Oakland County Amateur Radio Public Service Corp (ARPSC) Weekly Net Thursday at 8 pm on 145.250 MHz/100pl Web Site: Http://www.qsl.net/w8oak Meeting Minutes for 7 December 2005: On 7 December 2005 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: (1). Comments from the Emergency Coordinator (EC) – Joel Goldberg, W8HIU: We are now attempting to finalize hospital amateur radio installations. Our Stimulated Emergency Test (SET) in November discovered some radios were not in place as expected. Members should plan for a January 2006 ARPSC meeting. We are asking for recommendations from ARPSC members for the coming year so that we can better support the county. Our operational EOC Center has new ICOM IC-2720 radios installed in the front panel console. The 220 rig is now on the back console and still needs reconnecting. Positions of some radios were changed to improve lighting. Several toggle switches need repairing. The Triband beam antenna needs to be installed. The main ICOM 2720 radio now has four jacks for headphones, the HF radio has two jacks, but the other radios have one. A complete set of training/instruction manuals for all equipment is planned for the EOC. Any member coming in should then have a reference source if needed. There is a new change in the Oakland County Skywarn protocol. Tornado watches will now be under condition green. This allows for volunteer call-ins. Updated information is requested from members who change phone, fax, pagers, home, and e-mail addresses. (2). Comments from Steve Iannucci, Oakland County Emergency Response and Preparedness (ER&P): Steve thanked the ARPSC members working the Skywarn SET. With snowfalls, he reminded registered E-Spotters to call into the 800 phone number. More information is at http://espotter.weather.gov/ Currently, the new RACES card format is delaying completion. The debate is whether to use hard cards which need to be made elsewhere, or to use laminated cards which can be done at the EOC. Photos for new RACES card are being taken after meetings. (3). Comments from Larry Hornsby, KB8POD, Deputy Emergency Coordinator (DEC): This EOC site is the home of W8OAK, our repeater. When members show up using an amateur radio under FCC rules, Do NOT begin the call "can you let us in." Please call W8OAK first for a response and then add, "I'm at the front door." Remember to use standard ham radio protocol for calls. Recent net operations have shown us that an open-to-all check-in does not work. We will return to grouping check-ins by alphabet, i.e. A to E, etc. Larry noticed that the National Traffic Net has the same problem. Aaron Hulett, KD8AVV will be net control next week and will use this format. Randy Love, WF5X commented that rotating the alphabet sequence might be useful. Larry is working on a new public relations kit which better informs the public who we are and what we are doing. This will be a grab-and-go bag which includes signs, etc. Such signs were effectively used at the 5 October 2005 Bloomfield Township Police Department Open House. Larry and Joel are working on a new reference handbook with information and standard protocols for members. (4). Comments from the W8OAK Webmaster, Gary Bouwkamp, N8HMP: Results of the 2-3 December 2005 Skywarn Recognition Day contesting will be added to the W8OAK website next week. (5). Comments about the W8OAK repeater from Randy Love, WF5X, Repeater Manager: Should anything be wrong with the repeater, Randy requests members to let him or any of the officers know. The repeater has several quirks which aren't bad, but can't be solved at this time. For several seconds upon first speaking, there is a greater noise background before it clears up. Joel Goldberg, W8HIU noted that the repeater identification nearly wipes out the speaker and needs to be attenuated. The 440 repeater is now up and running, but has a desensitization problem. Randy doesn't know when it will be fixed. Recently, he heard the W8OAK repeater in Flint and on the Zilwaukee Bridge. During Skywarn Recognition Day, the old Kenwood HF TS-940 quit and after much fuss, the timer button was found activated causing the radio to turn off. Cold weather made the portable antenna setup more difficult. Forty-two out of 110 weather stations were contacted. Three ILRP contacts were from Mississippi and Texas and the two APRS contacts were from New York and Maine. Persons participating were: Joel Stanley, KC8DQH; Mike Vander Veer, KD8ATK; Dell Brown, KC8IJF; Gary Sklar, K8IKW; Ralph Greenberg, K8CAR; Joel Goldberg, W8HIU; Randy Love, WF5X. (6). Comments