Lee Co ARES Monthly Meeting, September 18, 2022

We met at the Eleanor Cottage at the Giddings Chamber in downtown Giddings. We exchanged information about new equipment bought. The Technical committee shared experimenting to make a raspberry pie working with VARA. An update was given on the trailer. All is ready for deployment. Must buy a Wi-fi repeater as the inside of the trailer, once all the doors are closed, becomes an EMP ready environment. Daniel KI5QHC has been running the trailer for a week on solar power, experimenting with equipment, and electricity was flowing sufficiently without apparent interference with the radios. We also need to add guy-wires and for the telescopic pole when fully extended. The ferrites have also arrived and will be installed on the radios.

We also received an update on the EOC: Tim W5TRL has found two enclosed cabinets, one donated and one very inexpensive, to put into the ARES room.

The Outreach Committee will get together with the Lexington and Giddings Chambers of Commerce to learn of parades, fairs, home-comings and other activities where we can show off the trailer.

We revisited and confirmed future goals of Lee Co. ARES and discussed the importance to finish basic FEMA classes and the ARRL EC-001.

The ARES Emergency Coordinator announced a meeting called by the Lee Co. EMC to review the Hazard Mitigation Plan and the goals of the Lee Co. ARES. We discussed Lee Co.  Standard of Procedures (SOP). We approved the change of the current insurance company, whose premium went sky high, and chose another policy with another local company.

We decided to participate with WC-ARES in a joint operation for Winter Field Day 2023 in Williamson County, deploying our trailer and maybe the van.

Finally, we discussed two possibilities for paging systems as the current system is not working properly.