Meeting Minutes for the Galveston County Emergency Communications Group www.gcecg.org The most recent meetings are listed first. ==================================================================================================== January 26, 2012 Start: 1910 End: 2017 Members: 19 Visitors: 0 Other: None Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: Introductions TE Systems 2-meter Amp is installed on the 145.410 repeater. We have 2 reports of degraded receiver performance. Louis has an isolator we can use for troubleshooting after other field tests are done. Alfred Perez, N5VEV: We should do some comprehensive repeater coverage testing of GCECG, Texas City, and Galveston repeaters. Analyze current situation - plot data for Tx City, Galveston, both GCECG repeaters. Field strength measurements will be taken with specific antenna/radio. 9AM Sat Morning Jose Corvalan will test from ferry landing at Galveston. Then on Feb 18 we can do a more comprehensive second round of testing. We would like to form a committee to do more detailed testing and create a report. Curt Tallman, WB5UZZ, Asst. Director Winter Field Day - Saturday Jan 28 at Texas City Dike Feb 11 cERT Rodeo. Will use hams. Contact Alfred Perez perez.alfred@gmail.com Actions for GCOEM: None Actions for Director: Make nametag and member certificate for James Gunnett, KI5RR. Next GCECG meeting: February 23, 2012, 1900 ==================================================================================================== December, 2011 No meeting was held. Next GCECG meeting: January 26, 2012, 1900 ==================================================================================================== November, 2011 No meeting was held. Next GCECG meeting: January 26, 2012, 1900 ==================================================================================================== October 27, 2011 Start: 1910 End: 2008 Members: 16 Visitors: 4 Other: None Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: Introductions TE systems amp project is not going to happen. It's low priority anyway. Alfred Perez says the current repeater is solid down to Main @ 610 loop and I-10 @ Beltway 8 west. Repeater seems to hear better than transmit so it would benefit by adding some transmit power. New 6-cavity duplexers are about $150. Louis said insertion loss if we go to 6-cavity duplexers. Alfred Perez offered to subcontract work on the amp and handle the financial transaction with the County. Curt Tallman, WB5UZZ, Asst. Director Sat Oct 29 will be the Homebrew Special Interest Group for CLARC at La Brisa at I-45 at 9:30 am. Nov 5: Tailgate at Summit HS in Pasadena off Beltway 8 7:00 am start. Multiple groups support. E-waste event for old computer gear, electronics, etc. 8:00 am-2:00 pm. Space Center Houston. No appliances like washing machines, etc. Ham radio help is needed. Look at CLARC.org under public service events. ARES/RACES special emergency training. E-mails will be sent with details. Nov 5 9:00 am initial callout. Over by 11:00 am. Alfred Perez, N5VEV: FEMA coordinating test of EAS. Nationwide Nov 9 2p Eastern. Last 3.5 mins. all radio, TV, cable TV, satellite. 3/4 country not aware. Repeater in area relocated - more usable to Clear Lake area 145.390 tone 123.0. October 31 first date, then next Thursday for Wouxun working group. Freeman library in Clear Lake, 7:00 p.m. This group will meet every Monday and Thursday after that. The purpose of the group is to tie radio and laptop together to do packet. The radio has VOX, a timeout timer, and certain software which will make it easier to do packet. Louis Petit, WB5BMB FCC has issued report and order for Broadband over Powerlines (BPL). There will be areas of BPL in place soon. There will probably be impacts to amateur radio, mostly on HF. Agreement to increase notch filter from 20 to 25dB notch filter General Discussion: None Actions for GCOEM: None Actions for Director: Follow up with Alfred Perez on TE Systems amp. Tommy Duvall, KF5HSB - print certificate and nametag John Stewart, AE5ZO - check on background form. Next GCECG meeting: January 26, 2012, 1900 ==================================================================================================== September 22, 2011 Start: 1902 End: 2011 Members: 16 Visitors: 1 Other: None Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: Introductions Alfred Perez, N5VEV: Alfred gave a show-and-tell about the new go kits created for League City OEM, and another go kit built for Tom Davies. He also demonstrated the new Chinese $100 radio, Wouxun model KG-UVD1P. General Discussion: None Actions for GCOEM: Follow up on 2m repeater TE Systems amp tunedown. Actions for Director: Make nametag for Roger Schermerhorn. Next GCECG meeting: October 27, 2011, 1900 ==================================================================================================== August 25, 2011 Start: 1905 End: 2045 Members: 15 Visitors: 4 Other: Colin Rizzo (OEM Ops Coordinator) Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: Introductions Minutes are now in a searchable text file on the website. We are in the thick of hurricane season. "Keep your batteries charged" as Joe Wileman would say. Members will be asked to bring their HT's to the next meeting to practice placing them on simplex. Curt Tallman, WB5UZZ, Asst. Director: 2m band plan reviewed. New continuous CPR - laypeople take 2-3 minutes trying to establish an airway. "No-breath" CPR video was viewed. Colin Rizzo (OEM Operations Coordinator): We cannot sell the DB-224E antenna which was taken off the tower. If we sell it we must go through Govdeals. However, we can request proceeds from the sale for use on GCECG. We decided keep the antenna to use as a backup. The 2m repeater TE Systems amplifier tunedown needs to be done prior to October 1. We now have print capability from all radio room computers. Alfred Perez, N5VEV: Alfred asked for examples of where ham radio was needed. Motorola had expressed their opinion that ham was not really needed. Jerel TX tornado destroyed all communications. Texas City after Ike due to radios from one region not working with the local region. In Alaska, a line was accidentally cut and 1/3 of the state comm went down. Minnesota bridge collapse: trunked system down for 4 days. Alfred showed a video highlighting the need for ham radio capability. Louis Petit, WB5BMB: Louis gave an overview of how trunking works. The discussion was prompted from the "need for ham radio" topic Alfred had brought up. General Discussion: Net message given too quickly. Nobody copied the message. Actions for Director: Follow up on 2m repeater TE Systems amp tunedown. Next GCECG meeting: September 22, 2011, 1900 ==================================================================================================== July 28, 2011 Start: 1900 End: 2013 Members: 16 Visitors: 3 Other: Colin Rizzo (OEM Ops Coordinator) Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: Introductions There is a tropical storm in the Gulf. No impact to area expected. The antenna removed during the June 18, 2010 tower climb was a DB224-E (138-150 MHz), not a HX9-43050 (430-450 MHz) as was thought to occupy the 5-blue color coded Heliax. The OEM is checking to see if this antenna was bought with DHS money. If so we may not be able to sell it and keep the profits for GCECG. Curt Tallman, WB5UZZ, Asst. Director: Curt discussed FEMA Independent Studay Program for ARES applications: ICS100, ICS200, IS700, IS800. Curt recommended the following order: ICS100, IS700, ICS200, IS800. Colin Rizzo (OEM Operations Coordinator): There will be a significant impact to the OEM budget this year (Oct 1). We may get enough money to tune down the TE Systems 2m repeater amp. The OEM feels that the lightning "Tower Guard" system is working well. There will be no reworking of ground system engineering in the radio room. One thing we could do is ground the Polyphasers under the floor. Joe Mills, K5JMM: Joe asked for volunteers for the Monday net control station. Current net controls: AA5OP, WB5UZZ, N5VEV, N5LZX, KC5LAA, K5JMM General Discussion: For the Monday net, it would be a good idea to issue a message and have people copy it and bring their copied message to the meeting to see if it matches the original. It would also be a good exercise to have people bring their HT's to the meeting to see if they know how to transmit on the repeater output or on simplex. Actions for OEM: We need print capability in the radio room. Actions for Director: 1. Check Yahoo group set up to allow attachments. 2. Follow up on 2m repeater amp power tunedown. Next GCECG meeting: August 25, 2011, 1900 ==================================================================================================== June 23, 2011 Start: 1907 End: 2025 Members: 13 Visitors: 1 Other: Colin Rizzo (OEM Ops Coordinator) Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: Introductions Alfred Perez, N5VEV: Alfred gave a presentation on go kits which were designed exclusively for League City OEM. N5DCC has stated that their tower will be lowered prior to a hurricane. Next GCECG meeting: July 28, 2011, 1900 ==================================================================================================== May 26, 2011 Start: 1905 End: 2008 Members: 12 Visitors: 1 Other: None Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: Introductions Mike reminded the group of our Monday night net at 9pm on our repeater. Curt Tallman, WB5UZZ, Asst. Director: Boeing has a hardened room on the third floor of their building. They have a Comet CHA250B antenna which will come down before a storm. The antenna is an aluminum pole 23.5 feet tall and covers 80, 40, and 20 meters. Joe Wileman, AA5OP: There will be a RACES drill June 4. James Colwell, AA5OQ, will run 145.410 at 9am, 442.225 and HF. Anyone can check in. Next GCECG meeting: June 23, 2011, 1900 ==================================================================================================== April 28, 2011 Start: 1906 End: 2020 Members: 14 Visitors: 1 Other: Colin Rizzo (OEM Ops Coordinator) Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: Introductions Alfred Perez, N5VEV: Antennas have been put up for League City EOC on Fire Station #1. If anyone has experience building "statement of work" please contact him. A project idea is to link repeaters for Southeast ARES from the Astrodome area through the CLARC repeater to the EMF. Joe Wileman, AA5OP: Jack Cumbaa, W5JWC has passed. Texas City Hamfest is July 9. Book your tables now. For Field Day (last full weekend in June), Tidelands will be at Highlands Bayou Park Curt Tallman, WB5UZZ: There will be an ARES exercise June 4 from 9-12 For the next meeting we may set up a HF net in the radio room. This Saturday at the Summit High School in Pasadena there will be joint EMF/Texas City operations from 7am on. On Saturday May 7 there will be an e-waste pickup at Space Center Houston from 8am-2pm. They will be taking computer gear, VCR, stereos, etc. Next GCECG meeting: May 26, 2011, 1900 ==================================================================================================== March 24, 2011 Start: 1903 End: 2020 Members: 12 Visitors: 1 Other: Colin Rizzo (OEM Ops Coordinator) Curt Tallman, WB5UZZ, Asst. Director: Introductions Curt discussed the tailgate sale planned for Saturday April 30 at Summit High School in Pasadena. David Unger, KF5FUL: Discussed advanced Skywarn training to be held at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday March 26 at the Doyle Convention Center. Colin Rizzo (OEM Operations Coordinator): Presented Julie Trumble from UTMB who presented the Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders (WISER). Next GCECG meeting: April 28, 2011, 1900 ==================================================================================================== February 24, 2011 Start: 1905 End: 2004 Members: 17 Visitors: 0 Other: Colin Rizzo (OEM Ops Coordinator) Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: Introductions Rob Bailey, WM8S, has donated two Daiwa SS-330W 30 Amp DC power supplies to GCECG. Thank you Rob! Louis Petit, WB5BMB: Discussed the potential for the loss of the 440 band. There is a new bill to take 440 and turn it into land mobile radio, 420-440 + 440-470, for Homeland Security broadband use. HR87 is related. A study has to be done to evaluate the benefits of ham radio. General Discussion: On June 11 there will be a Houston/Galveston area hurricane workshop. On March 10 there will be a Basic Skywarn class from 7:00-9:30 p.m. Register at CERT@gcoem.org On March 26 the Advanced Skywarn will be taught at the Doyle Convention Center in Texas City from 1:00-4:30 p.m. Next GCECG meeting: March 24, 2011, 1900 ==================================================================================================== January 27, 2011 Start: 1905 End: 2005 Members: 21 Visitors: 8 Other: Colin Rizzo (OEM Ops Coordinator) Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: Introductions Curt Tallman, WB5UZZ, Asst. Director: Discussed Galveston County ARES and how Harris County ARES handled the Hurricane Ike response. There needs to be more ARES/GCECG integration. During a hurricane event, there needs to be more communications to POD sites. Joe Wileman, AA5OP: Discussed RACES. RACES membership requires a security background check. RACES is run by state government in the state of Texas. Next GCECG meeting: February 24, 2011, 1900 ==================================================================================================== December, 2010 No meeting was held. Next GCECG meeting: January 27, 2011, 1900 ==================================================================================================== November, 2010 No meeting was held. Next GCECG meeting: January 27, 2011, 1900 ==================================================================================================== October 28, 2010 Start: 1901 End: 2017 Members: 13 Visitors: 1 Other: Colin Rizzo (OEM Ops Coordinator) Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: Introductions Ken Shubert, K0KS: Suggested that a fan dipole antenna, mounted to the tower, would provide better HF performance than the B&W antenna currently in service. We will borrow a test model from Joe Wileman. Louis Petit, WB5BMB: Provided training on international band allocations. General Discussion: Curt and Joe Wileman will come up with RACES training for the Monday night net. The packet station still has a hum which affects some people's ability to decode its signal. A ferrite loop was suggested on the power cable. We need to use a spotting scope or telescope to identify Heliax markings at the 120' level on the tower to ensure our antenna mapping chart is accurate. *** There will be no meeting in November or December Next GCECG meeting: January 27, 2011, 1900 ==================================================================================================== September 23, 2010 Start: 1909 End: 1954 Members: 15 Visitors: 1 Other: Colin Rizzo (OEM Ops Coordinator) Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: Introductions General Discussion: A cold front may push Hurricane Matthew to the south. The Wednesday radio check will be moving to Monday or Tuesday. Net control stations for the Monday night net need to send their check-in lists to Joe Mills, K5MJJ. RACES training is on Monday night. Contact Joe Wileman if you are interested in RACES. Saturday there will be a fun run in Dickinson, the Live Healthy 5K. CLARC will support. Hams are needed for the air show October 22, 23, and 24. Fri-Sun 7A-11P. About 60 needed. CERT starts Tuesday September 28, 6:30-9:30 PM, for 8 weeks. EMWIN is down. NWS thinks it may be the antenna. Tower climbers will verify antenna. Next GCECG meeting: October 28, 2010, 1900 ==================================================================================================== August 26, 2010 Start: 1904 End: 2045 Members: 13 Visitors: 1 Other: Colin Rizzo (OEM Ops Coordinator) Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: Introductions. A review of the new By-Laws was conducted, including reading of the Operations Plan. The By-Laws should be signed by John Simsen sometime in the next few days. Colin Rizzo, OEM Ops Coordinator: The OEM has a date set for the tower climber: Thursday August 9. The climber will be able to test the feedline, make jumper cables on the fly, waterproof connections, and install our Comet GP-3 and Discone antennas with no problem. Colin provided about one hour of training on WebEOC in the EOC room. Next GCECG meeting: September 23, 2010, 1900 ==================================================================================================== July 22, 2010 Start: 1905 End: 1943 Members: 17 Visitors: 0 Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: Introductions. Showed off Discone antenna mount created by Scott VanDusen, KC5IBZ. It's heavy steel and is powder coated to resist corrosion. The county is requesting bids for the tower climber/antenna repair work. It should take somewhere between 2 weeks and 2 months before we actually have a climber. The antennas are in bad shape right now, with the WR5GC UHF repeater antenna (180'), spare UHF (120'), VHF packet station (80'), NWS PIES (80'), and one of the Diamond X-50A dual-band antennas (60') - UHF band having very high SWR. The UHF repeater is off the air until we can get one of the UHF antennas working. The tropical depression is now TS Bonnie with 40mph sustained winds. The latest forecasted tracks have it going in near New Orleans Saturday evening. The radios in the radio cabinet, including the repeaters, are now powered by the newest Rigrunner 4008. This will be more reliable than the MFJ power strips we had. At different times, the UHF and VHF repeaters had gone off the air due to the power connections working loose with the MFJ's. The NWS EMWIN receiver got fried by recent lightning, but the replacement EMWIN receiver is not yet working. The NWS thinks it's antenna related, but it could be DIP switch configuration on the receiver. Nancy McCain, K5NLM, OEM: There will be SNETS exercise on August 4 at the Doyle Convention Center in Texas City. GCECG may be involved. VHF Repeater amp power reduction still on hold. Nancy trying to contact factory to ensure they can tune it down. Alfred Perez, N5VEV: Alfred discussed low cost options for packet, including sound card based packet such as "Olivia". Next GCECG meeting: August 26, 2010, 1900 ==================================================================================================== June 24, 2010 Start: 1900 End: 2010 Members: 14 Visitors: 3 Curt Tallman, WB5UZZ, Asst. Director: Introductions. Discussion of antenna sweep and lightning strike damage to NWS equipment. There was a general concern that the lightning strike may have invalidated the antenna sweep results. Some of the members expressed concern about the lack of impedance/reactance information on the chart. [Radio room equipment was tested after the meeting with no damage noted]. The antennas are in bad shape right now, with the WR5GC UHF repeater antenna (180'), spare UHF (120'), VHF packet station (80'), NWS PIES (80'), and one of the Diamond X-50A dual-band antennas (60') - UHF band having very high SWR. The UHF repeater is off the air until we can get one of the UHF antennas working. Several key GCECG documents were reviewed for training purposes, and each member present was issued a CD with these files on it. The files included our list of digipeaters, radio room handbook, Telpac locations, Transtar frequencies, Saltgrass nodes, our frequency plan, and manuals for the dual-band radios. Next GCECG meeting: July 22, 2010, 1900 ==================================================================================================== May 27, 2010 Start: 1905 End: 2008 Members: 15 Visitors: 1 Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: Introductions. Award to Louis Petit, WB5BMB and John Paterson, KC5LAA for outstanding radio room support during the recent HUREX exercise. Packet radio antenna still has high SWR but there are currently no sweep plans. Tracy Hughes, KE5KAQ, OEM: State GLO responding to the spill. Expect tar balls not related to spill. Gulf has 60% chance of hurricane. For PODS, there will be no state staffing. GCECG will be written into the POD staffing plans this year. Nancy McCain, K5NLM, OEM: Rig Runner which was ordered was 4008 but we received 4005H. Nancy will return it and ask for what we ordered. VHF Repeater amp power reduction still on hold. Nancy trying to contact factory to ensure they can tune it down. General Discussion: TARS Hamfest July 10. People might want to program the repeater output frequencies into their radio in case the repeater goes down. The 147.060 repeater (tone 123.0) is on the air in the Astrodome area at 450'. This repeater was formerly in Pasadena. Hurricane conference June 19 at George R Brown. George Fletcher is looking for volunteers. Field Day is June 26-27. TARS will be at Highlands Bayou Park and CLARC will be at Sylvan Rodriguez Park. Both clubs will be operating for the whole 24-hour period. Next GCECG meeting: June 24, 2010, 1900 ==================================================================================================== April 22, 2010 Start: 1904 End: 2011 Members: 13 Visitors: 3 Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: Introductions. Lee Lockwood has resigned as the OEM Operations Coordinator. We are currently reporting directly to John Simsen. Nancy McCain, K5NLM, has stepped in to ensure GCECG has what it needs to support the OEM. She is in the process of ordering another Rig Runner 4008 which has 8 outlets. She is also going to order us another Daiwa SS-330W 30-Amp power supply. The audio on the 145.410 repeater was having problems for a while, fading out to nothing while someone was talking and was strong into the machine. Problem has not been noticed for several weeks now. We thought it was antenna related but checked the antenna 6 weeks ago and it was fine. Will continue to monitor for any audio anomalies. Our amp which came with the Kenwood VHF repeater has been located in Lee's office. We will try again to ship it back to the factory and have them tune the TX power down. When we first received the amp, it was transmitting with too much power which desensed the receive in the cavities. The cavities are only rated to 100W. The packet antenna has a very high SWR and the packet is on low TX power now. The OEM will have a tower climber check the connector. Some members suggested that we should sweep the coax to see if we are perhaps connected to the wrong antenna on the tower. [After the meeting we did sweep it and could not find a smooth transition to any low SWR anywhere in the expected spectrum, indicating that there is probably a problem with water in the connector at the antenna.] There is still a discone antenna ready to be mounted. The coax has already been run and the antenna can be mounted when the packet antenna is checked by a tower climber. Curt Tallman, Asst. Director: Don't forget about the standing ARES net on 146.640 at 8:00 p.m. each Tuesday night. Nancy McCain, K5NLM: There will be a hurricane exercise May 3-7. GCECG will be involved, mostly to test our activation tree and response of personnel to the OEM, not so much for amateur communications. Next GCECG meeting: May 27, 2010, 1900 ==================================================================================================== March 25, 2010 Start: 1907 End: 2030 Members: 15 Visitors: 2 Curt Tallman, Asst. Director: Introductions. Curt welcomed all members and visitors Alfred Perez and O'Riley McSpadden. Curt described his experiences providing Amateur Radio communications for Bike Medics supporting the Seabrook Lucky Trails Marathon March 20 and 21, 2010. With medical needs by participants both days of the event, having Amateur Radio communications with the Bike Medics clearly showed the improved response time compared to previous events where the Bike Medics had to be located before they were able to respond to the need. Curt made the point that, in his opinion, any run/walk event longer than 10K should have Bike Medics accompanied by an Amateur Radio operator. Curt Tallman led a discussion of ARES activities as related to GCECG. Curt handed out ARES information and application forms. Ten completed forms were returned. Curt took pictures of each person who signed up but didn’t already have a picture posted on the GCECG Yahoo site for the purpose of making ARES picture badges. Curt asked Ken Shubert to lead a discussion on RACES during the next GCECG meeting in April. Ken Shubert and Nancy McCain also discussed RACES. John Paterson, KC5LAA: John led a discussion of Packet Radio as it relates to GCECG and Galveston County . Members with significant Packet experience participated in, and greatly added to, the discussion. General: After the packet discussion, the meeting adjourned around 8:30 p.m. to the radio room to allow the attendees to share and learn. Next GCECG meeting: April 22, 2010, 1900 ==================================================================================================== February 25, 2010 Start: 1902 End: 2007 Members: 12 Visitors: 1 Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: Introduction of meeting attendees was conducted. Members have noticed diminished audio quality on the 145.410 repeater, with audio fading out to zero. Could be water in the feedline connector. Some members recommended switching the repeater to the packet antenna temporarily. We have requested a Rig Runner 4008 (8-outlet) for the radio cabinet. We are currently having problems printing from the radio room. IT issue. General Discussion: Net Control for our Monday night net should attempt simplex operation during the net. Nancy McCain, K5NLM, will hold a CERT class on Saturday April 24, 10:30 am-4:30 pm. 4 Saturdays + 1 exercise. IS-317, Intro to CERT wil be held May 22. Next GCECG meeting: March 25, 2010, 1900 ==================================================================================================== January 28, 2010 Start: 1902 End: 2002 Members: 11 Visitors: 10 Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: Introduction of meeting attendees was conducted. Curt Tallman, WB5UZZ, is our new Assistant Director. Ken stepped down in October and is still active in the group. Since Nancy McCain's CERT class had a large presence at the meeting, Mike Scott presented an overview of GCECG using a presentation which was given to emergency managers in 2008. General Discussion: ARES: District 1 ARES is all around Harris County and encompasses Galveston County. Harris County itself is District 14. ARES would be good for all hams to have. There is no need to have ARRL affiliation. Nancy McCain would like to put on another CERT class. We should e-mail her with what works best for us, weeknight or Saturday. Saturday only would take 5 Saturdays since it's a 24-hour course. The Texas City Hamfest is July 10. Louis Petit is the ARRL Technical Coordinator for South Texas. E-mail him to let him know your specialty. We need to get more kids involved in Skywarn. Next GCECG meeting: February 25, 2010, 1900 ==================================================================================================== December, 2009 No meeting was held. Next GCECG meeting: January 28, 2010, 1900 ==================================================================================================== November, 2009 No meeting was held. Next GCECG meeting: January 28, 2010, 1900 ==================================================================================================== October 22, 2009 Start: 1900 End: 2000 Members: 15 Visitors: 0 Bill Steele (WA5WVP) and Joe Wileman (AA5OP): Bill and Joe gave packet training. General Discussion: We will not meet in November or December due to conflict with the holidays. Next GCECG meeting: January 28, 2010, 1900 ==================================================================================================== September 24, 2009 Start: 1910 End: 1942 Members: 16 Visitors: 4 Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: The revised charter team is progressing. There may be WebEOC training coming soon. Our net at 9:00 pm Monday evenings on 145.410 needs more participation. General Discussion: RACES is reorganizing. The current state organization and level of participation is not acceptable. October 3 is the Belton Hamfest; October 17 is the TARS Jamboree on the Air in the city park in Texas City. IRLP seems to be working on 442.025. Amateur license testing is conducted the 3rd Saturday of each month for TARS, and the 2nd Saturday of each month at the Gilruth Center for CLARC. Next GCECG meeting: October 22, 2009, 1900 ==================================================================================================== August 27, 2009 Start: 1905 End: 2013 Members: 16 Visitors: 1 Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: We have received new tools from the OEM. We now have a multimeter, pliers, a ratchet set, screwdrivers, butane soldering iron, and similar tools. Powerpoles and power supplies should be on the way soon. Louis mentioned he may have a service monitor that we can buy from him. The computer at the Skywarn position is not booting. Use a different computer for Skywarn support. [Update: Computer replaced 8/27 and is working] The 146.680 repeater in Galveston is on the air. We have established contact with the head facilities manager at UTMB where the repeater is located. [One of the UTMB hams was our visitor at the meeting.] Some of the people (doctors) who used to meet