Oakland A.R.E.S. Newsletter July 8, 1995


Minutes of the June 10, 1995 Meeting

The Oakland ARES meeting came to order at Oakland Red Cross at 9:00 AM. Present were:

Debbie Barragan KE6MRK
Adele Bertaud KE6HKY
Elton Carter KE6MRJ
Doug Faunt N6TQS
Tim Ingham KD6CTG
Bob Mayes KE6DVT
Art McLaughlin W6THD
Bob Ploss KD6YJS
Jim Ploss KB6MYV
David Pompa pending
Mike Pompa KD6PLN
Jim Porteous N6HZL
Deborah Reisman KE6MQV
Donald Street W6EHQ
Jim Tiemstra N6OIK
Matt Trail KN6CR
Mike Vandever KE6HCG
Mark Violet N6RCG
Chris Bungardt KE6SSW
and several others

All meetings are normally held on the first Saturday of each month.

The next meeting will be Saturday, July 8, 1995 at 9:00 AM

at the Red Cross Headquarters, 2111 E. 14th Street, Oakland 535-2800

Announcements / Calendar

Oakland OES Report

Deborah Reisman (KE6MQV) of Oakland's Office of Emergency Services took more photos and reported a computer delay in issuing IDs. Combined with office relocation, it will be a couple of months before we receive them. Jim Tiemstra (N6OIK) clarified the RACES group's relationship to the city vs. the CORE program. Our priority is to help the city, not our neighborhood's CORE. Unlike city workers, however, we can attend to our homes and loved ones first. Deborah looks at the CORE program as a way to feel her home is secure when she can't see to it. Several members expressed concern about their dual commitments. The suggestion was to delegate CORE communications to other neighbors.

Jim Ploss (KB6MYV) produced an up-to-date list of the 574 Oakland hams for a mailing to encourage them to participate in ARES/RACES.

Jim Tiemstra reports that a 2nd dual band radio and antenna will be installed in Fire Station 1 soon and that the Police Comm van will house a ham radio soon. Fire Stations 6 and 21 now have dual banders installed. Nets are encouraged to originate from there.

ALCO ARES Meeting

Mark Violet (N6RCG) reports that there's a plan to use 1.2 Gig radios to link Emergency Coodinators. Intra-city and most intercity communications will remain on 2-meters.

Oakland's next net control duties for the ACES net will be in November. EC's will be given net control class training so that there will be consistency between nets.

Jim Ploss planned to train several new net control operators during his 6/15 net but was rained out.

WB6NDJ woes

We all appreciate the work Greg Rogers (KD6FPP), Gerry White (WB6IZE) and Roger Wixson (W6FDJ) put in to reviving the repeater after fixing the motorboating problem. The controller lost all its programming. After many tiresome hours, the most needed facilites are now back. The autopatch and voice timeouts are much shorter than before. If the repeater times you out, you will hear the sound of a needle being dragged across a record.

The new 440 machine is being bench checked and all modifications, programming and interconnects carefully documented to ensure a reliable installation when the time comes, whenever that is.

New Jobs

Jim Ploss is retiring from the newsletter business, but not from anything else in our group. Thanks for many years of great reading. Mike Pompa (KD6PLN) starts production with this newsletter, assisted by Debbie Barragan (KE6MRK) .

Mark is looking for a Treasurer to replace John who always seems to be in Mexico. Coincidence? I think not!