EMRG General Meeting, January 27, 2007

Minutes by M.Kelly, VE3FFK
with notes from Dave, VE3KMV

Intro / Welcome

by Peter VE3BQP

Update:

The Year in Review and 2007 Strategy

A presentation by team leader Peter, VE3BQP: The Year in Review, Training Coordinator, New hardware for repeater VE3OCE, Red Cross Radio, Community Services, Funding, Projects, 2007 Strategy, Participation, EOC Changes, Randall.

The key item of the 5-year plan of 2005 boiled down to keep going forward, without having to re-start each year. So far we are doing that.

2006 achievements:

• Brought in training coordinator VA3NFA to bring overall organization to training, to ensure that training is relevant to our needs, is documented, formalized and is repeated when needed.
• VHF repeater VE3OCE upgraded from Midland mobile unit in a wooden crate to Motorola MTR2000 30W continuous duty. The packet radio is upgraded as well, but still needs to be wired to the TNC. Both repeater and packet radio now multicoupled through cavities obtained from Carlington site to the top 4-bay antenna at the Ottawa Fire communications centre at Randall. The additional 60 ft of antenna height has improved our coverage to the south west. Cavities are permanently attached to the wall, rather than sitting on a bench. Radios are in a rack with battery charger and backup battery.
• Equipment from old City of Ottawa radio site at Carlington Heights transferred for our use at Randall. Some of the cavities from there were used for the changes to the VHF repeater above. UHF cavities and some repeater equipment was also transferred. The repeaters are to be used to upgrade our community repeaters. Contractors for the city removed equipment from the building. EMRG members picked up the equipment outside the site, transferred it via cube van to Randall, and moved it into place there.
• Red Cross equipment is NEARLY complete. Their new location on Catherine St. has limited space to accommodate equipment. VE3BQP is working on cabinet and wiring for VHF voice and data radios as well as 220MHz and UHF radios. The site also needs wiring for operators at various spots in the offices. Eventually we will have a LAN so we can share the TNC among various locations in the building.
• VE3OCE UHF is now on the air using cavities from former VE3TEL UHF. TEL UHF had no documentation, and was not amenable to battery backup due to vacuum tube final stage. After several sessions of trying to get it to go, some Kenwood commercial UHF repeaters appeared as new old stock from Time MCI at a good price, So Peter acquired them. (He still has to figure out how to pay for them, however). The new repeater is 25W continuous duty, conduction cooled (no fans needed). The antenna is just on the roof of the building. To get the antenna to the tower requires about $1500, due to the requirements for approved riggers. Peter is looking at getting the city to fund such a move.
• Meeting set up with City of Ottawa Community Services (Feb 2, 07) to try to understand their requirements, and to allow them to better understand our capabilities. They are historically our main service client in emergencies. Normally they look after people: city housing, seniors programs, and the welfare system. In emergency, they are responsible for shelters. With more and more vulnerable people being pushed out of hospitals, running home dialysis, home oxygen systems, etc., they have an increasing workload in an emergency. We already have good contacts with the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) and the Fire department. Fortunately, Community services, OEM and OFD all report to the same manager. Peter would like to have someone else to help with the liaison, especially to provide continuity if Peter is unavailable.

  Q:To what extent can we support them in a call out?

  A: We are one of the resources on their list. Our agreement is to support them on a "best efforts" basis. We will be able to support a very limited number of sites. We would supplement our numbers with non EMRG hams, and would quickly have to call upon our mutual aid partners in surrounding regions. We have worked on our mutual aid plans with our neighbours with a view toward support in both directions.

• The city is continuing to fund us at $1000/yr for 2007, continuing the agreement started in 2005. This funding is for parts, bits and pieces, connectors etc. It doesn't fund large items like repeater hardware. For such projects, we have to find separate funding either within or outside the city.

  Q: How about Trillium funds, hamfests, bake sales?