for the UTMB ECG are still at UTMB and want to work with us to rework their radio room. We have offered our services to that end, and have offered to supply personnel if the need arises. The radio room is equipped with HF, 2-meters, 440. The room is currently undergoing renovation. Technical notes on the repeater from Louis: TX 70 Watts high power, 7 Watts low. RX has a preamp. Local control switch does not work. Tone switch should be in "PL OFF" position. TX power protection against high SWR. The antenna loops are between the mast and building structure to customize the radiation pattern. The antenna is a DB224 - 9dB gain which is working like a 6dB Omni. With the antenna position it radiates like a notched cardioid (6dB gain on each side). Val Kahanek, KE5OND: Recommendation for "Go" kits: Yaesu FT-817ND, Alkaline battery case, cigarette lighter power, twin lead, barrel connectors, ground rod, mobile antenna magmount, HF centerfed dipole antenna (or fishpole), 70cm and 6m antenna, rope for raising antenna in tree. Ken Shubert, Asst. Director: Mike Kitchen suggested that we write a letter to Pete Olson with respect to ham radio frequency spectrum which is at risk of being taken away. General Discussion: It was suggested that packet be put on the air at the UTMB radio room if it's not already there. We will assess this when we visit the radio room. Next GCECG meeting: September 24, 2009, 1900 ==================================================================================================== July 23, 2009 Start: 1908 End: 1959 Members: 12 Visitors: 0 Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: The GCECG Charter team met after the last meeting. Progress was made. Some of the things discussed were: An activation tree, MOU agreements with other agencies, and specific Bylaws updates. Hurricane season is upon us now, so it is time to be ready to support GCECG. That means having your equipment ready and knowing what you will do to support if you decide not to evacuate. Also, this means letting me or Ken know your latest contact information. We don't poll people but once a month so it's easy for information to become stale fast. Ken Shubert, K0KS, Asst. Director: Lightning protection on the Heliax coming into the building is still a concern with regards to protecting operators in the radio room. Is there something that can be done to retrofit the Heliax bulkhead for grounding? Computer and radio equipment is also at risk, for both OEM and NWS. Perhaps NWS could help with funding for that project? Polyphasers are installed but will mostly protect equipment. General Discussion: Field Day was a hit. The sunspots seem to be increasing. Perhaps we are coming out of the longer-than-normal 11 year cycle valley. Is the possibility that "go kits" could still be bought for use in the field? Can some of this money come from companies like those who offered to provide products and material after Hurricane Ike last year? The Director will e-mail Lee to ask. [8/11/09 Lee asked us to make a list of what should be in the kits. He may come across unallocated budget money but he is well into his 2010 budget process.] We still need to pursue getting a repeater in Galvston. The frequencies 146.900 (old LaMarque) and 146.680 (old UTMB) seem to be available if we can get equipment. [8/11/09 The Frequency Coordinator sent a form which we can fill out to request one of the pairs if it's inactive, however he said the 146.900 may conflict with a current Cleveland repeater. The form requires that we attempt to bring up the requested repeater on three separate occasions spread out over a one-month period. Both pairs have been off the air for many months.] Are the county-issued ID badges ever going to be issued? [8/11/09 Lee said probably not. The OEM has not been able to obtain them from the people who make them.] Next GCECG meeting: August 27, 2009, 1900 ==================================================================================================== June 25, 2009 Start: 1900 End: 1958 Members: 13 Visitors: 0 Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: With the hurricane season upon us it's time to trim our roster a bit. People who have not been to a meeting in 2 1/2 years will be removed from the roster, with several exceptions. A few people have a physical disability that prevents them from coming to meetings, and a few others may be utilized from their home during an event. I will send a notice to all the ones we want to remove. The GCECG Charter team will meet after the meeting to begin working on new wording for our charter, which will be included in our Bylaws. A full accounting of this and subsequent meetings will be issued to charter team members, and then to all GCECG members after significant progress has been made. Since we are well into hurricane season we need to get wording for any expanded roles in place soon. Traci Hughes, Galveston County OEM Planning Coordinator: Re-entry to the county after an event: GCECG members may be allowed back into the county by a Sheriff but will probably be denied re-entry by Texas DPS. One option is for members to contact the radio room via ham radio, then we can work through the players in the EOC and perhaps contact Austin to gain re-entry for personnel. Call takers who have been ICS trained have been hired by the County through Media Consultants. This should free up the hams to do radio communications support. General Discussion: Field Day is 1PM Saturday through 1PM Sunday. TARS will be at Highlands Bayou Park in LaMarque, talk-in 147.140. CLARC will have a weather incident from 6:30AM-7:30AM. and will use APRS. Fletcher Harris, KC5VGV, has passed on. He was the originator of the Purple Heart postage stamp and had two Purple Hearts of his own. He participated in the Normandy invasion on D-Day. He was last on the air about one year ago. The Devers repeater on 146.980 is on the air and is up at 2000 feet. It is believed to be linked to three other repeaters. A couple of members requested that a training session in the radio room be made available sometime after Field Day. Next GCECG meeting: July 23, 2009, 1900 ==================================================================================================== May 28, 2009 Start: 1904 End: 2000 Members: 16 Visitors: 1 *** Meeting held at League City EOC *** Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: The RC-1000V controller is finally working on the 145.410 machine. It has a digital voice recorder so it will now identify by voice, and we can use it to broadcast notices. The team to discuss our expanded charter is almost healthy enough to begin. A couple of team members were injured but are ready to participate now. Ken Shubert, K0KS, Assistant Director: ARES is dead in Galveston County. There are very few people showing interest. Ken will no longer be our ARES rep. General Discussion: The net control operator list needs to be sent to the Yahoo group so everyone will know when it's their turn to call the net. Several hams who contacted our station on NWS Skywarn Appreciation Day have sent us SASE and we should respond. Several members would like to have some packet training in the radio room. Using packet is a little cryptic and we need to know how to use our equipment for times of emergency. Next GCECG meeting: June 25, 2009, 1900 ==================================================================================================== April 23, 2009 Start: 1905 End: 2000 Members: 17 Visitors: 4 Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: A new 1000 Watt dummy load has been donated to the group. It's on the third floor. The RC-1000V controller will soon be installed on the 145.410 repeater. Mike will work with Eric Schmidt on this. There was a severe weather event last Saturday. GCECG members were used in a Skywarn capacity. The May meeting will be at the League City EOC at 300 Walker in League City. The charter team is still on hold pending some team members healing from injuries. Please ensure your contact information is up-to-date on the sign-in sheet. This information is all we have to contact you during an activation. Lee Lockwood, OEM Operations Coordinator: A crew did a line sweep of each feedline on the tower two days ago. Everything checked out OK. We will have WebEOC training May 16 at 10am at the OEM. We may give our VHF amplifier to another agency. General Discussion: Member introductions were done. The Texas City Hamfest is Saturday, July 11. Member photos were taken. Next GCECG meeting: May 28, 2009, 1900 ==================================================================================================== March 26, 2009 Start: 1900 End: 2000 Members: 14 Visitors: 1 *** Meeting held at Friendswood EOC *** Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: We have decided that IRLP will not be used on the UHF machine due to our inability to have IRLP and link to the VHF machine due to limited ports on the RC-1000 controller in the UHF machine. Louis and Mike Kitchen are starting to draw up plans for a county-wide linked repeater system. Some of the radios needed for this system have already been purchased. The group charter team is still on hold pending member recovery from injuries. There will be a simulated emergency test this coming Saturday. Stay tuned for details. Next GCECG meeting: April 23, 2009, 1900 ==================================================================================================== February 26, 2009 Start: 1900 End: 2016 Members: 17 Visitors: 1 NO REGULAR MEETING - SKYWARN TRAINING FROM NWS Next GCECG meeting: March 26, 2009, 1900 ==================================================================================================== January 22, 2009 Start: 1900 End: 1958 Members: 18 Visitors: 1 Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: The Monday night net is moving to 9:00 PM per the Yahoo group vote. The team to discuss our expanded charter is forming. If you have interest, please contact me or Ken Shubert. So far we have myself, Ken, Lane, Don, and Lee in the group. Our plan is to decompose requirements and expectations into operational language. i.e. What are the potential missions with which we can assist? How do we meet operational goals? I still need to make ID cards (not county identification) for Preston Nichols, Mike Armatta, Bill Glenn, and Lane MacFarlane. Ken Shubert, K0KS, Assistant Director: The EC-1 training will begin in early February in the media room. Details to be e-mailed to the members via the Yahoo group. Gene Hafele, Chief Meteorologist, Houston/Galveston NWS: The February meeting will be Skywarn training (by Gene) and Skywarn net control training (by David Fanelli). That meeting is February 26. General Discussion: The Seabrook Marathon is March 14 and 15. Half marathon on the 14th and completion of the marathon on the 15th. CLARC runs this event, so if you want to participate, go to www.clarc.org and sign up. They need three full teams of hams, one for Saturday and two for Sunday. The status of the Galveston 146.680 repeater was discussed. There is still difficulty gaining access to the site at UTMB. Placing different equipment at an alternate site was discussed, possibly using the old unused LaMarque frequency of 147.90(?). Mike Scott will contact the frequency coordinator to determine which frequencies are available. Next GCECG meeting: February 26, 2009, 1900 ==================================================================================================== December, 2008 No meeting was held. Next GCECG meeting: January 22, 1900 ==================================================================================================== November 12, 2008 Start: 1904 End: 2026 Members: 16 Visitors: 4 Meeting held earlier in the month than normal to accommodate member schedules with the holidays and the Mission Statement special topic. Tracy Hughes, Galveston County OEM Planning Coordinator: There is an existing pool of around 100 people that the county uses to obtain call takers for events. During Ike, most of these personnel evacuated. The OEM is willing to add new people to that list, including wives and friends of members, but it is preferable that these people have a background check in advance. If you know someone who is available to take calls during an event please contact Lee. Lee Lockwood, OEM Operations Coordinator: GCECG radio operators are allowed to use the county VHF and UHF frequencies to communicate with the county OEM staff. It speaks well of GCECG that the group wants to do more to support emergency operations in the future. The GCECG mission statement was discussed to see if we can play an expanded role in future activations. Several key points were made: During the Ike event, if we had lost communications on Galveston Island we would have been called upon for our services. If communications were lost to a city EOC, they could request our services at their location and we could go there in an OEM capacity. We need to embed more people into city EOC's. This requires us to develop an operations plan in advance of an event. Also, we should consider "go kits" for members to take to city EOC's which contain necessary communications equipment. As part of the development of our ops plan we need to establish relationships with all the EOC's and with agencies such as Civil Air Patrol, MARS, and others. With OEM concurrence, we are allowed to serve Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc., still using our group name GCECG. Our ops plan should take our limited number of available operators into account when we consider field operations. The GCECG director will prioritize where personnel will be utilized. There is no need to modify our mission statement, as it is already broad enough to encompass our role in potential field operations Gene Hafele, Chief Meteorologist, Houston/Galveston NWS: Gene would like us to send out a message on our alert systems (Yahoo and Blackboard Connect) when Skywarn is activated. He also wants more of the GCECG operators to perform as net control during Skywarn activation. Gene is going to work with David Fanelli to set up a training session for new Skywarn operators so people can learn how to run the net and use the Skywarn equipment in the radio room. Skywarn appreciation day is December 6. General Discussion: The new Kenwood TKR-750 repeater has been on the air since 10/27 on 145.410 with a 131.8 tone. We seem to have great coverage on Galveston Island and out to Angleton. We may use the RC-1000V controller, which was bought for the Motorola repeater we never got working, for the Kenwood so that we can use the digital voice recorder feature and have finer control of the repeater. We also may link the repeater with the 442.225 machine, but that is future work. The repeater is transmitting 40 Watts into the cavities. We bought