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.