At the November club meeting we will be electing our CVARC Board of Directors for the coming year (2004). Nominations for board positions will be accepted at our up coming October club meeting and the list of candidates published in the November Newsletter. All board positions are open for nominations. The board positions and current board members are listed in this newsletter every month. Being a CVARC member in good standing is the only requirement for becoming a board member nominee. Several of the current board members have other commitments that will prevent them from serving next year, so we need new board members to fill the available positions. It is also very important to have new members on the board each year to maintain the health and vitality of our club. We need your help and suggestions. You do not need someone else to nominate you for a position. You can nominate yourself. Volunteers are gladly accepted. Email any of us currently on the board if you would like to serve, or if you know someone that you would like to have as a board member. You can also talk to Rory immediately before the club meeting. We on the board look forward to your suggestions and recommendations.

Alan Masson, K6PSP will talk about the sound tracks on motion picture release prints - the analog tracks that have been around since 1927 right up to today's three types of digital sound tracks - Dolby Digital, DTS and Sony SDDS. Alan will describe how the edited magnetic recording is converted into a photographic image on film and how cross-modulation distortion in the film is cancelled out during printing". Alan’s program will include a Power Point presentation plus a short audio demonstration.

Alan is the Technical Manager for Eastman Kodak Company in Hollywood and is very involved with sound tracks. Alan is a chemist by training, but his 41 years as a ham have been invaluable in understanding the many electronic aspects of motion pictures - sound tracks, telecine transfer of film to video tape, and digital cinema.

CVARC hosts FCC License Examinations at 8:30 AM on the second Sunday of even numbered months at the Ventura East County Sheriff Station on Olsen Rd. (near the Reagan Library). CVARC conducts exams for all license classes . Exam candidates must bring a form of government issued photo I.D., the original AND a photocopy of any existing license or Certificate of Exam Element Completion, a Social Security (or government issued Taxpayer I.D.) number, and $12 ARRL VE Exam fee (cash is preferred). No advance reservation is necessary, walk-ins are welcome. Advance notice is needed for special circumstances, such as reading the exam to sight-impaired candidates. If you have any questions, contact CVARC VE Coordinator Jeff Reinhardt at 818-706-3853.

CVARC participated in the Fall Festival held Sunday September 28 at St. Maximilian Catholic Church in Oak Park. We set up the CVARC Comm Van in the church parking lot nestled in among the vintage cars (a 1971 Vet, a very nice Bentley, and a 1954 Ford Crestline among others) and the many booths set up by the church's various clubs and organizations. We were also treated to music throughout the afternoon by two very good bands.

This was a particularly interesting event since St. Maximilian Kolbe, for whom the church is named, was an amateur radio operator in Poland in the late 1930s. Fr. Kolbe originally belonged to the Franciscan Order in Poland. Later he was sent to Japan as a missionary. In Japan, he created small radio nets which were used for communications between cloisters and abbeys. After returning from Japan, Fr. Kolbe attempted to set up radio nets in Poland but was refused a license since all radio stations were government owned. So Fr. Kolbe became an amateur radio operator (SP3RN) and set up his radio station in Niepokolanow, Poland. Early in the Nazi occupation of Poland, Fr. Kolbe was arrested and sent to the Auschwitz death camp. There he volunteered to die in place of another prisoner Franciszek Gajownicek who had a wife and children. The man that he saved died peacefully on March 13, 1995.

Jeff Reinhardt AA6JR and his family (wife Melissa KD6BIT, daughter Jessica KD6ARA, and son Steven K6SJR) manned the amateur radio information table that we had set up next to the Comm Van, while Bruce Elbert K6ZB operated HF SSB and CW. While we can operate HF from inside the Comm Van, Bruce set up his HF station outside next to the information table to draw in as many people as we could to our exhibit. And we did get some interested people, particularly when Bruce was running CW. We have found that people are particularly fascinated by CW. Most people learned about the telegraph systems that stretched across the old west and SOS from ships in distress, but they have never actually seen it. The highlight of Bruce's operations was a contact to the Madeira Islands off the West Coast of Africa. Jonathan Becker KC6QOQ, Rob Hanson W6RH and his wife Sue N6OIZ also helped out providing information about our CVARC amateur radio classes.

Our local ARES/RACES team has been very busy the past year working with the East County Sheriff’s Station, the City of Thousand Oaks, and with local DART (Disaster Assistance Response Team) and CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) organizations. The busy schedule will continue through November.

In July our ARES/RACES team was invited by Sgt. Stan Hibdon (East County Sheriff’s Station) and Mr. Grahame Watts (City of Thousand Oaks) to become permanent members of the East County Disaster Preparedness Committee. The committee is composed of represents from the City, the City’s Municipal Service Center (MSC), the Sheriff’s Department, Fire Department, Red Cross, DART, ARES/RACES, and a consultant on community disaster preparedness. The purpose of the committee is to improve the City’s ability to respond to major natural disasters and civil emergencies. The work includes examining the City’s current emergency response infrastructure, identifying weaknesses, and resolving those problems. The committee is currently working out the details for a major disaster drill to be held by the City some time in November.

