[MRIC] April Minutes
brettham at aol.com
brettham at aol.com
Thu Nov 20 11:07:50 EST 2008
Maryland RACES Officers:
Please find below the minutes for our last meeting to be approved this
weekend.
Brett Hammond
Chairman, MRIC
410-829-6749 (cell)
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Maryland RACES Interoperability Committee (MRIC) Meeting Minutes for
April 26, 2008:
James Devilbiss (Frederick) hosted the meeting at the Frederick EOC.
Thanks James. Also thanks to Fred Bader (Montgomery) for bringing the
projector.
The meeting was called to order at 10:30. The following ROs (or their
representative) were in attendance:
Allegany - Bill Tucker
Anne Arundel - Frank Winner
Baltimore County - Joe Krysztoforski
Baltimore City - Lou Linden
Caroline -
Carroll -
Calvert - Les Dickey
Cecil - Ted Wallace
Charles -
Dorchester -
Frederick - Jim Devilbiss
Garrett -
Harford - Pat Scolla
Howard - John Wilson
Kent - Bob Lovell
MEMA - Al FitzSimons
Montgomery - Fred Bader
Ocean City
Prince George’s - Dan Blasberg
Queen Anne’s - Chuck Hodell
Somerset -
St. Mary’s - Ray Brown
Talbot - Brett Hammond
Washington - Bob Long
Wicomico -
The jurisdictions listed above with no name, did not send a
representative.
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The following agenda was reviewed and approved by unanimous consent,
without objection:
Welcome
Attendance
Review Agenda
Approval of Minutes
Updat
ed MD RO Contact List
COMMEX Admin Report
Update on Yahoo group for file sharing - Fred Bader
Presentation on when to use 40/60/80-meter bands by Chuck Hodel
Lunch
MRDN Network Architecture
Existing Winlink Equipment and Cost
MRDN Recommended Equipment List and Cost
MRDN Technical Support Group - Call for volunteers
EOC Recommended Equipment List and Cost
Next Meeting Agenda
Adjourn
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Motion by Pat (Harford) that we vacate (make null and void) the votes
for Chairman and Winlink2000 recommendations, and any other votes that
occurred at the January MRIC meeting.
Seconded by Joe (Baltimore Co).
Roll call vote was taken:
Abstain - Allegany - Bill Tucker
No - Anne Arundel - Frank Winner
Yes - Baltimore County - Joe Krysztoforski
No - Baltimore City - Lou Linden
No - Calvert - Les Dickey
Abstain - Cecil - Ted Wallace
No - Frederick - Jim Devilbiss
Yes - Harford - Pat Scolla
No - Howard - John Wilson
No - Kent - Bob Lovell
No - MEMA - Al FitzSimons
No - Montgomery - Fred Bader
Yes - Prince George’s - Dan Blasberg
No - Queen Anne’s - Chuck Hodell
No - St. Mary’s - Ray Brown
No - Talbot - Brett Hammond
No - Washington - Bob Long
12 - No
3 - Yes
2 - Abstain
Motion Failed.
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Motion by Bob Lovell (Kent) to accept the minutes. Seconded by Pat
(Harford).
=0
ARoll call vote was taken:
yes - Allegany - Bill Tucker
yes - Anne Arundel - Frank Winner
no - Baltimore County - Joe Krysztoforski
yes - Baltimore City - Lou Linden
yes - Calvert - Les Dickey
yes - Cecil - Ted Wallace
yes - Frederick - Jim Devilbiss
no - Harford - Pat Scolla
yes - Howard - John Wilson
yes - Kent - Bob Lovell
yes - MEMA - Al FitzSimons
yes - Montgomery - Fred Bader
yes - Prince George’s - Dan Blasberg
yes - Queen Anne’s - Chuck Hodell
yes - St. Mary’s - Ray Brown
yes - Talbot - Brett Hammond
yes - Washington - Bob Long
15 Yes
2 No
Motion passed. Minutes are accepted.
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Dan (PG) motions that we request the Maryland Emergency Management
Association to revise our charter to reflect that all interoperability
issues require a 2/3 vote of a quorum, and that a quorum is defined as
2/3 of the average of the attendence of the previous 3 meetings.
Seconded by Pat (Harford).
