ARC Shorts – May 2008

NEXT MEETING

The next club meeting will be on May 9^th at the Fire Training Center at 7:30PM

Our program will be Mike Chisena, KA2ZEV.  Mike has been working with AMRAD to revitalize 6 meter FM.  He has been single handedly converting Midland commercial radios to 6 meters.  These radios have 22 memories, PL encode and decode, and can put out 60 or 110 watts.  Mike will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of this type of gear.  If you are interested in picking up one of these radios,  Mike will have a few at $75 each.

Our last meeting was April 11^th.  Our speakers were from AMRAD and talked about software definable radios and the PARAKEET simplex repeater.

If you’ve not been to the largest ham fest in the world, then you need to go!  This is an incredible experience.  There is nothing you need that is not in that flea market.  Call Rich if you would like to go.  He has those hard to get rooms and is arranging for car pools.  Rich also will have the frequency guide.  Call Rich, KA4GFY, at 703-960-4096

As many of you know, there was an attempt to replace Alexandria ARES with a group of RACES volunteers.  This was stopped because of three things that ARES brings to the table that the RACES folks cannot.  One is our level of experience.  We have a 50 plus year history of support to the city.  Two is the fact that we have a working relationship with our friends in Fairfax ARES and can call on their support when we need more ham power, and lastly our past performance in city drills and in actual events has been first rate.

We were invited to participate in the CERT drill which was centered around the John Adams Elementary School at the west end of the city ( a short run to the repeater).  The city also requested that all participants have a certificate of completion for FEMA IS-100.  Some of our volunteers have had this taken care of for a while, but many of our members made an extraordinary effort to get it done so we could provide a good team.  Those who participated were Rick, N4ASX, Harry, N4CWP, Rich, KA4GFY, Randy, KI4MWQ, Marshall, KI4MWP,  Art, KD4FBT, Ian N8IK———–. The drill called for two shadows on site, EOC, NCS, Alexandria Hospital and Red Cross.  The drill went from 9:30 AM to 12:00 and then it was party time.

As part of the drill, those who had D-Star checked out coverage.

On May 4^th we will be supporting the Potomac River Run which goes from Belle Haven Marina to just short of Mt. Vernon.  About 7 miles each leg.  The runners run down and back twice to make up the 26 plus miles.  We will be using both 146.415 Simplex and 52.51 Simplex with the 146.655 (PL 141.3) as a backup.   We will locate the NCS (club trailer) down the course to give best simplex coverage.  Six meter operators will be placed further away then 2 meter operators but all are welcome to play.

If you can participate, we will meet at the Belle Haven Marina at 0600.  Race starts at 0700 and we will be done at 1300.

Many of us are not interested in ARES, so we have tried to avoid programs on ARES.  Many of us were overdosed years ago.

After Hurricane Katrina, there were TONS of lessons learned.  Many of these lessons included the need for training.  The City now requires that those who participate in emergency services for the city have FEMA IS-100,  additionally IS-700, 200 and 800 are considered good to have.  A very comprehensive set of courses are offered by ARRL.  EC-001, 002 and 003.  While the FEMA classes can be completed in a few hours,  the EC classes take more time and cost you about $45 each.  I recommend all ARES volunteers take EC-001.  EC-002 and 003 are also good and encouraged.  When you complete any of these courses, please send Rick, N4ASX a copy of the certificate.

In one of the class rooms at the Fire Training Center there is a sign that says “In an emergency you will not rise to the level of your expectations, but fall to the level of your training”