an amp, but it puts too much power (160W driven with low power) into the cavities (they are rated for 100W). The manufacturer of the amp said if we send it back to them they can tune it down to put out less than 100W, which we may try. 75W was recommended by Eric Schmidt as the probable optimum power level. We will start holding a regular traffic net on 145.410 on Monday nights at 7:00 pm. Several members were enthusiastic about performing the net control role. The Rig Runner (Power Pole DC power distribution strips) have been installed in the radio room and are working well. The setup is much cleaner than the prior one. Each strip has its own DC power supply. We will not meet in December. Next GCECG meeting: January 22, 2009, 1900 ==================================================================================================== October 23, 2008 Start: 1905 End: 2020 Members: 16 Visitors: 1 Lee Lockwood, OEM Operations Coordinator: The new Kenwood TKR-750 repeater has been delivered and will be installed in a few short days. General Discussion: Thanks to Armadillo Network for communications to Austin EOC Louis needs a contact with Medical Resarch for access to building 59 Louis proposed a county-wide linked ham repeater network using voting receivers and UHF links. The network would have nodes at the EMF, Texas City, LaMarque PD, LaMarque water tower, and UTMB. Several members expressed a desire to expand the GCECG mission statement and felt that we were underutilized during the Hurricane Ike activation. We will request that OEM personnel attend our next meeting to discuss any expanded role we may serve. Next GCECG meeting: TBA ==================================================================================================== September, 2008 No meeting was held due to EOC activities related to Hurricane Ike. Next GCECG meeting: October 23, 1900 ==================================================================================================== August 28, 2008 Start: 1902 End: 2009 Members: 22 Visitors: 0 Lee Lockwood, OEM Operations Coordinator: The order for the new Kenwood TKR-750 repeater is almost ready. The county has yet to iron out a few paperwork details prior to ordering the repeater. Lee gave a demo of WebEOC amateur radio chatroom function. General Discussion: There may be an EC-1 class in September. Ken and Wayne would instruct. We may want to look into an improved HF antenna, perhaps a sloper attached to the tower. Our current antenna is pretty close to the ground, though it works fairly well. TS Edouard Activation Summary: Members are encouraged to report accurate weather information when operating a net. Do not speculate on prediction of tropical storm wind speed, storm movement, or tidal surge. Be careful when talking with the media in the media room. Media inquiries should be directed to the official county OEM Public Information Officer (PIO). Keep noise to a minimum in the EOC. GCECG has no need to be in the EOC having casual conversation. Keep lids on your drinks in the radio room. Food is not allowed in the radio room. Sign in at the table in the front of the EOC when you arrive for duty, and when you depart. Lee had requested 12 hour shifts for staffing the radio room but we scheduled 8 hour shifts. GCECG members are not required to work any particular shift duration. This is a volunteer group so any help we get is welcomed. If someone is available for 2 hours, or can work a while, then go home and come back again, that's fine. GCECG requested that more proximity badges be made available to personnel supporting activation. Currently there is no way for people to go out to the restroom and get back inside the EOC without knocking on the door. Next GCECG meeting: September 25, 1900 ==================================================================================================== July 24, 2008 Start: 1906 End: 2000 Members: 17 Visitors: 1 Lee Lockwood, OEM Operations Coordinator: The new Kenwood TKR-750 repeater now has funds cleared for ordering, and should be ordered shortly. The repeater can transmit with 35W max without the amp, and 35-160W with the TE Systems amp which we are also purchasing. General Discussion: The HF antenna needs some repair as some strands in the wires are breaking. Field Day - Over 40 contacts were worked. The HF audio sounded distorted since the large batteries under the floor were connected in parallel to a power supply which was trying to charge them and power the HF rig. The batteries have been removed and the HF radio sounds fine. We need to populate our "white list" for Airmail by going to winlink.org, creating a password, and adding e-mail addresses of people we expect to receive airmail traffic from. Next GCECG meeting: August 28, 1900 ==================================================================================================== June 26, 2008 Start: 1905 End: 1952 Members: 18 Visitors: 0 Director: Introductions and member certificates handed out Lee Lockwood, OEM Operations Coordinator: The radio room has some improvements, including new workstation partitions, carpeting, and added PC's. He would like us to make up individual workstation guide books which discuss the equipment at each workstation. The Director took the action item for this. We will have a training session on Tuesday July 8 from 6:00PM-8:00PM for equipment familiarization in the radio room. All members are welcome to attend. For the July meeting we will take training from Lee on the new WebEOC version 7. The new version requires a user to have a unique name and position code for access. There will soon be a new door entry dialpad next to the main lobby door. One of the buttons will ring the phone in the Media Room and then a person there can press one of the phone buttons to unlock the door. Lee has agreed to try to acquire funds so that we can purchase a new ham repeater since the Motorola seems to keep having issues with getting it on the air. The group suggested two types of repeaters to consider: A Kenwood TKR-750 and a Motorola. The county needs to get bids from 3 vendors who will take a county-issued PO. General Discussion: The VHF Motorola repeater's exciter is fixed, but the final transistor is blown. Louis will order this part immediately. Louis has a Kenwood TS-430S which belongs to TARS which he is willing to loan out to an EOC or individual such as a newly-licensed ham. Field Day is June 28, Saturday 8:00 AM - Sunday 8:00 AM. Next GCECG meeting: July 24, 1900 ==================================================================================================== May 22, 2008 Start: 1904 End: 2015 Members: 14 Visitors: 3 Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: Both 145.410 repeaters are off the air until we get the Motorola fixed. General Discussion: The Galveston Hurricane Conference is coming up soon. Field Day is June 28, Saturday 8:00 AM - Sunday 8:00 AM. Next GCECG meeting: June 25, 1900 ==================================================================================================== April 24, 2008 Start: 1905 End: 2007 Members: 14 Visitors: 0 Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: Both 145.410 repeaters are off the air until we get the Motorola fixed. OEM Operations Coordinator (Lee Lockwood): WebEOC training. When logging onto WebEOC, use the address: webeoc.gcoem.org/eoc6 and log in as "Galveston County EOC - Radio Operator". Contact the Director or Assistant Director for the password. Create a log when you are on-duty and when you go off-duty so we can track hours. You can view "Significant Event - County" but cannot post directly to it. Posts you make in the Position Log are reviewed and may be moved to the Significant Event log. General Discussion: There is a new 442.025 repeater in La Marque with a tone 103.5. It's also IRLP node 3222. It defaults to node 9455 in Dallas, but 73 will disconnect, then type the 4-digit code of the node you want. It was recommended that we change the WR5GC IRLP configuration to use a linked radio, not wire the repeater directly to the IRLP computer. This would require us to block CW ID from the node. Next GCECG meeting: May 22, 1900 ==================================================================================================== March 27, 2008 Start: 1902 End: 1935 Members: 15 Visitors: 0 Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: The Vertex 145.41 repeater has been put back on the air to fill in until the Motorola's problems are fixed. Test equipment verified that the Motorola is putting out exciter power only (less than 1 Watt), so it's off the air. OEM Operations Coordinator (Lee Lockwood): Hurricane exercise April 29, 30. Main traffic will be bus number and quantity that are on each bus. General Discussion: There will be a special event station commemorating the 1947 Texas City ship explosion. The event will be on the Texas City dike April 12 from 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM, on Skyline Drive. The Galveston Hurricane Conference is June 7, 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM. Scribbles in Texas City will put the GCECG logo on your shirt if you just bring them a shirt. Cost seems to be $15~$18. Next GCECG meeting: April 24, 1900 ==================================================================================================== February 28, 2008 Start: 1904 End: 1958 Members: 18 Visitors: 0 Mike Scott, N5LZX, Director: The new 145.41 machine is operating with some issues, mostly related to the controller. Many thanks to Louis. We may put the old machine back on the air temporarily due to low power output. IRLP needs a new sound card in the Linux computer. A member volunteered to try a spare sound card which he has. We will have regular training sessions for use of the radio room equipment, probably once per month. It's important for all of us to know how to use our equipment and what tools, such as WebEOC, are available to us and will be needed during an activation. Members should contact the Director or OEM Operations Coordinator (Lee) if their contact information changes. We need to be able to contact all members. Ken Shubert, K0KS, Asst. Director: The last EC-1 class will be held this weekend. Another EC-1 class will start up soon and will probably be held on a Monday or Tuesday night to help people who can't attend on the weekends. A SKYWARN training session taught by NWS will be held March 10 at the EMF. OEM Director (John Simsen): Handed out a presentation for the upcoming hurricane exercise. The event is scheduled for April 29-30 with After Action Review on May 1. OEM Operations Coordinator (Lee Lockwood): Action to Mike Scott: Develop a communications plan which will be used for the hurricane exercise and real events. Action to Mike Scott: Contact Austin EOC and develop a contact list for them, including Winlink addresses. General Discussion: We should decide on an HF frequency for local communication within Galveston County. Ken Shubert suggested the normal RACES frequency of 7255 KHz. Louis Petit urged the members to take the CERT training course, which is offered by the OEM. Louis Petit needs to borrow a folding ladder to work on a digipeater antenna in San Luis. The ladder should fold to 6-8 feet and extend to 20 feet. Louis Petit needs to borrow a LORAN-C receiver to facilitate some work he is doing for the US Coast Guard. After the meeting, some of the members toured the Mobile Operations Center behind the building. Next GCECG meeting: March 27, 1900 ==================================================================================================== January 24, 2008 Start: 1902 End: 1935 Members: 14 Visitors: 1 Ken Shubert, K0KS, Asst. Director: New 145.41 machine is operating and many thanks to Louis for countless hours involved. Mike will program the controller. “ #6 “ will bring up status message or ID, whichever is programmed in. Louis will try to get the 131.8 tone output working. Need to Schedule SKYWARN training at one meeting like last years. Hurricane Conferences coming up: Texas State at Galveston (3 days), Galveston City (1 day), Houston and Pasadena. EC-1 course is underway with first 4 Learning Units covered. Red Cross trimming down in TX City and equipment going to CLARC and TARS club. Next GCECG meeting: February 28, 1900 ==================================================================================================== December, 2007 No meeting was held. Next GCECG meeting: January 24, 1900 ==================================================================================================== November, 2007 No meeting was held. Next GCECG meeting: January 24, 1900 ==================================================================================================== October 25, 2007 Start: 1920 End: 1956 Members: 12 Visitors: 1 Prior to the meeting, the group went outside to watch the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle pass overhead as it was getting dark. It was quite a bright sight from horizon to horizon. General Discussion: The group decided that meeting is November and December is not necessary. We usually don't meet on these months because of the conflicts with the holidays. However, if we are activated we will use the roster to call everyone and post a message to the Yahoo group which will e-mail everyone. Also, Lee said he can set us all up on an automated callout service. There appears to be a tone delay in the reeds in the new 145.410 repeater, and it will not "decode" CTCSS tones. Louis is going to bring up a PC board tone module to replace the mechanical reeds. This board will allow decode and encode tones. Skywarn Recognition Day will be Saturday December 1 from 0000 through 2359 UTC. The TARS trailer will be set up in front and all radio operators are encouraged to use the equipment in the radio room. The TARS group may work stations beginning Friday night and work through the night, for the college kid in you. IRLP configuration is still stalled. Matt thinks the sound card may be the issue. We need to find a PCI Sound Blaster to swap out with the existing one. Also, we need to install a diode on the audio line so that the radio will not retransmit its own audio. We are currently getting no internet audio. More photos of members were taken for the county ID's. Congratulations to the following members for making every meeting this year: James Colwell (AA5OQ), Tom Davies (KA5UNH), Terry McKee (KD5AWZ), and Ken Shubert (K0KS). We really appreciate your dedication to the GCECG! Next GCECG meeting: January 24, 1900 ==================================================================================================== September 27, 2007 Start: 1903 End: 2014 Members: 17 Visitors: 1 Bill Steele, WA5WVP Gave a presentation on a new type of packet software named Outpost, which is easier to use than Airmail in some ways. Experiment