Just another quick reminder that our monthly Wood County ARES meeting is this Saturday at 9AM at the Wood County Sheriff’s office on the corner of Dunbridge Road and East Gypsy Lane.
Hope to see you there.
Due to the holiday month we are going to cancel this month’s Wood County ARES meeting.
We are making some progress with the repeater. The antenna is ordered and should be delivered this week. As soon as I get word that it’s in Bill Wilkins’ possession (Thank you Bill for allowing us to drop ship it to your home), I will schedule the install.
Thank you to those of you who have donated to our antenna repair fund or who have made pledges. I have extended the funds personally to make the purchase so we could take advantage of the savings by having the work done this month and so we can be sure we can get our repeater back on the air.
The positive feedback that I have received regarding the decision to proceed with the tower work and the donations and pledges I have received so far has given me hope that it was the right choice.
We are still in the hole financially but I trust our membership will come through and believe as I do in this organization and the value of the infrastructure and support organization that we have established.
In the meantime, my best wishes to all of you and your families for a very Happy and Healthy Holiday Season.
I’ll give you an update on the install as soon as I have more to report.
73,
Bob Schumann, W8NYY EC
Wood County ARES
Reminder that we are not having a Wood County ARES meeting this month. We had excellent participation in the October 1st SET. Thanks.
November meeting will be important. I will be sending more information concerning that later once we have the plans set but in short we will be issuing Sheriff Office issued ID cards and hoping to coordinate that for the November meeting. Attendance will be necessary to receive a card as a representative from the Sheriff’s Office will be issuing the card and updated pictures will be taken at the time of issuance. Details to follow.
Thanks.
Bob Schumann, W8NYY EC
Wood County ARES
Thank you to all of you have volunteered to participate in this coming Saturday’s Simulated Emergency Test (SET) at 9AM October 1st. The listing of participating sites and assignments are below. If you have responsibility for a site, please contact the someone at your facility to let them know you need access at 9AM on Saturday for this test. You do not want to arrive at a locked door. Call me if there are any issues.
I have copied Chris Diefenthaler and Ken Robinson of the Red Cross to let them know of our planned test so Bill “Hoot” Gibson may be able to gain access to the Red Cross building Saturday AM at 9AM. Knowing that Hoot does not have email, I will send him this email via snail mail.
The plan is to start the roll call between 9AM and 9:30AM until we can make contact via the repeater 146.790 PL 103.5 with all or the majority of the stations. It is the hope that via this test, we will determine if there are any sites that have a problem with the antenna previously installed. We will do a little training with message passing during this drill. Each station will attempt to send me one formated message. This should be as easy as it can get since I have pre-written your message and you just need to fill in a couple blanks and read it to me over the air. I also have included an example below of how the message would sound when it is being sent. I have written out word for word as to how you would send your message.
Please call me during the evening between 6PM and 8PM at my home number (419-872-1294) if you want further clarification and instructions.
I have attached 3 PDF documents. One is an example of a test message you will send me over the air when we begin to pass the messages (the one I show below). I believe I have made it very easy for those of you who may have never sent a formatted message before. The PDF document, is an example of the message that I would send from the Wood County Sheriff’s department. I will send my message first to Don, K8OVO, since he is experienced in handling traffic and this will be an example of what each of the stations will send to me except that those sending the message, just need to include their own unique message number (preferred 3 digit number), the city of their origin (the city where their assigned station is – for example, Perrysburg Fire would be in Perrysburg, OH., Central Joint Fire would be Bowling Green Ohio. and their station location in the test in the body of the text . My example shows two words for the “Sheriff’s Office” so my total word count is 17. If your location is Red Cross is will also be a count of 17. If your station is Central Joint Fire, that adds one word to the count so it will be 18.
All messages will be a precedence of “Test Priority” and all messages, regardless of origin station will be addressed to Steve Ashenfelter, N8XSF. No street address is required and his phone number is included in the sample attached message.
Here is an exact example of how I will send my message from the Sheriff’s Office to Don, K8OVO:
“Message number 201, Test Priority, W8NYY, a count of 17, Bowling Green Ohio, 9:05AM Local Time, October 1, 2011, Addressed to Steve Ashenfelter, “Call Sign” November eight x-ray sierra fox, phone number 419 270 5358 Break (I let the repeater acknowledge)
“Test message mixed group W8NYY reports emergency antenna installed at sheriff’s office is operational as of october 1 2011 break
signed Bob, W8NYY”
READ SLOWLY AS IF YOU WERE WRITING THE MESSAGE OUT. REMEMBER THE RECEIVING STATION WILL BE WRITING IT OUT.
