The March meeting of ARES of Champaign County was held Wednesday, March 5, 2008 at the Fire Service Institute.  Here are important notes from that meeting and other news.

ATTENDING
N9XDC, KC9IHX, WB9HFK, KC9HND, KF8ZN, W9SZ, KC9HXY, N9GPA, N9DN, KC9MHP, W9DML, W9EML, KB9KAI, K9SI, AB9FJ (15)


RED CROSS STATION A REALITY
There is now a HF/VHF/UHF radio, antenna, and computer set up at the Red Cross office in west Champaign.  Thanks to all those who helped get the antenna installed in October.  A big thanks to goes to Dave Leininger (W9DML) who solicited donations of equipment and funds on behalf of the Red Cross to make this station possible.


CARLE HOSPITAL ASKS ABOUT ARES ASSISTANCE
Steve (N9XDC) and Debbie (N9DN) met with Jim Zindars, Emergency Preparedness instructor at Arrow Ambulance and Anita Guffey, the POD disaster coordinator for Carle to familiarize them with ARES and discuss how ARES may be able to aid Carle in communications emergencies.  Carle will be identifying their communications needs, and then we will discuss how ARES can help meet those needs with goal of eventually developing a MOU between Carle and ARES. 


SEVERE WEATHER SEASON IS APPROACHING
We presented out "Spotter Preparation, Safety, and Communications" at the March meeting.  All Champaign County ARES spotters are required to have this training in addition to NWS spotter training.  To date there is no NWS spotter training scheduled in Champaign County.  However, severe weather spotter talks are being scheduled throughout central Illinois by the Lincoln NWS office, including several Advanced talks.  The complete updated schedule can be found at http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ilx/?n=spotter.  The NWS requires spotters to be trained every two years, but every year is strongly recommended. Last year was a very quiet year as far as severe weather was concerned - a repeat is highly unlikely.  In fact, if the active weather pattern we have been experiencing continued into the spring it could be a very busy season.

If you do attend as session in another county, please let me know so that your training record can be updated.


D-STAR PROGRAM AT MARCH 11 TCARC MEETING
The program for the Twin City Amateur radio Club meeting on March 11 will be a program by Kermit Carlson W9XA from Batavia, IL on the new D-Star amateur radio digital voice system.  He is an expert on the subject and has installed several D-Star systems in th Chicago area. The meeting is at 7:00 p.m. at the Fire Service Institute.  There are plans to install a D-Star repeater locally in the next few months.


TCARC AUCTION APRIL 12
The annual TCARC auction will be held on Saturday, April 12 at the Windsor Road Christian Church in Champaign.  The doors open at 11:00 a.m. and the auction starts at 1:00 p.m.  More information can be found at the TCARC web site, http://www.w9seh.org/


ARES MEMBERSHIP REGISTRATION
All ARES ECs have been asked to review their registration lists annually and have any member whose registration is over two years old to renew their registration and complete a new registration form.  This insures that information for each member is relatively current.  In the next week to ten days I will be contacting those members whose registrations are due for renewal.


REMINDER - DUES ARE DUE
Dues are $20 and are payable to ARES of Champaign County.  If you have not done so already, please send your check to  Heather Schlesser, 187 Paddock Dr. East, Savoy, IL 61874 no later than March 31.


WEEKLY NETS
The weekly ARES net is held each Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., on the 444.100 repeater, CTSS 162.2.  The ARES 2m Simplex net is held on 146.550 immediately following the 440 net.  The monthly digital net is held on the fourth Tuesday at 8:00 p.m.  Net control stations for the next month are posted in the Nets section of the web site, www.wa9res.org. 


NEXT MEETING
The next regular meeting will be on Wednesday, April 2, at 7:00 p.m.   Doug Walker (K9DDW), a volunteer with the Red Cross here in Champaign County, will talk abut his experience working on flood relief and with ARES in Iroquois County during the flooding in Watseka in early February.