[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] An invitation to participate in Public Service and ARES

[Art and Deanna Lutz]

This message was received from Rick Bunn, N4ASX for the next ARC Shorts
and with his permission I am forwarding it through the reflector. 

Deanna K7DID
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I'm now starting my second year as the ARES Emergency Coordinator for
Alexandria.  For those who are new to ham radio,  Amateur Radio
Emergency Services or ARES is a group of ham radio operators who
volunteer to support the community in time of need.  Related to this is
the need to train or work together so that if we are called upon in an
emergency we know how to interoperate.  The best training is to work
various public service events.  These include parades, runs, marathons,
large non-profit events that need some form of communications and
support other non-profit organizations when they perform public service.

In Alexandria, we have one parade that we (Alexandria ARES / Alexandria
Radio Club) support and that is the Washington's Birthday Parade.  The
parade goes from the Lyles Crouch School north and loops past the
reviewing stand and brings the participants south again.  We start our
setup at 10AM.  The parade starts at 1PM.  What do we do for the three
hours?  One is to get good parking spaces for our vehicles.  Two, the
packet stations at the start and reviewing stands need time to set up
and test.  Lastly, the majority of volunteers will be paired with parade
marshals.  The Marshals place the participants in a predetermined order
of march.  This order of march is on the Washington's Birthday website.

I would like to invite all of you who read this to volunteer to support
this event. The reasons for your support are many.  You will get to come
out and operate with your fellow club members, enjoy the parade up close
and personal,  practice operations on a net which will come in handy
should we have a real need in a real emergency and promote amateur radio
in the public eye.

The last reason is one of the most important.  We fight everyday, rules
from various governments and home owners associations to allow us the
freedom to put up our antennas.  When the public understands the
importance of amateur radio to the community, working with these bodies
to allow us to put up our antennas is not that hard, but if the only
impression the public gets is a negative impression i.e. ugly antennas,
interference etc., then we have a problem.  

I would also like to encourage those who have volunteered for ARES to
come out more often and for our new members to think about volunteering.

Thanks and 73 
Rick
N4ASX at W4HFH.org

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Next ARES meeting.

We were holding quarterly ARES meetings, but the progress and
information did not make continuing these meetings a worthwhile effort.
I will try to schedule an ARES meeting in March after the parade, so
that we can hold a training and introduction session.  I would also like
to invite our CERT members who are available to join us and we can
discuss our working with the city and with CERT.

73 Rick