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 6 June 2007: On 6 June 2007 at 7.00 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: There will be no general business meeting in July because the meeting would fall on Wednesday, 4th of July. However, an executive meeting may be scheduled. Possibly next week, several health department sites will be visited to determine if amateur radio communications are possible from inside these buildings to our EOC. County security for our EOC is getting much tighter. Security is asking members to stay out of the back radio room unless they have business there, even at our monthly meetings. Jim Walden, N8DHZ, AEC and Sirens, is in the hospital, but we have no details. Randy Love, WF5X, has been asked to take over the amateur radio communications for the Woodward Dream Cruise should Jim continue to be unavailable. The annual Flu Clinic by Oakland County Health Department is still scheduled for Monday, 20 October 2007. We have not received further information concerning our radio support. Volunteers are needed to backup our staff, so that more personnel can be available in case of long emergencies. If interested, please let Joel Goldberg know. (II). Comments from John Fleming, K8UP, District 2 Michigan Section ARPSC Emergency Coordinator: John discussed the National Voluntary Organization Active in Disaster (NVOAD) and the Michigan VOAD. Their national function is "to bring national voluntary organizations active in disaster together to foster more effective service to people affected by disaster.*" (* From "History of NVOAD," website at www.nvoad.org) NVOAD works with FEMA and has had a member on the FEMA Advisory Board. The NVOAD has apparently invited the ARRL to join them. Our county Emergency Response and Preparedness (ER&P) is one such local organization providing disaster services. Our Oakland County ARPSC needs to be aware of the VOAD. Such an organization does help to bring together different kinds of mutual assistance. Barry Kaufman, WD8JWM requested more information on their charter and objectives. John mentioned that the Oakland County ARPSC hours volunteered per month has been rising. Joel Goldberg, W8HIU added that he recently has been spending 40-50 hours a week working on the ARPSC. Mike Nebel, N3BEL noted that volunteer time for sirens is added to the totals. (III). Comments from Larry Hornsby, KB8POD, Assistant Emergency Coordinator (AEC) and Net Manager: Our weekly nets continue with active participation. For those calling into the net, please remember to state your call sign in phonetics and do it slowly. (IV). Comments from Joel Stanley, WU8Y, AEC, Training: Larry Hornsby, KB8POD is working on a program for net control training, which includes a training manual. Once the Oakland County Health Department gives us our assignment, we will develop training plans for this. Before the end of the year, there will be IS-22 class – "Are You Ready? An In-depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness." Under consideration for further classes are IS-100 – "Introduction to Incident Command System (ICS) I-100," and IS-200 – ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents." The IS-22 Course is now a requirement for Oakland County ARPSC membership. One can go to FEMA online for the self study class or come to our class. We are working on the logistics of cross band repeating with the ICOM IS-2720 transceivers. Training for this is expected shortly. (V). Comments from Randy Love, WF5X, AEC, on the Woodward Dream Cruise and Berkley Cruisefest 2007: The 13th Annual Woodward Dream Cruise will be held on Saturday, 18 August 2007, officially from 9 am to 9 pm. On the evening before, 17th August 2007, the Berkley Cruisefest 2007 will be held with staging at 5:30 pm Roseland Park Cemetery (12 Mile and Woodward) and 6:30 pm with the Classic Car Parade. Randy has a list of volunteers from last year and passed around a new sign-up sheet. He will call the volunteers. (VI). Comments from Mike Nebel, N3BEL, AEC Sirens: There were 48 and 51 Siren Test check-ins for 2 June 2007 and 5 May 2007, respectfully. Despite the excellent turn out, the northwest and north central part of the county needs more coverage. Joel Goldberg, W8HIU pointed out that Steve Iannucci, ER&P, has a demographic map of the county showing where ham radio operators live. This could a way to find new volunteers and which could be also helpful for Skywarn. The northern part of Oakland County seems to be hit worse by storms. (VII). Comments by Barry Kaufman, WD8JWM, AEC Administration: Plans exist to follow up the Flu Clinic with a special ARPSC project. Barry is consulting with the City of Southfield Emergency Management program for developing an amateur radio team. The Southfield Emergency group will be working in conjunction with the Oakland County ARPSC. (VIII). Comments from Randy Love, WF5X, AEC Repeaters: Funding for the Milford Site expires at the end of this month unless we use it. Because of this, Randy expects to see the site up and running this month. Our 440 repeater has a Canadian station on its frequency, which comes in with signal strength of S-3 or S-5. Their machine may be located in Sarnia or Chatham. He thought the coordination issue for that frequency had been settled. Volunteer Examiner (VE) testing by the Oakland County ARPSC is almost ready. No licensing classes for the general public will be done, since local clubs do that. In fact, the Milford Amateur Radio Club is planning to hold classes this fall, if they can find a room to use. If anyone hears a "zip" like sound on the repeater, it may mean a Yaesu Radio with an internet connection is turned on and may be sending a tone that the repeater can't understand. Also, he mentions that the courtesy tone on the repeater is a point in time that the repeater