A roll call vote was taken:
Abstain - Allegany - Bill Tucker
Yes - Anne Arundel - Frank Winner
Yes - Baltimore County - Joe Krysztoforski
No - Baltimore City - Lou Linden
No - Calvert - Les Dickey
No - Cecil - Ted Wallace
yes - Frederick - Jim Devilbiss
Yes - Harford - Pat Scolla
Abstain - Howard - John Wilson
No - Kent - Bob Lovell
No - MEMA - Al FitzSimons
No - Montgomery - Fred Bader
Yes -20Prince George’s - Dan Blasberg
No - Queen Anne’s - Chuck Hodell
Yes - St. Mary’s - Ray Brown
No - Talbot - Brett Hammond
No - Washington - Bob Long
6 yes
9 no
2 abstain
Motion failed.
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The RACES Officer Contact Info was updated, reviewed and accepted by
unanimous consent.
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Al FitzSimons (MEMA) explained how to properly fill out a
Communications Exercise (COMMEX) Administrative Report to be sent to
MEMA following our monthly drills.
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Fred Bader (Montgomery) presented and demonstrated the MRIC web site he
created on Yahoo.com for storing our documents. He agreed to distribute
the instructions and links via the MRIC email reflector.
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There was some discussion on interference on our 80-meter net
frequency, so Dan (PG) agreed to look for new 80-meter frequency for
discussion at our next meeting.
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Chuck (QA) provided handout material with recommendations on what times
of day to use which band (40/60/80). Chuck also agreed to provide the
material in electronic form. Ray (St. Marys) motions to accept Chuck's
report on propagation with one change: 2KHz to 3KHz. Seconded by Ted
(Cecil).
Passed. Unanimous voice vote.
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There was discussion on the network architecture of the Maryland RACES
Data Network (MRDN) established in the January MRIC meeting, and that
employes Winlink2000 email. Most jurisdictions present expressed a
desire to create a local VHF or UHF Winlink network in their area, with
one or more HF links to provide a fail-safe Internet connection outside
the affected area during a communications outage. Harford and Baltimore
counties indicated they would not be participating.
This information provides guidence or a path to move forward with
deployment of equipment as manpower and money permits. A more detailed
report will be distributed separately from these minutes.
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The following text is added to these minutes at Joe's request:
In 2006 Baltimore County completed an investigation into a variety of
digital communication modes and selected point-to-point, MT63, Tone-63
and Packet, as the most cost effective, least complicated and reliable
plug and play mode. A complete installation using this mode can cost as
little as $200.00 per fixed station. A field deployed operator can use
TONE-63 to communicate with another station with nothing more than
their laptop, Tone-63 software and a hand held Amateur or Public Safety
band radio. In 2007, we began to roll out and implement point-to-point
digital communications to participating hospitals/universities with
fixed stations, surge centers
/shelters with gokits and the EOC.
Consequently, at this time, Baltimore County has no plans to implement
WINLINK 2000. However, we may revisit WINLINK 2000 down the road as the
software matures, support requirements are reduced and it evolves into
a plug and play system.
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The following text is added per Pat's request:
Harford County RACES has no plans to deploy Winlink2000 in Harford
County in the foreseeable future for the following reasons:
Winlink2000 is not a mature digital technology as compared to other
digitals modes of amateur radio communications such as Packet, MT63,
Hellschreiber, RTTY, etc. that can serve as alternative methods of
transferring messages and files.
Many consider Winlink2000 to be in its “toddler stage” of development.
According to many users Winlink2000 is still quite buggy, difficult for
many to get up and running reliably without user/operator intervention,
and the transfer and delivery of e-mail is not always performed in a
timely manner (in other words there are often delays of several days
between the time an e-mail is accepted into the Winlink2000 system and
the e-mail is delivered to the intended addressee). Emergency
Management personnel need to be able to count on urgent
messages/tactical information to be delivered in near real time with
minimal delays. Unlike other digital and non-digital methods of amateur
radio communications, Winli
nk2000 cannot guarantee this.
Winlink2000 is an extremely costly technology and is currently a single
source technology for the digital hardware. Unlike various soundcard
methods of amateur radio digital modes of operation, Winlink2000 relies
on a proprietary digital format that is currently available from only a
few sources, and the cost of the hardware is considerably more when
compared to the cost of a commercially available software package such
as MixW32, or a shareware or freeware software program such as that
uses most any soundcard in a Windows based computer, and a PC to radio
digital interface such as a Tigertronics SignaLink which currently
sells for under $100.00 at various amateur radio equipment dealers.
Finally, there are at least three redundant systems in Maryland that
provide connectivity to the various EOCs – our primary RACES client –
in the form of WebEOC and e-mail service. Hence, perhaps the only time
Winlink200 would be necessary is in the event of a catastrophic
incident that would take out all the normal and backup systems of
communications, and then, depending upon the nature of the incident,
our RACES radios might not even be functioning (as in the case of an EM
pulse).
