In a Bulletin issued by the ARRL containing a public notice from the FCC, the agency said this change will “make the system more secure. This additional layer of security will further safeguard against unauthorized access, thereby enhancing the overall integrity of information contained within the CORES system and improving the security of user data,” it read.

The Public Notice can be found in PDF format at,
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-24-219A1.pdf .

KDØCI Repeater Project Update – Major Equipment Upgrade Completed –

Phase Two of the KDØCI Repeater Maintenance Project at the Ogilvie Site has been successfully completed. This phase included replacement of major equipment such as the repeater, controller, UHF Radio, and VHF amplifier.

Erv Kleinschmidt, AEØKE, and Jerry Whitaker, WBØOFB, installed the new equipment and finished programming and testing it – all within a two hour timeframe during the morning of Friday March 1st. 

The third and final phase of the project will be the restoration of the Ogilvie-Duxbury Skywarn Link, which has been off the air due to damaged coax cable connected to the UHF antenna at the link site. This probably will not be fixed until later this spring, and the link will also be relocated at that time.

With the completion of work at the Ogilvie site, users no longer have to identify the repeater itself as that function has been restored. The repeater is also operating at full output power, having been operating at reduced power for the past several months.

A reminder that if and when the Ogilvie Repeater is off the air, please monitor our Emergency Simplex Frequency – 146.565 MHz.

MORA Assumes Trusteeship of Duxbury Repeater – 

After several years of cooperation with Kanabec Area Skywarn, the Pine County Emergency VHF Repeater at Duxbury is now officially part of the KDØCI Repeater System.

With the passing of Pat Story, WØMCQ, last May, the Duxbury Repeater was without a Trustee. Once this open trusteeship was found, the Mora Open Repeater Association acted quickly and filed the necessary application to become Duxbury Trustee. The application was approved by the Minnesota Repeater Council. A call sign change from KEØACL to the MORA Club Call Sign KDØCI is forthcoming. Pine County Emergency Management will continue to be responsible for control and maintenance of the repeater.

The Duxbury Repeater, operating at 146.910 Megaherz, has already been a partner of MORA for a number of years. Kanabec Area Skywarn in particular has been able to use the repeater for extended coverage into Pine County, and from there into Northwestern Wisconsin.

Even though the link between Ogilvie and Duxbury is off the air for now, plans are to reactivate the link at a new location early next year. Once the link reactivates, the KDØCI Repeater System will provide a critical path of communications across a large area from Mille Lacs County in Eastern Minnesota to Washburn County in Northwestern Wisconsin. 

KJ9W, already Custodian of the Ogilvie Repeater, will now assume the same role for Duxbury.

MORA Website Project –

Work has resumed on updating the MORA Website. With the addition of a NEWSLETTER page to replace the old NEWS & INFORMATION page, the publication and email distribution of the MORAnnouncer Newsletter has been eliminated.

More work remains to be done before the site rebuild is finished. Due to time constraints, progress has been slow, however we try to keep the HOME and NEWSLETTER pages updated. The MORA Repeater and Tuesday Evening Net pages were updated on February 19th, and will be updated as the need arises.

Meanwhile, AEØKE has volunteered to help update the site. 

MORA Board Meeting March 23rd was a “Marathon” Session –

The MORA Board of Directors Meeting on Saturday March 23rd was a business filled three and a half hour session as Chairman Scott Henley presented an aggressive agenda of issues he hopes will help “revitalize” and grow the club moving forward.

Among the highlights were the following:

1. Promote our hobby and our club via Social Media and thru promotions in the community.

2. Restructure our meetings to make them more attractive to the membership at large. Examples include having Board Meetings start one half hour before Breakfast or Pot Luck Meetings. Members will still be encouraged to attend Board Meetings if they so desire. Resume Pot Luck Meetings and use them for training or presentation purposes. Examine what venues are available for Pot Luck Meetings.

3. Resume Local Skywarn and HIPPA Training Meetings. These were suspended during the pandemic and must be resumed.

4. Review participation in EPAC. KJ9W continues to be primary representative with KDØBUO acting as backup.

5. Create/resume fun activities such as Field Day, the annual Chili Cookoff and the September Picnic. Perhaps adding a “fox hunt” to the picnic would encourage attendance.

6. Reassemble the VE Team.

7. Review the club constitution and update accordingly.

8. Resume the “Awards” Ceremony at the annual Christmas Party. Suspended during the pandemic, this ceremony was a popular feature and needs to be revived. Based on input from club members, the awards covered everything from meritorious to humorous achievements by our members.

9. Repeater Updates: Callsign change at Duxbury, Ogilvie repeater upgrades. Encourage more monitoring and general QSO activity on the repeaters. 

10. Reach out to former members to rejoin.

The next Board Meeting has not been firmly rescheduled, however it is likely to happen sometime in May. 

MORA Field Day – First Post COVID Effort –

For the first time since the Covid Pandemic, MORA launched an effort to revive Field Day, which was held on the weekend of June 22/23.

The announcement to revive the outing came late, and as a result the turnout was small. However, the effort was made in hopes of generating more enthusiasm for next year. 

According to MORA Board Chairman Scott Henley, KFØFFE, the unofficial total score was 165 points, all of which were earned on the 20 meter band.

While this score was small compared to previous years, the fact that the effort was made was a signal of Henley’s desire to make the club more active moving forward. 

Kanabec County EPAC Meetings Resumed February 13th –

For the first time since the COVID Pandemic forced a shutdown of Kanabec County EPAC, quarterly meetings have resumed.

The first meeting took place at Noon on February 13th in the County Jail Training Room.

MORA was represented at this meeting by KJ9W and, depending on his health, will continue to do so for the time being. KDØBUO has also served as MORA’s alternate rep.

EPAC is an acronym for Emergency Preparedness Advisory Committee, which is a group of representatives of various agencies who are willing and able to assist the community in the event of an emergency. MORA’s role would be to provide backup radio communications if all other forms of communications were to fail.

The next meeting has been scheduled for May 14th.