[MDC-EC] Maryland-DC Section FSD-96 SEC Report

[Steve Beckman]

Thank you all for your dedication and support of ARES over the past year. 
Best wishes for a healthy and prosperous 2011!

73; Steve, N3SB



Monthly Section Emergency Coordinator Report to ARRL Headquarters
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ARRL Section: 
Maryland-DC               Month:   December               Year: 2010
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AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE
Total number of ARES members: 656
Change since last month: -8

Number of DECs/ECs reporting this month: 9
Number of ARES nets active: 33
Number with NTS liaison: 6

Calls of DECs/ECs reporting: N3QHC, KB3ENU, K3UEZ, KB3KKY, WR3F, KB3LJB, 
WB3KAS, KB3FMJ, and N3SB.

Number of drills, tests and training sessions this month: 11
Person hours: 59

Number of public service events this month: 0
Person hours: 0

Number of emergency operations this month: 0
Person hours: 0

Total number of ARES operations this month: 11
Total Person hours: 59

Comments:

Calvert County: ARES participated in a drill with the Calvert CERT team on 
Saturday, December 4.  Five ARES members participated in this three hour event.

Allegany County: In addition to regular net frequencies, Allegany also ran 
a test drill on 146.85 PL 192.8 WX3M Haystack Mountain.

District of Columbia: Preparing to support the upcoming National Marathon, 
Saturday, March 26. Working with the Federal City React and ServeDC (CERT). 
Planning to start a DC ARES Net in April/May timeframe. Identified several 
potential new members. Investigation options for using Digital 
Communications for DC ARES.

Howard County: On the 7 DEC net an unannounced QSY from our normal net 
repeater on 2 meters (147.135 MHz) to an alternate repeater on the 440 MHz 
band (449.475 MHz) was tested.  Six of the nine original check-ins made the 
frequency switch successfully.  We also picked up a seventh station on 440 
who had not checked into the 2m portion of the net.

Cecil County: The Cecil County ARES group holds a weekly net every Sunday 
evening at 2000 local on the WA3SFJ repeaters (146.850- PL 107.2, 449.825- 
PL 167.9, and 53.830- PL94.8). Primary will be the 2-meter repeater. All 
within earshot of the repeaters are invited to join in regardless of ARES 
membership. Following the net we have a Swap Shop "net" where hams are 
invited to list their ham-radio-related items for sale or trade.

Prince Georges County: Held four regularly scheduled training VHF nets on 
all Tuesdays. Held our Annual Christmas party on 14 Dec at the golden 
Corral in Largo, MD. John Creel, WB3GXW was our guest speaker. He spoke on 
the design and capabilities of his VHF repeater that ARES used during the 
past two county exercises. He also enlightened us about the Laurel VEC 
program. The EC presented certificates of appreciation to those members 
supporting the drills and exercises throughout the calendar year. On 18 
Dec, ARES held a second "medical cart make over" upgrade for the Prince 
George's County Health Dept medical carts... five of them. The first make 
over party was done for the six county hospitals in 2008. Upgrades included 
dressing out the power cables and the addition of Power Gates, DC Power 
Strips, Triplexers and Kantronics TNCs. NX3SS, N3ADF, N3JBX, KA3AHI and 
WB3KAS assisted. Paul Ledford from the Health Dept and his brother Jimmy 
stopped by to get a better understanding of the make over process for his 
carts and meet the ARES cart Drillers. Bryan Dorbert, N3ST, offered his 
services to "fine tune" the medical cart radios on 22 Dec. All twenty 
radios needed adjustments in gain, deviation, frequency and power out. For 
that, we are most grateful for his time and effort in this endeavor. On 31 
Dec, NX3SS, N3ADF and WB3KAS installed a new 75m dipole at the county's 
EOC, tuned as best as we could, to the Maryland Emergency Phone Net 
frequency, 3820KHz.

Garrett County: Due to weather conditions no meetings were held this month. 
Our monthly meeting location has changed to the Garrett County Southern 
Rescue Squad located on route 135 east of Oakland Maryland. The Garrett 
County ARES net is held weekly on Sunday evenings at 8:00 PM on the 
146.805, dup PL 123 and is linked to the Target Link Repeater System. All 
traffic is FM voice.

Carroll County: The Carroll County 2m, 450, and 6m repeater systems were 
given a health check after having been relocated by the county several 
weeks beforehand. Several loose coaxial connectors were found and 
tightened, but otherwise the systems checked out OK.

Signature: Steve Beckman
Call sign: N3SB
Email - n3sb at qis.net

Please send to ARRL HQ, 225 Main St., Newington, CT 06111 by 10th of the month
FSD-96 (1-04)