ColCo Minutes

Columbia County ARES/RACES
County Administration Building
May 19,2016

In attendance:
Sharon Hanold KA9GPY
Bill Hanold N9CHN
Mike Leggett N9LHR
Josh ROmeis KC9ZVH
Bill Timme N9NNN
Rich Green KC9FMN
Henry DeBoer KB9YFG
Tyler Letlebo N9WLF
Craig Sharp AA9ZS
Dave Spearing KB9CSW

Discussed upcoming events:
Field Day June 24-26
Columbia County Fair July 26-31
Yellow Thunder Baraboo HamFest August 27 Â including VEC Testing

Southwest District Meeting /Conference
August 20 9:00-12:00pm Mauston EMS
If interested in attending contact:
Adam Rastall KC9MRV
aprastall@gmail.com
608-769-2831

Talked about the WeComm Repeaters coming on line:
145.110 pl 123 Coloma
146,895 pl 114.8 Birma

ARES RACES HF Â Net on 80 Meters on 3967 LSB on Sundays at 8:00am
Skip Sharp K9LGU Message
Use ICS Forms to manage outside of incident area
Inside of area you accept their communication method
Important to have ID Card /Important frequency Numbers/maps

Southwest Net Monthly 1st Wednesday Next on June 1,2016
443,900 UHF PL 77 Â Â at Â Baraboo
441.400 UHF PL 123 Â at Madison

Craig AA9ZS mentioned the $75.00 Repeater Coordination fee Letter of Location Motion made and seconded to reimburse Craig for the Repeater Coordination fee

Discussed the repeater entry into the ARRL Repeater book, unfortunately it is uncontrolled and WI refuses to update with the current manner of allowing updates which are not coordinated.Â

Mileparatus Military at Fort McCoy and Fort Douglas It was held June 5-10 which is a large national disaster Military and Civilian exercise.
April 29 was deadline to register.
Looking for support to the players in the drill- anticipate 300-400 coming for the exercise Mass mssage handling- looking for Operators from home.. Coordinate with Skip Sharp

Wisconsin ARES RACES Conference
October 22 in Wisconsin Rapid

SulCom Verified that Facebook and Twitter Page is NOT a requirement,
Tom Kachowski and Nathan verified.
Discussed replacement for Nathan in SulCom
Tyler N9WLF indicated he would try to fill in at least temporarily

Field Day Discussion
In Rio. Need help to get Van to site.
Simple approach:
Get Generators out
Charlie will get Picnic tables set up
Give an opportunity to get familiar with the vehicle/van and the equipment
Tyler going to do APRS
Plan to activate WIN LINK station
Set up a NAVS antenna and a vertical anetnna for the HF radio in the van.

Columbia County Fair Assignments

Columbia County Emergency Plan and Operating Manual Josh distributed Portage County Plan which everyone is to edit for discussion next month to give the group a how to manual and protocol for activating nets and van instructions. Refine it to fit the needs of the organization and to be sure we have a manual to do all the activites of the organization in a uniform and consistent manner.Review and mark up for the next meeting.

Decided to use FLdigi as group's preferred digital software suite.
Need to put the Columbia County ARES RACES Web address on the side of the van.

Bill N9NNN will bring treats and will be Net control.

On Tue, Jun 14, 2016 at 2:19 AM, Bill Timme wrote:

Hi All
This a reminder of our upcoming, June ARES/RACES meeting.
We will meet at 7:00 pm, Thursday June, 16, at the L.E.C. as usual.
Agenda:
1.Discussion of the New Columbia Co. ARES/RACES EMERGENCY Activation Plan.
(Please bring your marked up copy to turn in, with your likes and dislikes, Â for KC9ZVH Josh to annualize) for a final draft.
2. Our upcoming Field Day Event, on June 25,& 26th.
3. Fair Security: July 26, thru the 31st. We have a few spots open yet. Those that have not signed up, please do so at the meeting.
4. We are honored to have a guest at our meeting. Mr. Tom Kacharskis, from Sulcom. He will talk
With us and answer any questions we have about Sulcom.
Burgers at the Tamarack, (in the back room) at 5:00 PM.
73 Bill N9NNN

Columbia County ARES/RACES
County Administration Building
March 17,2016

Attendees:
Rich Green KC9FNM
David Spearing KB9CSW
Josh Romeis KC9VGH
Tyler Letlelo KC9UYP
Greg Hovland W9IKU
Nate Murray Â KC9TUX
Dave Parker WB9WHG
Henry DeBoer

Meeting started at 19:00 Field Day
Nate KC9TUX graciously volunteered to coordinate field day. We discussed location and the Pros/Cons of each location. Under consideration Rio Park and Pardeville location used last year. Rio Site Advantages: Use generators, Thought the generators should be used and have a "shake down" cruise to make sure they are working and prepared for use in a case of an emergency. Charlie always prepares the site for us with picnic tables and firewood. Pardeville was liked and the site worked out well. Decision was made to wait on a decision until our wintering members return and can provide input.

