Ventura County ARES/RACES November 2003 District Meeting

The purpose of this report is to provide ARES/RACES members with a summary of the topics discussed at the District Meeting. District meetings are attended by representatives from each of the 8 Areas, generally the Area EC, and are open to all ARES/RACES members.

The November District Meeting was held at 7:30pm on Tuesday November 5 at the Ventura City Police Department.

1. EMS Grant

Earlier this year the Emergency Medical System (EMS) in Ventura County was given an emergency preparedness grant. The grant is being used by EMS to assist a number of organizations, including Ventura County ARES/RACES, so that they will be better prepared to respond during an emergency.

Last summer, DEC Dave Gilmore, AA6VH, with the assistance of the Area ECs, came up with a list of radio equipment to be purchased with the ARES/RACES share of the EMS grant money. That list was submitted to EMS. After several months of progressing through the proper channels, expenditure of the grant money has now been approved. Dave had to supply EMS with three sources for the radio equipment that we selected so that EMS could go out for competitive bids. HRO came in with the lowest bit. Procurement of the equipment should occur soon.

Since the grant is through EMS, the equipment being purchased is to upgrade the ARES/RACES equipment that we current have at the hospitals.

2. November 13 Hospital Drill

The State wide Hospital Drill scheduled for November 13 is still on. Most, if not all, of the hospitals in Ventura County are planning to participate in some way in the drill. Each of the Area ECs is responsible for staffing the hospital in his Area. Dave would like to have 2 ARES/RACES people at each hospital. This is a RACES drill so participants must have a current DSW badge. ECs must inform Dave by November 11 who will be at their Area hospitals. Help from the Area ECs is requested for identifying a team to staff Santa Paula hospital.

Again, the drill is to occur on Thursday November 13. There is conflicting information concerning the time of the drill. It is believed that the drill will be from 8am to 12 noon. However, there is also a report that the drill will occur from 4 to 8pm. Dave is checking this out.

3. Camarillo Christmas Parade

The Camarillo Christmas Parade is scheduled for Saturday December 13. More on this will be covered on the weekly County Net.

4. County ARES/RACES Newsletter

Wayne Woodhams, N6WIX Area 6 EC, suggested that a County ARES/RACES Newsletter available on a suitable web site could be very useful in keeping ARES/RACES members informed on activities throughout the County. Each Area EC would be responsible for contributing information to the newsletter from his/her Area. The ECs present at the meeting indicated interest in the idea.

5. Monthly EC Meeting

Wayne Woodhams, N6WIX Area 6 EC, also suggested that the Area ECs get together once a month for an EC only meeting, including DEC Dave Gilmore as an advisor. The purpose of the meetings will be to exchange ideas and develop plans for improving the capabilities of each of the Areas. The difference between the EC meeting and the bi-monthly District meeting is that the EC meetings will be devoted to discussing specific topics where as the District meeting is a general status and coordination meeting.

Wayne?s proposal was approved. The first meeting will occur Monday evening December 1.

6. Time Change For District Meetings

It was agreed that District Meetings will occur on the first Monday of each odd numbered month beginning in January. Having meetings on Monday nights will allow ECs to run their local nets on Tuesday evenings.

7. SMRA Repeater Sites

Dan Dicke, KE6NYT reported that plans are progressing for moving the SMRA repeaters from Sulpher Mountain to Red and South Mountains. The Red and South Mountain sites are owned by the County and thus will not be subject to the spiraling lease rates being encountered at the Sulpher Mountain site. The two new sites will include 2m, 1 1/3m and 70cm equipment which can all be cross linked together between bands and between sites.

8. Baker To Vegas

The Baker to Vegas race for next year has been scheduled for April 24 and 25.

9. 2003 California Fires

There was considerable discussion of the Ventura County fires. Some of the observations made concerning the incident are listed below:

• Scheduling people to work shifts was a big problem, including documenting shift assignments. Area 1 and Area 2 were given scheduling duties for their respective areas. This worked out very well.
• ARES people who have assignments at Red Cross shelters must complete the Red Cross Volunteer paper work before beginning their shifts.
• Need to keep talking to Red Cross people, particularly after shift changes, so they know that ARES personnel are at the shelter and what we as ARES can do for them.
• In general, we need more Portable Radio Sets. ECs should encourages their members to build their own Portable Radio Sets. This would be an idea Area project.
• Radio Shack Discone antennas work well as multi-band VHF/UHF portable antennas in an emergency.
• Some people with HT?s had portable antennas that made their HT?s very effective portable radio sets.
• The fire over ran South Mountain but the repeater was not at risk since the repeater site is barren rock and the repeater is in a block building.
• There were some radio problems at the Red Cross Chapter House with coax runs and connectors primarily because maintenance had not been done at the site for awhile. The same thing could happen at other sites, so ECs should ensure that the facilities in their Areas are maintained on a regular basis.
• Red Cross had problems with their cell phones. Cell phones are donated to the Red Cross and then sit on shelves until needed. However, while in storage, the cell phone batteries go dead and thus the cell phones are not useable when needed. Some of the donated cell phones are only activated by the telephone companies when there is an emergency. This takes valuable time. Some of the cell phones have pre-paid calling cards plugged in. The worry is that these pre-paid cards can run out of minutes in the middle of an emergency.
• Our ARES/RACES rooms at some locations end up being used for storage until there is an emergency. Then they have to be cleaned out before operations can begin. ECs need to ensure that radio rooms in facilities within their Areas are kept clean and orderly so that they will be in an operational state when an emergency breaks out.
• In rural areas, much of the population may speak only Spanish. We need to staff these areas with bi-lingual ARES/RACES people if possible.