St. Louis County ARES® Minutes of the August 14, 2006 meeting

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Minutes of the August 14, 2006 Meeting

Gary Hoffman, KB0H, the Assistant Emergency Coordinator - Operations, presided at the monthly meeting of the St. Louis County ARES^® group on August 14, 2006.

Gary said that the group currently had 59 members.

Gary mentioned that St. Louis County ARES^® would have a table at the St. Charles hamfest on August 20, 2006.

Gary described the function of the group's Planning Committee. He said that anyone interested in joining the Committee was welcome to do so.

Gary gave the group's Web site address and gave a brief description of the "Team Members" page. He recommended that all ARES^® members regularly check this page. He also explained the purpose of the "resources" page and said that we are actively soliciting for information to put on it.

Gary outlined the purpose of the Survey Team as examining propagation characteristics throughout the county. He said that anyone wishing to be part of this team should contact the Emergency Coordinator directly.

Gary detailed how ARES^® groups work and defined the term "served agency". He said that the St. Louis County ARES^® group had reached the stage where it was almost ready to seek served agencies. He said that coincidentally, the St. Louis VA Medical Center sought out the group to discuss a possible relationship. He said that the VA is enthusiastic, but that it has to go through an approval process before it can formalize an association with us.

Craig Hirsh, K0CMH, the Assistant Emergency Coordinator - Planning and Development, said that St. Louis County ARES^® would be holding a message handling exercise on August 27, 2006. It will take place on the 146.850 repeater starting at 2:00 PM local time. He described the exercise (see the "You Write the Messages" page) in detail and said that everyone was welcome to participate. He urged those people who were unsure of their message handling abilities to contact him so that he could pair them with more experienced operators. Message forms were made available during the meeting. (The forms can be downloaded from the American Radio Relay League.)

Craig also talked very briefly about the ARRL Simulated Emergency Test in October and the group's possible role in it.

Chuck Wehking, KC0QKS, said that he had attended a preliminary meeting of the St. Louis area COAD (Community Organizations Active in Disasters) group and found that there was a great deal of interest in ARES^® among the other attendees.

Ed Harris, KC0UKR, was the featured speaker. He talked about building your own field station. He showed several stations, which varied in complexity. He focus of his talk was that putting together your own field station is should not be a difficult task, and that most amateur radio operators already have all or nearly all of the necessary components. Ed heads up a new "Field Station Team" for St. Louis County ARES^®. The purpose of the Team is to help members put together their own field stations.

After Ed's presentation Gary opened the floor to general discussion, questions, complaints, or announcements. Jim Conley, N0OBG, stated that the MS-150 bike tour in September was still in need of volunteer amateur radio operators.

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