Colorado ZS communication drill moved to March

[firestorm]

CO ZS’er, I’ve committed to the CO team to have a meet in Northern CO geared around Ham communication.
I think a drill to test personal equipment and Red Cross equipment could meet the need.

Edit: We will move the exercise to March.

Drill will test back-up communication to support sheltering, feeding and Disaster Assessment activities in the form of both mobile and fixed stations.

Mobile capacity: an Emergency Response Vehicle (Feeding) and 2 Disaster Assessment mobile teams.
Fixed stations: base and a simulated shelter.

Logistical needs:
-The simulated shelter would need an entire set-up. We could supply a 2 meter radio, but are short a power supply and antenna.
-Need only licensed operators (If you’re not licensed this is a reason to get licensed).
-Need to outfit a personal vehicle.
Above is the base of the drill. I will have an actual drill write-up. Please post interest, feed-back and additional ideas.

[congochris]

Well, anotheroldfart and I are tentatively scheduling an exam for Jan 3rd, haven't decided if we'll be picking up tech or general yet. WE can pass the practice tech exams online, but haven't got any of the general books yet. Amazon is mailing them to us, though.

I'll make no commitment to heading that far north, though. When I make plans that far out (time and distance) they tend to get blown to hell and back the week before.

[firestorm]

I hope you can make it up. We will provide lunch and should be filled with fun injects. Where are you taking the test??

[congochris]

Woodland park, I'm pretty sure. Not too far away, but the only other close-idh one is planned for December 13th here in CO springs.. which is the morning we leave for the CO ZS "freeze your nuts off" camping trip.

[Impus]

I won't be licensed by Jan 24th, but I'm happy to bring a vehicle we can attach things to, drive, and bring folks up from the Springs/Denver/Wherever and back.

[dug]

One thing to note is that S.P.A.R.'s 3rd annual Winter Field Day will be the same weekend, from 12 noon 1/24/09 thru 12 noon 1/25/09. This is an emergency comms-focused event for field deployment in cold weather. It's a lot like summer field day but colder and with more streamlined rules. Our club will be participating again this year as NE4GA. If you have HF capability you can play along. OK, you can play along with VHF but will get few contacts. This could be good to toss in as a test of long haul communications capabilty.

Details are at http://www.spar-hams.org/contests/winterfd/index.php

[firestorm]

OK, so I talked to my communications lead and a few other agencies. The interest is high and the 24th is set. Dug mentioned an opportunity to use the HF if we wanted. As it stands, we have 4 separate 2 meters and the 47.42Mhz fired up. We have a little antenna work that needs to be done; if anyone is interested pm me. If I hear no interest in the antenna work I will call our partners at ARES. Also, I’m not hearing a huge interest, please chime in and let me know if this is something ZS wants to be a part of. If we don’t have enough Ham’s, I will need to give ARES enough time to staff the drill. It’s free lunch and toy’s, where’s the interest.

[PoorImpulseControl]

I cant 100% commit at this point, but it sounds like Posie and I will be overnighting in Brighton that Friday night, and then head up early Saturday morning. I've got a MFJ-259B I'll bring to bash some antenna's around with.

May want to talk to ARES and or one of the local repeater groups up there to see if we can secure use of a repeater for the exercise as well.

We'll be bringing the following:

50 Watt dual band in my Cherokee
VX7-R
MFJ-259 Antenna Analyzer

and possibly some other stuff if the need arises.

[LtCmdLeia]

I am quite interested, but for me, getting that far up north would be a major production, so I probably can't make it.

[jamoni]

This sounds like an awesome event, but unfortunately I'll be kickin' it in STL.
I'd be interested in making contacts on HF, though, should your antenna issues work out.

[Impus]

Firestorm: Can we make part of the equipment test to try and raise ZS hams?

[firestorm]

Sorry folk’s holidays are always a pain to get coverage for. I just finished an interesting conversation with my volunteer counterpart (2nd in command) about ZS. A few strange looks later he is a go for the 24th. We will have Red Crosser's ride along. The Red Crosser will be planted with injects and have the Hams communicate the message. I have a message into NCARC for the use of their repeaters. They have been great to us in the past. Using HF is foreign to me, so I will talk to our communications lead and see if adding ZS Ham and LtCmdLeia is doable. What do you guys think? Thank you all for making this a possibility.

Jason

[firestorm]

I had a conversation with my exercise safety officer and he had concerns with weather on the communication exercise. I personally think the concern is not for us, but the $350,000 Emergency Communication Response Vehicle (for your viewing pleasure see below). This will also help with the folk who are traveling in. I was thinking maybe March. We can use the Jan 24th as the first aid and training day. The cost was so low that a generous donation came in, so it’s free. It will be adult first aid and CPR/AED. Please advise if you want me to proceed with the changes.









For info here's a wiki link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECRV

[Impus]

I will be there.

[Impus]

Hoping to have my Tech by late March. Do we have solid dates for this exercise yet?

[PoorImpulseControl]

So far the plan is for Posie and I to overnight in Brighton at her parents the night before, so we should be well within strike-distance for an earlyish morning start. Did we ever decide if we're just going to do a little simplex activity near the facility, or is someone seeking permission to use a repeater for the day?