Steve Wooten, KC0QMU, the Emergency Coordinator presided over the monthly meeting of the St. Louis County ARES^® group on November 12, 2007. The Meeting was held at Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital.

Steve said that Icom IC-2720 transceivers were being installed in the Verterans Administration Medical Center sites. He said that copies of the IC-2720 manual would be placed at each site and showed a copy. He said that the manual could be downloaded from the Internet.

Steve passed around an IC-2720 transceiver and showed the configuration which will be at the VAMC sites. He said that the VAMC transceivers had been programmed via computer, and that the VAMC laptop computers contained the programming software.

Steve said that the VAMC plans to hold a couple of emergency exercises next year and would like for ARES^® to be involved in at least one of them.

Steve noted that the group had held a Field Station Demonstration and Simulated Emergency Test on October 13, 2007. He opened the floor to discussion and comments about the event.

Eric Bueneman, N0UIH, said that he had operated K4LSU's station and made contact with a marine net.

Steve said that someone had written to him suggesting that another such event be held, but in a shopping center parking lot instead of at a park.

Bill Wallace, KC0TGY, said that the group needs better banners. He said that most people, hams included, do not know what the acronym "ARES" means, so it should be spelled out. The banners and signs need to be more inviting as well.

Gary Hoffman, KB0H, read comments sent in by Steve Schmitz, W0SJS. Steve Schmitz had said that it was a good event and should be repeated in the future. He felt, however, that greater effort should be given to publicity.

Steve Wooten said that he had contacted virtually all of the news media in the area, plus every municipality, but had gotten very little response. He also noted that the sign he had placed by the roadside at the park had disappeared almost immediately.

There was a lengthy discussion about publicity and public relations efforts. Mark Biernacki, KB5YZY, said that perhaps a Planning Committee meeting could be set aside just to discuss publicity. He also felt that the group needed to target other hams rather than the public at large.

Bill suggested contacting various clubs and talking directly to the people responsible for arranging speakers at the club meetings. He said that those individuals were often starved for ideas and welcomed volunteer speakers with open arms.

Mark said that he had a great time at the event and recommended holding similar, but smaller events perhaps as often as once every other month.

Chuck Wehking, N0EIS, said that the Zombie Squad event had been the most successful placement of an ARES^® table. The event attendees were already predisposed to emergency preparedness.

Max Slover, K0AZV, suggested giving presentations at CERT meetings.

Steve said that the group will do more field station events. He said that we will use the same frequencies we used this year.

Craig Hirsh, K0CMH, said that there should be a handout available at the event showing the frequencies to use.

Bill said that events such as this should be geared toward showing members who do not have field stations what can be done. They should be teaching events. Gary said that was one of the main purposes of this year's event.

Steve said that before the event there had been concern about intermod, especially between HF antennas at the site. He asked if anyone had experienced anything like that.

Gary said that he had heard Steve Schmitz's CW signals while operating PSK31 on the same band (40 meters). No one else appeared to have encountered problems of this nature.

Steve said that the group as a whole needs to keep better logs. This led to a general discussion about logs, including providing them at the events, what standard to use, and so forth.

Craig felt that the planning of the event went well and that the goals were met. In particular, as the main event organizer, he was striving for a "less structured" event than the earlier exercises.

Paul Hinrichs, K0TPY, asked if the VAMC sites have log forms/sheets. Steve said that yes, they do. They have the standard ARRL forms.

Gary gave his critique of the event. He said that we'd tried to pack too much into the planning phase, but that the publicity/demo/picnic portion of the event went well. He recommended doing it again.
He said that the ARES-to-ARES contact efforts were a partial success, in that the groups did, at least, make an effort to reach each other.
He said that rain aside, our publicity efforts are not having much effect. He admitted that he has no ideas about how to improve the situation.
Gary said that the rain did have one positive aspect, which was that it proved that the group could operate during inclement weather. He suggested that the group always carry shelter to such events.
He said that the group needs to be much more stringent about debriefings and about insisting that logs be kept.
Gary gave a short list of things he'd learned during the event, including the need for more portability, the need for shelter, lessons concerning digital operations in the field, the need to have more than one operator at each station, and various improvements he needs to make to his HF field station.

Bill picked up on the multiple operator theme and expanded on it. Craig said that we learn this lesson over and over at every exercise.

Mark said that Ed Harris, KC0UKR, keeps insisting that we all need to make our stations more portable. There was general agreement with the statement.

Craig said that QST magazine will note any "special event" that we tell them about if we give enough notice.

Steve concluded the meeting by saying that instead of a regular meeting in December, we will hold a "meet-and-greet" gathering. Snacks will be provided, and you may bring a dish if you like. This will be a family-friendly event. Everyone is invited. You do not have to be a member and you do not need to be a licensed amateur radio operator.

© 2008 St. Louis County ARES^®

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