  A: Trillium works with incorporated entities. We have no one who will take on the ongoing task of doing the paperwork. With other projects, we want to avoid stepping on the toes of local clubs, and still need people to do the work. Peter sets up a booth to meet with amateurs at the OARC hamfest but doing a sales table there takes work.

• Projects set up for 2007 The plan we had written for 2005 turned out to have been very optimistic. We are still working on the tasks in that plan. The big items of "MAINTAIN EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE", "ENSURE VOICE COMMUNICATIONS CITY WIDE" and "DATA IN THE URBAN CORE" have proven to be good high level objectives. Listing them has kept the management team focused on the priority tasks. This has meant installing repeaters, rather than relying on club repeaters, as the club repeaters age and get less dependable. Sites meeting our second requirement have come up and we have taken advantage of them whenever we are able. We also include VE2CRA in our plans because it has wide coverage and is on a relatively separate power grid. We don't consider every repeater in Ottawa to be an emergency repeater. Because it is easier to get equipment than people, we are looking at putting some of our equipment into kits, so we can hand a package of equipment to an EMRG ham who hasn't much of his own equipment but is available for deployment. Having packaged equipment also gets around the problem of the ham who wants to take their toys home with them at the end of their shift.

We Need Someone to Work on Packaging the Equipment

We are looking at improving the data capabilities. Specifically, we need to wire the data radio to a standard interface so it can be connected to a TNC. We are also looking at getting Internet access at the communications centre, so we can move the winlink port to that site from the basement of VE3BQP. It will also let us look at voice over IP applications.

We are looking at a solution to getting information into 100 Constellation. It was originally a Nortel wireless development building and therefore was deliberately built with shielding, to prevent RF from getting in or out of it. Unfortunately it is now the site of the command centre for the community services department. We could get around the problem by putting a UHF repeater with a VHF link at the fire station just on the other side of Baseline from it. If community services will pay for the UHF repeater, WE WILL NEED SOMEONE TO PACKAGE THE REPEATER, battery, charger, power supply, controller, and VHF radio into a cabinet.

We are looking at 3 meetings per year, 5 training items per year (may be concurrent with meetings). We are looking at 3 exercises per year (may be table top to full deployment exercises).

We are looking for someone to work "full time" at RECRUITMENT OF NEW MEMBERS. Having someone dedicated to the web site has meant great progress on it. Having someone do the same for recruitment should do good things there too.

We need someone to add ideas to the executive meetings. The office of emergency management books a room for us on the third Wednesday of each month at Fisher School on Holland. Moving to regularly scheduled exec meetings has helped keep things going forward, rather than having to re-start just before each membership meeting. Having a group helps keep individual members from going off on tangents also. We need a cross section of experiences and outlooks, so a newcomer can bring as useful a viewpoint as an old timer.

We are looking at participating in a COMMUNITY EVENT. In the past, these have been done by clubs. With so many of our members in various clubs, our members have participated in these events, but never under EMRG sponsorship. If we take on an event like the Tour Nortel, we can use it as an exercise. We can deploy in greater numbers, with more equipment than the event requires. It will give us an opportunity to both test and refine our skills at the various tasks we would be required to perform in a deployment. It would also raise our profile in the amateur community. By a show of hands are people willing to take on both the operating but also the organizing of the Tour Nortel? (Yes) Bob, VA3QV and Dave, VE3KMV to take leadership on Tour Nortel. Dave VA3AE may be involved in hand off details with Kris, VE7BNE

Q: Is anything done to get feedback back to the membership from the exec meetings?

Q: Should we do a monthly net?

A: Maybe the person who steps forward to look at recruitment could also keep both the membership and non-member hams up to date on what is happening with EMRG. Nets have been tried, and have failed after a few cycles due to declining attendance.

Office of Emergency Management is going to modify their EOC. This will necessitate changes to the radio infrastructure. This means we will need someone to work on the EOC. It may mean in-band repeaters, or some other solution. In the near term, we need to remove the radio equipment during the reconstruction.

