Yolo County ARES Meeting Minutes

Yolo ARES Meeting Minutes for 2/16/2010

ARES Meeting
Feb 16, 2010 – 7:00 p.m. to 7:50 p.m.

Darrin (K9RTY)
Bill (K6KN)
LaVonne (K6LAV)
Greg (KG6SJT)
Wes (WS6Z)
Todd (KE6GCV)
Rob (N6KIX)
Gary ((WA6TQJ)

Dues and ID Cards:
ARES dues are due today. New ARES ID cards were distributed.

License Exam Classes:
Wes (WS6Z) has successfully trained a one-day technician license exam prep.

Several members expressed interest in both the General and Amateur Extra exam prep classes. Wes (WS6Z) and Bill (K6KN) offered to work on putting together these classes. It is anticipated a 3 to 4- day class series will be required.

Fourteen individuals successfully passed license examinations at the exam session on February 13 at the Red Cross. Congratulations to those who passed. There were 8 Technician, 3 General, and 3 Amateur Extras.

Another testing session will probably be conducted in three to four months.

Mapping Project:
Wes (WS6Z) reported that the maps project, including topo and APRS information, is nearly completed. He will bring the samples for review and approval.

ARES Nets and Net Control:
Reviewed and edited the Preamble to the ARES Net Control Script. Greg (KG6SJT) will update the script on the Yolo ARES Web site.

Suggestion was made that Yolo ARES periodically conduct the weekly net using the Davis Fire Department as the location for the net control operator. This will, of course, have to be scheduled ahead of time. This would be a good way to periodically test the antennas installed there, also.

Discussed the possibility of doing a joint net with Sutter and El Dorado ARES groups. Darin (K9RTY) will discuss with the EC’s of those groups.

CAHAN:
The California Department of Public Health will upgrade the California Health Alert Network (CAHAN) in March 2010. All CAHAN participants are required to change their CAHAN passwords no later than March 1st, or will be locked out of the system. Instructions were provided.

Events:
The AMGEN Tour is scheduled for May 16-23. The Davis Double Century is scheduled for May 15th. May 23rd is the Positive Energy Kids Triathlon.

The Davis Stampede was Feb 7th; ARES did not participate in this half marathon.

The annual Scouts Jamboree will be in April in Pleasanton; communications are typically handled by the scouts, however, ARES members are welcome to participate.

Discussed the need for improved communications with other organizations that may wish to have ARES participate in their events. It was suggested that page be included on the Yolo ARES Web site that describes the types of services provided by Yolo ARES, why Ham radio is better than cell phones for events, how ARES interacts with others at events, how organizations can contact and deploy ARES for events, etc. Of note, ARES can provide the organization with a written record/log of event communications. Important to note also that ARES is available only for non-profit events. Todd (KE6GCV) will draft the descriptive sheet and post it on the Web site.

Repeaters:
Yolo ARES now has a second repeater available (147.255 + offset and PL 123.0). Discussed the feasibility of periodically utilizing this second repeater for nets. Perhaps rotating this second repeater and the simplex net.

Yolo County ARES