Meetings are normally held on the first Saturday of each month.
The next meeting will be on Saturday, November 6, 1999 at
9:30 AM
at the Oakland OES; Fire Station 1; 17th St & Martin
Luther King Way.
This month there will be 2 meetings and a guest speaker on November 6 at the new OES at Fire Station 1, 2nd floor. The first meeting is for VHF Repeaters members and will be at 8:30 AM. The ORCA meeting will start a half hour later than usual at 9:30 AM. Jim Maxwell had to postpone his visit with us to attend an important ARRL/FCC enforcement meeting, and so ORCA member John Ronan, K3ZJJ stepped in to give us a demonstration of slow scan TV for emergency and disaster communications using the Kenwood VC-H1. After the demonstration, there will be a planning/work session to prepare for setting up radios, antennas, and running coax for the RACES radio room at the OES.
The December meeting, also at the OES, will be a planning one for the December 31 Y2K activation. Following the meeting we will have a work party to continue installation in the RACES radio room. Later that day, there will be a quarterly Alameda County Emergency Services meeting, where representatives from all around the county will talk about their coordination efforts. Although meeting space is limited, ORCA members are welcome to attend to see the greater picture of how the information moves from city to county to the state level.
(last month's activities are described in the ORCA member newsletter. To join ORCA .)
The Sunday night ORCA net at 7:45 PM is slowly starting up. The first three sessions had mostly different participants each time, so, in all about 15 people have checked into the net. The first week's topic was how to program the PL and offset on each participant's radio. Not surprisingly, each person described a different method. The second week's topic was Pacificon highlights. Third week was a report on PrepareFest by Adele KE6HKY . The net on Halloween night was designated as a Halloween Safety Net, with participants encouraged to check into the net while accompanying children on their trick-or-treating rounds.
The first Y2K failure has been reported. In Texas, car buyers received their registrations from the DMV describing their brand new year 2000 vehicle as a "Horseless Carriage." Jim K6JAT predicts in his SET scenario the most likely Y2K failure: everybody turning on and trying out their cell phones at 12:01 AM, overloading the capabilities of the system.
Jim K6JAT met with Henry Renteria, Doug Wong and Renee Domingo on Monday, October 18 to obtain renewed support to alert RACES during red flag days. Activation and operational procedures will be formalized and department officials will be trained in the procedures.
An additional $4000 of the $12,000 needed to complete the installation of the RACES radio room at the new OES was allocated by the OES. There will be a planning session after the SSTV demo to prepare for installing radios and antennas at the OES and a work party after the December meeting. Conduits and roof access were problems identified when the OES was inspected by RACES. Antenna locations and cable routes along the roof were mapped out by David WB6NER. The hope is to get at least one operating station operational by Thanksgiving.
On Friday October 15 a 20 acre fire in the canyon behind the Clarmont Hotel put ARES members on self-alert, as those who lived near the incident watched. Among those participating were Dan KD6TWL, Art W6THD, Brian W6LL, Mike KB6MP, Chris KQ6JZ, and Mark N6RCG, as well as several hams from other cities.
Please keep your phone number up-to-date in our records. We will be putting together an emergency phone tree in the near future. Please call Mike KB6MP at 531-8209 with updates.
In the ORCA members newsletter. To join ORCA.
In the ORCA members newsletter. To join ORCA.
In the ORCA members newsletter. To join ORCA.
In the ORCA members newsletter. To join ORCA.
In the ORCA members newsletter. To join ORCA.
In the ORCA members newsletter. To join ORCA.
In the ORCA members newsletter. To join ORCA.
In the ORCA members newsletter. To join ORCA.