Oakland County Amateur Radio Public Service Corp (ARPSC)
Weekly Net: Thursdays at 8 pm on 145.250 MHZ/100pl
Web Site:  http://www.qsl.net/w8oak

Meeting Minutes for 6 August 2003

 On 6 August 2003 at 7 pm, Joel Goldberg, W8HIU, Emergency Coordinator (EC) for the Oakland County ARPSC called the
 meeting to order in the County E.O.C.  The order of business included:

(1). Comments from Joel Goldberg, W8HIU, EC:

 a. Woodward Dream Cruise:  Barry Kaufman, WD8JWM, will run the Amateur Radio operations for the Dream Cruise this 
year.  Details will be given below by Barry. 

 b. TOP-EX:  This is the emergency exercise that Oakland County will be planning for Thursday, 25 September 2003.  
Details will be given below.

 c. RACES Card Background check:  Oakland County, following a State Police requirement, is requiring criminal 
background checks for all ARPSC members before new ID cards be issued.  To date, everybody has been approved, so far as 
Joel knows.  Please be aware that any Oakland County ARPSC members who do not submit forms by 1 September 2003, will be 
dropped from the active member's role.   This card will be the "passport" for your entry to assist with a declared emergency.

 d. ARPSC Volunteers:  We need to enroll and train more volunteer operatives and not depend on a selected few.   
Anyone interested should contact Joel Goldberg, W8HIU, EC. 

 e. ARRL Section Manager:  There will be an election of an ARRL Section Manager for the area this fall.  Applicants 
need to submit their names by September, along with 3-4 supporting ARRL members to support the nomination.   Dale Williams, 
WA8EFK will be running for this office. 

 f.  Last Saturday, 30 August 2003, there was a District 2 meeting, which includes Wayne, Oakland, Washtenaw, Monroe, Macomb, 
and St. Clair Counties.  The possibility was brought up of holding a weekend seminar to more fully train members.  Any such 
seminar would occur a year or so down the road.

 g. Hospital Amateur Radio Installations:  Henry Ford Hospital of West Bloomfield already has their radio and 
equipment in place.  Beaumont in Troy is reported to have nothing at this time.  Huron Valley Hospital has an antenna and 
power supply, but their radio is on order.

 h. Embroidered ARPSC Shirts:  Joel Goldberg has a niece who has a computer driven embroider machine.  She will make 
the individual call letters with the ARPSC logo for your shirt for $20.00. 

(2). Comments from Emergency Response and Preparedness Staff:  

Joel Goldberg, W8HIU, EC, reported that Steve Iannucci, ER&P, offered assistance for our training programs.

(3). Comments from Jim Thompson, N8USP, Deputy EC:  

Training classes will start after the September TOP-EX exercise.  An IS-271 Class, "Anticipating Hazardous Weather, is 
being planned for Saturday, 11 October 2003 from 9 am to 1 pm.

(4). Comments from Barry Kaufman, WD8JWM, Deputy EC:

 The Woodward Avenue Dream Cruise, 16 August 2003, has become an even larger event for licensed amateur radio 
operators.  Fifty-five ham volunteers are needed, preferably with RACES cards but not essential, to extend coverage for 
the local public safety post site centers along Woodward Avenue between Berkley and Birmingham .  Two shifts are planned. 
The day shift is 11 am to 4 pm and the afternoon/evening shift will be 4 pm to about 10 p.m.  Each ham will need a hand-held 
two meter radio and at least one extra battery pack.  To volunteer, please call Loretta at the County offices at 
248-858-5300 or Barry Kaufman at 248-661-6965.

 Amateur radio TV (ATV) may be used in Berkley.  Birmingham Police want ten hams to shadow officers when the 
Dream Cruise closes.  Royal Oak requests some hams at the school or at secondary locations and some for roaming.  A ham 
operator will be in a car roaming the parade along Woodward.  All ham volunteers will wear identification vests which will 
be provided at the Berkley Fire Department location and parking will be arranged.  The radio net will be held from the 
Berkley Fire Department.   The possibility exists of a repeater link from the top of Beaumont Hospital, if Steve Murphy has 
sufficient time.    

