2018-01-04 minutes

January 04, 2018 LPARC Minutes

Attendees:

Penny Allen, KM6JUO, President

Bert Bailey, KG6MBA, EC

Dan Pugh, KM6GNG, AEC

Kathy Adams, KD6SEI, member

Introductions and Acceptance of Past Minutes

Penny called the meeting to order at 7:09 PM. The meeting had few attendees this month, but special thoughts go out to John Yontz and Pam Towner who could not attend due to illness. The minutes for last month were accepted.

Treasurer's Report

The Treasurer, Bill Rose was unable to attend. However, Bert and Dan paid their dues ($40) and Kathy paid ½ her dues ($20). There were no incurred expenses in December 2017.

Nets

02JA18 Bert

09 JA18 John*

16 JA18 Dan

23 JA18 Bert*

30 JA18 Penny

Since John did not attend the meeting - if he has a problem doing the net on the assigned days, could he please call Penny as a back-up.

*Bert and John traded dates.

Equipment

* Bert reported that the KC6TYG, AE6KA and AB6VS repeaters are working fine.

* Bert reported that he is still researching replacement transceivers for the Loma Prieta EOC. He has been looking at Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu, and Alinko. He is particularly concerned about; 1) UHF transmit frequency range, and 2) simultaneous receive frequency capabilities.

* Dan mentioned that during his participation in a recent Santa Cruz exercise that the packet templates used in Winlink Express were significant in size compared to those used by Santa Clara county Outpost. During this discussion we agreed that our Outpost in the Loma Prieta EOC's computer needs upgrading. Dan volunteered to do this.

* During a discussion of what is lacking at the Loma Prieta EOC, Bert mentioned that the EOC really needs a printer for the packet station to capture messages sent/received in hard copy. Dan recommended a low cost Cannon 3020.

* Dan also mentioned that during his participation in a recent Santa Cruz exercise, that Dominican Hospital has funds for buying emergency HAM equipment to be kept at the hospital. Bert took an action to contact Cap Pennell and/or Jerry Inman to see if we could assist in providing recommendations for a cost efficient HAM equipment suite.

ARES EC Report

* Bert reported on the ARRL is planning to revamp ARES procedures and will be rolling out a whole set of new procedures/requirements for ARES volunteers. In the coming months, information will be coming out regarding:

1) New national mission statement for ARES

2) New national requirements and local training resources for ARES

3) Updated field organization job descriptions

4) New ARES benefits. This includes ARES book sets, new Ham referral, and

e-mail forwarding.

5) New volunteer management system-ARES Connect.

6) New group and individual IDs (with city/county/district info)

* Bert and Dan are expected to attend the 11JA18 Santa Clara county EC meeting. They hope to bring back details on the upcoming Santa Clara county emergency drill occurring on 10FE18.

President's Report

* Penny asked all members to please consider the 2 following questions and bring their answers to next month's meeting. The questions are:

1) What folks like to see the Club do this year?

2) What are each member's personal Ham goals for 2018?

* Penny also raised the point that she and many of the members were fairly new to HAM and that she would like to take advantage of that by requesting that the club do more training. She specifically mentioned the following areas:

1) What are the duties of the Santa Cruz and Santa Clara Offices of Emergency Services(OES)? And where are they located?

2) Who are the key personnel associated with Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties? What is their contact information (Names, E-mails, Phone numbers)?

3) How the club should activate associated with a disaster event? Associated with this was mentioned that the Club needs a contacts list of Club members, This should include name, call sign, license class, mailing address, e-mail address, home and mobile phone numbers, and yes/no ARES membership,

4) Which forms are required when during an emergency event?

5) What is the Incident Command System (ICS) and how does it apply to Loma Prieta club activities during an emergency?

6) More on Antenna operation and selection

* Penny also requested that club members should inform folks about upcoming HAM event/training. Penny also asked folks who actually attend such an event to brief their experiences at the clubs meetings so that the club members could all learn from the experience.

Training

* Dan volunteered to give a briefing on Santa Clara county's definitions of Type I, II, and III nets at February's club.

* Bert volunteered to give a briefing on the Incident Command System (ICS) and how does it applies to Loma Prieta club activities during an emergency. This briefing is planned for the Club March monthly meeting.

New Business

* N/A

Old Business

* Bert wants the club to do a foxhunt event. To aid in the planning of this event he needs to have the following questions answered:

1) Over how large an area would folks be willing to operate? (+/- 50 miles, the area of a county, within the borders of a park)

2) What should we use as the fox transmitter?

3) How long should the foxhunt event run?

3) Should the fox give out hints after a time?

Action Items

* During the meeting the following action items were given out:

1) Dan to give Type I, II, II net brief at next club meeting.

2) Bert to give ICS brief at the March Club meeting.

3) Dan to send Penny info on where to look for info on the upcoming 10FE18 Santa Clara Communications drill.

4) Dan to update Outpost SW on the Loma Prieta EOC computer to include the new form templates.

5) All are to bring to the next meeting their HAM goals and club expectations to next month's meeting.

6) Bert to talk to Cap and/or Jerry Inman regarding equipment for Dominican hospital.

7) Penny is to contact John regarding net control assignment.

8) Penny is to e-mail all members regarding the 2018 club dues are now due. This includes mentioning that the dues are now $40 member, $25 student, and $50 family.

9) Penny to get collected club dues to Bill Rose, the club treasurer.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 09:56 PM.