Oakland A.R.E.S. Newsletter June 6, 1998

<Announcements / Calendar>

• Meeting schedule: July 11 August 1 September 10
• Monthly Fire Station net: Thursday, June 4
• Field Day: June 27-28
• Fire Patrol: July 4

<RACES Report>

Due to organizational changes in the City of Oakland by City Manager Robert Bobb, our relationship to the City is changing. The first noticable change to us was our abrupt meeting location move to Fallon St. This is partly to help increase our visibility to fire department personnel. Second is the absence of Deborah Reisman in an official capacity, although she is always welcome to appear from time to time as a volunteer ham radio operator. Jim, K6JAT read us a letter from the Office of Emergency Services purporting to cut back on staff time devoted to ARES/RACES. Monthly meetings with the OES were canceled.

There was considerable speculation concerning OES funding from Project Safe and/or job security. Will the City leave critical communications issues by the wayside? Due to the many concerns expressed by the membership, ARES/RACES will send a formal response to the City requesting a reconsideration of some of these dramatic and unanticipated decisions before any serious damage is done to the relationship with the City.

<Special Events>

Core Drill Debriefing: Several problems surfaced during the exercise. Because net control could not hear most of the checkins on simplex, all messages were relayed thru a fire station. In retrospect the repeater should have been used. Second, most messages never made it to the airwaves during the allotted time. It was clear that in a real emergency we don't have enough bandwidth to accept incoming messages unless we use more frequencies and use what we have more efficiently. Because of interference, you can't have two transmitting radio antennas physically near each other on the same band (like it would be at OES / Dispatch) without using huge filters, like repeater cavities. So using more frequencies means using more bands. To use what we have more efficiently means keeping messages short. The CORE messages had superfluous text beyond the location, the problem, and who to reply to. Speaking slowly to avoid repeating is important. Brian quoted a statistic that the best one can do in voice is 12 WPM. Sending messages via packet when done properly is much more efficient than voice. We will increase our training in these areas.

Field Day: The City Stables site at 13560 Skyline Blvd. will be used again for this 24 hour communications event stressing emergency power. This location has plenty of room for camping out. Will Brian, W6LL offer his call again for the event so that we will have full band privileges? Will Willy, KE6EMX start spelling his name with an ie? Come to the June meeting to find out and plan for the event.

Desktop Exercise: A "Relay Race" exercise was conducted, pitting voice against packet. Packet got a slow start as participants who had never used packet, pounded out the messages at the keyboard. Voice managed to get one more message passed than packet. Participants requested another chance at the exercise at the end of this month's meeting. We will also attempt to piece together a new packet system. If the member who made the request brings in the pieces (Mac, TNC and serial cable), Mike, KB6MP will bring in the terminal program on a diskette.

Training: Mark, N6RCG has been piecing together a training/course package designed to certify members' emergency communications preparedness level. There would be four or five levels and covers basic knowledge and practice or experience using ham radios combined with proof of ownership of certain equipment and supplies. There is a chance that the first class would be held either this or next month.

ORCA: The O akland, R adio C ommunication A ssociation formation committee met on May 19 where a draft constitution and bylaws was analyzed and picked apart. The tax status of ORCA is planned to be 401(c)(7), which is non-profit, but does not allow for tax deductible donations to it. The revision will be presented at another meeting on June 2 at 6 PM at the Oakland Kaiser Administration offices at 1950 Franklin in one of the 2nd floor conference rooms. If all goes to plan, the commitee will present the revised documents to the June ARES meeting for approval. We can then sign the organization into existance.

<Tidbits>

Web sightings: Utah County ARES has training and certification documents at http://www.ucares.org/html/certification.html

Congratulations: to Donald, W6EHQ for upgrading to Extra class and Alan, KQ6TW from the OPD, formerly KE6PPB for upgrading to Advanced class.

Newsletter: Thanks to Dave, KF6EPQ for taking on the newsletter production job. Note this month's earlier deadline of Wednesday, June 17 for submissions to the July issue.

Stolen: Kenwood TM-733A mobile dual band S/N 70400103. Also, old dual band antenna with broken BNC connector and emergency Cobra CB radio in a box (never used). Contact Oakland Police and Mike, KB6MP if you find them in a flea market/garage sale.

RM 9267: There was a very short request for comments regarding a preliminary proposal from the Land Mobile Communications Council that included a request to have primary access to the 440 band. Details are on the Pacific Division website http://www.pdarrl.org/pdu/ If comments submitted before June 1 do not divert this spectrum grab, there will be another opportunity in the future to defend the band.

Web site: The ousd server continues to pose problems. I'm hoping the cause of the missing ARES pages is that files are being moved to a new server. If the situation doesn't clear up, the site will find a new home this summer. You can still rely on http://www.pdarrl.org/ebsec/oak/ for the latest news.

<Attendance Sheet>

The Oakland ARES meeting came to order at the OFD Training Center at 9:15 AM. Present were:

Robin Bartoo	KF6CZL		Doug Faunt	N6TQS		Chris Peeples	KE6MQW
Adele Bertaud	KE6HKY		Curtis Floray	KA6MJO		Jim Ploss	KB6MYV
Donald R Bonney	KE6SAF		Glenn Hammonds	KE6YLT		Mike Pompa	KB6MP
Herbert Bowen	WA6CUY		Dave Harnish	KF6EQA		Margery Service	KF6GTT
Jim Carter	K6LWA		Roger Jung	KE6STB		Jim Tiemstra	K6JAT
Mike Cassidy	W6UAB		Edward Kilmartin	KE6WPG		Brian Treusch	W6LL
Louis Cobet	K6MDH		Denise Kimball	KF6BIO		Rem Van Tyen	KE6JNM
Dave Cudaback	KF6GRL		Bob Mayes	KE6DVT		Mark Violet	N6RCG
Willy Denninger	KE6EMX		Dave McGuinness	KF6EPQ		Lloyd White	KF6JRL
Kathy Dodge	KF6GZY		Art McLaughlin	W6THD

Meetings are normally held on the first Saturday of each month.