St. Louis County ARES® Minutes of the March 12, 2007 meeting

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Minutes of the March 12, 2007 Meeting

Steve Wooten, KC0QMU, the Emergency Coordinator presided over the monthly meeting of the St. Louis County ARES^® group on March 12, 2007. The Meeting was held at Old Bonhomme School.

Steve gave a progress report on the VAMC (Veterans Administration Medical Center). Antenna and feed line installation is in progress at the Cochran Hospital. If the weather stays nice, installation will begin soon at the Jefferson Barracks Hospital.

The VAMC has noted that SEMA (the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency) requires all volunteers to take FEMA courses IS100, IS700, and IS800. While the VAMC has not yet decided to make this mandatory for ARES^® volunteers, it is considering doing so. Also, the VAMC would like for ARES^® volunteers to take the ARRL's ARECC Level I course (Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Course). The VAMC further stated that the agreement it will sign will be with St. Louis County ARES^® and not with the amateur radio community at large. It will insist that only St. Louis County ARES^® members be assigned to its facilities.

The VAMC has obtained computers and TNCs (Terminal Node Controllers) so that its amateur radio equipment can handle packet radio. The TNCs must be programmed with specific call signs, and reprogramming them on the fly is not trivial. Therefore the VAMC would like for St. Louis County ARES^® to apply for and obtain a club call sign, which, along with unique suffixes, will be programmed into the TNCs. Steve will apply for a call sign shortly. Due to HIPAA (Health Insurance Privacy and Accountability Act) requirements, ARES^® responders will not be allowed to bring their own computers to the VAMC facilities.

Steve said that there have been increasing difficulties holding the monthly ARES^® meetings at Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital, so the meeting place has been moved to Old Bonhomme School. The school will be available for all meetings this year except during the months of June and July. Alternate plans are being considered for the meetings for those two months.

For those members interested in pursuing digital modes, Steve has the URLs of sites where digital freeware may be obtained.

Craig Klimczak, K4LSU, noted that he and Mel Whitten, K0PFX, had been testing the new "DRM" digital mode. Craig reported that it is in many ways superior to most current digital modes. He recommended that the group seriously investigate and consider using it.

Steve said that the group is still trying to arrange for a Memorandum Of Understaning concerning the use of the St. Louis and Suburban Radio Club 146.850 repeater.

Craig Hirsh, K0CMH, described a proposed first exercise of the year. It involved setting up and running multiple independent simplex nets across the county. There was considerable discussion about the details. Originally planned for late March, the exercise will be postponed until late April to accomodate some new ideas.

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