Rich indicated his work schedule will prevent him from attending some of the meetings over the next few months. We talked about topics and covering the meeting over the next few months.

We discussed the need to have a Public Service Officer (P.S.O.), Â We also discussed the value of the notices for the meetings. We talked about using Goggle Groups to help organize the group and send out notices on a preset schedule.

Henry KB9YFG discussed the ARRL Webinar on Forms 157, 220 and 255. See attached
Form 157: Public Service Activity Report
Form 220: Communication Procedure/Reference Chart
Form 255: Emergency Reference Information for Amateur Radio Station
This was the first ARRL Webinar. There were technical problems but it was helpful.
ARRL plans to have monthly Webinar to discuss public service resources and procedures to support amateur radio.

SulComm Exercise was discussed and the check in procedure. There were members who checked in. They are again on March 22 and April 26. Tornado watch is planned for April 15 at 1:55 and 6:55 pm.

We discussed the Weather Spotters Class and Columbia County ARES RACES member attendance was good. Nate did a nice job promoting SulCom and the ARES RACES. The presentation was good and much more internet connected, He showed the current weather conditions and showed several recent videos of weather in Wisconsin.

Dave Parker WB9WHG passed around the new/revised ICS 213 Also discussed exploring the NBEMS Narrow Band Emergency Message System digital message system. Talked about logging contacts for Field Day and using router/mesh network to connect digitally for communication between stations. On the ham frequencies (2,4g) band we can use increased power giving us greater range.

Dave Parker also brought a nice IBM laptop to see if anyone wanted to purchase it for ham radio digital use. You will need to replace the hard drive whiich was removed,The laptop was offered for $50. He indicated he would bring it to the next meeting.

Next meeting will be April 21, 2016.

Columbia County ARES/RACES
County Administration Building
Nov 19 2015

Hi all -

Our monthly meeting for November was well attended, ( 10 members and 1 guest ).

Treats for this meeting were provided by Sharon KA9GPY, thanks Sharon for the wonderful CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!!

The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag,

Our next meeting will be on December 15, 2015. It was decided that it will be a dinner meeting and our Christmas Party.

It will be at Suzie's Supper Club located on County Trunk CX, on the north side of Portage.

Social hour at 6:00 p.m., Dinner at 7:00 p.m. Order off the menu.

The 50/50 drawing was won by Bill, N9CHN.

Net Control for December will be KB9CSW, Dave.

Treats, will be provided by WB9WHG, Dave.

Ron Riggs KF9U, donated a wireless router to our group. It is planned to use it at Field Day, for networking stations operating, with a logging program. This will be one of the winter meeting projects, to get everybody on board with system, and working properly. Thanks Ron

Dave Parker has a new E. Mail address, (adparker@merr.com )

Mike Leggett, N9LHR, has a AL-82 amplifier FOR SALE, if interested, give him a call, or E. Mail at n9lhrnsp@frontier.com

Discussion on Verizon wireless going down on Nov. 18,2015, at 12:04 am, and how it affected the Sheriff dept. and Devine Savior Hospital, here in Portage!

Discussion on the 2016 Field Day and its location. Two locations were mentioned as where to hold it. Pardeeville, or Rio. Pardeeville, was a slight favorite, mainly because of the cleaner rest rooms, and central location.

Our guest join our group, along with his wife. who also a ham.

Their names are Greg & Stephenie Hovland. Gregs call is W9IKU, Greg is the Pastor of the Lutheran church, here in Portage. He transferred here from Green bay, in August of this year, Greg worked with the national weather service in Green Bay ,and La Crosse, as a ham operator. He will work in well with our group, as a storm spotter. Storm Spotter and maybe a liaison to Sullivan.

Bill @ Sharon are on their way to winter in Green Valley, AZ. I will be leaving Thursday, for the same destination.

Donâ€™t forget to check in to Our weekly net on Thursday nightâ€™s at 7:30pm.

That's it from here, I will try to get an E. Mail out each month, for the upcoming meetings.

73, and Happy Holidays to all.

Bill N9NNN