with it yourself on 145.050 MHz, which is where packet is most often used in this area. Click here for a link to the software. General Discussion: The Houston D-STAR (digital) repeater is up. Perhaps we could get Alan Isaachsen to come give a talk about it. IRLP availability is nearing completion on the 442.225 machine. There are a couple of IT issues yet to be worked. John Perry (KG5RG) and Matt Jones (K5MJJ) will be the curators of the IRLP node as they have the best technical expertise on this subject matter. Next GCECG meeting: October 25, 1900 ==================================================================================================== August 23, 2007 Start: 1904 End: 1950 Members: 13 Visitors: 1 An award was presented to Don Marquith for his detection of a problem with the HF coaxial cable during the Hurricane Dean activation. His resolution of the problem may have saved us from damaging the HF radio or the amplifier. Assistant Director (Ken Shubert, K0KS): The GCECG was recognized with a proclamation in Galveston County Commissioner's Court. Regarding Hurricane Dean activation: If called by the Director or Assistant Director for scheduling in the EOC, please do not reply with general statements such as, "I'm available next week". Specific times must be established for each operator to be in the radio room. Frequencies which will be utilized during an activation are on the official frequency list which is available on the website and on the Yahoo group. Some RACES nets are being called "traffic" nets. If we need to communicate with the DDC, the Armadillo network is probably our best bet right now. The DDC is not quite prepared with regard to equipment and antennas. The UHF repeater (442.225) is fully functional, but does not have IRLP configured yet. John Perry and Matt Jones can help with IRLP. We need to ground the radio room cabinet and equipment for the safety of the operators. Scott can help us. We need the building structural diagrams. The first person to show up in the radio room should be net control, should a net be needed. Then a handoff to EOC can be done later. Next GCECG meeting: September 27, 1900 ==================================================================================================== July 27, 2007 Start: 1903 End: 2005 Members: 13 Visitors: 4 Director (Mike Scott, N5LZX): The 442.225 repeater was damaged by lightning on July 2. A repair was made to the controller board but we are not sure if the repeater is back to 100% operability. The new 145.410 repeater is being finished out by a contractor which the County has hired. It should be in service in the near future. There will be a Proclamation of Appreciation for the GCECG in Galveston County Commissioner's Court on Wednesday August 1 at 9:30 AM. All members are welcome to attend. Assistant Director (Ken Shubert, K0KS): A good goal for all members is to get IS-100 certified by the next meeting. This is a self-study, free course available online. General Discussion: Bill Steele gave a message formatting presentation on the ICS-213 form. Skywarn recognition day will be the first week in December, as usual. Next GCECG meeting: August 24, 1900 ==================================================================================================== June 28, 2007 Start: 1902 End: 1930 Members: 14 Visitors: 2 Director (Mike Scott, N5LZX): The new County ID's (with the member's photo printed on them) were distributed. Members who do not have one may contact the Director to have their photo taken for their ID. Our group participated in the hurricane exercise on June 6. We established communications with many area EOC's and the City of Austin EOC. All equipment in the radio room was utilized! The new 145.410 repeater is still on the test bench and does not seem to be decoding CTCSS tones. Louis is still working on the repeater. The new 442.225 GE Master Exec II repeater is IN SERVICE! Mike Scott and Lee Lockwood are still working on getting IRLP configured to work with the repeater. Ken Shubert got the HF amplifier working. It needed a new cable and some settings changed in the HF radio. The amp puts out a nominal 400 Watts. We don't want to push it too hard. With the amp in service, this marks the first time that every piece of equipment in the radio room is operational. The general plan of notification that we are activated will be 1) An e-mail and/or phone call from the OEM to the GCECG Director. 2) Director will post to the Yahoo group and split the roster in half (Director will call half and Assistant Director will call half). Assignments will be established with the members and a schedule for radio room support will be created. A plan for re-entry into the county following an event will be created by the Director. This brief plan will include frequencies and protocols. Assistant Director (Ken Shubert, K0KS): Field Day went well. We were one of a very few 1F stations on the air. Our category as an EOC helped us out. Ken Shubert worked close to 100 stations on HF. It might be a good idea for us to have a special event station to allow our members to gain familiarity with the equipment in the radio room. General Discussion: The Texas City Hamfest is scheduled for July 14. It's a big one locally, so if you need ham stuff, go! Alan Isaachsen, KB2WF, will be giving a Winlink presentation. Next GCECG meeting: July 26, 1900 ==================================================================================================== May 24, 2007 Meeting was called to order at 1905 hours 16 members, 8 visitors were present Director (Mike Scott, N5LZX): The new County ID's (with the member's photo printed on them) are complete and Lee will pick them up from Galveston in the near future. There is going to be a hurricane exercise June 5, 6, 7. Ham activities will be needed on the 6th. Ken and Mike will support in the radio room, and all members are welcome to show up and help. Again, it's good training. Let Lee know if you are coming to the hurricane drill. The new 145.410 repeater is still on the test bench and does not seem to be decoding CTCSS tones. Louis is still working on the repeater. The new 442.225 GE Master Exec II repeater from Eric Schmidt is due to be installed within the next two weeks. Eric had to purchase an additional preamplifier for the front end, and that equipment is in now. Assistant Director (Ken Shubert, K0KS): All members are welcome to support Amateur Field Day from the EOC radio room on June 23 and 24. This is a good opportunity to learn about the equipment and how well we can hit repeaters around the county. In order for us to participate as an EOC, some EOC personnel must be activated. General Discussion: New Skywarn net control personnel are needed. David Fanelli has been doing it pretty much solo. The Galveston Hurricane Conference is May 30 at 6:00 PM. All are welcome to support. GCECG will have a table set up there. The Texas City Hamfest is scheduled for July 14. It's a big one locally, so if you need ham stuff, go! A new integrated IRLP computer was shown off. It will be installed on the Texas City/La Marque 442.025 repeater. The node number will be 3222 Meeting adjourned at 1941 hours. Next GCECG meeting: June 28, 1900 ==================================================================================================== April 26, 2007 Meeting was called to order at 1905 hours 15 members, 3 visitors were present Director (Mike Scott, N5LZX): The Texas Hurricane Conference will be May 8-10 in Galveston, and thanks to Terry McKee and Friendswood, GCECG will have a table there. The table will be manned by Terry, Ken, and Joe. We have GCECG and ARES fliers which will be on the table. Members were asked to turn in their proximity badges. The new County ID's will be issued to all members when the printer has been repaired. Access to the building will be possible either by contacting the Director or Assistant Director, or by using the keypad next to the lobby door on meeting days or when we are activated. The code was disclosed (again). If members need the code they may contact the Director. The new County ID's do not have capability to open any doors. All members are welcome to support Amateur Field Day from the EOC radio room. This is a good opportunity to learn about the equipment and how well we can hit repeaters around the county. There is going to be a hurricane exercise June 5, 6, 7. Ham activities will be needed on the 6th. Ken and Mike will support in the radio room, and all members are welcome to show. Most people who submitted RACES applications have received their packet in the mail, and it seems that everyone is an alternate CLO. Nobody knows who the CLO is. Assistant Director (Ken Shubert, K0KS): We are not authorized to "teach" the ARECC-1 course as we had tried to do. Therefore, we encourage members to study and take the test on their own. Meeting adjourned at 2035 hours. Next GCECG meeting: May 24, 1900 ==================================================================================================== March 26, 2007 Meeting was called to order at 1910 hours 16 members, 4 visitors were present Director (Mike Scott): Lee Lockwood has been paid $170 out of our fund for the new IRLP equipment. We have $78 left in the fund. We will use the existing Maxtrac radio with our new IRLP equipment as a temporary measure until we get the UHF repeater on the air. (Note: Since the meeting it has been determined that the Maxtrac and the old IRLP computer are no longer available for our use). The Icom IC-2720 radios have been programmed identically per the official frequency list. RACES District Radio Officer, Hal Merritt, KD5HWW: Hal Merritt, KD5HWW gave a presentation on the current status of Texas RACES, and the possible future statewide architecture of RACES, ARES, MARS, CERT and others. Meeting adjourned at 2045 hours. Next GCECG meeting: April 22, 1900 ==================================================================================================== February 22, 2007 Meeting was called to order at 1903 hours 17 members, 2 visitors, and CERT Coordinator were present Director (Mike Scott): We are making an inventory of member availability to support an event and what equipment each member has which may be used in an event. If you have not already filled out the equipment inventory and availability for please do so. We have ordered the programming cable for the Icom IC-2720 radios. Lee will be ordering the software to program them soon. We will use the official GCECG frequency list which is on the web page and on the Yahoo group files area. Lee will be buying equipment for the new UHF repeater that will allow IRLP. It was decided by the group to use money from our internal fund to buy this equipment. The cost is $170. This will leave us with $78 in the fund after the IRLP equipment purchase. OEM Operations Coordinator (Lee Lockwood): There will be a statewide hurricane drill June 4-8. There will not be much ham activity statewide, but more on a local level. We are not sure which day will require ham support. Lee reviewed some of the valuable GCOEM web page resources with the group, such as real-time weather, hydrological data and video feeds. The link is www.gcoem.org. The new badges are coming along. To restate from a previous meeting, the current proximity badges will be phased out as the result of a recommendation from the US Department of Commerce. New badges will have our photos on them. However, access to the building will be obtained only by using the cypher keypad at the front door. The code will unlock the door only on meeting days. If a member wishes to enter the building at any other time they must contact someone ahead of time (preferably Lee) who can let them in. National Weather Service personnel have been directed to stop allowing entry to walk-ups who dial them on the voice box by the door. The RACES applications have been sent to the new District Radio Officer, Hal Merritt, for approval. Hal is expected to attend our March meeting. General Discussion: The new CERT Coordinator for Galveston County OEM, Collin Rizzo, was introduced. Assistant Director (Ken Shubert): Ken gave us EC-1 training binders, with our new frequency list included. We discussed the first several sections briefly. We may want to train the group in EC-1 on non-meeting days such as Saturday. It may take four 3-hour sessions to complete the training, or more shorter sessions. Meeting adjourned at 2000 hours. Next GCECG meeting: March 22, 1900 ==================================================================================================== January 25, 2007 Meeting was called to order at 1900 20 members were present Director: Eric Schmidt is still adjusting the new 440 repeater. It should be in service in the next few weeks. The new frequency will be 442.225 with a tone of 131.8. We are going to buy a programming cable and software for the IC-2720s in the radio room. The radios will be programmed to be identical. Houston Transtar has sent us their official frequency list and we are going to create a new GCECG comprehensive frequency list based on theirs. Our new list will also be used to program the IC-2720 radios. We are going to pursue a plan to coordinate with city EOC's within the county where we would supply operators and equipment to support them in the event of an activation. Lee is looking into getting dual-band antennas which would be permanently mounted at each EOC, ready to be used during an event. OEM Operations Coordinator (Lee Lockwood): All proximity badges which allow us to access the building will be replaced in the near future. This is the result of a recent building security audit by the federal government. The new badges will have a photo of the member on the front. The building may be reconfigured to allow OEM and weather service badges to only access their respective areas. It is uncertain whether we will continue to make the GCECG name tags. There may be a period before the badge transition when only the GCECG director and assistant director have badge access, but there is a keypad in the lobby which can be used for building access if we are activated. There are many tasks in the OEM that need to get done but there is not enough time for the staff to get them all done. If anyone would like to volunteer to come in during regular business hours and help out, it would be greatly appreciated. There is a new paid OEM staff position opening up for CERT Team Coordinator. If any member knows of a person that would make a good candidate for this position, they should contact Lee. There was a WMD regional exercise this past week. Several messages were sent via amateur radio methods, including Airmail. General Discussion: Lee Lockwood received an award for all the help he has given our group, including mapping of all the antennas on the tower, helping us