resets itself. So when speaking, give the repeater enough time to reset so that one doesn't cut off the first part of his/her speech. There is about a 0.5 second delay before one can speak. (IX). Comments from Jim Poehlman, K8ABZ, Membership: The monthly attendance sheet was passed around requesting addresses and phone numbers. This will be done several more times until Jim gets enough updated information for his membership list. He has made up a list of completed classes for each member which can be checked for accuracy. Credits for IS-2 and IS-195 will be given. (X). Comments from Bill Bond, W8WRB, Hospital Radios: The hospital radio net for Thursday, 31 May 2007 had 14 out of 16 check in. Two facilities not reporting were North Oakland and Royal Oak Beaumont, where operators did not show. Hopes are for them to check-in on the next 7 June 2007 regular net. Pontiac Oxford and Southfield Providence have submitted requests to purchase radios. Genesys Hospital has a new radio installed and ready to use. It will be run by Genesee County ARPSC. Clarkston Medical Center has only two volunteers and needs more help. Five volunteers from Oakland County assisted the Genesee County ARPSC Stimulated Test Exercise (SET) on 16 May 2007. Examples of their assignments were (1) Marsha Fleming, N8FE was assigned to amateur TV, (2) Bill Bond, W8WRB to Command Vehicle, (3) Bob Marshall, KC8NAV to Civil Air Patrol. It rained the whole day. (XI). Comments from Murray Scott, KE8UM – Logistics: Certain panel meters on the EOC ARPSC console center were found by Steve Murphy, N8NM, county radios, to be interfering with EOC audio speakers. They have now been disconnected. (XII). Comments from Alan Craddock, KA8PEH, Club Liasion: Alan asked members if they would like to know more about "Oakland Wireless?" The answer was yes. So far, there are two small areas in the county with this wireless computer service in operation: (1) Royal Oak – area bounded by I-696, 12 Mile Road, Woodward, and I-75 and (2) Madison Heights – area bounded by I-696, 12 Mile Road, I-75, and John R. Road. More details will be given at a future meeting. (XIII). Comments from Gary Sklar, K8IKW, Public Service: Up-coming Events 10 June 2007 Tour de Cure (Diabetes) at Island Lake Recreation Area. Please contact Jeff Albrecht, N8WR at n8wr@arrl.net to volunteer. Randy Love, WF5X, noted the Tour de Cure will use the W8OAK repeater. If anyone finds repeater "dead spots" in the race, to please let him know since it is useful information. 16 June 2007 Midland ARC Swap. More info at http://www.qsl.net/w8kea. 17 June 2007 Monroe County Radio Communications Association. More info at http://mcrca.org/hamfest.htm. 23-24 June 2007 Field Day at the EOC from 2 pm Saturday until 2 pm Sunday. If interested, please contact Randy Love, WF5X. In order to get volunteers inside the building, he must submit a list of names in advance to the EOC Security. On the Friday before, Randy will come into the EOC and set up software for contest logging. 17-19 August 2007 Special Event Station at Cheboygan Days Festival with amateur radio demonstrations. If interested, please contact Gary at k8ikw@aol.com Gary mentioned that he was recently injured at work and is wearing a metal brace. He needs two volunteers to help him at his home to pull down a 30 pound 28 foot tall antenna, make it resonant, and then raise it back up. (XIV). Comments and Questions from Members: Announcement: Ed Galipeau, Jr., WA1LRL, is a silent key. He was the DEC in charge of Amateur Radio activities at National Weather Service at DTX (White Lake) and was often heard on the MICON Weather Net. He wrote the procedural manual for MICON-DTX. MICON is still looking for a new antenna site outside the proving grounds. There will be another meeting this month to make the MICON system more stable between county EOCs. How far away does a cardiac pacemaker need to be from an HT? Query: One of our hams has a new cardiac pacemaker. Does anyone know far an amateur radio HT needs to be from a pacemaker? What is a safe distance? Joel Goldberg, W8HIU suggested the amateur contact his pacemaker manufacture. There are different pacemakers with different requirements. Further suggestions by other members were to include frequency, antenna size, and power used. One member read off a piece of information stating to keep the pacemaker at least 12 inches away from an antenna when using 3-5 watts of power. The distance away from a car's bigger antenna with 50 watts of power would be another question. What is the best way to get an amateur license plate? Query: Getting an amateur license plate can be a problem in Michigan. The local licensing offices of the Secretary of State often give confusing information. Any suggestions? Answer: Go directly to the licensing unit in Lansing at Michigan Department of State, Distributed Services Unit, 7064 Crowner Drive, Lansing, Michigan 48918. At this writing, a phone number to this office is not known. In fact, by going to Google, entering "Michigan License Plate Amateur," will bring up a website application, with the license costing $2 service fee for a regular plate and $7 for a graphic plate plus the regular registration fee. The Michigan Secretary of State advertises online a collector's amateur radio operator Blue Bar plate and an amateur radio operator spectacular peninsulas plate costing a one-time fee of $10. Dell Brown, KC8IJF stated that he has an amateur license plate for a handicapped person. The difference is a little red sticker placed on the amateur plate. This plate is rare and police may not understand that this plate serves two functions. He notes that a doctor's letter confirming one's handicap status must be submitted each time the plate is renewed. Respectfully submitted, James R. Murphy, N8SML Secretary Oakland County ARPSC 7 June 2007