St. Louis County ARES® Minutes of the April 10, 2006 meeting

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Minutes of the April 10, 2006 Meeting

Gary Hoffman, KB0H, the Assistant Emergency Coordinator - Operations, presided at the monthly meeting of the St. Louis County ARES^® group on April 10, 2006.

Craig Klimczak, K4LSU, the Training Coordinator, asked for volunteers to give short presentations at the meetings. He found volunteers to talk at the next three meetings (see the Calendar of Events for specific presentations and dates).

Gary mentioned that the group planned to do more exercises this year. At least one will be simplex and at least one will involve message handling.

Chuck Wehking, KC0QKS, said that although he had been unable to participate in Aftershock, he listened to it on a scanner while he was at work. A coworker overheard the activity and had favorable comments about it.

Chuck gave a presentation on the Incident Command System (ICS) and National Incident Management System (NIMS). He gave brief descriptions, then talked about how various EMA organizations around the country are beginning to insist that even volunteers have minimal ICS and NIMS training. He explained how you could take the FEMA courses online.

Chuck distributed several handouts and a CD. The CD contains information about the FEMA ICS and NIMS courses, as well as the federal acronym list.

After Chuck's presentation Gary opened the floor to general discussions, questions, suggestions, and so forth.

Craig Hirsh, K0CMH, had brought handouts on antenna construction.

Ben Shipman, W0BEN, suggested that the next simulated emergency exercise be done in simplex.

Gary said that the group would eventually do that, but for the time being the focus would be on individualy developing skills such as working simplex and handling formal traffic. Once the members of the group develop a certain degree of proficiency in each skill, those fields will be combined in more complex exercises.

Eric Bueneman, N0UIH, suggested using 2 meter single sideband for handling simplex relays.

Ed Harris, KC0UKR, said that he could obtain batteries for members at discount prices. He said that there was presently a special on 33 amp/hour batteries.

Ben asked about the availability of grants for our group.

Jim Conley, N0OBG, said that was the purpose of the corporation (St. Louis County Amateur Radio Emergency Service, Inc). He explained that the corporation would pursue grants once it had obtained its tax-free status.

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