(5). Comments about TOP-EX by Joel Goldberg, W8HIU, EC:

 Oakland County is putting on a major drill, called TOP-EX.  The goal is to mobilize various teams at two field sites 
to detect, monitor, isolate, and bring resolution to an emergency scenario task.  The Emergency Operation Center coordinates 
activities with emergency teams, hospitals, federal and state officials.  Our role is back-up communications at (1) the EOC 
site, (2) the combined regional emergency center at Auburn Hills for training, and (3) Canadian National - Lake Orion 
Township railroad yard.  Amateurs will be asked to provide general and emergency backup at field sites as well as at the EOC.  
Necessary staff help will be limited, with members at the radios, packet system, and runners.  Duties will require a lot of 
logging and passing of information.  Each field site will require at least one amateur radio person.  At the Auburn Hills 
site, a grab and go radio will be utilized.    A minimum of three hospitals with radio communication will be needed, which 
is expected to include Huron Valley-Sinai, Henry Ford, and a third hospital which has operational communication equipment.

 TOP-EX will run from 2 pm to 10 pm, on Thursday, 25 September 2003.   Two shifts are planned, with a minimum of two 
radio operators for each shift at the EOC; one will log information and the other will work the radio net.  Jim Thompson, 
N8USP, Barry Kaufman, WD8JWM, and Joel Goldberg, W8HIU will be the supervisors.  Two hams will be needed at each emergency 
site.  At the hospitals, one or even better two operators will be utilized.  Twenty-eight hams will be needed plus three 
supervisors.   Lloyd Suter, N8NGQ and John Moore, K1DE will develop a logging program to be used for the exercise.  A sign 
up sheet for TOP-EX ham operators was passed among the meeting attendees. 

(6). Repeater Update:  

 Both the 2 meter and 440 repeater machines are on the air.  There is still a slight delay for the first voice 
transmission to be picked up on the 2 meter machine.  Amateurs are requested to make use of the 444.325/107.2 Hz frequency 
so that it's performance can be checked.  A common controller to both machines cannot be used since the repeater machines 
are at two different sites.  An autopatch will be placed on the 2-meter machine, but will be available to a very limited 
number of people.  The 2 meter and 440 repeaters will not be linked together for Skywarn operations.  The western side of 
the county still has areas of poor reception/transmission and efforts will be made to improve them. 

(7). Upcoming Activities as noted by Gary Sklar, K8IKW, Public Service:

(a). 9 August 2003:  Cascades (Jackson) ARS Swap.  Information at http://www.w8jxn.org 

(b) 15-17 August 2003:  Lighthouse Weekend Special Event - K8S at Tawas Point LightHouse.  Information from Gary, at 
k8ikw@aol.com 

(c). 15 August 2003, Saturday: Woodward Dream Cruise

(d). 6-7 September 2003:  Great Lakes Division Convention and Findlay (Ohio) Radio Club Swap.  Convention at the Findlay 
Inn on 6 September 2003 and swap on 7th September.    Information at http://www.findlayradioclub.org 

(e). 13 September 2003:  Grand Rapids ARA, Lowell ARC and Michigan ARA Swap.  Information at http://www.w8dc.org/swap.htm 

(f). 31 October - 1 November 2003:  Michigan State ARRL Convention and Holland ARC Swap.  E-mail to w8gcw@arrl.net  

(8). Comments from Attendees:

 Larry Hornsby, KB8POD, Net Manager, stated the Thursday night net is working well.  Larry requested that log sheets 
from Skywarn and Siren nets be put in the tray by the radios in the EOC so that he can review them.  Larry also recommended 
a Packet Net be started to develop skills, possibly on 145.760 simplex, 

 Harry Austin, KC8TEV, has been attempting to set up Amber Alerts via Amateur Radio Repeaters in the area.  So far, 
GM, Oakland County ARPSC, and the Dart Trustees have agreed to use this.  Harry indicated that repeaters to the north and 
south of Oakland County are needed to give better area coverage.  

 Randy Love, WF5X stated that those amateurs who successfully complete the ARRL EC-001 class can be reimbursed their 
$45 fee by the ARRL. 

Respectfully submitted,
Jim Murphy, N8SML
Secretary, Oakland County ARPSC, 8 August 2003
 



1