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 5 September 2007: On 5 September 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: Our ARPSC provides backup communications for the Oakland County Health Department. At this time, we are on hold because we don't know their next dispensing locations(*). Our problem is to determine where our handheld transceivers won't work and can be solved by cross-band repeating. Jim Thompson, N8USP will find volunteers with cross-band capability and begin instruction. This year, the Annual Flu Clinics for Oakland County Health Department will be on 27 October 2007. (*): One day after the meeting, the locations were reported to be (1) Clarkston Jr. High School, (2) Hazel Park High, (3) Lake Orion High, (4) Rochester Older Persons Commission, (5) Southfield Pavilion, (6) Walled Lake Garner Middle School, (7) Summit Place Mall. Joel had a call from an adjacent county emergency coordinator asking us for a copy of our by-laws. Upon reviewing them, it was found that they were 8 to 12 years old and needed upgrading. We are now drafting improved by-laws which will eventually go to the Board for approval. There has been some thinking about the EC and AEC roles. Joel believes the title of "AEC" should be reserved or limited for those members who can take over the ARPSC operation if the EC is not available. Confusion still exists by members on Skywarn activation – the process of activating, who activates, and when activated. This is being now being formalized. Volunteers are needed to backup our staff, so that more personnel can be available for long emergencies. Please let Joel Goldberg know if you are interested. The orange booklet, "Pocket Checklist for Oakland County Emergency Communications Personnel – 2007" was passed out to members who did not have a copy. The EOC office has an email address, which is oakerp@oakgov.com. (II). Comments from Steve Iannucci, Oakland County Emergency Response and Preparedness (ER&P): Steve showed the members a slide presentation on the Friday, 24 August 2007 tornado which tracked from Fenton to Holly. On the day following the tornado, he went into the Holly area and took pictures for a Power Point presentation. Steve found only three Holly sites incurred major damage. He believed the tornado did not completely touch down to ground level since houses had been damaged by falling trees and not directly by the tornado. The National Weather Service rated the tornado at Fenton to be F-2 and at Holly F-1, with maximum wind speed estimated to be 130 miles per hour. Steve believes that damage assessment can be improved with teams trained in damage assessment rather than using 3 or 4 people. Joel Goldberg added that he will work on this in the coming year. (III). Comments from John Fleming, K8UP, District 2 Michigan Section ARPSC Emergency Coordinator: On 25 August 2007, Genesee County requested Oakland County ARPSC volunteers to assist their tornado damage assessment communications. Several members did volunteer and John thanked everyone who participated. The Michigan Section ARPSC is planning their state-wide stimulated test exercise (SET) for the end of October, but may have different dates for different counties. When John receives more details, he will pass on this information. Query: Who is our official interface between ARPSC and National Weather Service? Answer: Ray De Vleig, KB8VNI is the District Emergency Coordinator for DTX. (IV). Comments from Larry Hornsby, KB8POD, AEC and Net Manager: The Thursday night nets are running very well. The Skywarn Net on 24 August 2007 carried reports of the Fenton and Holly tornados. The northwest corner of Oakland County has few participating hams and needs more volunteers. (V). Comments from Randy Love, WF5X, AEC, Repeater Operations, Dream Cruise: Steve Murphy, N8NM, County Radios, went out with his ICOM IC V8000 and found his voice being clipped by the repeater. After altering repeater controls, the clipping became less, but had more false sensing of DTMF (dual tone multi frequency). DTMF is not used much on the repeater, but can be turned off if needed. Our repeater has a 333 operation for amateurs who want to access information about current severe weather. Last Friday, 31 August 2007, Randy disabled the 333 operation because several persons failed to identify their call letters while using it. The 440 repeater is still not working, but Randy hopes to have it working by November. Also the APRS – "Digi" isn't reporting and does not appear to work. Randy asked Steve Murphy to determine if the repeater could