run Heliax, granting us extensive building access, allowing us to fund our group by selling surplus county equipment, and coordinating with city EOC's to help us support them as well as the county EOC. Thanks Lee! The members present at the meeting completed an Availability Questionnaire and Personal Equipment Inventory. These are to be used to help the OEM determine who will be supporting the county EOC, who will be supporting city EOC's, and what personnaly-owned equipment will be available during an event. If you did not make the meeting, please log onto the Yahoo group and fill in an entry in the database area. Meeting adjourned at 2004 hours. Next GCECG meeting: February 22, 1900 ==================================================================================================== December, 2006 No meeting was held. Next GCECG meeting: January 25, 1900 ==================================================================================================== November 16, 2006 Meeting was called to order at 1902 hours 13 members were present Director: The EC-1 binders are in work by Lee and Ken. OEM Operations Coordinator (Lee Lockwood): The new building access photo ID badges with are still in work. A custom mounting bracket has been built for the Discone. The antenna will be mounted soon. The RACES RLO contacted Lee. The applications are still not in the pipeline. We are waiting for the RACES organization story to clear up before sending the applications to Austin. Dec 2 is Skywarn recognition day. Our group is welcome to participate. General Discussion: The crystals for the MSR-2000 repeater are with Louis, and he is in the process of baking them in and compensating. We have no controller for the repeater. Louis offered to buy a controller. The group agreed to pay Louis to buy a Micro Computer Concepts RC-1000V controller which has a 20 second Digital Voice Recorder and autopatch. It will cost about $240. Press the info button for some details on the controller. The group will also pay Louis for the crystals ($50.00). The existing Vertex repeater will be used on 147.040 on Louis' tower after the replacement. The Texas City 147.140 and 442.025 machines are now on battery backup with 5 x 92AH batteries. A portable generator is planned for use as a backup to the batteries if we have an event. The packet antenna may be getting water into the coax, as the signal is degraded after rainstorms. We will not meet in December. Meeting adjourned at 1936 hours. Next GCECG meeting: January 25, 1900 ==================================================================================================== October 26, 2006 Skywarn training was provided by National Weather Service meteorologist Gene Hafele in lieu of our regular meeting. Our next meeting will be held one week earlier than normal (November 16) so as not to conflict with Thanksgiving. ==================================================================================================== September 28, 2006 Meeting was called to order at 1900 14 members + 5 Visitors + OEM Operations Coordinator were present Director: There will be a Simulated Emergency Test on Oct 7-8. Volunteers are needed at the EOC and in the field to send/receive traffic. We will be getting a new UHF repeater which will replace the Maxtrac radio which is now acting as a remote base. Our two powerstrips have been repaired by Louis and are available to be mounted under the desk area. Assistant Director: Training from Assistant Director on NTS traffic message formatting. Standard message formatting will be utilized for the October SET. Operations Coordinator (Lee Lockwood): Steve White, WB5UGT, of Saltgrass is claiming that two of the antennas on the tower belong to Saltgrass. Lee is in the process of finding the paperwork on this. Lee is working on getting a new VHF repeater to replace the existing 145.410 repeater. The new one is a MSR 2000, which puts out 150W and was from the Galveston County Sheriff's Office. Louis offered to tune it. The state RACES membership database has been corrupted. If you desire to be a RACES member you need to fill out a new form (on the GCECG main web page) and supply a copy of your ham license to Lee or Joe, who is the acting county liaison. General Discussion: Alan Isaachsen has offered to donate equipment to put a Telpac on the air in LaMarque. Gene from the NWS requested that some of us assist NWS personnel as Skywarn spotters in the radio room. Skywarn training will be offered at our meeting in October. Meeting adjourned at 1944 hours. Next GCECG meeting: October 26, 1900 ==================================================================================================== August 24, 2006 Meeting was called to order at 1903 hours 15 members + OEM Operations Coordinator were present Director: Lee has been replacing the old jumpers under the radio room floor with new ones. They are the smaller RG-142 coax (expensive). We will have Airmail training from Alan Isaachsen on Saturday in the radio room at 10:00 AM. The 145.410 repeater is back in service due to the jumper replacement. Thanks Lee! The Icom IC-2720 is repaired and is in service. We are in discussions with Eric Schmidt to possibly borrow a UHF repeater from him so we can use our UHF frequency pair. The radio room PBX phone has a number which can be reached from the outside. The number was given verbally at the meeting. We made another $60 in revenue from the Pearland tailgate, bringing our group fund up to $590. There is a nation-wide emergency training exercise on Oct 7-8. We should be involved as much as we can. We have the training goal of certifying everyone possible to EC-1. Ken Shubert, K0KS is our new assistant director. He gave phonetic alphabet training to close the meeting. Operations Coordinator (Lee Lockwood): The radio room PC now has a generic login so anyone can use it. The login name and password will be announced to the group at a later time. Building access cards will be taken up and new photo ID cards issued sometime in the near future. GCECG members should e-mail photos to Lee for inclusion on their badge. Lee is now the RACES liaison for the group. Lee is now a member of GCECG and the bylaws have been adjusted. General Discussion: Don't forget to check into the Tuesday night Tidelands net at 8:00 PM. We may want to add a RACES application to our web site. Meeting adjourned at 1946 hours. Next GCECG meeting: September 28, 1900 ==================================================================================================== July 27, 2006 Meeting was called to order at 1900 14 members + 3 visitors + OEM Operations Coordinator were present Director: We made $530 in revenue from the items sold at the Texas City hamfest. The County would prefer that these funds be kept in a private, individual account. The director will be the custodian of these funds and the group will decide what items to buy as we need things. The 145.410 machine is still down due to high SWR on its antenna. We are still waiting for the antenna analysis which the OEM Operations Coordinator has arranged. The three Diamond X-50A antennas have arrived. The group set a date of August 5 at 11:00 AM to make the RG-8 runs for these new antennas into the radio room. The Assistant Director position is vacant. Members were asked to contact the Director if they are interested in the position. We will vote for the position on the Yahoo group page. Fran Nussbaum, Ken Shubert, and Charles Rosen asked to be considered. We still have the four power supplies and the Icom IC-2720 in repair. Operations Coordinator (Lee Lockwood): The straps for attaching the 7/8 Heliax to the tower are available. We just need to get a volunteer to use them. The Director stated that it was still on his action item list. We should be able to borrow a cherry picker from LaMarque to string up the new rope on the HF antenna. General Discussion: Joe Wileman (AA5OP) requested that we place a copy of the RACES application on the GCECG website. Meeting adjourned at 1952 hours. Next GCECG meeting: August 24, 1900 ==================================================================================================== June 22, 2006 Meeting was called to order at 1900 9 members + 2 prospective members + 1 visitor + OEM Operations Coordinator were present Director: We need to look into ARRL EMCOM courses. Terry McKee (KD5AWZ) said they are taught at the American Red Cross on the SW Freeway each month for $10. Message format (Radiogram) is training that we really need from this. The EC-1, 2, and 3 courses are self-study, but an EC-3 can teach the others. We also need to look into FEMA IS-100 and IS-700 courses. The OEM Operations Coordinator said that the OEM will be teaching these each Monday in July. The Director will take the broken IC-2720 to Houston Amateur Radio Supply on his way to Dallas Monday. The radio has no output TX power but all other functions work normally. It was the Director's understanding that this is a common problem with this model and that Icom may fix it without charge. The Director and Terry McKee (KD5AWZ) have moved the NWS PIES radio to the far corner of the NWS operations room, so there will be no more coax through the window. The SWR of the PIES radio measured 1.9:1 after the move. Operations Coordinator (Lee Lockwood): Our group needs to decide what kind of dual-band antenna would work best for use with our dual-band radios. Terry McKee suggested the Diamond X-50A. The Director will send Lee an e-mail with the antenna specs and vendor. Also, we might want to order three of these antennas as GCECG uses two dual-band radios and the Skywarn group has a new dual-bander. The Polyphasers are being installed on the Heliax feedlines. General Discussion: Joe Wileman (AA5OP) welcomed everyone to participate with TARS for Amateur Field Day. Joe Wileman (AA5OP) held a net during the severe weather on Monday. The Texas City 147.140 machine was utilized. It would be good to have a regular GCECG net to practice for a real emergency. Meeting adjourned at 1935 hours. Next GCECG meeting: July 27, 1900 ==================================================================================================== May 25, 2006 Meeting was called to order at 1905 hours 6 members + 2 prospective members + EMC + OEM Operations Coordinator were present Director: A brief "lessons-learned" discussion ensued regarding the recent hurricane drill. In general, our group did well, passing all traffic we were given. However, we had problems monitoring all the frequencies which were on the event list. We had difficulty with the packet station (TNC firmware problem and high SWR kept it off the air for over 2 hours). We were successful in passing traffic on VHF, UHF, and HF. We passed traffic using Airmail. We were in constant contact with the SOC on HF. The Saltgrass Link System was a key element of our operation for this event, and we plan to use it (until it is unavailable) in a real event. Some operators arrived on the second day and were unable to find the proper frequency list or a roster so they could call to get help. There is a new radio room binder which contains basic information needed to operate in the room during an event. It is to remain in the room at all times. The binder contains our main frequency listing, a frequency list for an activation, a roster, an antenna connection diagram, and other important information. The color coding on the Heliax under the floor (which indicates what cable is connected to what antenna) is known only to the Assistant Director. The OEM personnel would like other members in GCECG to possess that information. We need some N-type connectors to make jumper cables for the radio room. Louis Petit (WB5BMB) said he could obtain some for us. We have a new policy to unplug the coaxial cable from the HF amplifier when leaving, to protect the rig from lightning strikes. The group still needs to bury the RG-8 where it goes up the center HF pole, and attach the 7/8 Heliax to the tower. Operations Coordinator (Lee Lockwood): During a recent weather event the Skywarn volunteers arrived to find their radio disconnected from its antenna (the radio also had no working power due to a recent power surge that damaged the power supply). There was a note on the radio that stated that the radio was not to be used, citing the antenna disconnection, but the note did not have a contact name or explanation as to why it was disconnected. OEM personnel had not been notified of any antenna reconfiguration. Explanation from Director: During the hurricane drill, the GCECG members operating the station were attempting to use our old packet radio to pass traffic using Airmail. The Assistant Director selected an antenna to use, but it had a very high SWR. As no other antennas were available, the Skywarn's antenna was used since that radio had previously been disconnected from the faulty power source. After the drill, the packet station was disconnected from its antenna, but the Skywarn radio was not re-connected to this antenna. Several days later, the Director attempted reconnection, but lacked the information needed to connect it back to the proper antenna. The Skywarn radio was left disconnected and the OEM was not notified of the reconfiguration. In hindsight, we probably would have been OK if we had marked which antenna we pulled the Skywarn radio off of, and then reconnected immediately after the drill. The Director stated that Skywarn personnel are welcome to use our equipment for Skywarn purposes whenever necessary. We need to go through our equipment on the 3rd floor and decide what we need to keep, and sell the rest as soon as possible, as the Operations Coordinator wants to organize the room into proper storage areas. Joe Wileman said we could sell items at the Texas City Hamfest on July 8. [Several people volunteered to help the Director go through the items, decide what can go, and then transport and store it until the Hamfest.] General Discussion: Joe Wileman (AA5OP) suggested that we adopt the Texas City 147.140 repeater as the primary repeater we should monitor in an activation. The repeater can be hit more easily from anywhere in the county than other repeaters. We had difficulty monitoring our own 145.410 machine during the drill due to interference. The 147.140 machine has a 167.9 tone, has its antenna 150 ft in the air, and will have backup power available soon. We will contact the individual EOC's and inform them of our decision to use the Texas City repeater. Our backup repeater will be the 145.410 machine. Ken Shubert (K0KS) brought some Anderson Power Poles to show the group. The Power Pole had been recommended some years back as the standard for GCECG but was rejected due to cost. Many RACES groups around the country have adopted it as their standard. The particular model Ken brought will take 30 