A.R.E.S. Newsletter December 5, 1998

<Announcements / Calendar>

• Activity schedule:
  • December 5: ARES Training I at Leona Lodge
  • January 9: Molex power connector construction
• Monthly Fire Station net: Thursday, December 3
• VHF Repeaters Holiday Party Thursday, Dec. 17 at Cesare's Restaurant, Oakland

Less Talk, More Activities

Projects, classes, guest speakers and social events will be the focus of upcoming ORCA meetings. The December meeting will have a shorter business portion (under 45 minutes) followed by the ARES training session that was originally scheduled for September: Bring your radio & manual and learn how to program your radio. In January, a pungent odor will fill the air as you solder 2 sets of power connectors: one for your shack and one for a fire station. To reduce the business portion of our meetings, this newsletter will contain more of the reports that have been given orally at past meetings.

To support additional activities, ORCA 1999 dues are now $15. We ask that you pay your dues by the January meeting so that we can update our mailing lists. Oakland ARES will no longer collect dues. Mailings to ARES members will drop to quarterly (January, April, July, October). Only paid ORCA members will continue to receive monthly newsletters.

<Red Cross

Members toured the pristine, orderly Oakland Red Cross radio room after our meeting. About a dozen radios, ranging from VHF, UHF, HF, LF, satellite, packet, CB, Red Cross, and scanners were connected by hard line to the antenna farm on the roof, which included a huge log peridoic beam. Thanks to Marvin K6GHE for the tour.

<RACES Report>

Doug Wong , our new OES liaison is meeting monthly with Jim K6JAT . New Call Quick forms will be distributed at the December meeting, while the OES fixes problems encountered with activating the system. The police 911 building antenna site evaluation was scheduled for November 18. We requested more coordination with the CORE drill in April. Jim handed out a Net Control operating manual and encouraged members to take charge and conduct an informal net if no one else starts the Thursday Net. Mark N6RCG will contact Jim KB6MYV regarding the fire station manuals and ARES standard power connectors. In 1999 there will be fire station upgrades including battery swaps, molex connector outlets, headphone extension jacks, programming radios with weather and NASA Ames frequencies, encouraging firefighters to turn on and listen to the radios, etc. Also, there will be a plan to deploy antennas at shelter sites.

<ORCA Board Minutes

The ORCA board of directors met at the Hunan on Nov. 18, 1998. The meeting was called to order at 5:15 PM by Jim K6JAT. Present were K6JAT, KB6MP, WB6NER, K6EHQ, W6LL, W6THD, and N6RCG. Minutes of the June 6 meeting were corrected (N6RCG is Vice President) and approved. The newsletter/publicity committee will produce an invitation to join ORCA to mail to about 100 hams in Oakland, Piedmont, Emeryville, and Alameda who are new hams or have updated their FCC licensing information in the last year. The executive committee consists of K6JAT, N6RCG and WB6NER. A budget discussion centered around the fact that we have 52 paid members and an ARES mailing list of 155. A decision was reached to maintain the ARES mailing list as-is and mailed quarterly, and to start a separate paid ORCA member list that receives monthly newsletters and other benefits to be determined. The board voted to increase ORCA dues to $15 and established a 1999 budget of $250 for Field Day, $750 for mailing and $250 for misc. expenses. ORCA will apply for ARRL affiliation based on the fact that 38 of the 52 paid members this year are also ARRL members. Jim will enilst the help of Doug N6TQS to draft a comment about license restructuring due Dec. 1. It will endorse the ARRL proposal and recommend establishing low power HF subbands that correspond to the FCC's RF exposure limits self-reporting rules. The board committed itself to increasing activities and reducing the business portion of meetings. Activities will include trainings, connector and antenna projects, Fire Station upgrades, ATV and packet demos, and quarterly speakers. WB6NER was chosen as liaison with VHF Repaeters, Inc. The meeting was adjourned at 7:30 PM.

<Tidbits>

Web sightings: SHARKK Northern California Repeater directory: http://www.sharkk.com/ncallist.html-ssi

Thanksgiving Net: KQ6JZ thanks KF6QAL, KF6GYW, KF6CZL, W6THD, KD6PAG and WB5QAL for checking in on turkey day.

What's Hot: It's now easy for Tech Plus licensees to talk around the world on 10 meters, thanks to the sunspots. Time to pass the 5 WPM code!

AC Transit: is interested in ham radio and may outfit an emergency bus with ham gear. Contact Chris KE6MQW for details.

Radio Deal: Radio Shack is discounting its 2 meter HT to $150 in anticipation of a new model.

HT with built-in TNC: Kenwood is coming out with a radio that you can turn into an APRS station simply by adding a GPS device.

<Attendance Sheet>

Adele Bertaud	KE6HKY		Bob Firehock	KE6IUE		Barbara Pickering	KF6CWW
Herbert Bowen	WA6CUY		Richard Gabor	KO6TI		Mike Pompa	KB6MP
Chris Burgardt	KQ6JZ		Marvin Kay	K6GHE		Tim Roberts	KF6BYG
Elaine Carter	K6SZT		Bob Mayes	KE6DVT		Bernard Schormann	KE6TYY
Jim Carter	K6LWA		Dave McGuinness	KF6EPQ		Margery Service	KF6GTT
Mike Cassidy	W6UAB		Art McLaughlin	W6THD		Jim Tiemstra	K6JAT
George Chong	W6BUR		Jesse McPhail	KB6LPB		Brian Treusch	W6LL
Louis Cobet	K6MDH		David Otey	WB6NER		Mark Violet	N6RCG
Doug Faunt	N6TQS		Chris Peeples	KE6MQW		Doug Wong	pending

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