Oakland County Amateur Radio Public Service Corp (ARPSC) Weekly Net Thursday at 8 pm on 146.900 MHz/100pl Hospital Radio Net on the last Thursday of each month Web Site: http://www.arpsc.com Meeting Minutes for 4 April 2007: On 4 April 2007 at 7 pm, Joel Goldberg, W8HIU, Emergency Coordinator (EC) for the Oakland County ARPSC, called the meeting to order in the County Emergency Operation Center (EOC). The order of business included: (I). Comments from the Emergency Coordinator – Joel Goldberg, W8HIU: The Milford – Commerce site now has money for the repeater system and work can begin soon. Joel recently met with Emergency Coordinators for emergency response planning. The Oakland County Health Department has been requested to establish redundant communication systems which include ARPSC amateur radio. The ARPSC is expected to provide emergency communication for various Health Department sites. We need to find out which sites pose special communication difficulties both inside and outside their buildings. There will be a greater number of sites to cover and Oakland County may need 60-90 amateur radio volunteers for coverage. If inoculations become necessary during a flu pandemic, our volunteers and their families would be placed on a priority list. Next month, the Emergency Coordinators will again meet to further develop this planning. On 29 October 2007, there will be a Flu Shot Clinic Exercise and we will be notified as to our part. Volunteers are needed to backup our staff at various positions. If interested, please let Joel know. Joel has developed a Microsoft Powerpoint presentation about what the Oakland County ARPSC is and what it does. It can be used for presentations with other groups. (II). Comments from Bill Bond, W8WRB for John Fleming, K8UP of District Two Michigan Section ARPSC: District II ARPSC is searching for antenna sites in specific areas of the state to expand Michigan's MICON weather net. This would include Tecumseh and the thumb area. Joel Goldberg commented that he received a recent phone call informing him that several 200 foot towers were available, but were not in the needed areas. (III). Comments from Larry Hornsby, KB8POD, Assistant Emergency Coordinator (AEC) and Net Manager: The W8OAK week net averaged 22 call-ins during March. During March there were two Siren Nets with 36 and 27 volunteers covering the sirens. There is confusion on how Skywarn is activated. National Weather Service (NWS) notifies Oakland County Emergency Response and Preparedness (ER&P). ER&P staff then calls one of us to setup the net. Oakland County ER&P starts us, not NWS. County Skywarn nets report their information to National Weather Service through the MICON net. MICON determines how long we hold the net and when to close it. MICON net is not open to individual Skywarn members. Recently when severe weather suddenly struck, a Skywarn net was started at a home before moving into the EOC. Once the Oakland County Skywarn Net activates, this becomes the official weather net for Oakland County. We depend on volunteers to inform our Skywarn Net about severe weather. Last Tuesday, April 3, 2007, the Skywarn Spotter Training Class at Covert Center - Waterford was cancelled due to bad weather and won't be rescheduled. However, people who signed up can go to one of three more classes in the county, if the classes are not filled: Saturday, 14 April 2007, 10-12 am at Oakland County ER&P Saturday, 14 April 2007, 1-3 pm at Oakland County ER&P Monday, 16 April 2007, 7-9 pm at Oakland Township Fire Station #2. For reservations to these last classes, please call Loretta at 248-858-5300 or email to ocem@oakgov.com (include your name, address and phone number). Joel Goldberg mentioned that a citizen can give severe weather reports to the National Weather Service by becoming an eSpotter. Their website is http://espotter.weather.gov/. (IV). Comments from Joel Stanley, WU8Y (new call letters), AEC, Training: At this time, training's highest priority is Skywarn. Please take the class if you haven't done so or if your training is outdated. Skywarn classes do exist in other counties if one is not able to take them here. At this writing, the local NWS website at http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dtx/ has listed no Skywarn classes. On Saturday, 21 April 2007, there will be a short wave event at the EOC for members who want to become more familiar with high frequency (HF) radios. If interested, please contact Joel Stanley, KC8DQH, before coming. A syllabus for using radios in cross-band mode is being made and will be passed out to the volunteers when it is finished. Also, a membership list is being prepared to identify each member's completed training classes. Additional FEMA IS classes will be given this fall. (V). Comments from Larry Hornsby, KB8POD and Sirens: Because there were two siren tests last month, none will be held in April. A list of May hot sirens will be announced on the 26 