be used without a "PL" ("private line"/CTCSS) tone so that some older transceivers could be used. The receive sites require a specific "PL" sub-audible tone. Currently, there are no planned Oakland County ARPSC VE test sessions. However, Oak Park with Hazel Park Amateur Radio Club does have VE testing session about every other month. Query: The current ARRL Repeater Directory for 2007/2008 has our 2 meter repeater listed at 146.900 and 145.250 MHz. How does this get corrected? Answer: Our trustee needs to be contacted, who is N8NM. He will report this. The August 2007, the Berkley Parade of Cars had 20 volunteers and Woodward Dream Cruise had 26. More operators are needed next year, especially during the Dream Cruise evening shift. To assist us, the Berkley Fire Station placed two amateur antennas on their tower for our use. Berkley Deputy Chief North expresses his thanks to all the volunteers. Query: What does the amateur volunteer do for these two events? Answer: We don't do traffic control. We are the eyes and ears for the police and fire departments of Berkley and Royal Oak from about 10 Mile to 14 Mile Road. The volunteers report cars operating unsafely, disabled cars, advise people where to cross Woodward, watch for anything dangerous, assist people who need help (i.e. lost child). In one instance, people in a truck were throwing out Teddy Bears onto the road and children were running out into traffic to retrieve them. The volunteer transmits his problem to net control, who in turn passes the information to administration. (VI). Comments from Jim Thompson, N8UP, AEC Training: The fall schedule for training has come out. Fall Classes for Oakland County ARPSC Saturday from 8 am to noon at the EOC 13 October 2007, IS-22: "Are You Ready? An In-depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness." Test will be on your own. For those who passed IS-2, it will be grandfathered to IS-22. 10 November 2007, IS-100: "Introduction to Incident Command System." 15 December 2007, IS-700: "National Incident Management System (NIMS): An Introduction." Students need to pass IS-100 in order to take this course. To sign up: please register with Loretta at the EOC. Query: Does IS-195 count for any current classes? Answer: Full credit will be given towards IS-100 and IS-200. (VII). Comments from Bill Bond, W8WRB, Hospital Radios: We had 100% coverage for the 30 August 2007 Hospital Net. The September Hospital Net will use simplex, using rules and guidelines given to team leaders. The Troy Beaumont station needs to be checked. (VIII). Comments for Jim Poehlman, K8ABZ, Membership: A sheet was passed around to members showing known FEMA class credits to members. To get credit for classes, please make a copy of your certificate(s) and send it to Loretta in the EOC office. You may include those IS classes which are not on our list. A certificate which lists all your course credits can be enough. One member reported that FEMA is not sending out certificates at this time. Joel Goldberg mentioned that the Oakland County ARPSC is asked from time to time what classes members have taken and passed. Government funding, in part, is based on members passing these classes. (IX). Public Service Announcements and Events from Gary Sklar, K8IKW and others: The August Special Event Station at Cheboygan Days Festival had three operators, Joel Stanley - WU8Y, Bill Wallace – KC8JAY, and Gary Sklar - K8IKW. There were 96 radio contacts including 4 lighthouses. A cork bulletin board was purchased to show visitors a map of their radio contact locations. High winds were a problem, and the event had to be moved into the lighthouse. Propagation was very poor. Since the event, Gary has received 30 QSO cards. The Cheboygan Commissioners invited the group back for next year. If a sign-up member doesn't receive Gary's latest newsletter by October, the subscriber's email address is probably obsolete. Please let him know. Up-coming Events Sunday, 9 September 2007 – Findlay Radio Club Hamfest. More information at http://www.findlayradioclub.org Sunday, 9 September 2007 – ALS Walk at Kensington Metropark will be on Sunday morning. Three to five 3-5 volunteers are needed to help. Contact Joel Goldberg, W8HIU. (X). Comments from Mike Nebel, N3BEL, AEC Sirens: Last Saturday, 1 September 2007, 42 sirens were covered. Northwest Oakland County continues to have a coverage problem and volunteers are needed. The next siren test will be on Saturday, 6 October 2007 at 1 pm. Respectfully submitted, James R. Murphy, N8SML Secretary, Oakland County ARPSC 6 September 2007