about Hospital Radios by Bill Bond, W8BHF: More hospitals now have their amateur radio programmed for key frequencies, including Pontiac Osteopathic and Providence - Novi. Crittenton Hospital in Rochester remains a problem. Bill is considering leaving ID's with hospital security for smoother entry into hospitals. Joel Goldberg, W8HIU encouraged the hospital radios to run at lowest power in order to prevent problems. The current programming now sets the radio to a medium power of 10-15 watts. Query: Does the Oakland County ARPSC computer program encode only basic frequencies? Answer: Only eight frequencies are programmed, but an earlier program did insert multiple frequencies. Query: Will amateur radios be purchased for Public Safety stations, which include police? Answer from Joel Goldberg, W8HIU: Not yet. Our problem would be to find enough ARPSC volunteers to work such radios. Joel reported that Genesys Hospital in Genesee County is a receiving site for North Oakland County patients. The Genesee ARPSC operates the amateur radio there. Gail Novak, ER&P, plans to contact her counterpart in Genesee County. The problem is that Oakland ARPSC may need to use this hospital when Genesee ARPSC not active. The question becomes whether to insert our own amateur radio there. Bill Bond asked whether the radio at Troy Beaumont may have a similar problem with Macomb County patients? Joel responded that the radio problem there is different. Oakland County ARPSC has excellent communications with the Macomb ARPSC. (7). Comments about the November 2005 SET by Justin Stabenow, KC8UQF: Congratulations go the APRSC members who participated in the 19 November 2005 SET. All pre-planned hospitals but one checked in and there were no problems. Our SET also included the 20 October 2005 Oakland County Health Department smallpox SET. Combined, we had 270 messages, with 43 priority and 227 routine. If anyone has anything to add, please let him know. Joel Goldberg thanked Justin for an excellent job. Barry Kaufman, WD8JWM noted that the hams did well with improvising when needed. At the Northland Clinic, it took cross band repeating from a car to the clinic to get communications. Joel mentioned that certain messages being handled appear to require immediate answers. We are the traffic handling system and don't interpret. Furthermore, when one calls in, please use phonetics for your call letters so that we can get it that right. One reason is that the county insurance coverage fails to cover one if the call letters are misidentified. Query: Should messages being sent to net control be returned with a final destination confirmation? Larry Hornsby, KB8POD replied that this is not realistic. Keep in mind that the message is given to a runner who takes it to a final destination. One can't always know if it got there. On the other hand, this might be worthwhile for a high priority message. He sites one caveat to ham volunteers. Do not interpret the message. Pass it as given. Randy Love, WF5X suggests everyone who runs a station should log messages as to time, source, etc. That protects you. If a reply is expected, then say so. Don't expect a call-back message stating an arrival confirmation. From Barry Kaufman, WD8JWM: Should a responsible authority question whether a message arrived, ask if he or she wants to send another message concerning this. (8). Comments about Future Training by Justin Stabenow, KC8UQF: There will be a Skywarn training session on Wednesday, 1 March 2006, from 7-9 pm. More details will be given later. Plans for an IS-800 Class – "National Response Plan (NRP), an Introduction," will be announced later. Steve Iannucci states that by September 2006, a certain percentage from all disciplines of all first responders will be required to make and pass the IS-700 and IS-800 classes. (9). Public Service Information from Gary Sklar, K8IKW: Up-coming Events Sunday, 18 December 2005: Swap - Amateur Radio Group of Youth in Lowell at Lowell High School. Information at http://www.argyl.org Saturday, 14 January 2006: Aray Swap N Shop with America Radio and Youth Group in Flint. Information at http://www.arayclub.org Sunday, 15 January 2006: Hazel Park Amateur Radio Club Swap at Hazel Park High School. Information at http://www.qsl.net/w8hp/ (10). Recent Photos from Near New Orleans: Joel Goldberg, W8HIU showed members slides taken by his son, an Independent Claims Adjustor, of a hurricane-ravaged parish south of New Orleans. Respectfully submitted, James R. Murphy, N8SML Secretary Oakland County ARPSC 8 December 2005