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.qsl.net/w8oak Meeting Minutes for 1 November 2006: On 1 November 2006 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 (EC) – Joel Goldberg, W8HIU: Last 21 October 2006, Oakland County Health Department held their Annual Flu Shot Clinics at seven different sites. Our ARPSC was asked to provide backup communications. Although they limited us to one person per site, we were able to add enough help. Assistance was given when they had difficulty communicating with their own equipment. However, we had our own problems. Our hand-held transceivers did not work well in school gyms and similar set ups. We had to move to alternate means, such as cross band repeating. On next Saturday, 4 November 2006 from 9-12 am at the EOC, there will be a FEMA IS-200 Class – Incident Command System (ICS) for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents. This class is required for all of our emergency responders. The incident command system helps us to understand that one person is in charge and everything works through him/her. This promotes work in a very professional manner. Also on this same day at 1 pm, our siren test will be the last one of the year. To detect problems, please check the siren operation both visually and by sound. The sirens are designed to warn those people who are "outdoors" to seek shelter. Larry Hornsby, KB8POD noted that there are no "hot" sirens this month, but there still is a need to check as many as possible. Steve Iannucci, Emergency Response and Preparedness requested volunteers to check for any loose wiring hanging down from the sirens. Please note that Oakland County EOC has changed their e-mail address. Instead of name@co.oakland,mi.us, it is now name@oakgov.com. On 11 November 2006, the National Weather Service (NWS) office has invited emergency coordinators to its Winter Weather Meeting. Concerning our own personnel: Larry Hornsby is now KB8POD/ag, having passed his general license exam. Joel Stanley, KC8DQH will be assisting our training classes. George Schutte, K8GEO, Assistant Public Service, will be moving to Washtenaw County. At the last District 2 Emergency Coordinators Meeting, mention was made about ARRL e-mail forwarding service. On occasion, e-mails are lost or dumped, possibly due to too much mail traffic. The Michigan State Police put on their own emergency training classes at their training academy in Lansing. Some of these classes are useful and recommended for amateurs. A catalog of available classes was passed around to the members. The City of Southfield has established its own emergency management center with the purpose of handling Southfield emergency issues. Ham radio operators have been included. Our own ARPSC booklet for Emergency Communications Personnel has been updated and will be printed. We are in the process of updating all our manuals. Our goal is to have operating manuals for each activity. We are attempting to establish a secure storage area in the EOC for some of our equipment of value, i.e. headsets. Next year in May, District 2 South Flu Exercise (SET) will take place the same time as the 2007 Dayton Hamvention. We have not yet been asked to volunteer services. Our organization is only as good as its participants. From a leadership standpoint, we still don't have enough depth. We need more highly motivated leaders, especially in areas where we lack backup assistance. We need people to develop training, to set up test message training, to develop desktop scenarios, to create stimulated test exercises (SETs) and field training. A sign-up sheet was passed around to the members. (II). Comments for Steve Iannucci, Oakland County Emergency Response and Preparedness (ER&P): The printer to make ID cards came in today. It's the wrong model and will have to be returned. At this time, Steve is unable to state when new ID cards will be ready. (III). Comments from Larry Hornsby, KB8POD, Assistant Emergency Coordinator and Net Manager: Thursday night nets average twenty people. We still need more volunteers to assist net control. There will be five Thursday nets this month. The 1st one will be tomorrow (2 November 2006), the 4th one held on Thanksgiving Day, and the 5th one including the Oakland County Hospital Net. The 28 December 2006 Hospital Net will be optional to volunteers. (IV). Comments from Bill Bond, W8WRB, Hospital Radios: The October Hospital Radio Net had 13/15 check-ins with Pontiac P.O.H. and Botsford missing. Team leaders, please remind your volunteer(s) before the net. Several hospitals still need additional help - Botsford and Crittenton. A question came up from a hospital team leader several weeks ago. He lived near his hospital and electrical power went out