Note that since Steve’s call sign, which can be misunderstood over the air, I give phonetically.
After we send each of the messages from each of the participating stations, we will attempt to move to 145.550 simplex as a test. We will not send messages on simplex but will just record the signal report as received at the Sheriff’s Office.
Things to bring with you:
1) Your pre-written message that you will send me.
2) your radio and a well charged battery. For stations on the fringe, if you can bring a higher powered radio such as a mobile type radio and battery, we may have a better chance of making a contact. For example Steve Super, K8KXB, who is manning the Perrysburg Fire Department is bringing his mobile rig and a battery.
3) You may need a length of coax to connect to the drop.
4) You may also need a barrel connector in case there is a coax at the site that you may need to connect to.
5) if you are using a hand held radio, you may need a specific adapter to connect to the SO239 connector from a BNC connector on your hand held radio.
Here are the sites where we have volunteers. Correct me if I have anything wrong or if you cannot take this assignment.
I have listed K8OVO and KD8DWO both at Washington Twp. Ken, KD8DWO, if you can take one of the unmanned sites or would prefer to assist someone else such as Hoot at the Red Cross building, please let me know.
Manned Sites
Sheriff’s Office, Bob Schumannn, W8NYY & James Easter, WD8IOL as my logger
Bowling Greep Police Department 175 West Wooster Street Bowling Green OH 43402 (419)352-8775 LT Brad Biller bbiller@bgohio.org (Phil, W8PSK)
Lake Township Fire – Station 1 4505 Walbridge Road Walbridge OH 43465 419-666-0090 Chief Todd Walters firechief@laketwp.com (Ed Brown, K8ZCS)
Pemberville-Freedom Fire Department 104 E Front St PO Box 836 Pemberville OH 43450 419-287-4593 Chief Duane Martin pffd770@hotmail.com Phil Cribbs, KG8FL
Perrysburg Fire Division 140 W Indiana Ave Perrysburg OH 43551 419-872-8025 Chief Jeff Klein jklein@ci.perrysburg.oh.us (Steve Super, KD8KXB)
Washington Township Fire 18614 Main St PO Box 68 Tontogany OH 43565 419-823-8612 Chief Brian Mozena wtfd1@verizon.net (Don, K8OVO &/or Ken, KD8DWO)
Wood County Hospital 950 W. Wooster St. Bowling Green OH 43402 (419) 354-8900 contact? Steve, K8BBK
Central Joint Fire District 13179 Mermill Road Bowling Green OH 43402 419-686-4545 Chief Ronald Bechsteincjfd01@gmail.com (Bill Wilkins, WDJWJ)
Red Cross Building 150 Gorrell Avenue Bowling Green OH 43402 (419) 352-4575 Chris Diefenthalercdiefenthaler@wcnet.org (Hoot Gibson, WB8VUL)
Sites needing volunteers
Risingsun Fire Department 420 Main St Risingsun OH 43457 419-457-4435 Chief Michael Cox mikersfire@aol.com (Open)
West Millgrove Fire & Rescue 3995 Eagleville Road Fostoria OH 44830 419-436-1870 Chief Jeff Drake westmillgrovefire@hughes.net (Open)
Weston Fire Department 20761 Taylor Street PO Box 181 Weston OH 43569 419-669-3305 Chief Randy Tolles westonfiredepartment@yahoo.com (Open)
If you are able to handle one of the un-manned sites, please let me know. Let’s have a great SET this year.
Thanks and 73
Bob Schumann, W8NYY EC
Wood County ARES
This Saturday, April 16th, 2011, is our monthly meeting of Wood County ARES. We’ll be meeting at the Wood County Sheriff’s Office in the Sheriff’s conference room. The Sheriff’s office in on the corner of East Gypsy Lane and Dunbridge Road.
If you have not had your picture taken for the ARES ID Card, I will be taking pictures at this meeting. If you have had your picture taken, I hope to have your new card available to distribute at this meeting
The meeting is at 9AM as usual but if you want to come a bit early, I usually am there and set up by 8:45AM.
Hope to see you there.
Bob Schumann, W8NYY EC
Wood County ARES
This Saturday, February 19th, at 9AM we will be holding our monthly Wood County ARES meeting at the Wood County Sheriff’s Office on the corner of East Gypsy Lane and Dunbridge Rd.
As a service to our members, I will be arranging a demo of the installation of Anderson Power Pole connectors. If you have a radio or other piece of equipment that you’d like to install PowerPole connectors, bring it with you and we’ll install them for you as well as use the opportunity as a training session on the methods of installing these ARRL suggested connectors.
