A.R.E.S. Newsletter January 9, 1999

Minutes of the December 5, 1998 Meeting

The next meeting will be on Saturday, January 9, 1999 at 9:00 AM
at Leona Lodge 4444 Mountain Blvd. off Redwood Road/Carson St.

<Announcements / Calendar>

Welcome / Year in Review

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 Amateur Radio activities. During 1998, a new radio club was formed, the Oakland Radio Communication Association or ORCA for short. RACES was activated for el niño and fire patrols. Special events included several walkathons, and a rowing race. We worked Field Day, Pacificon, and relocated our web site to http:www.qsl.net/orca/ We visited the new Red Cross radio room, planned training sessions, had show and tell sessions (including fire vehicles), SET and CORE drills and a barbecue. We invite you to come to one of our (shorter) monthly meetings, check in to our weekly Thursday net, and participate in our activities.

To join or renew your membership to ORCA for 1999, bring a $15 check to the January meeting or mail it to: ORCA, 347 63rd St., Oakland, CA 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:

<RACES Report>

The problem with Call Quick was that our contact information was not fed into the computer. New forms will be distributed at the January meeting. The plan to deploy antennas at shelter sites in 1999 includes 11 school sites, 5 Red Cross sites, and 10 others. Other RACES projects include ECHO system upgrade, 1999 site installation and EOC installation. Equipment requirements include radios for station 28, the new EOC, the 911 call center, North Hills, and the fire training center. The members voted to reimburse David WB6NER from ARES funds for most of the cost of the thank-you gift to Deborah Reisman.

ORCA

Don't let your monthly ORCA newsletter subscription lapse. Renew today! Newsletters will go out quarterly to our unpaid ARES mailing list until ARES funds run out. A handful of complimentary copies will be mailed to ARRL league officials, and distributed via OES interoffice mail to the Oakland City Council and other Oakland City officials.

Thanks to all elmers who helped other hams learn to program their HTs at the December meeting. The January project is standard Molex power connectors:

Please bring about $5 (depending on the length of 14 gauge wire you need) to cover supplies for 2 pairs of connectors. Also, bring the proper connectors for your radio and power supply and know what voltage and polarity each end requires. Bring the manuals. If you have a spare crimper, soldering iron, or power strip, bring that too. Thanks to Brian W6LL for organizing this. Possible 1999 activities may include trainings and completion of the training manual, connector and antenna projects, fire station upgrades, RTTY, APRS, HF DX, and ATV demos, and quarterly speakers.

The newsletter/publicity committee met on December 23 and came up with a production schedule that allows the board to review content before publication.

<Tidbits

Web sightings: http://www.ebay.com auctions: search for ham radio gear.

Rain gutter captain: Station 25 on Butters will give you a rake and foul weather gear if you're willing to go out and clean your neighborhood storm drains. Oakland's public works 24 hour hotline is 615-5566.

Email List: Chris KQ6JZ started an ORCA mailing list. To join, send email to: oakrca-subscribe@egroups.com To send a message to the group, send email to: oakrca@egroups.com or go to the web site http://www.eGroups.com/list/oakrca

Underlined text: Whenever you see underlined text in this newsletter it means the online version has convenient links for you to use.

Directions to Leona Lodge: From 13 north: take Carson exit, right onto Carson, right onto Mountain. From 13 south: take the Redwood/Carson exit, straight at light onto the frontage road, Aliso Ave, left under the freeway at Carson, right at Mountain. Lodge is about 0.1 mile on the left. From 35th Ave towards hills: Right at Aliso Ave (street before Highway 13), left under the freeway at Carson, right at Mountain. Downhill from Redwood Road: turn left at Mountain (near the Safeway) Proceed about 0.2 miles. Lodge is on left. You can also go this way from 13 south or from 35th Ave.

<Attendance Sheet

The ORCA ARES Meeting came to order at Leona Lodge at 9:00 AM. Present were:

Adele Bertaud

KE6HKY

Bob Firehock

KE6IUE

Mike Pompa

KB6MP

Donald R Bonney

KE6SAF

Richard Gabor

KO6TI

Tim Roberts

KF6BYG

Herbert Bowen

WA6CUY

Marvin Kay

K6GHE

Bernard Schormann

KE6TYY

Chris Burgardt

KQ6JZ

Bob Mayes

KE6DVT

Margery Service

KF6GTT

Jim Carter

K6LWA

Dave McGuinness

KF6EPQ

Brian Treusch

W6LL

Mike Cassidy

W6UAB

Art McLaughlin

W6THD

Mark Violet

N6RCG

George Chong

W6BUR

David Otey

WB6NER

Doug Wong

pending

Louis Cobet

K6MDH

Chris Peeples

KE6MQW

Kathy Dodge

KF6GZY

Ellen Pompa

KE6EMU

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