The below report of the 8/15 EC meeting was submitted by John Swarcz and posted with his permission. Carmine, K3CWP
Everyone,
I just wanted to say thank you to all who took the time to attend the WPA Section EC meeting in Brookville last Saturday. We had a total attendance of 23 people representing ARES groups from all over the section. There was good food and lots of conversation about issues we face as ARES organizations. Also in attendance was our Section Manager John Rodgers N3MSE and the ARRL Atlantic Division Director Bill Edgar N3LLR.
During the meeting we asked all in attendance to activate their local ARES net for a quick drill. The purpose of this exercise was to demonstrate how quickly and unexpectedly emergency communications can become necessary. Each local net was to take check-ins and report back with the number of operators they could muster in a 15 minute time period. The highest number of check-ins was achieved by Erie County (EC Dave Wellman WX3E) who reported a total of 11 check-ins. Congratulations Dave on a job well done!
Another competition during the meeting was for the best looking ARES business card. Many of our ARES EC’s have had business cards printed and this seemed like a fun competition to have. Judge for this competition was John Rodgers N3MSE. Winner of this competition was Don Cripe KE3MM who is the S1 District Emergency Coordinator. Don’s cards were really sharp looking and included the ARES logo, the RACES logo, and the ARRL logo. Congratulations Don! If any of you are looking for an inexpensive way to get cards printed, check out www.vistaprint.com . Vista Print offers basic business cards for free but you have to pay shipping and handling. (About $20). For a little more you can upload your own images (like the ARES logo) and make the card look exactly like you want. Just an idea.
Another feature of the meeting was Harry W3YJ doing what I call his “digital demo”. Harry had a couple of laptop computers and HT’s set up to demonstrate the NBEMS software. Harry demonstrated how easy it really is to pass digital traffic with equipment that each of us probably already has sitting around the shack. The software is free and everyone who attended the meeting received a CD with the software on it. If you were not at the meeting, you can download it from http://www.pa-sitrep.com/NBEMS/index.html. During a break in the meeting Harry set up a solar powered HF station in the parking lot and used 5 watts of power to send digital traffic to stations in the Pittsburgh area.
Again, thanks for taking time out of your busy summer to attend this meeting. We will probably do this again next year, but it was suggested that fall might be a better time for it.
73.
John N3SPW
ARES Section Emergency Coordinator, ARRL WPA Section, Pennsylvania
Philipsburg Amateur Radio Association, President