Yolo County ARES Meeting Minutes

Yolo ARES Meeting Minutes for 1/18/2011

Yolo ARES Meeting
January 18, 2011
7:00 to 8:20 p.m.

PRESENT
EC Darrin K9RTY
AEC Bill K6KN
AEC LaVonne K6LAV
AEC Greg KG6SJT
AEC Wes WS6Z
Bryce K7DWO
Charles N6JOA
Gary WA6TQJ
Jason KI6OBF
Lu W6KJX
Rick N6KLB
Rob N6KIX
Todd KE6GCV
William K6BIL

NET CONTROL
Weekly net control and practice message responsibilities will be pre-assigned this year, rather than rely on members to sign up. If your schedule will prohibit you from doing net control or the message on the evening you are scheduled, please contact another ARES member to substitute.

Reminder – It is preferred that net control practice messages be kept to 25 words.

DUES
It is time for annual dues to be paid. In order to support equipments needs of the BARK repeater, including the purchase of new controller equipment, this year dues will be $35, of which $25 will go to BARK and $10 to ARES. ARES reserves are adequate to support ARES’s needs. Please pay your dues to Bill – K6BIL at Bill Gustafson, 1733 Tehama, Woodland, 95695. Note: if you are already a BARK member and have paid your BARK dues for this year, then you only need to pay $10 to ARES.

MONTHLY TRAINING GOALS AND ACTIVITIES
Field Day will be June 25 & 26. Suggestion was made for Yolo ARES to conduct a joint field day event with YARS. This event is a great opportunity for outreach with alliance agencies, such as the various fire stations and the Red Cross. By inviting these agencies to the event, they have an opportunity to see what ARES can do.

Discussed several possible options for the field day location. Those mentioned included Camp Pollack on the American River, Nelson’s Grove. Consensus was the best option for an operating site may be in Winters, Road 29. Will need to finalize plans over the next few months. Yolo ARES will make a final decision at the February meeting as to whether we will host a field day this year. Will need to consider and plan for various logistics including:
Set up procedure
Location
Food
Strategy for making contacts
Logging program selection
Plans for training CW operators
Partner assignments for field day
Types of demos to be conducted

Bill (K6KN) and Gary (WA6TQJ) will make a list of the things that need to be done to prepare for field day and report at the February meeting.

CW TRAINING
Wes (WS6Z) reported on his recent CW presentation to YARS and offered to repeat it for Yolo ARES. CW training tools can be found at hamtools.org. Wes will do the training at the February 15th ARES meeting.

MEMBERS’ EQUIPMENT
Darrin noted that the weekly net following the ARES meeting has been Net Control choice.
He reminded members to go to the Yolo ARES website (www.YoloARES.org) and update your equipment list. This year, we will have Net Control operate from the three Davis fire stations, at least once at each station.

ARES VESTS
All Yolo ARES members need to wear the Yolo ARES vest when participating in ARES events. Contact Darrin if you do not have a vest.

YOLO ARES EQUIPMENT NEEDS
Discussed the equipment needs for Yolo ARES this year. Darrin has purchased two solar panels for ARES (needs a controller). Batteries are needed. Wes (WS6Z), Jason, (KI6OBF) and Rick (N6KLB) will determine what batteries are needed and report at the February meeting.

ARRL ANNOUNCES TWO LEVELS FOR ARES MEMBERS
It was reported that ARRL is going to establish two levels of ARES members – full and associate. The full levlel will be available to those who have taken the FEMA classes 100, 200, 700 and 800. The classes and class materials are available online and are free. Complete details are available on the ARRL website.

TRAINING CLASSES AND EVENTS
Antenna Classes: Wes (WS6Z) is hosting an antennae building event at his home this coming weekend. ARES members are invited. ARES will also schedule an antennae building class in April or May.

Mapping / GPS Event: This event will be scheduled in April.

WinLINK Demonstration: Will be scheduled in June.

Logging will be taught as part of Field Day activities in June.

HOSPITAL PREPAREDNESS PROGRAM
Dana Carey from Yolo County Department of Emergency Services sent an email to Yolo ARES noted that the Hospital Preparedness Program Committee is interested in possible ham radio equipment and finding out about ham licensing. She asked that an ARES member provide a short overview to the committee on how an agency gets started and maintains ham licensure. The committee meeting is on February 10th between 10 a.m. and 12:00 noon. Darrin will communicate with Dana and let her know he will attend the meeting on behalf of ARES.

RED CROSS SHELTER DRILL
Bill (K6KN) reported that the Capital Regional Chapter of Red Cross is planning an emergency exercise / shelter drill on January 21st. It is anticipated that two shelters will be set up. Ham radio will be used exclusively for at least the first hour.

Yolo County ARES