If you received this newsletter because you became a new ham, upgraded, renewed, or moved to Oakland, Piedmont, Alameda or Emeryville within the last year, congratulations! We have had an exciting year of emergency preparedness activities. During 1997, we finished installation of ham radios in new fire stations, conducted an el nino drill with the fire department, went out on fire patrol, and ran a new ham licensing class. We experimented with bicycle mobile communications for several events, including several walkathons, a rowing race and National Night Out, worked Field Day, got great press coverage and praise from the mayor, expanded our web site, and found a new meeting site: Leona Lodge. Here is a map: We invite you to come to one of our monthly meetings (bagels often provided), check in to our weekly Thursday net, and learn or exercise your emergency operating skills. If you can, stop by our web site at http://ousd.k12.ca.us/~mpompa/ares/ It is rapidly approaching the 1000th visitor point. It contains a wealth of information and archives 2 1/2 years of this newsletter.
To join or renew your membership to Oakland ARES/RACES for 1998, bring a check to the meeting or mail it to: Oakland ARES, 347 63rd St., Oakland 94618 . We'll update the mailing list with your info and keep you posted with the monthly newsletter. Now for a recap of what happened last month.
The airport drill, also known as Broken OAK ran a simulated accident on the tarmac using cell phones and calling out the Airport Fire Department. Ham radio served as a safety net for the event in case of real injuries. Orientation for this drill occurred during business hours.
As a result of the SET debriefing, updated Fire Station maps will be distributed at the January meeting. Also mentioned was the need for participants to carry city maps to reduce direction-giving traffic. The Police Dept. observers to the SET will be working with our group looking for ways to make use of our skills during emergencies as well.
The Oakland Unified School District is starting to talk to Oakland ARES about emergency support. We have extra antennas from the Measure I purchase that could possibly be installed at key school sites that may be used for shelters. Unfortunately, it is difficult to predict which sites will be chosen for shelters until after a disaster occurs.
Ted Harris, N6IIU and Charles Tallahara, Red Cross County Disaster Specialist met with Oakland ARES and again on December 17, with Red Cross Communications Volunteers to describe the plans for communications at the new Oakland office location, 3901 Broadway, the old Masonic Temple building. There will be quite an antenna farm atop the building, including a log periodic beam whose largest element is almost 49' long! Half a mile of LDF5 antenna cable at $4 a foot will be strung to the radio room.
Ted enlisted our help in finding the source of unauthorized use of Red Cross Frequencies. The problem is that some Bay Area outfit is renting out radios to construction sites that use 467.9875 or 467.0125, which are repeated throughout the Bay Area onto 47.42. If you can monitor these frequencies and can report signal strength or direction of the 467 Mhz frequencies to Ted at 650-259-1765 he may be able to find the construction site and find out who they rented the radios from. It's important to get the construction workers' cooperation, as they are not at fault.
Veteran's Day Parade: This event gave Oakland hams an opportunity to meet and work with other hams in Alameda County - a quasi-mutual aid scenario. Thanks to KE6SSY, KD6OAQ, KD6OCW .
Baker to Vegas: This 120 mile relay footrace in the desert will occur on the weekend of April 24-25. Ham support includes repeater setup, GPS tracking of follow vans and coordination of runner shuttles. Register on the web at http://www.baker-to-vegas.org or phone Jim, KB6MYV at 420-0570. First general meeting will be at 10 AM on January 24 at Fremont Fire Station #4.
Web sightings: EDIS on the web: gopher://oes1.oes.ca.gov:5555/11/edis.msg
Welcome: Syd, W6QWK, Armando, N6RQA and Ted N6IIU , and if you haven't noticed yet Mike, KB6MP traded away KD6PLN.
Vanity Callsigns: Gate 4 of the FCC vanity callsign program began in December, which means any class ham may now request a custom callsign appropriate for their license class at a cost of $50 every 10 years. Information and an application form is on the FCC web site at http://www.fcc.gov/wtb/amateur/
The Oakland ARES meeting came to order at the Oakland Red Cross at 9:00 AM. Present were:
|
Adele Bertaud |
KE6HKY |
|
Dave Harnish |
KF6EQA |
|
Mike Pompa |
KB6MP |
|
Donald R Bonney |
KE6SAF |
|
Ted Harris |
N6IIU |
|
Chloe Reisman |
pending |
|
Herbert Bowen |
WA6CUY |
|
Alan Horn |
KF6GYW |
|
Deborah Reisman |
KE6MQV |
|
Chris Burgardt |
KQ6JZ |
|
Roger Jung |
KE6STB |
|
Tim Roberts |
KF6BYG |
|
Jim Carter |
K6LWA |
|
Bob Mayes |
KE6DVT |
|
Margery Service |
KF6GTT |
|
Susan Chan Rogers |
pending |
|
Dave McGuinness |
KF6EPQ |
|
Theodore Stewart |
W6NPB |
|
Armando Chenyek |
N6RQA |
|
Cherie Morris |
W6BBK |
|
Donald Street |
K6EHQ |
|
Doug Faunt |
N6TQS |
|
Gerald Morris |
K6QY |
|
Brian Treusch |
W6LL |
|
Curtis Floray |
KA6MJO |
|
David Otey |
WB6NER |
|
Mark Violet |
N6RCG |
|
Syd Furman |
W6QWK |
|
Chris Peeples |
KE6MQW |
|
Lloyd White |
KF6JRL |
|
Richard Gabor |
KO6TI |
|
Jim Ploss |
KB6MYV |
|
|
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Due to the holidays, the next meeting will be Saturday, January
10, 1998 at 9:00 AM
at Leona Lodge, 4444 Mountain Blvd.