St. Louis County ARES® Minutes of the November 10, 2008 meeting

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Minutes of the November 10, 2008 Meeting

Steve Wooten, KC0QMU, the Emergency Coordinator presided over the monthly meeting of the St. Louis County ARES^® group on November 10, 2008. The Meeting was held at Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital.

Steve said that St. Louis County ARES^® now had 86 members.

Steve said that he had no recent news regarding the Veterans Administraion Medical Center. The VAMC has the equipment and plans to put antennas and feedline on its clinics, but the installation dates are uncertain.

Steve thanked the St. Louis and Suburban Radio Club for including an ARES^® column in its newsletter, The Printed Circuit.

Steve also mentioned the SLSRC hamfest, Winterfest, which will take place on January 24, 2009. St. Louis County ARES^® will have a table at Winterfest, the St. Charles Amateur Radio Club hamfest, and the Halloween hamfest in 2009. The group will not have a table at the Washington hamfest next year.

Steve said he was looking for more people to join the St. Louis County ARES^® Planning Committee.

Gary Hoffman, KB0H, described the Planning Committee as a team of advisors that helped Steve plan and develop the ARES^® group's activities and direction. He said that any ARES^® member could be part of the Committee, and that anyone could sit in on the meetings. The next Planning Committee meeting will be held on Saturday, November 15, 2008. Gary went on to describe some of the issues that will be discussed at the meeting.

Bill Wallace, KC0TGY, showed small spiral notebooks he had created. They contained a wealth of information that would be useful during a deployment.

Bill also touched on the issue of personal preparedness.

Steve passed around a catalog from Skywalker Communications, a company based in St. Charles.

Steve said that the next ARES^® meeting would take place on Monday, December 8, 2008. Rather than an official meeting, however, it will be a social get-together. Everyone is invited.

Steve said that the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) had a program called the Missouri Emergency Resources and Information System (MERIS). He said that it identifies resources available to emergency management personell around the state. He said that ARES^® was listed, but at the moment it only lists two contacts, and one of those is out of date.

Steve Schmitz, W0SJS, said that the Planning Committee should generate information about field power and field antennas for ARES^® members.

Ed Harris, KC0UKR, gave a presentation about portable field stations. He showed a number of stations that he had installed in easy-to-carry boxes. He said that he believed that members should take the transceiver they use every day to deployments. That way they have a radio with which they are familiar and do not waste a lot of time re-familiarizing themselves with a radio that they don't use often.

Ed focussed on the issue of power. He said that was the most difficult thing to take along on a deployment. Batteries weigh a lot. Also, mobile transceivers consume a lot of power. One possible solution is to deploy with a simple handheld transceiver and a medium-sized battery, perhaps 10 to 20 ampere-hours. The handheld radio can run for quite a while on such a battery, and can still be an effective communications platform if an adequate antenna is used.

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