April 2007 W8OAK Net. Out of 8 hot sirens last month, only two were covered. The ER&P wants us to press our coverage of hot sirens. Announcing hot sirens on the net will, hopefully, get us more volunteers to check them. Subnet operators are encouraged to call volunteers. Most of the sirens are now self-reporting, but the county needs to know if they work. For instance, one siren signaled back that it was activated, but a volunteer observed otherwise. Jim Walden, N8DHZ is preparing a list giving the siren's address and a description of where the siren can be found. Some sirens are hard to find. (VI). Comments from Randy Love, WF5X, AEC and Repeater Operations: Please let Randy know if any problems are found on the repeaters. Steve Murphy, N8NM, County Radios, does the repair work. The VEC testing is still being organized and Randy is looking for assistance. Murray Scott volunteered to assist and is certified in both formats. Randy prefers using ARRL format. This testing is for the convenience of professional management testing and for Oakland County ARPSC classes. Generalized amateur radio testing will not be done. No more than 2 or 3 test sessions per year are expected. (VII). Comments from Morrie Davidson, K8SJD, Liaison to National Weather Service: Morrie attended an NWS meeting on March 3. The NWS is testing new polygon markers to be used for severe weather warnings. This is a change from county by county weather warnings. These weather polygons can be used within a county to better identify areas at risk from those areas with little risk. On 14 April 2007, NWS will have a MICON class for net control operators at White Lake. (VIII). Comments from Bill Bond, W8WRB, Hospital Radios: The last three monthly Hospital Nets have had 100% check-ins. Bill is worried that some volunteers are not being used and may lose interest. Volunteers at Providence Hospital – Southfield are currently using the hospital ICOM IC-2800 back-up radio. Providence is aware that grant money is available to purchase a new ICOM IC-2720. A future hospital net will use simplex frequencies. This will test each hospital radio's capability during a repeater failure. Bill is aware one hospital should lose communication to the EOC if they don't change their antenna location. Bill encourages Hospital Net volunteers to check cable connections and report problems. He has taken ARPSC flyers to public locations in the hopes of getting more volunteers. Morrie Davidson, K8SJD added that he dropped off these flyers at the Detroit Library and they asked for more. Gary Sklar, K8IKW, noted that Henry Ford - West Bloomfield Hospital is moving an entire wing to a new building. This will require complete relocation of the radio and antenna site. Different departments will move at different times to the new building, but the new building won't be ready until 2008. Joel Goldberg, W8HIU is concerned that a true flu pandemic will create a situation where our volunteers cannot come into the hospitals to operate radios. This creates the problem of where to set up the radios. The Oakland County Health Department brought this up and will working to resolve the problem. It is not our issue. Last year at one of the Health Service centers, we had to leave a building and use handhelds outside. (IX). Information from Gary Sklar, K8IKW, Public Service Information: Up-coming Events Saturday, 21 April 2007, Milford ARC Swap and Shop. Information at http://www.qsl.net/w8ydk. Sunday, 29 April 2007, March of Dimes Walk America. Volunteers needed, contact Jim Poehlman, K8ABZ at k8abz@arrl.net. Saturday, 19 May 2007, Dayton HamVention. Arrow Amateur Radio Club is sponsoring a charter bus trip to Dayton. Cost is $60 for non-Arrow Club members. Bus leaves at 4:30 am. More information is at http://www.w8pgw.org. Friday-Sunday, 17-19 August 2007: Cheboygan Days Festival with Amateur Radio Demonstration. Gary and hams have been invited to set up a radio station and demonstrate amateur radio. One or two radio transmitters will be set up. The Cheboygan Board of Commerce will be voting to allow antennas, cable, and lighting. Two hotels are holding rooms at discounts, but reservations must be before 1 May 2007. Other amateurs may participate from other areas. If interested, please contact Gary, at k8ikw@aol.com. (X). Comments by others: Ron Wasko, N8KX, is working with CERT training in Novi and Walled Lake. Police officers put on these classes and asked if an amateur radio presentation could be made. Joel Goldberg, W8HIU directed Ron to first contact the county ER&P which handles CERT activities. Joel added that the ARPSC is one of least known assets in the country. George Schutte, K8GEO, suggested a topic for future presentation to the members. How compatible are the county's 800 radio system with the county police network? This might help us better understand backup needs. Respectfully submitted, James R. Murphy, N8SML Secretary Oakland County ARPSC 5 April 2007