There will be an ORCA ARES meeting on Saturday, November 7, 1998
at 9:00 AM
at the Oakland Red Cross 3901 Broadway.
The Oakland Red Cross, located at 3901 Broadway, will be the site of the November meeting. We will get a tour of the radio room after our meeting. Parking is in the back.
A two-hour exercise where participants were dispatched to several fire stations concluded with a debriefing at Station 1. An attempt was made to activate the Call Quick system from the OES, but the system failed to dial any of our RACES members. One of the members noticed that some of the rigs are mounted with insufficient space to plug into the headphone jack located on the back. We discovered that our secondary simplex frequency 146.565 is also used by the San Leandro OES, which would be a problem in a widespread disaster. The most requested piece of information during the drill was fire station addresses, so this month's newsletter includes a fire station list on the "back of the envelope." Finally, after Resource Net Control hands you off to another frequency, it's important to remember to eventually return to that frequency to check out of the net. That way, you won't become a missing person to be searched for.
Regatta: Thanks to Mark N6RCG, Doug N6TQS and Chris KQ6JZ. Chris reports that to reduce antenna systems needed for this event, we installed a digipeater at station 4. Last year we needed a 10' mast with a VFW J-pole and 10W to make the connection. This year, 5W and an MFJ 1/4 wave magmount (with no ground plane, except the water effects) were all that were needed.
Pacificon: ORCA set up a table at the swap meet. Thanks to Brian W6LL and Robin KF6CZL for arriving at 6:30 to set up, and to Mark N6RCG , Donald K6EHQ and Dale KD6KMU for booth duty, Doug N6TQS and Chris KQ6JZ for supplies, and Mike KB6MP for coordination.
David WB6NER conducted a session about the Bay Area Hospital Net and Mike KB6MP presented the Pacific Division Website. Each had about 30 attendees in the audience.
In emergency situations, ARES/RACES members will likely need to establish a radio station at a remote site or in a vehicle. An H/T can work in some situations, but frequently a more robust station is what is needed. One possible solution is a simple "radio in a box." The basic components are a 50W mobile radio, a sealed gel-cell battery, an antenna, and an enclosure. The radio could be single, dual, or tri band. The 50W is specified because our tests have shown that to reach fire dispatch from a vehicle in some of the canyons in the Oakland hills, you need that much power. The size of the battery greatly depends on the user's strength. The battery is likely to be the heaviest item in your box. A 26Ah battery (available from Interstate Battery) is a good size for many users, but is a little on the heavy side. Smaller batteries can usually be found at the local hamfests. The antenna is greatly limited by the size of the enclosure. While a longer (and better) antenna could be kept separately from the radio, the advantage of being able to grab one box in an emergency probably justifies giving up the improved performance of a different antenna. MFJ makes a dual band (2m/70cm) mag-mount antenna which retails for $14.95. It is 1/4 wave on 2m (so it should have a ground plane) which allows it to fit into a relatively small space. For the enclosure, Home Depot sells a small "ammo box." It costs about $10 and even has a gasket to keep the lid sealed when closed. Carefully selected, the radio, battery, antenna, miscellaneous adapters, some duct tape, and pens and paper can all be stored in the box ready for action at a moment's notice.
Web sightings: The DX Listeners Club http://www.dxlc.com featuring the Solar Terrestrial Activity Report.
FCC License Restructuring: The deadline for comments, December 1, is fast approaching. Remember, the document you are responding to is mostly a series of questions to the Amateur Radio community. Please respond to one or more of their questions, rather than send them an "I like it" or "I hate it" comment.
NASA Ames: The Space Shuttle Discovery audio is rebroadcast on 145.585 MHz.
Bay Area Hospital Net meeting: Contact david.otey@kp.org to attend a lunchtime meeting at downtown Oakland Kaiser offices on Friday November 20 at 12:30PM.
RSI: Repetitive Strain Injury is greatly reducing the amount of typing pain your newsletter editor Mike KB6MP is willing to endure. Please submit articles, unless you prefer to see a lot more pictures in the same space.
The ORCA SET debriefing came to order at Fire Station 1 at 11:00
AM. SET Participants were:
|
Adele Bertaud |
KE6HKY |
|
Doug Faunt |
N6TQS |
|
Mike Pompa |
KB6MP |
|
Chris Burgardt |
KQ6JZ |
|
Bob Firehock |
KE6IUE |
|
Donald Street |
K6EHQ |
|
Jim Carter |
K6LWA |
|
Art McLaughlin |
W6THD |
|
Jim Tiemstra |
K6JAT |
|
Mike Cassidy |
W6UAB |
|
David Otey |
WB6NER |
|
Brian Treusch |
W6LL |
|
Rick Davis |
N6ZWI |
|
Chris Peeples |
KE6MQW |
|
Mark Violet |
N6RCG |