[MRIC] November 22, 2008 minutes approved

[brettham at aol.com]

All:

Please find below the MRIC meeting minutes for our November 22, 2008 
meeting, as approved during our meeting last weekend. Note that I added 
a comment about the Frequency List not getting distributed.

Pat, I'm not sure what to put for the HF test results. Let me know what 
text, if any, you want me to add there. Thanks.

Brett Hammond
Chairman, MRIC

-------------------------------

Maryland RACES Interoperability Committee (MRIC) Meeting Minutes for 
November 22, 2008:


Chuck Hodell hosted the meeting at the Queen Anne's EOC. Thanks Chuck 
for the great support and facility.

The meeting was called to order promptly at 10:30 AM. The following ROs 
(or their representative) were in attendance:

Allegany -
Anne Arundel - Frank Winner
Baltimore County -
Baltimore City -
Caroline -
Carroll -
Calvert -
Cecil - Will Owens
Charles -
Dorchester -
Frederick -
Garrett -
Harford - Pat Scolla
Howard -
Kent - Bill Clark (ARO)
MEMA - Al FitzSimons (arrived late)
Montgomery - Fred Bader
Ocean City
Prince George’s - Dan Blasberg
Queen Anne’s - Chuck Hodell
Somerset -
St. Mary’s -
Talbot - Brett Hammond
Washington -
Wicomico - Joe Woods

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:
0D
- Welcome
- Attendance
- Review Agenda
- Approval of Minutes
- Updated MD RO Contact List
- Discussion on HF net time-of-day per band
- Discussion on whether or not to use 60-meters.
- 80 meter frequency - Dan
- Winlink Frequency List - Ray
- Update Freq list
- Discuss TMARC simplex changes
- Lunch
- Discussion on HF Net schedule
- Discuss Recommended Amateur Radio Capabilities document
- 2009 Meeting Schedule
- Discussion on interoperability drills (including simplex)
- Next Meeting Agenda
- Elections (nominations via email in advance or at Nov mtg)
- Adjourn

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Motion by Pat to approve the April 26 meeting minutes as distributed 
last week. Seconded by Chuck.

Motion passed by unanimous consent without objection.

---------------------------------------------------------

The RACES Officer Contact List was updated with minor changes and 
approved by unanimous consent. It will be distributed via email in the 
next few days.

There was a brief discussion on the time of day to use each HF band and 
there was general agreement to use 80 meters after dusk, and 40 meters 
after dawn.

There was a discussion about whether or not to remove 60-meters from 
our list of HF frequencies for the Maryland RACES HF Voice net. There 
was general consensus that it should only be used as a last resort when 
40 and 80 meter bands were not open, but that it should not
 be removed 
from our list.

Dan is still looking for an alternate frequency for our 80 meter net 
and will report at the next meeting. In the mean time, we will continue 
to use 3.950 MHz LSB.

The Freq list was updated with minor changes and approved by unanimous 
consent. It will be distributed via email in the next few days. Since 
Ray was not present, there was no discussion on Winlink frequencies.

Note: Due to some lingering questions, the Frequency List was not 
distributed after the meeting. It was reviewed and corrected at the 
following meeting on Jauary 24 2009. See those minutes for details.

---------------------------------------------------------

Fred Bader made a motion: MRIC resolves and recommends that TMARC not 
make frequency allocations in the following ranges: 146.400 to 146.580; 
and 147.420 to 147.570 (i.e. the frequencies currently assigned by the 
ARRL band plan for simplex).
Seconded by Chuck.

A roll-call vote was taken:

yes- Anne Arundel - Frank Winner
yes - Cecil - Will Owens
yes - Harford - Pat Scolla
yes - Kent - Bill Clark (ARO)
yes - MEMA - Al FitzSimons
yes - Montgomery - Fred Bader
yes - Prince George’s - Dan Blasberg
yes - Queen Anne’s - Chuck Hodell
yes - Talbot - Brett Hammond
yes - Wicomico - Joe Woods

The motion passed. Brett will send an email and/or letter to TMARC to 
that affect, to urge TMARC not to allocate existing simplex frequ
encies 
for other use.

