LPARC Minutes
March 7, 2013
Present:
George Smith, President; Austin L., Vice President; Kathi Larkin, Secretary; Bill Rose, Treasurer; David Katinsky, Jennifer Katinsky.
George Smith called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm
Approval of the February 7, 2013 minutes
Jennifer moves we approve, Bill seconds, approved.
Treasurer’s Report – Bill Rose
$1142.34 current balance
$100 dues income
$200 expense – annual insurance for club
George gave the secretary a copy of the certificate
Nets
3/12 – Austin, 3/19 – Bill, 3/26–Jennifer, 4/2 – George
Equipment
KC6TYG repeater – Bert was up there yesterday. Troubleshooting with Austin.
Repeater is fine. New batteries. Likely an antenna problem.
AB6VS whine – Austin has been asked to knock it down a few dbs.
AE6KE – seems fine, intermittent issues.
President’s Report – George Smith
Cap email – Red Cross phasing out Emergency Communications vehicles.
Discussion about Packet Radio, digital transmissions.
David K. says Santa Clara County ARES has high standards for ARES members and welcomes us to attend their classes, including Packet Radio classes.
See their website.
Sue and George met with Tom L. at the Loma/CTE School.
CA schools have a requirement for redundant communication.
Cell phones, local CB or FRS, but they are supposed to have tertiary back up….in town, fire radios linked directly to OES.
They want to know if our ham radio group can provide that tertiary backup.
George will consult with Cap on this. We considered the various insurance/liability issues and decided we should encourage the school to get a couple of their own staff members to get ham radio licenses, so they can use the equipment that is at the school.
Old Business
ARES DSW
It is not too late.
David brought an email saying Santa Clara County ARES is meeting on February 13th indicating the Santa Clara County ARES DSW procedure:
1. Scott Morse says that each of our ARES members should go on the Santa Clara County ARES website, and update their information in the database:
http://www.scc-ares-races.org/arrl-info.html
2. David can pick up the stickers and bring them to the ARES members up here.
George will send a list of the club members who are ARES members so David can create an ARES@LPARC.org email list.
Club Liability Insurance discussion
Website:
http://www.arrl.org/affiliated-club-benefits
Some further discussion about whether we have enough need for the insurance.
David moves we purchase the $200 insurance, Kathi seconds. 3 out of 5 members vote yes. 2 abstain.
Add certificate and the policy to the minutes.
ARES co-training with Summit CERT
Austin is working with Bert on the ppt. They will email it to me in advance of the Thursday, March 21st training.
Thursday March 21st, about 1 hour. 9-10pm? We will need FRS radios.
and
Saturday March 30th - final exercise, 11am - 5pm, perhaps a radio operator can shadow each CERT “team”
We will need several ARES operators for this.
Perhaps we should activate ARES DSW for this training?
Or will the ARES members be Subject Matter Expert, trainers for the evening?
New Business
NARCC – Repeater Coordination Committee
Gave Austin a hard time about having not paid our repeater dues, when he had. They finally relented, so we are in good standing.
Science Fair Day April 6th
Jennifer Katinsky will set it up – thank you!
Training – try again next month
Next time bring HTs so we can try to use one another’s.
Batteries
Austin knows how to repurpose old lithium batteries – put them in HTs – long charge!
David motions to adjourn, Austin seconds, adjourned at 8:15 pm