Minutes of the December 9, 1995 Meeting
The Oakland ARES meeting came to order at the Wyman Vernon Auditorium at 9:10 AM with:
|
MacNoel Alvarez |
KE6MLQ |
|
Eric Helzer |
K6YPY |
|
Lyn Paleo |
KD6HXY |
|
Modesto M Alvarez |
KE6KPK |
|
Jean Pierre Heulin |
KC6JET |
|
L Vail Palomino |
KE6WPJ |
|
Le Roy Anderson |
KE6USF |
|
Kelly S Hise |
KD6FTK |
|
Chris Peeples |
KE6MQW |
|
Debbie Barragan |
KE6MRK |
|
Albert B Hodson |
K6ATV |
|
Bob Ploss |
KD6YJS |
|
Jim Bartoo |
WY6J |
|
Tim Ingham |
KD6CTG |
|
Jim Ploss |
KB6MYV |
|
Adele Bertaud |
KE6HKY |
|
Eric P Jacobs |
KK6MD |
|
David Pompa |
pending |
|
Donald R Bonney |
KE6SAF |
|
Roger Jung |
KE6STB |
|
Mike Pompa |
KD6PLN |
|
Chris Burgardt |
KE6SSW |
|
Marvin Kay |
K6GHE |
|
Herb Powell |
WA6CVY |
|
Paul Carlin |
KE6NVV |
|
Mark Keiser |
N4OGL |
|
Steve Renton |
KE6SAL |
|
Elaine Carter |
K6SZT |
|
Kenneth W Lem |
KE6CTC |
|
Hoyt D Roberts |
KE6YSL |
|
Elton Carter |
KE6MRJ |
|
Paulette Leston |
KE6CFW |
|
Mikal A Samad |
KE6HBL |
|
Jim Carter |
K6LWA |
|
John Lohse |
W6STX |
|
Barnard Schormann |
KE6TYY |
|
Elizabeth Charlton |
KO6XP |
|
Edward Love |
KE6EGN |
|
Wayne Schutte |
OakFire |
|
James D Christian |
N6VCR |
|
Tom C Luey |
KE6KZC |
|
Donald Street |
W6EHQ |
|
Don F Darrow |
N6XLW |
|
John Mayerhoffer |
WB6BYA |
|
Jim Tiemstra |
N6OIK |
|
Willie Denninger |
KE6EMX |
|
J. Mayerhoffer Jr. |
pending |
|
Brian Treusch |
KJ6LL |
|
R Peaslee Du Mont |
KA6NER |
|
Bob Mayes |
KE6DVT |
|
Ceferino Tunod |
KD6WCT |
|
Doug Faunt |
N6TQS |
|
Gerald Morris |
AC6GF |
|
Rem Van Tijen |
KE6JNM |
|
Bob Firehock |
KE6IUE |
|
Sherie Morris |
KE6MRB |
|
Mike Vandever |
KE6HCG |
|
Richard Gabor |
KO6TI |
|
Theresa Mulrooney |
KB6VCZ |
|
Mark Violet |
N6RCG |
|
Richmond Harding |
EL2BG |
|
Debbie Notkin |
KD6IAB |
|
Yvonne D Wade |
KE6QQE |
|
Hon. Elihu Harris |
pending |
|
David Otey |
WB6NER |
|
Hal Wine |
KE6QZN |
|
Lawrence Harris |
KE6IKG |
|
Juan Padilla |
KE6HCD |
|
Lalita Witt |
KE6WPI |
All meetings are normally held on the first Saturday of each month.
The next meeting will be Saturday, January 6 1995 at 9:00 AM
at the Red Cross Headquarters, 2111 E. 14th Street, Oakland 535-2800
Oakland ARES members quickly set up the site after the auditorium keys were found. Jim Tiemstra, N6OIK began the meeting with a rousing speech on volunteerism. He stressed appreciation for any help given, small or large. And if you make a mistake, you can't get fired from this job. His talk was followed by several short videos. David Otey, WB6NER brought out several large format organizational charts on which the audience entered their names in their areas of interest. He also presented a special award to Chris Burgardt, KE6SSW for services volunteered, especially during the 1995 fire patrols.
