Minutes of the SARA Meeting

SARA MEETING MINUTES - April 12, 2006 (Approved May 10, 2006)

Call to Order:  The meeting was called to order by Vice-President Glenn Mauger in the clubhouse on the premises of the Socorro Electric Coop at 7:32 PM. 

Members Present: The members present were Jon Spargo KC5NTW, Vern Leavitt KD5UHB, Bill Brundage NM5WB, Jim Oty WB5GWH, Kalman Oravecz AJ5B, Bear Albrecht W5VZB, Glenn Mauger WB5OAF, David Johnson KB5YIW, Ed Johnson AD5MQ, and Al Braun AC5BX.

Announcements: 

• White Mountain Hamfest in Show Low, Arizona, June 3. 
• VE Session will be at 4 PM on April 29 in MSEC Room 195, on the New Mexico Tech campus. MSEC is on Bullock near the intersection with Lopezville Road. 
• The Mesilla Valley Bean Feed and Hamfest (Las Cruces) will be on April 30.

Approval of Minutes: The minutes of the March meeting were accepted as posted (Motion by Jon Spargo, seconded by Bill Brundage).

Treasurer’s report: The Treasury report was given by Glenn Mauger; there is $4069 in the bank. Ed Wood has been reimbursed $47.97 for an antenna mast. Previously $200 had been authorized for reimbursement to Glenn Mauger for expenses for the trailer; he reported that so far he has receipts for $208.99, with more to come. The report was accepted; motion by Jon Spargo, second by Dave Johnson.

Report on Incorporation: no report. Accountant Rick Penner has the papers.

ARES/LEPC: 

• Bill Kaufmann (State ARES director) and Jay Miller will be at the Mock Disaster exercise on April 21.
• LEPC report on the new building: the State has appropriated most of the purchase price for the old BLM building on Neel Ave. The facility will function as an Emergency Operations Center (EOC); the Fire Marshal, Emergency Coordinator, and LEPC will all have offices, along with a radio room and conference room.
• Money has been appropriated to build a statewide ARES communications "backbone", both voice and digital networks, and Spargo has been recruited for three committees, one for each of these networks and one for facilitating the outfitting of EOCs with appropriate equipment for ARES operations. Help is solicited with this committee work. 
• Weather radio: The Homeland Security grant application (for putting up the weather radio station) was redone and submitted, and turned down flat. However, Senator Bingaman has some money available, so two applications have been submitted, one for the $78,000 for the transmitter, and another for $35,000 for the new EOC.
• Weather radio receiver at the police dispatch center: Jon and Vern tested two antennas on site, a J-pole and a Yagi. The Yagi gave much better performance, near full quieting with a short feedline. The antenna mounting is 38 feet above the ground, and the feedline will be about 105 feet long. Needed are: the desktop scanner, $99.95 list at Radio Shack, which Al said he would discount; the coax, and Dave Johnson  has a roll that he will check for length; and pictures and press
  coverage when it is installed.

ARES Trailer report by Bill Brundage: The trailer is now a four-masted schooner, with provision for a fifth mast soon. There is a J-pole tuned to 154 MHz for the public safety band, to which will be connected an Icom F1721 transceiver, which belongs to the San Antonio Fire District; SAFD is also providing an Icom F221 UHF radio for the MED channels; it is set up so it can act as either a mobile or a base. Programming of both is by Bear Albrecht, and they can easily be changed if needed.

Jon Spargo and Vern Leavitt went to Magdalena to scout out potential locations for the communications trailer, and found that an empty lot across the road from the Magdalena Café, near the site of the upcoming incident, is excellent for working the SARA 146.68 repeater. And the trailer still doesn't have a 2-meter rig. But it does have nearly 300 ampere-hours of batteries on board, with more readily available. There is an ARES sign for the side of the trailer, framed, though not suitable for travel; it needs to put out on scene.

Mock Disaster Exercise on April 21: points in discussion

• Tactical messages are not formal.
• FCC ID requirements are unchanged; while tactical call signs may be used, FCC-issued call signs still must be sent every ten minutes.
• The Incident Commander sends in a daily Situation Report (SITREP), customarily by packet radio (when ARES is involved), though it may be sent other ways.
• We need tactical names for the participating stations. "IC" is customary for Incident Command; "ARES" was suggested for the trailer.
• The person on scene needs a handheld radio with extra batteries; two or three people are needed in the trailer (minimum being an operator and a logger), and one is needed at the hospital, again with a handheld and extra batteries. Headsets are highly recommended.
• Forms for use in the trailer: State ARES ICS message form and log.
• Plan is to meet at the SEC at 8 AM and hook up, and connect with Kaufmann and Miller, and to set up the trailer at 9 AM.
• Purposes of this exercise include testing the hospital's readiness for
  a large influx of patients, and to evaluate the radio coverage situation, it being already known that the area has poor-to-zero coverage for the MedNet and other networks. A potential repeater site for the MedNet has already been selected, and this event will help further assess that situation.
• Volunteers for operators are: Glenn Mauger, Bear Albrecht, and Vern Leavitt for the trailer, Ed Wood on scene with the IC (Vern is backup), and Bill Brundage at the hospital.
• Credentials: we are making ID tags, and will take digital pictures on the 18th when we meet - at 7 PM - for further planning.
• Dave Johnson has suggested that the phone patch might be set up to enable long distance emergency calls, which would require getting the club an account number with Tech and programming in the long string of digits that entails.
• Estimates are there's at least three hours work left to be done on the trailer.

Cerrillos del Coyote bike race: assignments and maps were handed out; there were some last-minute changes. Most stations need to be manned by 8 AM, or a little later for the farther-out ones. The whole things should be finished by midday.

Field Day: This year the dates are June 24-25. The Datil Well crew will be using the SARA callsign W5AQA again, and the Clarke Field crew will use TARA's KC5ORO. Bill Brundage has put down a $50 cash deposit with the City for the park, covering 9 AM Saturday to 2 PM Sunday; he will be able to pick up the keys to the restrooms on Friday. Al Braun volunteered to do the log reporting for the Clarke Field group.

VE Session: Kalman Oravecz: Needs a blank check made out to ARRL-VEC so that the test results may be submitted promptly after the session, which will be in MSEC 195 at 4 PM on April 29. 

Elections: a Nominating Committee was appointed, consisting of Dave Johnson, Bill Brundage, and Vern Leavitt. Elections will be at the May
10 meeting.

Hamfest: Ryan has done a lot in the past, so we need to start early on this to make sure we cover the bases. Glenn Mauger will pursue the ARRL sanction. Consensus was that the last Saturday in October still seems like a good time for it, and that the Fire Academy is still acceptable.  There is a printer that the club owns, still in Ryan's possession, that has been used in the past for addressing; getting that back needs to be pursued.

Good of the Organization: Thanks to all who have worked on the trailer.

Adjournment: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:52 PM.