St. Louis County ARES® Minutes of the February 21, 2005 meeting

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Minutes of the February 21, 2005 Meeting

Steve Wooten, KC0QMU, the Emergency Coordinator, presided over the monthly St. Louis County ARES^® meeting held on February 21, 2005.

Steve gave a report on the number of people who had checked into the weekly net and how much formal traffic had been handled. He said that the group now had 35 registered members.

Steve said that Max, K0AZV, had a Website listing the area nets.

Eric, N0UIH, said that radio station WSIE had been running public service announcements for the ARRL.

Steve noted that Winterfest had been successful for the ARES^® group and that several donated items had been sold.

Steve said that he had the beginnings of an ARES^® Operations Manual, which he passed around for viewing. He also mentioned that there were now 7 people on the Planning Committee.

Steve listed upcoming public events and gave the names of contacts for them.

Steve talked about looking for a backup repeater and the problems associated with the search.

Fred Langeneckert, W0UX, the District-C Emergency Coordinator, was the guest speaker. He encouraged all amateur radio operators to take SKYWARN training, as severe weather season was coming soon.

Regarding St. Louis County ARES^®, Fred said that the group's highest priority job should be recruiting. He stated than when running simplex events, the group should make sure that the frequencies used did not conflict with operations of nearby counties.

Fred noted that there was a new Emergency Coordinator for St. Louis City ARES^®. He is Jim Berg, W0OSQ. Fred said that he was sure that Jim would do a good job.

Fred said that ARES^® had been around for 40 years or so, and during that time St. Louis County ARES^® had perhaps six ECs. He hoped that the group was now on the road to stability. He said that everyone's participation was appreciated. He also complemented the group on its Web site.

Gary, KB0H, said that he hoped to attract more members by holding frequent events and exercises. He said that he was open to ideas.

Eric, N0UIH, suggested a fox hunt. He said that it might be necessary to hunt down a stuck key interfering with emergency operations. Fred agreed, saying that some groups had people dedicated to tracking down stuck keys and jammers. He also said that it was important to have backup frequencies and for everyone to know what they were.

John, K0QH, brought up the idea of having a VHF net just prior to the HF District-C net. The idea was discussed and several permutations were introduced, including doing it during special events. The upcoming Severe Weather Awareness Week was mentioned.

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