in his neighborhood. He called the hospital, but fortunately, the hospital still had power. His question was: if the hospital did not have power, should he go to the hospital to stand by for emergency communications? Bill's answer was that if the power is out for a short while, this would not be important. It is also the hospital's responsibility to notify the EOC if they need help. As team leader, do check, but don't self deploy. Query: With the threat of a pandemic flu, amateur radio first responders would be exposed to the flu at their hospital site. Should they be authorized to receive the same health protection as hospital employees? Bill replied that a pandemic flu is a serious issue and more thought is needed. Joel Goldberg added that a lot of the hospitals are planning to set up emergency triage sites outside the hospital. That is where we will probably be, operating remotely from the hospitals. Steve Iannucci added that vaccines are currently given out only to some first responders, but not everyone is getting them. (V). Comments from Randy Love, WF5X, AEC and Repeater Operations: Recently, we discovered the Bald Mountain antenna site was still using the old 145.250 frequency. It now has been changed over to 146.900. Query: A member asked about a hum-like noise on the 2 meter repeater. Randy recently tested the frequency with a spectrum analyzer. This hum peaked at 100 hertz, which is the repeater's continuous tone-controlled squelch system (CTCSS). Joel Goldberg noted the Milford Antenna Site was still waiting for funding. The actual site will now be in Commerce Township instead of Milford. The 440 repeater machine is waiting for new hardline cable and is in need of a new band-pass cavity duplexor. Section 2 North packet (includes Oakland County) was assigned by the State ARPSC to 147.580 MHz, but we found this frequency had a bad S-9 noise level. We have now moved to 147.160. Baud speed on 2 meters will be 1200, which is enough for plain text, but not complex messages. From the ARRL Michigan Section: Their mission is to develop the Michigan ARPSC Program into a fully integrated communications team, ready, willing and able to provide radio communications support to public service agencies and the citizens of Michigan. The Digital Radio Group (DRG) was created to make a dependable packet radio network across the entire State of Michigan, primarily for the purpose of emergency communications. The packet networks being deployed consist of a mixture of both old and new technologies using both the AX.25 and TCP-IP protocols (From http://www.mi-drg.org). From JNOS Software: JNOS software is used to allow the packet programming to be connected to the Internet. Standard packet radio uses AX.25 information exchange protocol to move information from one packet radio station to another. Within JNOS is another data section that allows information exchange in a protocol called transfer control protocol/internet protocol (TCP-IP), which permits movement across computer networks. Bottom line is the JNOS can use TCP/IP to connect to other TCP/IP stations through the packet radio equipment, and can used as a modem to connect to the local internet service provider (ISP) (from http://www.fwarig.org/) . Randy adds that he wants everybody to able to use packet with JNOS. In addition, several volunteers are needed to assist with Oakland County's packet. Everyone should be able to use it, but during an emergency, the frequency will close to everything but emergency operations. National Weather Service is having their 2006 Skywarn Recognition Day on 2 December 2006 from 0000 – 2400 UTC. For us, the NWS contact event runs from 6 pm on Friday, 1 December 2006 to 6 pm on Saturday, 2 December 2006 During this time, amateurs will be able to contact many of the ~100 NWS stations. A G5RV antenna will be hung from a tree next to the EOC and amateur radio equipment inside the building will be used. For those interested in volunteering, please contact Randy. He does note that after the 15th of November, he will be out of the State for two weeks. (VI). Comments from Gary Sklar, K8IKW, Information: Up Coming Events Saturday-Sunday, 18-19 November 2006: Indiana State Convention – Fort Wayne Hamfest and Computer Expo. Information at http://www.fortwaynehamfest.com Sunday, 3 December 2006: L'Anse Cruise ARA Swap. Info at http://www.n8lc.org Sunday, 21 January 2007: Hazel Park ARC Swap. Info at http://www.hparc.org (VII). Comments from Others: Bill Bond, W8WRB notes that Red Cross is requiring volunteers to have background checks. Beware that it requires giving out important personal information, i.e. credit references. Respectfully submitted, James R. Murphy, N8SML Secretary, Oakland County ARPSC 2 November 2006