---------------------------------------------------------

There was some discussion about whether to conduct the Maryland RACES 
HF Voice Net at the same time as the state COMMEX or at another time. 
There was also discussion about conducting exercises on some Saturdays 
between now and the next meeting, and to resolve the issue of when to 
permanently schedule the HF Voice net at the next meeting.

Chuck made a motion to conduct MRIC HF Voice Net exercises on
Saturday mornings at 10:00 AM for 30 to 60 minutes testing from EOCs on 
40 meters at 7.250 MHz LSB, on Dec 20, Jan 3 and 10. Pat will be net 
control and send out email reminders.

Seconded by Bill Clark.
Motion passed by unanimous voice vote.

---------------------------------------------------------

There was review and discussion of a proposed document originally 
discussed at our last meeting, that compiles all MRIC's 
interoperability recommendations into a single document.

Motion by Chuck: Approve the proposed "Recommended Amateur Radio 
Capabilities for Maryland Jurisdictions" as presented and modified 
today, excluding appendixes.
Seconded by: Frank Winner

A roll-call vote was taken:

yes - Anne Arundel - Frank Winner
yes - Cecil - Will Owens
yes - Harford - Pat Scolla
yes - Kent - Bill Clark (ARO)
yes - MEMA - Al FitzSimons
yes - Montgomery - Fred Bader
yes - Prince George’s - Dan Blasberg
yes - Queen Anne
s - Chuck Hodell
yes - Talbot - Brett Hammond
yes - Wicomico - Joe Woods

The motion passed unanimously. It will be distributed in PDF form in 
the next few days.

---------------------------------------------------------

Motion by Bill Clark: Approve Appendix B of the same document 
(Recommended Amateur Radio Capabilities for Maryland Jurisdictions) 
listing Winlink EOC email addresses as modified today.
Seconded by Dan Blasberg.

A roll-call vote was taken:

yes - Anne Arundel - Frank Winner
yes - Cecil - Will Owens
yes - Harford - Pat Scolla
yes - Kent - Bill Clark (ARO)
yes - MEMA - Al FitzSimons
yes - Montgomery - Fred Bader
yes - Prince George’s - Dan Blasberg
yes - Queen Anne’s - Chuck Hodell
yes - Talbot - Brett Hammond
yes - Wicomico - Joe Woods

The motion passed unanimously. It will be distributed in PDF form in 
the next few days.

---------------------------------------------------------

There was general consensus that it is worthwhile to complete Appendix 
A of the same document at the next meeting. Appendix A contains 
guidance material that specifies recommended equipment that may be used 
to meet the interoperability requirements specified in the main part of 
the document. This will meet the need of many for an EOC RACES 
equipment list for interoperability.

Motion to table by Pat, seconded by Dan.
Motion passed by unanimous voice vote

-----------------------------------
----------------------

The following dates were set for MRIC Meetings in 2009:

January 24 at Montgomery County
April 25 at Harford County
November 7 at MEMA

All meetings from 10:30 to 15:00.

---------------------------------------------------------

There was some discussion about conducting a state-wide 
interoperability exercise in 2009. One suggestion was to look into 
whether or not it might make sense to participate in the pandemic 
exercise next summer, since some jurisdictions were invited to 
participate last year. ROs will discuss this with their EMs to see if 
this makes sense and discussion will continue at the next meeting.

---------------------------------------------------------

The following agenda was set for the January 2009 meeting:

Dan will present information on Winlink/Airmail configurations from 
different jurisdictions to be used as reference material in case anyone 
wants to use similar equipment.

Pat will present information on non-winlink communications abilities of 
the various jurisdictions to be used as reference material.

Do we want to make any RACES contact info available to the general 
public? (Chuck)

80 meter frequency - Dan

Winlink Tech Support group will provide contact info and procedures for 
obtaining support (Dan & Bill Clark).

Discuss results of ROs talking to the EMs about exercises.

Appendix A of Recommended Amateur Radio Capabilities for Maryland 
Jurisdictions (Brett and Chuck 
and Dan)

---------------------------------------------------------

The chair was turned over to Frank Winner to conduct elections for the 
office of MRIC Chairman for 2009. Brett Hammond and Dave Prestel were 
nominated. Vote was taken by sealed ballot and Brett was elected by a 
vote of 7 to 3.

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Motion to adjourn passed at 15:02.

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