Oakland County Amateur Radio Service Corp (ARPSC) Weekly Net: Thursday at 8 pm on 145.250 MHz/100pl Web Site: http://www.qsl.net/w8oak Meeting Minutes for 2 March 2005 On 2 March 2005 at 7 pm, Joel Goldberg, W8HIU, Emergency Coordinator (EC) for the Oakland County ARPSC called the meeting to order in a conference room next to the County Emergency Operating Center (EOC). The order of business included: (I). Comments from Joel Goldberg, W8HIU, EC: The following was mentioned concerning emergency amateur radios and W8OAK receive sites: (A). Steve Iannucci, Oakland County Emergency Response and Preparedness, reported to the EC that Southfield Public Safety has requested an amateur radio. Currently, funds to pay this are being explored. (B). George Schutte, K8GEO also noted that hams in the Lake Orion area are considering placement of a multimode radio in the Senior Center at Lake Orion. (C). Steve Murphy, of the county radio department, mentioned to Jim Walden, N8DHZ, DEC that plans exist to add an amateur radio at the Berkley Fire Station next to the east wall. The Berkley site is one of the receive sites for W8OAK and in the past has been used as the amateur radio center for the Woodward Dream Cruise. (D). The Milford Amateur Radio Club asked Gary Sklar, K8IKW for more information on the proposed remote receive site at Milford. Joel Goldberg replied that the antenna is still in planning stage to be placed on the Milford Police Radio Tower. This should improve radio coverage. Gail Novak, who is 2nd in command at the Oakland County Emergency Management, reported to Joel Goldberg that money is available should the Oakland County ARPSC decide to have the Incident Command System Class (unified command for emergency). This class would require 8 hours for each of two days, and would include lunch. Instructors would be brought in. This could take place in the spring and a time could be announced if a minimum of 15 students were interested. Last Saturday, 26 February 2005, SE Michigan Emergency Coordinators were invited to a National Weather Service (NWS) meeting. This NWS has all 17 counties in SE Michigan under them. There is a MICON weather net on 442.150 MHz which connects NWS to county EOC's with linkages from the thumb to Monroe. NWS reported 16 inches more snow this winter than normal. During all of 2004, 68 storm warnings took place in 17 Michigan counties. The average lead time for storm warnings was 16 minutes for all counties and 22 minutes for Oakland County. NWS has now modified their storm watch/warnings situation, which in the past were issued for large sections of the state. This often created a period of 12 to 13 hours of advisory activity for us. Now the NWS will predict weather county by county. The new warning system will start locally for us in March. If the system works well, it will then be utilized nationally. The NWS requests that we give better coordinates for our weather reports and will accept major cross streets as reference. The AAA map will no longer be used. Weather alerts will be discontinued for those persons with pagers connected to NWS. Alerts will be possible for those persons with internet + text pagers. Joel Goldberg, W8HIU, EC reported that a request has been submitted for new radio equipment at the EOC. This includes all new ICOM equipment and several more grab and go radios, an HF transceiver, and a tribander. Joel recently noted that for grab and go radios, a better portable case with wheels and a drop-down table is available. This might be useful. (II). Public Service Information – from Gary Skar, K8IKW: 2005 Tornado Siren Test Calendar – Oakland County Saturday, 5 March 2005 at 1 pm Tuesday, 22 March 2005 at 10:30 am for Severe Weather Awareness Week Saturday, 2 April 2005, cancelled, due to 22 March test 1st Saturdays, May through November 2005 at 1 pm 2005 Skywarn Class Schedule – Oakland County Saturday, 12 March 2005, two classes: (i). 10 am at 12:15 pm, (ii). 1-3:15 pm at Oakland County Emergency Response and Preparedness Tuesday, 15 March 2005, 7 – 9:15 pm at Southfield Civic Center Library Thursday, 7 April 2005, 7 - 9:15 pm, Groveland Township Fire Department, Station #1 at 14645 Dixie Highway at Grange Hall Road. Thursday, 21 April 2005, 7:30 – 9:45 pm, Highland Senior Center at 205 North John Street, Highland, Michigan. For reservations, please call 248-858-5300 or e-mail to kenneyb@co.oakland,mi.us Up-coming Events Saturday, 19 March 2005: ARRL Great Lakes Division Convention at the Toledo Holiday Inn. Info: http://greatlakes.arrl.org/division_convention.htm Sunday, 20 March 2005: Toledo Swap, Toledo Mobile Radio Association at Lucas County Recreation Center. 