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| United We Stand |
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Brainerd Area Amateur Radio Club |
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Club Membership Meeting on Thursday, November 29, 2007 |
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(l-r) Skee WØDCY, Terry KIØFW, and Roger WØWUG exchange ideas over pop and coffee. |
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(l-r) XYLs Paula WØHA and Shirley KØDCW talk about their OMs. They are munching on cookies baked by Lyle KØLFV and his wife Marilyn. |
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(l-r) Incoming BAARC Vice-President Steve KCØYTE and outgoing Vice-President Jim WØYA exchange notes. |
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The 8 PM program
was entitled "Emergency Communications"
and was presented by
BAARC Past President
Al WØRC and
BAARC Director-At-Large
John WØJGY.
The two have
have been doing the planning with the BAARC
Board and various community leaders, over
the last 9 months
or so.
It was emphasized that it is extremely important to organized so Hams can respond quickly and efficiently during an emergency. |
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John had several handouts that he shared with club members. They explained what planning was taking place in 15 different areas that the Club participates in or will be shortly. These areas included Skywarn weather spotting, that the club has been doing for many years but which operates differently now that the weather net is no longer run from the county’s Emergency Operations Center, to various organizations and agency’s that are new to the club, such as area hospitals, county public health agencies and some fire departments. Al explained what some of this new healthcare activity would be as he outlined where amateur radio equipment had been purchased, installed and new hams trained and licensed, in and around Crow Wing County. “Presently”, he said, “there are 5 area hospitals on-the-air, and two public health departments, with more to be added shortly.” He said there are two objectives in the healthcare system, one to support the emergency medical services pre-hospital system and the other for health, welfare, and administrative communications. These will be between healthcare organizations during emergency situations where usual communications paths may be overloaded or out-of-service. After the instructional protocols are written and approved training sessions will be conducted so that each interested club member can become familiar with his/her duties and responsibilities, the locations they may be asked to perform from, how that organization operates and will process the radio traffic, and so on. John compared this to the way Skywarn training, credentialing, reporting to the National Weather Service (NWS), works. He handed out a completed (albeit in ‘draft’ form) 2-page operating protocol for Skywarn as an example of what each one would follow, at least in form. John added, the NWS has upgraded their facility in Duluth to make use of APRS data sent in by hams who are in-service doing weather spotting. This simplifies, greatly, the need for lengthy and often time-consuming directions to/from locations as the weather spotter’s locations are always on the APRS display screen that they can overlay on their weather radar information, according to John, who attended a meeting there recently. At the program’s conclusion interested members were asked to complete an Emergency Services Registration form and forward it to John so that up-to-date information would be on-hand as to member’s equipment and contact preferences. Emergency Service Form in html. or the Emergency Service Form in .pdf. |
| Our next meeting is two weeks early because of Christmas. It will be at 7 PM on December 13th in the Brainerd Fire Station. The address is First and Laurel Streets, which is two blocks south of Washington Street on the east side of the Mississippi River. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend. |
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This page was last updated 12/02/2007 Ø
