SQUELCH TALE |
The Central Missouri Radio Association is
a not-for-profit Mo. Association. Check out our web site:
http:// www.qsl.net/cmra If
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CALENDAR FOR
December
This month, we
will meet for dinner at Country Kitchen,
Each Monday
evening (except the Monday preceding the meeting) join
with the members at the club station on Worley.
Each Wednesday is
Club Net at
If 2004 appears
on your address label your dues have been paid for this
year.
To renew your
membership for 2004, see the treasurer at the meeting or mail a
check for $20.00, ($25.00 per family) to:
CMRA
P.O.
Minutes:
November meeting of the
Meeting opened at 7pm
Minutes read and approved
Treasures report
Checking $2608.90
Savings $2223.91
Old business:
Echo link - questions
about regulator
progress is moving but slow.
Power distribution is ready to be hooked up.
Arm for PMBO shipping this week??
Winlink at club
station running good. Hoping for HF
by end of the year.
New Business:
Nominating committee
Bill KC0ACS, Don KM0R, Dewey WM0H, Jim
K0WWV, Phil K0DAT
Remember the
ARES club meeting is on the 7th at Country Kitchen at 6:30
Remember the
CMRA club meeting is on the 14th at Country Kitchen at 7pm.
Voted to buy
the channel elements for the radio for VHF Packet at the club
station.
There
were a total of 21 at the club meeting in November, were
you counted in that total?? Be sure and be at the January
meeting unless you WANT to the president or Vice president.
Will see you at the December meeting.
Dewey
WM0H
WØSMI Link Frequencies:
Columbia 444.425 pl 77
Jefferson City 443.175 pl 77
High Hill 444.025 pl 77 Foristel 444.475
pl 77
St. Louis 443.425 pl 77
URL:of the
month:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/exhibits/common_cents/index.html
Looking back over the year – a few
snapshots of Ham Radio in
How do hams arrive “on scene”
at emergencies?
The e-mail note below was written in
response to a discussion about when (or IF) hams should
“self-dispatch to the scene of an “incident.”
It is interesting to see how hams in a much larger city responded
to major emergencies.
-----Original Message-----
From: James House [mailto:jdhouse@msn.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 24,
2004 10:09
To: wl2kemcomm@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [wl2kemcomm] Re:
FW: [STXARES] Self-dispatch
Ok, got to put in my two cents
worth, having been EC for five East Bay cities for ten years or
so encompassing the Loma Prieta quake, the Oakland Hills fire,
etc. there are at least two categories of events that might
result in RACES/ARES activation.
Only one of the self activating
category occurred during my term as EC, the aforementioned
quake. When I showed up at my response site at the county 's
central fire dispatch center a few minutes after the shaking
stopped, nobody wondered who I was or why I was there. For one
thing I'd been there at least once a month (more like once a
week) for the past few of years activating the station for the
local net, so my face was familiar, and the magnitude of the
event warranted self activation. Other members of our group
checked in to the resource net and were dispatched to hospitals
and the local Public Utility control center as fast as they
became available. No one went racing off to the fires or freeway
collapse scene. Please note that on this occasion, the phone
system was swamped and it was impossible to get a dial tone in
many instances. Cell phones were not widely available at the
time. The fire department was inundated with 911 calls but could
not call out to the local public utilities to advise them if they
needed gas, power or water shut off somewhere. Bridging
that gap was probably our biggest
contribution during the first day
after the event.
All other events that we might become
aware of via news reports or seeing smoke or whatever fall into
the "Ready, Set, Listen" category.
An area wide event that causes CERT
teams to activate themselves, as opposed to being activated by
CERT's sponsoring agency, is probably of sufficient magnitude to
warrant RACES/ARES to do the same. Otherwise, for localized
events such as our recent pipeline fire it is only appropriate to
gather your gear and wait for the call. It never hurts to start
up a resource net and see who is available. That doesn't mean
anyone should hit the road until the call from the sponsoring
agency comes and a mission number is assigned.
Another criteria: if the phones are
working, self activation is not an option. It is appropriate for
the top level RACES/ARES person available (established via the
resource net) who should be a familiar name to the overall
sponsoring agency, to make a call to that agency and advise them
of the availability of the RACES/ARES team, how many operators
are available and how to contact that coordinator if RACES/ARES
services are needed.
When the Oakland Hills fire occurred,
my county pager went off for the only time when it wasn't a test
or a drill. Our OES was familiar with the services we could
provide and was happy to see us. On all other occasions we were
activated by phone tree or a resource net on a local repeater.
73,
Jim KA6IVF
Station Engineer for WB6WMI
DHS
When I wrote Jim for permission to quote
him in our newsletter, he added a comment:
Dale :
Please
feel free to use anything that makes sense to you . . .. One
thing I forgot to mention was the difference between urban and
rural areas in the self-activation respect. Where distances and
response times for regular response agencies are long it may be
appropriate to work out other rules. Folks who live in rural
areas have a long standing tradition of helping each other out in
times of need, while those of us who have lived in cities for a
long time have become dependant on government services, far too
much for my taste, still this is where I’m planted, so
I’ll deal with it.
Jim
Dale Huffington
dhuffington@mchsi.com