St. Louis County ARES® Minutes of the November 9, 2009 meeting

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Minutes of the November 9, 2009 Meeting

Steve Wooten, KC0QMU, the Emergency Coordinator, presided over the monthly meeting of the St. Louis County ARES^® group on November 9, 2009. The Meeting was held at Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital.

Steve welcomed everyone and had everyone introduce themselves. He acknowledged visitors and said that ARES^® applications were available for anyone wishing to fill out one. He also explained the purpose of the yearly renewal process and asked that any member who had not yet filled out a renewal form please do so.

Steve displayed course completion certificates from FEMA and asked that members who had not done so please take the FEMA online IS-100 and IS-700 courses.

Steve noted that most of the officers of STLCARES, Inc. are stepping down

Jim Conley, N0OBG - president (resigning)
(vice president position currently vacant)
Craig Hirsh, K0CMH - secretary (remaining)
Mark Biernacki, KB5YZY - treasurer (resigning)

He said that the proposed new officers were -

Steve Wooten, KC0QMU - president
Jon Schaumann, W0KZ - vice president
Craig Hirsh, K0CMH - secretary (continuing)
Lou Harken, W0TQ - treasurer

He said that the current officers will need to meet to vote on the new officers.
Once the new officers are in place, one of their first actions will be to decide whether or not to purchase a 8'x10' pull-behind cargo trailer for ARES^® to use to haul equipment.

Steve noted that the St. Louis County ARES^® digital net runs, more or less automatically, from 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM on Wednesday evenings. It operates on 145.070 MHz (FM simplex) in packet mode, and uses the Missouri Emergency Packent Network system. He said that MEPN now has four functioning nodes, the most recent being in Calloway County.

Steve said that there is a Missouri-wide Echolink net on Monday evenings at 8:00 PM.

Steve said that the St. Louis County ARES^® Web site has a "members only" section that should now be available to all members. The userID is your call sign, but he was unsure of what the initial passwords are.

Steve said that the December ARES^® meeting will actually be a social get-together. We will have the private dining room at Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital until 10:00 PM. He asked that anyone who'd like to volunteer to bring food please contact him.

Steve asked for reports from the club liaisons.

Jon Schaumann, W0KZ, reported on the Jefferson County ARC. He said that the club had an extensive Web site. He mentioned that the club would like to get an ARES^® group going, but hasn't had much success.
Steve noted that St. Louis County ARES^® was giving some limited support to the fledgling St. Francois County ARES^® group. Steve also said that there was now a new St. Louis City ARES^® Emergency Coordinator, but that this had not been officially announced by the Missouri Section. He also stated that the Section Emergency Coordinator wanted ARES^® groups to hold multi-group exercises within their Districts and that he hoped to so next year.

Bill Wallace, KC0TGY, reported for BEARS (Boeing Amateur Radio Society). He said that BEARS had 2 m and 70 cm repeaters, Echolink & IRLP, and a regular net on Sunday nights at 9:00 PM. He said that BEARS provided emcom services for its area (I-270 and McDonnell Blvd).

Steve said that Max Slover, K0AZV, is the club liaison for NWAREA (NorthWest Amateur Radio and Electronics Association). Max was not present, so Steve said that the club has a 2 m repeater at DePaul Hospital that runs IRLP. He said that the NWAREA was hoping to re-establish special service club status with the ARRL. He said that the club was recruiting for new members.

Lori Yount, KD0EPN, reported for SLSRC (St. Louis & Suburban Radio Club) even though there is not yet an official club liaison. She said that the next club meeting will be held on November 13, 2009 and that there will be a presentation on spread-spectrum. She said that Bob Heil will once again speak at Winterfest.

Gary Hoffman, KB0H, explained why we handled formal traffic on the regular ARES^® net. He said he understood why people avoided taking the messages we had been receiving (boring and repetetive). He also said that we hadn't been getting many messages from the National Traffic System lately. He said that to keep us in practice, he would start reading test messages on the air, starting with this Wednesday's net (November 11, 2009).

Steve asked the attendees to consider being one-time net controllers.

Steve said that on average there are 22 to 30 new hams licensed in Missouri each week.

Steve discussed the activity taking place between the area hospitals and the amateur radio community. He said that STARRS (St. Louis Area Regional Response) had formed a sub-committee called HARN (Hospital Amateur Radio Network) to recruit and organize hams for local area hospitals. He said that there are 62 area hospitals, most run by one of 8 companies. He said that HARN had sent messages to all local amateur radio clubs and organizations requesting help in getting organized.

Steve raffled off four Diamond Antenna baseball caps. The winners were -

Dann Flynn, N0ZT
Mike Bien, KB0PDL
Tori Vernau, KC0EEP
Roberta Rahm, KC0WDV

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