The City has been so impressed by the technical strength of our team that they have asked us to present a training class for City employees on the use of their handheld radios and proper communication procedures during an emergency. Doug Hardie WA6VVVis heading that effort. Doug has prepared an excellent Power Point presentation for the class which he will teach at the Civic Arts Plaza on October 15 from 2 to 4 pm. The training will include a drill in which the class students divide up into teams, disperse to different areas of the Civic Arts Plaza grounds, and practice what they have learned by communicating between teams. Part of the plan is to have four or five ARES/RACES members at the class so that each team can have its own ARES/RACES mentor for the drill. A critic will the follow the exercise.

The City of Thousand Oaks has asked us to be part of their City Employee Safety and Disaster Awareness Fair to be held on October 30 from 11 to 2 pm on the front lawn of the Civic Arts Plaza. We will set up an ARES/RACES table at the fair with ARES/RACES brochures, information, and a fully operational emergency communications radio station. The plans are to demonstrate operation of the radio station with an on the air live emergency drill. This is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate to City employees what amateur radio can do. Any of you that would like to join in on this activity, either at the fair itself or checking in via radio as part of the drill, give me a call at 805-495-9435 or send me an email (kj6rz@arrl.net). I think that this should be a lot of fun.

On November 13, ARES/RACES Area 2 members will participate in the annual County wide Hospital drill. While an exercise is held each year, every other year is a major drill. This is the year for the next major drill. The drill is actually a State wide exercise in which hospitals test their emergency preparedness. In Ventura Count, ARES/RACES is the designed provider for hospital emergency back up communications. ARES/RACES members will be stationed at each of the hospitals to provide emergency radio communications from the hospitals to the EMS (Emergency Medical System) command center, to the County EOC (Emergency Operations Center) and between hospitals. Those of us that have participated in this drill before have always learned a great deal about radio communications and hospital operations during a crisis. It is also a lot of fun. Sometimes more fun than planned. Two years ago Leon Kadish N6VCL was "at the wrong place at the wrong time" and became "contaminated"! We all had a good laugh over that one, Leon became a folk hero, and it is still talked about throughout the tri-counties of Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo. Our EC, Greg Lane K7SDW, will be coordinating this effort for Area 2. In the past Area 2 ARES/RACES members have helped staff hospitals throughout Ventura County, not just Los Robles.

Last year the City of Thousand Oaks invited us to participate in their City Earthquake Drill. We were asked to have one operator in the Civic Arts Plaza Founder’s Room (the location of the City EOC for the drill) and a second person at Los Robles. The City wanted us to pass two demonstration messages between the Civic Arts Plaza and Los Robles. Our EC, Greg Lane K7SDW, anticipated larger evolvement and placed teams of two people each at the Civic Arts Plaza, Los Robles, and East Count Sheriff’s Station, in addition to a person at Amgen and at the County facilities in Ventura. When the drill began, the drill coordinator informed the City people staffing the EOC that they could not use their cell phones or the telephones because "the earthquake knocked out those services". The City people look at each other in kind of a strange what do we do now way. They tried their handheld radios but those didn’t work too well inside the Civic Arts Plaza. The only communication in and out of the Civic Arts Plaza that actually worked was that provided by our ARES/RACES team set up in a corner of the EOC. For two and a half hours our ARES/RACES teams handled message traffic just as fast as they could. We even had to bring addition ARES/RACES people into the EOC to handle all of the message traffic being generated at that location.

The City was so impressed with what ARES/RACES was able to do during the earthquake drill, that they have asked us to play a major role in this year’s City drill. The drill will be held at an undisclosed date during the month of November. Planning that is currently going on indicates that this drill will be even more action packed than last year. It is possible that an actual evacuation will occur to a shelter set up by the Red Cross, City personnel may be directed by the EOC to various field sites, and communications will be a problem, a problem that we can solve. It is an opportunity again for ARES/RACES to shine.

Bob Grayson WA6JLN has been working with the Oak Park CERT organization. Oak Park could have a serious problem during a major earthquake or other natural disaster. Because of their location, they could find themselves cut off during a major disaster when the cell and telephone systems go down and the roads become impassible. Oak Park CERT is very much aware of this problem and, through Bob, has asked for ARES/RACES Area 2 support to ensure that Oak Park remains connected to East County Sheriff’s Station, Los Robles Hospital, and to the County EOC facilities during a disaster. ARES/RACES members are urgently needed in the Oak Park area to work with Bob and the Oak Park CERT team to insure that Oak Park is not isolated during a disaster. If you live in the Oak Park area, you can perform an extremely important service to your community by becoming an ARES/RACES member and joining Bob to give Oak Park CERT a hand.