8 am to 2 pm. Info: http://www.tmrahamradio.org Saturday, 16 April 2005: Milford ARC Swap, Milford High School, 2380 Milford Road, Highland, Michigan. Info: http://www.qsl.net/w8ydk. The Milford High School is about one mile north of downtown Milford. (III). Hospital Radio Report – from Joel Goldberg, W8HIU, EC: We now have all of the radios required to equip 13 hospitals in the county. One hospital in Madison Heights does not want to participate. This radio will be used at Providence Hospital – Novi. Seven new radios are now ready for programming and installation. A RACES card and the County I.D. card should be enough for assigned amateurs to be admitted inside their hospital. Close-in parking is being worked on. Actual radio installations are left to each hospital to accomplish. (IV). Weekly Net Activities – from Gary Sklar, K8IKW: Rory Locke, KC8SZR, in charge of the weekly net, handles net control for the first Thursday of each month. Gary Sklar, K8IKW is the 2nd week's net controller. The 3rd and 4th weeks are open for additional help. Plans are for the Hospital Net to begin again in the near future, as soon as Ralph Greenberg, K8CAR is ready. (V). Siren Coverage – from Jim Walden, N8DHZ, DEC: The next siren test is this Saturday, 5 March 2005 at 1 pm. A map of county one-way and two-way siren locations is being handed out to subnet operators. Interested parties will also need the actual siren addresses to find the sirens. The county requests these siren maps NOT be posted on a website. For this Saturday, there will be 12 hot sirens. To answer a question, the siren subnet frequency for Novi is 444.800/pl 110.9. (VI). Training Programs for Oakland County ARPSC – from Joel Goldberg, W8HIU, DEC: The ARRL has improved training programs. Concern exists on ARRL differential charges to members and nonmembers. For example, the ARRL charges $45 for one to take a course and returns it if he passes. For non-members the charge is $75. Furthermore, the ARRL courses appear to pose a greater investment of time to teach. Joel requested a committee to look at the whole package of training for Oakland County ARPSC members and come up with recommendations. The following are concerns: A. Should we continue with the present program? B. Should we drop the present program and go with the ARRL program using Level 1 and possibly Level 2 instruction? C. Should we use the ARRL syllabus and offer our own program that would closely follow their material? Differences would be to: (i) not charge for it, (ii) issue our own certificate of completion, (iii) and offer our own training at the EOC. The following members volunteered for this committee: Lloyd Suter, N2NGQ; George Schutte, K8GEO; Barry Kaufman, WD8JWM; and Gary Sklar, K8IKW. The goal is to have a fully trained and qualified group of amateurs who are able and willing to participate in our programs and in the needs of Oakland County office of Emergency Response and Preparedness. George Schutte, K8GEO reported that he recently took a CERT training class from Mike Loper, ER&P. He suggested that ARPSC members would benefit by taking such a class, which would better prepare them to interact with CERT activities. Jim Murphy, N8SML recommended that the membership consider taking a basic adult cardiopulmonary resuscitation course (basic CPR). If enough are interested in the 3-4 hour course, a future date could be scheduled for the group. He thought that ARPSC members volunteer for enough large gatherings that this skill is an essential and a plus for the group. A follow-up course could be the external defibrillation course (AEC). Barry Kaufman, WD8JWM questioned whether county would accept legal liability if used on a county function. Joel Goldberg, W8HIU, EC recommended this question be taken to Steve Iannucci for assistance and it was. (VII). Oakland County ARPSC Membership list update – from Joel Goldberg, W8HIU, DEC: The Oakland County ARPSC has more than 250 members on its roster. Concern was expressed on how many meet all of the following criteria: (i) an amateur radio license, being 18 or over for full membership, (ii) successfully completed the IS-2 (now IS-22) class, (iii) passed the criminal background check, and (iv) a current address and phone number. Without all four, such a member is not ready for ARPSC events. Joel proposed to mail or e-mail a flyer to members to determine each member's status. (VIII). Comment from Jim Poehlman, K8ABZ, Vice-President of the Hazel Park Amateur Radio Club: Please be aware that there are now 3 charity functions on the weekend of 30 April -1 May 2005 requesting amateur radio help: (i). 30 April 2005: Multiple Sclerosis 2005 Walk in Warren begins at the Butcher Community Center, approximately at Ryan and 10 ½ Mile Road from 8 am – 2pm. They will need approximately 16 volunteers. Please contact Phil Ode at aa8kr@arrl.net (ii). 1 May 2005: March of Dimes 2005 Walk America begins at the Troy Civic Center beginning 9 am. Please contact Jim at k8abz@arrl.net. Randy Love, WF5X will be net control and will be using the amateur radio equipment at the Troy Fire Station Center. (iii). 1 May 2005: Multiple Sclerosis 2005 Walk begins at Birmingham Seaholm High School with registration at 8 am and walk at 9 am. Please contact Phil Ode at aa8kr@arrl.net Respectfully submitted, James R. Murphy, N8SML Secretary Oakland County ARPSC 3 March 2005