Date: January 16, 2006
From: Steve Hilberg
Subject: ARES of Champaign County
QST - January 2006
The January meeting of ARES of Champaign County was held Wednesday, January 11, 2006 at the Fire Service Institute. Here are important notes from that meeting and other news.

ATTENDING
N9XDC, KF8ZN, W9DML, W9EML, KC9HND, KB9KAI, WB9HFK, AB9FJ, K9SI, N9DN, KC9DEQ, N9GPA, N9XDH, KB9VFZ, KC9IKL, KC9IHX


PAYMENT OF 2006 DUES
At the December annual meeting the membership voted to continue dues for the coming year. Dues are $20 and are payable to ARES of Champaign County. Dues must be received no later than February 1, 2006. Please send your check to Heather Schlesser,806 E. Benham St, Tolono, IL 61880. Thanks for your support.


EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS OVERVIEW
The training topic at the January 11 meetings was an overview of emergency communications. The presentation that was given at the meeting will be available on our web site, www.wa9res.org. During this meeting the concept of "break tags" was introduced. We will be incorporating this concept into our emergency communications training and operations. If you were not at this meeting please take some time to review this material.

SPOTTER TRAINING DATES SET
Storm spotter training by the National Weather Service will be offered for Champaign County on Wednesday, March 1, at 6:00 p.m. at the Carle Forum in Urbana. You must attend training at least every two years to remain an active spotter, and attendance every year is strongly recommended. In addition, all CCARES spotters must attend our "Spotter Preparation, Safety, and Communications" training which will be offered at our April 5 meeting. While the NWS training covers more on what to spot, our training covers how to spot, including a review of our severe weather net procedures. I hope to see all of you interested in spotting on March 1.

If you cannot make the NWS training on March 1, there are also sessions scheduled for Danville, Decatur, and Clinton during March and April. For specific dates, times, and locations check the NWS Lincoln web site at the following link: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ilx/spotter2.php If you attend one of the sessions outside of Urbana please let me know so I can give you credit for the training.

JANUARY NET CONTROL STATIONS
The weekly ARES net is held each Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., on the 444.100 repeater, CTSS 162.2
January 17         AB9FJ
January 24         N9GPA
January 31         KC9HND
February 7         W9DML


NEXT MEETING
The next meeting will be Wednesday, February 1, 2006 at 7:00 pm at the Fire Service Institute. We will be reviewing material on the Incident command System (ICS) and National Incident Management System (NIMS)