Training

by Tom, VA3NFA (VA3TRZ on packet)

In the past there has been quite a bit of training, but it hasn't been focused. Training will in future be focused on the three priorities outlined earlier (infrastructure, voice comms, data comms) Today's presentation is structured around the "Activity Lifecycle"

Activity Lifecycle

A training presentation by Tom, VE3NFA

A calendar will be posted showing what training has been done, what training is coming up and what reference documents will apply to the training. A training strategy document needs to be written and posted so members have a road map to see where we are going with our training. If you are looking for a document and can't find it on line, ask Peter VE3BQP or Gord VE3XGP. We recommend printing them and keeping them in your go kit. Some documents containing confidential information may be unavailable on the web, or may have the confidential information stripped out of it before posting on the web. The phone list is an example.

We need input on what training our members think they need. What training topics are you interested in teaching? Does our activity life cycle include everything it should?

Q: Is there a recommended go kit? Is there a recommended radio?

A: We recommend that you do a Google search, which will find hundreds of recommended go kits or radios. We concentrate on principles and let people make their own judgments about what to pack.

Q: Is training on simplex operations conducted?

A: Not yet, we are putting effort into hardening our repeaters. Training on simplex operations is useful, but not a priority now.

St Johns Telephone Outage

by Mike, VE3FFK

St. Johns Communication Outage

A presentation by Mike, VE3FFK

Think about what happens if a similar situation occurs here. How do you do callouts?

Q: Have fleet owners been identified?

A: Some have, but it is stalled at a low priority

Q: Should we get qualified to operate the fleet radio?

A: No. we just run our own radios. If you do end up running their radios, ask forgiveness rather than permission, and keep records.

Canadian Ski Marathon, February 10 and 11, 2007

by Richard VE3UNW

Normally runs from Lachute to Buckingham. This year it is scaled down to a loop from Montebello to Montebello.

Volunteer assignments are all fully booked. Since things are so uncertain we can use people who are on STANDBY, unassigned but ready to deploy to anywhere on the course without notice. Contact VE3 UNW at R A C dot C A or check website: radio dot admin2 dot ca . Of course, everything on that page is now wrong, since everything is so much changed from normal. They have about 1700 entrants as of early January. Radio coverage should be less of a problem. Low power should be adequate this time. We will be relying on the ability of hams to be flexible. We will be asking some operators to only deploy for one of the two days in order to maximize the number of hams who can participate. If you are curious but don't want to participate, listen in on the repeater that weekend.

Q: How do we get that CSM enthusiasm to translate into EMRG?

A: Take on an event, pair new with older operators, do events where the event knows you are needed. Paradoxically it is easier to find operators for a long shift than a shorter one. Adverse conditions also help to get volunteers for some reason.

Miscellaneous

by Peter, VE3BQP

Rick, VE3IHI has power poles

Identification badges: If you are on the list, go to the Office of Emergency Management at City Hall and they will walk you through the process. Wait a week before going in, to let Peter get the updated list to them.

Collegeville

by Mike, VE3FFK

The federal government Emergency Preparedness College on Heron Rd. trains municipal employees in the management of an emergency operations centre (EOC) and in emergency site management. They run two streams, "Collegeville", a city based course and "Grandville", directed at people working in smaller population centres. Anyone would get a lot out of participating in either. Their exercises are typically on a Wednesday and Thursday, sometimes Thursday and Friday. They use amateur radio operators and are always looking for volunteers. Since it is a weekday event, it is hard to get people, but the training goes both ways. Amateurs can learn a lot about emergency operations by participating in the exercises and I highly recommend that EMRG members volunteer if they can. Dates are Mar 7,8 (Wed,Thu) Mar 14,15 (Wed,Thu, Grandville) May 2,3 (Wed,Thu) June 28,29 (Thu, Fri, Grandville) Contact me (my callsign at RAC )or the course registrar (and volunteer wrangler) Carole Michaud 613 949 5017 or carole dot michaud at psepc dot gc dot ca. We could use the help, and I guarantee you'll learn something.