[NevadaARES] S.NV ARES DEC Report - Aug. 2003

[Glenn Hale]

Southern NV District EC Report for August 2003

This past month was one of improving contacts with
neighboring public service groups, exercises, weather
nets and communications trailer projects.

I've spent some time looking for Official Emergency
Station appointees and have a couple of interested
hams, but no definitive responses yet. Anyone in the
Southern NV District can request to become an OES
appointee to help with various aspects of ARES
activities. I am working with Heidi Cook KB3JJD, North
Desert Captain and Jim AB0WM, Division Chief to help
find SKYWARN spotters in the Mojave Desert. Mark
KF6CZE, Hesperia Chief Radio Officer also contacted me
regarding SKYWARN operational areas in the high desert
and StormReady information. Everyone is part of San
Bernardino County Fire Dept. OES / ECS.  I hope to
improve our cooperation with the group for weather
information support and possibly in ARESMAT for areas
adjacent to Clark County. 

Much thanks goes to Las Vegas Repeater Association for
their efforts to link Clark County with Lincoln
County.  Our Red Mountain repeater is now linked full
time to Highland Peak.  This link will help to tie our
two neighboring counties together within the District
on VHF. 

John K6YDW, NWS liaison, operated a SKYWARN net at the
NWS SKYWARN station, during the flood on August 19th.
Operations began in the early afternoon and lasted
until early evening with the majority of the flood
reports sent in by Bill AA7ZW, City of Las Vegas AEC.

Clark County ARES/RACES Report by EC, Charlie AA5QJ

Membership is now 201, an increase of 10 over last
month. On Aug 18th we had 54 check-ins to the Monday
night net, the most for any net since Feb 02 when I
became EC and started looking at the totals.

Participated in Determined Promise exercise conducted
by DOD Aug 18-21. 

Upcoming Exercises- please mark these on your
calendars and plan on participating:
1. Simulated Emergency Test (SET) Oct 4. We will be
activating as many operating locations as possible and
passing traffic between them and to the North during
this exercise.
2. Full-scale Aviation Disaster Exercise October 22.
See more information below.

The equipment for the ARES/RACES station at Las Vegas
Fire Rescue was installed into a portable cart, the 2
dual band antennas were installed on the roof and coax
run into the ceiling above our operating location. The
VHF/UHF and packet capabilities were tested at various
times by Bill Marple AA7ZW AEC Las Vegas, Charlie Kunz
AA5QJ EC, and Jim Bassett W1RO.

The first shipment of equipment was received for the
Emergency Communications Center at the Clark County
Government Center from a Homeland Security grant.
Included were additional Heil headsets, foot and hand
switches and connecting cables, coax and PolyPhasers
for 6 additional antennas, Diamond antenna for the
packet station, discone antenna for the scanner,
Pathfinder automatic antenna tuner, 2 Astron 35 amp
power supplies, 2 12 port RigRunners and PowerPole
connectors.

Vern Garman K0EGA AEC Operations/Training and Gary
Hartman KK7LV AEC Henderson and Asst Section Manager
briefed the Frontier Amateur Radio Society on
ARES/RACES at their monthly meeting.

Charlie Kunz AA5QJ EC and Don DeCaria NF7R AEC NE
Clark County briefed the Moapa Valley Amateur Radio
Club on the Determined Promise exercise and the vital
role they would play in the activities slated for
Logandale, including providing primary manning for the
deployed LVRAC Communications Trailer.

Vern Garman K0EGA AEC Operations/Training attended a
planning meeting for the Triennial Full Scale
Emergency Exercise to be held Oct 22. Although we do
not anticipate any request for direct airport support,
we may be tasked to support Red Cross activities.

Charles Kunz AA5QJ EC attended a meeting called by the
Red Cross to address unmet needs relating to the
flooding in NW Las Vegas.  A side purpose to the
meeting was to bring many agencies together as a start
to revitalizing Volunteer Organizations Active in
Disaster (VOAD) in southern Nevada.

The ARES/RACES net script was revised to start with
check-ins and updates from leadership, followed by
check-ins from other members.





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