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The following text is added per request by the Chairman, Brett Hammond,
Talbot County RO:
There has been a lot of misinformation regarding the process and =0
D
technical issues surrounding the selection of a standard digital mode
for Maryland RACES. Much of that misinformaton comes from radio
operators that do not operate Winlink stations, and therefore know very
little about it first-hand. I have purchased, configured and operated
an email server (PMBO/CMS) and 4 remote clients (PacLink) in Talbot
County for several years, and during the process, experts with far more
experience than I participated in our discussions. Winlink was not my
first choice for a state-wide digital network, but it was the choice of
the committee after discussing the pros and cons of all modes. The
following information is provided to help address concerns raised as a
result of the misinformation.
Winlink2000 Email was unanimously selected by MRIC because of the
advantages it offers over all other digital modes:
1. An operator does not have to be present to receive a message. This
is of great assistance when short on manpower.
2. Once the software is configured, it requires little or no training
to send/receive emails, so you can make use of inexperienced operators
when short-handed.
3. It is a mode (email) that is currently used by everyone, so we can
communicate to any jurisdiction, FEMA, Red Cross, or any other
destination requested during an emergency by the Emergency Manager by
establishing an HF radio connection to one of hundreds of stations
around the country with an Internet connectio
n.
4. It allows attachments of photos, drawings and formatted documents.
5. A typical installation costs between $3,000 and $5,000 (about the
costs of a single public safety portable radio).
6. Future compatibility: It is rapidly becoming the most popular
digital mode in Amateur Radio.
7. As of 2008, the technology is in its 3rd generation and has been
used for emergency operations around the country for about 10 years. It
is as reliable as the best business email system and this year has been
made much simpler to install and configure.
8. It can operate over any frequency and is not limited to a specific
band as many other digital modes are.
Regarding process; The subject of standardizing on a single digital
mode so that jurisdictions did not have to support many, was raised
during our meeting in April 2007. It was added to the November agenda
at that time, and attempts were made to get someone to make a
presentation on every possible digital mode.
During the November meeting, the floor was open to anyone that wanted
to make a presenation on a particular mode, and the pros and cons of
all modes were discussed in a very open, healthy, and free discussion.
This was perhaps our most productive and pleasant meeting ever held. A
lot of great experience was shared, subject expert guests attended, and
discussion continued until no one had anything else to say. At that
time, there w
as consensus from all that Winlink2000 Email was the best
solution. But rather than vote then, we put off the vote until the
following meeting so everyone could run it by their staff to make sure
we were making the right decision.
In January 2008, after much email discussion, the motion passed
unanimously. There was no opposition expressed via email, or during the
vote. It wasn't until the April 2008 meeting that Harford and Baltimore
County expressed any objections. Their request to revisit the issue and
nullify the votes was rejected by MRIC members and the issue was put to
rest.
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MRIC discussed the "Recommended Amateur Radio Capabilities for Maryland
Jurisdictions" document distributed earlier for review. There was much
discussion and debate about the Appendix providing guidance material on
what equipment is recommended for Winlink and voice operations. The
debate was not focused on what equipment to recommend, but on whether
to recommend specific equipment (or comparable), or not to list any
specific equipment by name at all.
Motion made by Ted (Cecil) to table discussion on Recommended Amateur
Radio Capabilities document. Seconded Dan (PG).
Motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
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Pat (Harford) and Dan (PG) offered to collect existing Winlink
information from those jurisdictions that already have it up and
working, and=2
0provide it to MRIC once completed.
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Volunteers were solicited to provide Technical Support to those
attempting to establish a Winlink station for the MRDN. Dan (PG) and
Ray (St. Marys) volunteered.
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Lou (Baltimore City) motioned to change the November meeting date from
Nov 15 to Nov 22, 2008. Seconded Dan (PG).
10 yes.
0 no.
Please update your schedules. The November 22, 2008 meeting is
currently scheduled for QA EOC in Centerville. If you have any
objections to the location, please express them now.
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Pat (Harford) will send email about operating field day from the EOC
for those interested.
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The following Agenda was proposed by the group for the November MRIC
meeting:
Discussion on HF net time-of-day per band
Discussion on HF Net schedule
Discussion on whether or not to use 60-meters.
Discuss Recommended Amateur Radio Capabilities document
Winlink Frequency List - Ray
80 meter frequency - Dan
Elections (nominations via email in advance or at Nov mtg)
Update Freq list
2009 Meeting Schedule
Discussion on interoperability drills (including simplex)
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Dan (PG) motioned to adjourn, James (Frederick) seconded. Motioned
passed at 15:30.
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