Amps. The Power Pole may be ordered for $0.80/pair from West Mountain Radio. Meeting adjourned at 2015 hours. Next GCECG meeting: June 22, 1900 ==================================================================================================== April 27, 2006 Meeting was called to order at 1900 8 members + 2 prospective members (and Operations Coordinator) were present Director: Several nametags were issued to members. More will be printed for members who still do not have one, and potentially for the new prospective members. The move of GCECG equipment from the old building to the third floor of the new building is 98% complete. The Director asked for a couple of volunteers to go with him after the meeting to help get the remainder. (all remaining equipment was moved after the meeting) Operations Coordinator (Lee Lockwood): The statewide emergency drill is scheduled May 2-4, with expected activation of GCECG on Wednesday May 3. All EOC's in the state will be testing alternate methods of communications on that day. Our primary goal of the event is to maintain communication with all Galveston and Harris County EOC's, and with the state EOC in Austin. The Operations Coordinator issued 6 building access cards to members, who signed for them. Other members are approved to receive cards but were not present at the meeting. A request was made by the EMC to clean up the radio room a bit, such as by moving the water bottles, getting the dual band radios mounted under the desk, throwing out old boxes and trash, and generally straightening up wires. (some of this was done after the meeting) The EOC repeater (461/466?) is off the air for unknown reasons. The Director said he would ask the Assistant Director if he knows anything about this issue. General Discussion: Joe Wileman (AA5OP) announced that the Texas City 442.025 repeater is back on the air, and has a very strong signal. Meeting adjourned at 1946 hours. Next GCECG meeting: May 25, 1900 ==================================================================================================== March 23, 2006 Meeting was called to order at 1909 hours 8 members (and Emergency Management Coordinator) were present Director: Red cards: Director asked about the need for red cards which help get us back into the county after an event. The EMC replied that the cards will not guarantee our access, but that Galveston County law enforcement should honor a photo ID if the radio operator indicates that he is attempting to reach the EOC to support emergency communications. Activation plan: It was the Director's general understanding that if our group is activated we are to leave the area and then return to assist with communications, using our red cards to gain access to the county. The EMC said that he needs someone in the radio room in order to carry out his functions, so the group agreed that some members should try to remain for a storm. However, no concrete plan was agreed upon. Building Access: The EMC said he is willing to issue proximity access badges to the core group members, which will allow entry to the parking area, the lobby door, and the EOC door. As our group is small, this would mean most members would have one. The Director will offer a list, to the EMC, of individuals who should have access. Activation Method: How will we know if we are activated? EMC stated that key personnel will receive telephone calls. At this time this would be the Director and Assistant Director. The Director would then post a message on the Yahoo group board and make telephone calls to all members. PC Accounts: Director will provide a list, to the EMC, of which members need a PC account. HF Antenna Tie-Down Rope: An excellent recommendation by WX5ET to use double-braided Dacron which has an outer shell which resists UV deterioration. Director will buy the rope at a boat store after Assistant Director determines how much we need. Yahoo Messaging Board: Our group has a new Yahoo messaging board which allows e-mail distribution to all members simply by posting on the page. The page also has a detailed calendar and the ability to store files, photos, and take group votes. The Director strongly encourages all members to join the messaging board so that we can easily stay in touch electronically. New Repeater Trustee: The Director has assumed trusteeship of our 145.410 and 442.225 frequency pairs. This provides a readily-accessible point of contact in the event of reported radio interference as we had in December. The issue turned out to be intermod created from our UHF radio on the old frequency pair mixing with another local repeater, causing a third harmonic to be heard on yet another repeater output. As a result, our group agreed to change to the new 442.225/447.225 pair as suggested by the Zone 2 Frequency Coordinator. Radio Room Telephone: We now have a telephone connected to an analog line in the radio room, which will allow us to receive incoming calls. The PBX phone in the radio room cannot be reached from the outside world. The new phone number was given but will not be recorded here as the meeting minutes are viewable by the public. Equipment Safekeeping: Some of the valuable radio gear which was in use in the old radio room is being stored by the Assistant Director until we get more moved into the new radio room. Our HF rigs and TNC are with him. Selling Unused/Extra Equipment: Last week the Director observed that there is quite a bit of equipment which the GCECG owns, and recommended that we generate some money for our group by selling some of our unused or surplus equipment in local swap meets. The EMC stated that some of the equipment was bought with County money and will check into whether we will be allowed to liquidate County property. It was noted by a member that if we do sell some of the equipment we will still be using that money to buy newer equipment which will be used to support the County. It was also noted that it may be difficult to identify which equipment was bought with County funds versus being donated to the group by private individuals. The Director will attempt to make an inventory of all radio equipment in the old facility so we can determine what we can use, and in general what we have at our disposal. The EMC wants all items in the old facility to be moved soon or it will be boxed and moved for us, which would make an inventory more difficult. Assistant Director: Use of Old Telephone Poles: The Assistant Director asked the EMC if he could ask the judge to have the telephone poles behind the old building pulled up and placed behind the new building. These poles are healthier and have climbing posts on them already. Group Reorganization: The Assistant Director recommended that we revamp our group structure; specifically that we reduce the number of officers in the group, as the size of the group is relatively small anyway. It was unanimously agreed that we will eliminate all officer positions with the exception of Director and Assistant Director. The bylaws will be adjusted to reflect the expected responsibilities of each position in a time of activation. Emergency Management Coordinator (John Simsen): The EMC passed along some information and requests by Gene in the Weather office: Gene requested that we work more closely with the Skywarn personnel, as this may bolster interest in both groups by prospective members. It was suggested by the Assistant Director that dates set aside where we can jointly practice in the radio room would help in this area. 2 PIES radios would be nice so that the Weather Service could have one in their side to use operationally and the Skywarn personnel would have one in the radio room for system test purposes. An 800 MHz base station was suggested. The Assistant Director said that extra 800 MHz radios tuned down to 1 Watt, with a stubby antenna would easily meet this need. Gene would like to get an HF radio operating ASAP. The Assistant Director offered to buy connectors for the HF Heliax and install them within two weeks. It would be nice to get an HF rig working before the statewide exercise in early May. Bring the marine radio online. One is on the floor in the radio room already. The EMC stated that some training is needed for himself and the Mitigation Coordinator on how to use the UHF and VHF radios for the Monday morning radio tests. The Director and Assistant Director both volunteered to assist. General Discussion: Airmail Station: The group decided that when we get the TNC connected to a computer and radio in the radio room we will set it up as an Airmail station, which will allow communication between Houston and Galveston. It was generally agreed that Airmail serves all the needs that packet does, and it was heavily utilized during the Hurricane Katrina shelter operations. The Director and Assistant Director agreed to set up the station as soon as we can acquire a spare computer from the OEM. Meeting adjourned at 2052 hours. Next GCECG meeting: April 27, 1900 ==================================================================================================== February, 2006 No meeting was held. Next GCECG meeting: March 23, 1900 ==================================================================================================== January, 2006 No meeting was held. Next GCECG meeting: March 23, 1900 ==================================================================================================== December 22, 2005 No meeting was held due to the Christmas holidays. No meeting planned until at least March 2006 ==================================================================================================== November 24, 2005 No meeting was held due to the Thanksgiving holidays. No meeting planned until at least March 2006 ==================================================================================================== October 27, 2005 Meeting was called to order at 1900 6 members were present Director: To the best of the director's knowledge, the group was not requested to activate for Hurricane Rita and no support was provided. It was thought that the Assistant Director and Chief of Central Staffing were going to informally support but that action has not been confirmed since the storm. General Discussion: General discussion about effects on Galveston County by Hurricane Rita and Red Cross support. After the meeting we walked around back to view the HF antenna and poles. The director may attempt to string wires over the outer poles and a hoist wire on the center pole so we can at least get our HF up in the new facility. Meeting adjourned at 2000 hours. Next GCECG meeting: November 24, 1900 ==================================================================================================== September 22, 2005 No meeting was held due to evacuation for Hurricane Rita. Next GCECG meeting: October 27, 1900 ==================================================================================================== August 25, 2005 Meeting was called to order at 1910 hours 9 members (and EOC Operations Coordinator) were present Director: Efforts are continuing to establish a face-to-face meeting with Elliott Jennings to discuss GCECG support and business which that entails. The Central Staffing Chief, Mike Kitchen, now has little time to support the group but he assured us that he will participate if needed in an emergency. Mike will retain his officer status until he notifies us that he wishes to relinquish the position. Hurricane Katrina seems to be no threat to us as all the computer models have it going into the Florida panhandle or Alabama after it leaves Florida. Assistant Director: The HF antenna still needs to be installed. We need a cherry picker to access the top of the poles and hardware such as pulleys and rope to attach to the top of the poles. Louis Petit suggested that we contact the City of Galveston as they have vehicles of this type which they may loan us. Tim will need to buy the hardware for the poles (at a boating store) but the County OEM and ECG members will probably help with the purchase. Tim will contact Elliott Jennings tomorrow to ask if he knows who to call about a cherry picker. General Discussion: Jack Tschupp asked if we knew about a mock-disaster occurring in September and Jim Billman confirmed that a WMD drill will be conducted state-wide on September 24. The ECG director will contact Elliott Jennings tomorrow to see if we can assist with this event, and to get the group on any distribution list for notification of such events. Assistant Director said there is a Scouting Jamboree On-the-Air October 15-16. Meeting adjourned at 1945 hours. Next GCECG meeting: September 22, 1900 ==================================================================================================== July 28, 2005 Meeting was called to order at 1917 hours 6 members (and EOC Operations Coordinator) were present EOC Operations Coordinator (Jim Billman): Elliott Jennings was planning to attend but had to cancel. Building access was a planned topic of discussion. Sherry McGavern of Seabrook would like assistance with setting up or checking the current operation of the Seabrook OEM's radio room. Jack Tschupp will help her out. Director: Our web site domain has expired. The Director has been unable to contact John Perry to ask about renewing the URL. The Assistand Director thinks the group bought the URL through domain.com or register.com but he will try to contact John to confirm. (Director has since contacted John Perry. godaddy.com is the domain owner we used. Director will renew the URL.) Assistant Director: We need to update the roster with current information for several members. Tim will follow up on this for us. The HF antenna still needs to be installed. There are three telephone poles. The plan is to mound the feedline on the center pole and have pulleys on the outer poles so the antenna can be let down in the event of bad weather. The Central Staffing Chief, Mike Kitchen, will begin calling out to members to remind them of meetings as he did last year. General Discussion: One member asked the general question, "Is the group still viable?". Jim Billman replied that Elliott Jennings wishes the group to continue. Another member asked if moving the meetings earlier in the month might help with attentance, as last year we went for 3 months during the Thanksgiving/Christmas timeframe without a meeting. That hurt our momentum. However, the group decided to keep the current meeting schedule and to have a special meeting earlier in December. The GCECG Director agreed to investigate setting up a Yahoo group for the members which could be used to automatically send out notifications to members. Also, members could post to each other, giving us another method of communication within the group. Meeting adjourned ~ 2020 hours. Next GCECG meeting: August 25, 1900 ==================================================================================================== June 23, 2005 Meeting was called to order at 1900 6 members (and EOC Operations Coordinator) were present EOC Operations Coordinator (Jim Billman): Ken Eckel has indicated through e-mail that he wishes to relinquish his position as Director of GCECG. Badging in the new building is still a bit of a sticky issue. For now, members can call from the front foyer and the weather service personnel can buzz them in. Assistant Director: Made a motion to install Mike Scott as Director of GCECG. Declined the position in order to focus on technical aspects of running the new radio room. We still need volunteers to assist with running 7/8" coaxial cable for the HF. We have no HF capability at this time. Field Operations: Mike Scott agreed to act as director for the immediate future but said he wants to confirm the decision with Ken Eckel, the current director. Central Staffing: Mike Kitchen will call all personnel on the roster to see if they are still willing to support the GCECG. General Discussion: Our current plan of action is to add a term limit for officers to the bylaws, to call all personnel on the roster to poll interest, and to call the roster for volunteers to assist with the 7/8" coaxial cable run. Meeting adjourned ~ 1950 hours. Next GCECG meeting: July 28, 1900 ==================================================================================================== January 20, 2005 Meeting was called to order at 1910 hours 5 members (and EOC Operations Coordinator) were present Director: Thanks for being flexible and coming to the meeting on this non-standard date. Since we are an emergency communications team it's good that we are flexible. In the next few weeks the director will poll the group officers to see if they would like to keep their current positions or whether they would like to pass along their responsibilities. The director will interview each officer to determine willingness to continue. Our primary goals for the year are to update our volunteer roster and to organize a calling tree which will be used if we are activated. Assistant Director: We may have our battery backups in the floor of the new radio room. The assistant director will be the primary contact when the director is out of town An option on the calling tree is for there to be a rotating point of contact who would initiate the tree. This point of contact would rotate based on the calendar week. To maintain accuracy of our roster he may begin calling the roster once a week. We need volunteers to help pull HF coax through the new building. EOC Operations Coordinator (Jim Billman): Tesa Duffey has resigned as EMC. John Simsen is the acting coordinator (EMC). Badging in the new building may be partially controlled by event type, such as severe storms, hurricane, or terrorism. The details of security methods and security checkpoints is still to be worked out. Field Operations: The Field Ops chief has GCECG logo stickers which are free to all members. Ask for some. Dee Miller said George will be going into the hospital for an operation. General Discussion: Bill Cooper, W5ZAF, was visited by FCC officials who monitored his RFI situation and intervened with his next door neighbors. The FCC agents demonstrated that the neighbors were causing RFI and cited them accordingly. Details are available online. Meeting adjourned at 2018 hours. Next GCECG meeting: February 24, 1900 ==================================================================================================== December, 2004 No meeting was held due to the Christmas holidays. Next GCECG meeting: January 20, 1900 ==================================================================================================== November, 2004 No meeting was held due to the Thanksgiving holidays. Next GCECG meeting: December 23, 1900 ==================================================================================================== October 28, 2004 Meeting was called to order at 1928 hours 5 members (and Emergency Management Coordinator) were present Emergency Management Coordinator (EMC): Ordering for the furniture for the radio room in the new building will begin tomorrow. The new radio room will have a computer-room type floor, where the floor will be 16 inches above the cement building plan floor to allow coaxial cable and wires to be run inside the radio room. A similar floor will be used in the OEM Operations and NWS Operations rooms. Security card access to either the OEM side of the building or the NWS side will be required to gain access to the radio room's location in the center of the building. Click here to see the floorplan of the radio room and surrounding rooms. Director: Ken received a tour of the new facility by the EMC prior to the meeting. Ken will take digital photographs of the radio room and then e-mail them to the officers so discussions as to where holes need to be punched in the floor (for cable runs) can take place. Field Operations: Nothing to report. Research and Development: Nothing to report. General Discussion: Bill Cooper, W5ZAF, read a letter from the FCC which was directed to his neighbors who have been using the charging devices which have been causing RFI. The FCC stated that removing power to the chargers when not in use was not an acceptable solution. The new radio room dimensions are approximately 8'5" x 20'9" and are adjacent to the OEM Operations room (33' x 33') and the NWS Operations room (43' x 30'). The radio room has windows which face each room. Meeting adjourned at 2014 hours. Next GCECG meeting: November 25, 1900 ==================================================================================================== September 23, 2004 No meeting was held due to activation for Tropical Storm Ivan. Next GCECG meeting: October 28, 1900 ==================================================================================================== August 26, 2004 Meeting was called to order at 1905 hours 9 members (0 visitors) were present Assistant Director: Heliax for the tower at the new building has arrived. A simulated emergency will be held by the tri-section SET on Saturday September 25 beginning at 9:00 AM. Facilities to be staffed are Houston Red Cross chapter, Texas state EOC, and Houston-Galveston NWS offices. Volunteers are needed for communications. A conference entitled, "Diseases and Disasters: Are We Ready?" is scheduled for September 1 at the Johnnie Arolfo Civic Center in League City. Phone 409-938-2208 for more info. Several events are coming up which would be useful in exercising communications skills: Bike the Bend for Literacy 7:00 AM August 28 Bike to the Lake Tour 7:00 AM September 18 &19 Cy-Fair Lion's Club 5th Annual Biking for Sight Century Bike Ride 8:00 AM September 19 Wings Over Houston Air Show October 15, 16, 17 The Monday night net is losing people. Several ideas were proposed. It was decided that the net would be moved to 7:30 PM on the 147.140 repeater in Texas City and would be named "Galveston County Net". Central Staffing: Dee Miller, KD5UDU, is doing better after a biopsy of some questionable tissue was taken. Confirmation that the project to attempt to contact all registered hams in Galveston County is no longer being pursued. Central Operations (report given by Assistant Director): Chuck, W5ELO, would like help getting his antennas up at his new shack. Assistant Director will send an e-mail soliciting volunteers. Field Operations: Nothing to report. Research and Development: R&D is planning on making a training presentation to help hams understand how to safely climb towers when performing antenna maintenance. Old Business: The GCECG website is authorized for deployment (per Assistant Director). The URL's www.gcecg.org and www.wr5gc.org will be pointed to the location of the web files. New Business: The Assistant Director (KD5FPU) now has a new callsign, WX5GC. General Discussion: ARRL Level 1 Emergency Communications course. Meeting adjourned at 2012 hours. Next GCECG meeting: Sept 23, 1900 ==================================================================================================== May 27, 2004 Meeting was called to order at 1907 hours 13 members (0 visitors) were present Assistant Director: Field Day shirts may be ordered on the ARRL website. Assistant Director needs to set a date for the antenna repair detail for the North County building antennas A hardcopy of a potential electronic QSL card was passed around for review. John Perry will look into finding a host for our new website. The group decided to use two domain names, GCECG.ORG and WR5GC.ORG. One advantage to hosting our site with a unique URL would be that each member could have his own e-mail (i.e. KD5FPU@GCECG.ORG). Action to Chief of Field Ops: Create preliminary web site for approval by the officers. Will be hosted on personal web space until approved, then brought to the GCECG radio room on CD-R within 10 days of the meeting. Chris Kampmeier, KB0QQI, has donated a refrigerator to replace the one which has stopped working. Assistant director performed radiogram exercise with the group to stress the importance of passing amateur traffic, such as would exist during a hurricane net. Past Director: Several FEMA emergency management courses are available online for free. Past Director has completed the first course. FEMA will mail a certificate as each course is completed. Director: Review of Field Operations status report Field Operations: Award plaque discussion. Jeff may be able to supply us with a relatively inexpensive plaque since he works at a trophy shop. The group will take personal donations to fund the award plaque. The Field Operations contact list is progressing Meeting adjourned at 2018 hours. Next GCECG meeting: June 24, 1900 ==================================================================================================== January 22, 2004 Meeting was called to order at 1910 hours 20 members and 3 visitors were present Visitors were announced. 2 regular visitors from League City OEM. Assistant Director: Radio and antenna work will be performed Saturday, Jan 31. This is a good opportunity for new members to come and become familiar with our equipment. A RACES net will be held Saturday at 1400 hours on 7.243 LSB. This is a regular net. Central Staffing: Boy Scouts of America may become involved with GCECG activities. Mike Kitchen may help Scouts earn up to 4 merit badges with material related to ham radio. The group temporarily lost the primary PC in the radio room last week. However, no data on the hard disk was lost and the PC is repaired and working better than before. News from ARRL: ARRL has proposed a no-code portion of the HF bands. This would open up frequencies for Technician class operators which currently have very limited voice privileges on HF. Director: It is requested that members donate any ham-related books or magazines to the GCECG station. We sometimes need things to read during activations. Members should still be considering how to raise funds for the group’s use as we discussed at the last meeting. Things like barbecue or burger grilling in the mall parking lot, making something to sell, or garage sales. Keep the ideas coming. Central Operations: Many thanks to those who called or stopped by when Chuck was in the hospital. Field Operations: Mike Scott has assumed the role of Chief of Field Operations. The GCECG membership certificate design is almost finalized. A certificate will be presented to all GCECG members and back-dated to the original appointment date. GCECG business cards were presented to the officers. All agreed they came out looking good. The GCECG recognition award and plaque project is proceeding. Mike Scott brought a good brochure and will make a final recommendation to the director on a plaque design by January 31. The group will recognize outstanding performance by a member by engraving their name on the plaque and presenting them with a certificate of appreciation. The plaque is to remain in the radio room. Initial estimate of cost will be around $120. A Field Operations contact list is being developed which will include EOC’s and key law enforcement facilities and their capabilities. Mike Scott will then coordinate with these agencies to ensure that when activation is required, the GCECG can work as a team with them. Research and Development: The Vertex repeater should be online by Sunday Jan 25. Progress is being made on the 145.050 digipeater system. The Red Cross has been investing large capital into communications since 9-11. A decked out Hummer and Excursion were recently on display in Houston. They are nicely equipped with thousands of dollars of gear, with much ham stuff. Good for the ham community. Louis received 30 TNC’s which will be inspected and repaired if needed. They will be sent to EOC’s around the county and also used by individuals who indicate a need. Old Business: The group still needs an answering machine that can answer the phone in the radio room. It must have remote-retrieval capability. Chris Kampmeyer said he may have one available. Asst. Director said he has a goal of a working web site by the next meeting. New Business: Asst. Director said we will invite the MARS TX Zone emergency coordinator to the next meeting. We have an invitation from Dr. Charles E. Maricle of the US Coast Guard to give a presentation on the GCECG at one of their meetings. Assistant Director and Chief of Field Ops will follow up. A reminder from the Director that if an officer cannot make a meeting, it would be very helpful for that officer to send an e-mail which details their current status. Also, formal written status reports should be presented at the meetings from this point forward. Director: meeting minutes are to be formally documented and typed from this point forward. Director: Superbowl weekend is a good opportunity for new members to get involved in GCECG activities. Asst. Director: Bomb threat checklists are by all phones in the OEM during activations. Training will be performed Sat Jan 31. Also during that day, Radiograms (used for HF traffic) will be utilized for training purposes, utilizing the HF radio. Asst. Director: If you come to training or to an activation at the OEM, use the sign-in log sheets. It’s important for tracking volunteer man-hours. Central Staffing: Reminder that the log sheet is important because matching funds given to the county by the federal government are higher with volunteer hours. The money goes directly toward equipment and improvements. The new GCECG director is Ken Eckel, AB5A. He was not present due to his professional responsibilities. The Director noted that Ken was sorry he could not attend. Meeting adjourned at 2038 hours. Next GCECG meeting: Feb 26, 1900. May change due to possible conflict with Galveston Mardi Gras