Alameda County Emergency Services official, Mark Keiser, N4OGL talked about how Oakland Ares/Races fits into the county picture. The county is working on providing a 1.2G repeater with 2.4G links and 2 meter access. It will be important to link to the county EOC in Dublin. A county-wide packet link is also planned. Mark also promoted participation in the communications aspects of the Baker to Vegas race as a way of stress testing our emergency preparedness. Packet, APRS using Global Positioning Systems and ad-hoc repeater set up are part of the process.
The meeting was highlighted by Mayor Elihu Harris who thanked the Oakland Ares/Races group for its past and future efforts. Mayor Harris understands that in a major emergency normal communications lines are disabled and overworked and that Amateur Radio will be a necessity. He also considers us communications professionals.
Radio Installation is complete in Fire Stations 1, 21, 6, and 17. Next up are stations 15, 8, and 20. Contact David, WB6NER to help with the next installation.
One of the committees formed at the December meeting set out to investigate getting Oakland ARES on the internet. The Pacific Division of the ARRL has already set up a web page. Its corrected URL is: http://www.pdarrl.org
Mike Pompa, KD6PLN contacted Randy Foutch, KE6HCI (rfoutch@wco.com), who set up the PDARRL pages. Randy encourages all Pacific Division ARES groups to add to this site either by linking or adding content. In a few weeks Oakland ARES should have its announcements and recent newsletters incorporated into that site. Browse to Alameda County, then Oakland.
The City of Oakland is considering establishing antenna permits with stiff fees, according to Brian, KJ6LL . This may be in conflict with a recently passed state law allowing certain classes of antennas to be installed without permit, mainly to enable "wireless cable" services to install receiving dishes at homes. As of this time, details are unknown. Contact Bob, KD6YJS for the viewpoint that antennas should be heard and not seen, and Chris, KE6MQW for the latest on Oakland City Council agendas.
Willy, KE6EMX expressed interest in getting the newsletter by packet rather than snail mail. If you would like to participate in this experiment, please send packet mail to KD6PLN@W6PW. Please specify the frequency and mailbox station ID if you want it sent to a personal mailbox.
If you missed paying the annual ARES dues of $12 (mainly to cover postage) at the meeting, there's still time to send a check made out to Oakland ARES to:
Bob Firehock
347 63rd St
Oakland, CA 94618
Amateur Radio Newsline #958 December 22 reports on rain and Oakland ARES:
Ham radio operators responded to the onslaught of a two day storm that pummeled Northern California with hurricane-force winds and torrential rain. The storm that hit on Monday, December 11th and continued through Tuesday the 12th was responsible for at least three deaths. It also felled trees, destroyed several structures and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands northern California residents.
During the height of the storm more than 600,000 homes and businesses were without power. This put many AC mains powered ham stations off the air at a time when some were activated to assist emergency services. In more than one instance this meant abandoning the high frequency bands emergency nets in favor of battery powered 2 meter mobiles, hand helds and packet stations.
News reports say that wind gusts in excess of 100 mph were recorded in the San Francisco Bay area and on several Sierra Nevada mountaintops. This combined with twenty-one inches of rain spelled disaster for many hams who relied on wire type antennas. Many of them were simply blown away by the ferocity of the storm. Even a 205 foot commercial radio tower that had stood for many years atop Mount San Bruno south of San Francisco was knocked over by the gale force winds.
Even under these conditions hams continued to provide a variety of services. Some were used to alert emergency planners of flooding conditions. Others worked on alerting the citizenry of highway and school closures throughout the northern part of the state. The total number of hams who volunteered their time and their stations in the wake of this emergency was substantial, but the exact total may never be known.
Ironically, the storm hit the area less than 48 hours after the Oakland Amateur Radio Emergency Service and Oakland Radio Amateur Civil Emergency service had scheduled to a special recruitment meeting. Oakland is a San Francisco suburb. It wants to sign up more of the areas Amateur Radio operators to become emergency communications volunteers. Among their varied tasks, Oakland ARES and RACES communications personnel support the American Red Cross, conducts fire patrols, and otherwise provides emergency communications during times of disaster, including storm related communications emergencies such as this.
Newsline articles may be reproduced if printed in their entirety and credit is given to AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE as being the source.