We’ll also conduct other business in preparation for the upcoming Tornado season which will be upon us shortly.
We are planning to have the Wood County ARES meeting this Saturday the 20th at the Wood County Sheriff’s Office in the main conference room at 9AM. Beside some important business to cover, we do have a program scheduled on the topic of utilizing modified wireless modems for broad area networking for EMCOMM use. Steve Strickland, WD8OPQ, will be assisting with a demonstration to give us what he’s learned about the recent advances in the use of this technology in ARES applications. We have a few additional business items to cover so I expect this to be an interesting and informative meeting. I hope we’re able to get a good turn out.
Location: Corner of East Gypsy Lane and Dunbridge Rd in Bowling Green OH.
Date: November 20th
Time: 9AM (unless you want to arrive a little earlier to help set up and talk radio)
Hope to see you there.
–
Bob Schumann, W8NYY Emergency Coordinator
I am happy to say that we are on schedule for this Saturday’s Wood County ARES meeting scheduled to held at the Wood County Sheriff’s Department at 9AM in the Sheriff’s training room. We have several interesting things on our agenda, one of which I believe will bring more activities, particularly drills and training for our group in the near future. I hope you’re able to attend this meeting but if not, I will be sending out a recap following the meeting. Being there though will insure you don’t miss a thing.
At the same time, I would like to publicly congratulate Steve Bellner, W8TER, who recently announced he will be assuming the position of Emergency Coordinator for Lucas County, filling the role that Bill, WN8RUG recently vacated. We wish Steve all the best and our support as he assumes this position and I am confident that our excellent relationship with W8TER, as he has been a recent active participant in Wood County meetings and activities, will spell success for Steve as well as our group. Way to go W8TER!
One more important announcement. I have been in recent communications with Scott Yonally, N8SY, webmaster for the Ohio Section webpage over some concerns I had with the links on the Great Lakes ARRL website. As a result, Scott has agreed to take on and redesign that website making it much more user friendly and easy to navigate. The new address for the Great Lakes follows. Please update your links so you can be sure you are getting the most current information.
http://arrl-greatlakes.org .
I hope to see you all this coming Saturday. Again, here is the information concerning our meeting:
Date: Saturday Sept 18, 2010
Place: Wood County Sheriff’s Department on the corner of East Gypsy Lane and Dunbridge Road in Bowling Green
Time: 9AM
My cell phone number if you need assistance in getting in or finding us: 419-806-5751
Bob Schumann, W8NYY Emergency Coordinator
Wood County ARES
For those of you who hadn’t heard, I am recovering from a particularly difficult case of pneumonia and will not be able to attend this month’s Wood County ARES meeting. I truly regret having to cancel our meeting once again, but after reviewing the responses I received regarding possibly holding the meeting under one of our assistant’s lead, it was decided that being the last days of Summer, with possibly many people having vacation plans or picnics to enjoy these last warm days of summer, the best thing to do would be to cancel.
Wood County ARES is alive and well. I think we proved that through this prolonged severe weather season. You all should be proud.
A special thanks too goes out to Mike, N8YAE and Steve, KD8KXB, who covered for me as Skywarn Net Control and Liaison during this last storm that quickly moved through our northern county and to Craig, KD8NJZ who has been active and assisted in every net we’ve held. Very much appreciated.
Hope to see most of you at our September meeting. Enjoy your weekend.
Thanks and 73,
Bob Schumann, W8NYY
Wood County ARES
This is a reminder that we have our monthly Wood County ARES meeting this coming Saturday, June 19th at 9AM in the training room at the Wood County Sheriff’s office.
In light of the disaster that hit Wood County on the evening of June 5th, I would like to do a debriefing. What worked well? What can we improve upon?
I have also invited Rick Mottmiller, KD8RIC,of Draconi Digital – Security and Automation Products, if he is available, to give us his perspective on the events of that evening. As you might know, Draconi has been able to provide the only video available of the tornado.
By copy of this email, I am also issuing an open invitation to Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn, EMA Director Brad Gilbert and Red Cross Director Ken Robinson. I know this is a particularly busy period for each of these people, but an open discussion with them on the points we may be able to improve upon, if God forbid we experience a similar event like this in our county would be very helpful.
Here are the details with regard to the time and location of this meeting:
Date: Saturday June 19th
Time: 9AM
Location: Training Room at the Wood County Sheriff’s Department located on the corner of East Gypsy Lane and Dunbridge Road, Bowling Green OH (Right Entry Door)
Thanks and hope to see you there.
Bob Schumann, W8NYY Emergency Coordinator
Woo County Amateur Radio Emegency Sevices
