St. Louis County ARES® Minutes of the June 12, 2006 meeting

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Survey Results

Minutes of the June 12, 2006 Meeting

Steve Wooten, KC0QMU, the Emergency Coordinator, presided at the monthly meeting of the St. Louis County ARES^® group on June 12, 2006.

Steve said that the group currently had 55 members, about 22 of who were regularly active.

Steve announced that Craig Hirsh, K0CMH, had been appointed as the group's Assistant Emergency Coordinator in charge of Planning and Development.

Steve mentioned that the group would have two tables at the upcoming Washington hamfest, one of which would be for 'sale' items.

Steve invited anyone interested to join the group's Planning Committee.

Steve passed around 'Instructions to ARES^® Members' sheets, which also appear on the Web site.

Steve said that there is a Resources Manual in the works, and related pages on the Web site. These will contain ancillary information of use to ARES^® group members, such as places where 'go-bags' may be purchased. He asked for contributions of information that could be placed in the manual and on the Web pages.

Steve noted the speakers and topics for upcoming meetings:

July - Craig Hirsh, K0CMH, will talk about antenna construction.
August - Ed Harris, KC0UKR, will talk about field stations.

Steve said that Craig Klimczak, K4LSU, had asked him to see if anyone had more ideas for training-oriented meeting topics. Craig is the Training Coordinator.

Steve announced that a 'Survey Team' would be formed. It will have several long-term jobs, most notably:

Determine propagation characteristics around the county
Determine the limits of useful operation of the area repeaters
Assess propagation characteristics of ARES^® group members' homes and offer suggestions for improvements

Interested parties should contact Steve. Once a core team has been established, a team leader will be selected and the more specific set of team goals will be drafted.

Craig Hirsh, K0CMH, then held a debriefing for 'The Day the Repeaters Died' simplex exercise held on June 3, 2006.

Craig said that we proved that we could communicate via 2 meter simplex throughout the county. He also stated that we had re-affirmed the old adage that the more metal you get into the air and the higher you get it, the better you'll be heard.

He said that there were a few glitches, such as problems with signal reports, but on the whole the exercise went extremely well. He said that relays had taken place almost automatically, with practically no intervention on the part of Net Control.

Steve and Paul Hinrichs, K0TPY, both reported a lot of interest in their field stations by people passing by.

The speaker this evening was Jim Conley, N0OBG, and the topic was 'Safety'. He said that there are several items that fall under that general category but he focussed on Radio Frequency Radiation safety.

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