Minutes of the July 8, 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
Chris Bungardt KE6SSW
Elton Carter KE6MRJ
Willie Denninger KE6EMX
Doug Faunt N6TQS
Tim Ingham KD6CTG
Bob Mayes KE6DVT
Art McLaughlin W6THD
David Otey WB6NER
Bob Ploss KD6YJS
Jim Ploss KB6MYV
Jim Porteous N6HZL
Deborah Reisman KE6MQV
Donald Street W6EHQ
Jim Tiemstra N6OIK
Matt Trail KN6CR
Mike Vandever KE6HCG
Mark Violet N6RCG
All meetings are normally held on the first Saturday of each month.
The next meeting will be Saturday, August 5, 1995 at 10:00 AM
at the Red Cross Headquarters, 2111 E. 14th Street, Oakland 535-2800
Willy Denninger (KE6EMX) reported that by the end
of July we will have a dual bander installed in the police
communications van. Problems with the Fire Dept. Mobile Unit were
brought up and a solution of utilizing the battalion vehicles
available was suggested.
David Otey (WB6NER) reported that Fire Station #1
requires a larger diameter hole to be drilled in cement wall to feed
more cable for additional equipment at that site.
Jim Tiemstra (N6OIK) attended the Alameda County
Emergency Management Board meeting where they laid out a plan to
coordinate all levels of emergency response using the
S tandardized E mergency
M anagement S ystem. Oakland signed
up to their S tandard O perating
P rocedureS , making them eligible
for state aid during an emergency. The county EOC will use OASIS
satellite system and I ncident C
ommand S ystem. The new EOC, patterned on the LA
model after Northridge, is located in Dublin, which poses a challenge
communicating over the hills without repeaters.
Deborah Reisman (KE6MQV) City of Oakland Emergency Planning Coordinator displayed completed temporary ID cards. They were viewed and left with Deborah so they could be laminated. Those whose pictures were taken, but hadn't completed and signed the actual cards did not have IDs made up. The final version of IDs displaying a different watermark logo on a more durable card stock should be available in a month or two. Deborah also elaborated on the Dublin ALCO EOC site pointing out its seismographic virtues and state of the art construction. A meeting will be held in October where everyone will have the opportunity to check out the new site.
Jim Tiemstra opened discussion on the July 2 Fire Patrol, stating some of the goals for the exercise, including that the manual was rewritten, a matrix was put together, operators contacted and a route survey made up. Bay TV did an story on the patrol which was aired July 3rd. The OFD requested another patrol for the 4th but cancelled when it was discovered OFD was reducing their patrols. A request by the press to cover the holiday exercise was declined. Next year we may even run the fire patrol on the 4th.
Participating operators provided their assesments of the Sunday patrol. Those in the "Southern End" found their area filled with pockets of poor reception. For net control, there was a problem with having only 1 radio to monitor 2 bands. Those operators in the "Northern End" found their routes visually limiting. Problem solving included reminders to inform net control when leaving a frequency. Net control will ask operators to "stand by" while monitoring another frequency; a check list should be kept listing who's on which frequency with check-ins and check-outs; difficulty hearing when there is more than one radio in a room would be remedied by the use of earphones. Someone suggested having more patrols and placing fixed stations in the hills, and below looking up from a distance, perhaps using binoculars. The suggestion to use a uniform locator such as the Thos. Bros. Map Books as well as corresponding pull-down maps at EOC was unanimously accepted. It was suggested that all operators store this map in their vehicles as part of their emergency kit to facilitate locating oneself using page numbers and map grid. Joe Sullivan "Not Yet Licensed" of Montclair Book Tree offers these maps to ARES members at Costco's price. The operator's disaster manual will expand on relaying dead spots and relaying on simplex. A request was made to start the fire patrol exersises on time.
Deborah Reisman stressed the importance the city and county places on communications during a disaster and the high regard held for amateur radio's role. There was much praise for the system set up in Alameda County.
Mark Violet (N6RCG) is setting up a net control class after the Sept 9 meeting. Those learning how to operate net conrol will be able to operate in the following weeks.
Jim Ploss (KB6MYV) expressed a need for ATV coverage and volunteers for the October 29 Regatta event. Doug Faunt (N6TQS) has access to 2 laptop computers for packet but needs 2 more. Mark Violet will call Regatta organizers for more details on the event.