Thousand Oaks DART is a very active City sponsored Disaster Assistance Response Team. The functions that Thousand Oaks DART provides includes urban search and rescue, missing person searches (including locating lost persons with Alzheimer’s), neighborhood evacuations, damage assessment, and traffic control. DART also provides excellent training classes. To perform its duties, DART needs amateur radio communications to remain in contact with its various deployed teams during a disaster. There is no other form of radio communications available to them that will do the job. On the other hand, DART has extensive training in disaster response, including those areas listed above plus first aid, triage, and shelter setup. We in ARES/RACES simply do not have that training. For these reasons, and at the urging of Sgt. Stan Hibdon at East County Sheriff’s Station, ARES/RACES and DART are now holding regularly scheduled planning meetings that will allow us to work together during disasters. There is a lot of cross training involved. They are helping us to become better trained in disaster recover techniques and we are helping them with their amateur radio communications skills. DART currently has 16 people who have become amateur radio operators and also ARES/RACES members. The number of DART amateur radio operators is continuing to grow. During an actual emergency, the DART amateur radio operators will be performing their DART functions. However, with their ARES/RACES training they will be able to communicate on our Area 2 ARES/RACES nets to get their job done. During any disaster, manpower allocation is always a problem. We are all spread too thin. As a consequence, in a real emergency the DART people may be so consumed in performing their DART functions that they simply do not have anyone to work the radios. In that case, it may be necessary to assign Area 2 ARES/RACES members to the DART field teams to provide them with the critical communications that they need. In other situations it could be u s in Area 2 that are in critical need of extra help. In that case the DART ARES/RACES trained people can jump in and give us a hand. It appears that the cooperative effort between ARES/RACES and DART will strengthen the capabilities of both teams.

Our EC, Greg Lane K7SDW, has presented two well attended classes this summer on ARES/RACES digital communications focusing on Packet and APRS. Each class included a Power Point presentation followed by an exercise/practice session. For the second class, Greg brought in Dan Dickie KE6NYT to speak on APRS. Dan presented an interesting video on APRS and provide the class with a very good overview of APRS and how it is used. Those in attendance have very much enjoyed the classes and learned a great deal.

Other training classes are being planned for the future. We are also in the planning stages for some interesting training exercises, in addition to those already described above. DART is helping us out in this area. They would like to do joint exercises with us since they need training in radio procedures. With their background, DART is able to come up with some very realistic exercises which not only provide a good learning experience but are also a lot of fun.

Being prepared to do our job during an actual emergency involves more than training, drills, demonstrations, and classes. There is serious technical (engineering) work needed to build up our Area 2 ARES/RACES infrastructure. Some of that work is already in progress. A lot more is coming up. In the past our Area 2 ARES/RACES focus was on providing communications to the County EOC and hospitals. This year we have acquired several new customers including the City, Thousand Oaks Red Cross, and the DART and CERT teams. The City could well become our largest customer, even larger than the County. Conejo Unified School District plus Park and Rec are two more that we have been told may need our services. Our previous technical infrastructure could not handle those additional customers. So we are now in the process of defining and implementing new local voice, packet, and secure nets for serving Conejo Valley. We are also taking a serious look at Regional HF Communications, something that has been lacking in the County in the past. Doing these things, and doing them better than they have ever been done before, requires serious experimentation and technical work. That is what we in amateur radio are good at.

If you would like some real action in amateur radio, ARES/RACES Area 2 is the place to be. To participate in any or all of the activities covered in this article, plus those coming up in the future, simply contact Greg Lane K7SDW or myself. Area 2 ARES/RACES is a great team. We would very much like you to join us.

Ventura County Area 2 R.A.C.E.S. members are encouraged to check in every Tuesday night at 7:00 pm on the Area 2 Check-in Net. Specific ARES/RACES times and frequencies are as follows:

The Net Controller’s script for the Area 2 weekly RACES check-in net is on the CVARC website, in printable form. Every member is encouraged to periodically serve as net controller. RACES members should remember that their RACES card is issued for only two years. When your card is due to expire call Jackie at the Office of Emergency Services in Ventura for an appointment to renew your card. Call (805) 654-2551 or toll free from the east half of the county at (800) 660-5474. For packet, call coordinator Dan Dicke KE6NYT (805) 983-1401. To register for Red Cross Disaster Services Classes, call (805) 339-2234 ext 0 Ventura County ARES/RACES web site: http://home1.gte.net/res19999/

The Conejo Valley Amateur Radio Club is an ARRL affiliated Special Service Club. Meetings are held on the second Thursday of each month, unless otherwise noted. Meeting location is at the Elks Lodge, 158 Conejo School Rd., Thousand Oaks, CA. Meetings start at 7:30 pm. with a pre-meeting social and technical assistance session, for those who are interested at 7:15 pm. Meetings are open to the public, and members are encouraged to bring their friends.