Lee County ARES January 15, 2023 Monthly Meeting

LeeCARES first meeting for 2023 was full of activities and plans. We shared lots of new equipment, bought or built, like DMR radios, antennae, and battery power boxes. We also talked about the progress at the EOC to perforating the wall and bringing the coax into the ARES room which should happen in the upcoming two weeks. We received an update on the trailer about AREDN and its readiness for Winter Field day. The Outreach Committee gave us an update on events that will happen in 2023 in which we want to participate. We reviewed in detail our Arctic Front Exercise in our After Action Report (AAR). It was noted that we learned more about retrieving data, summarizing it, and doing maps of weather reports than using Winlink itself. We also learned the importance to have our Winlink updated as certain reports do not transfer otherwise. We decided to have another Winlink exercise soon to exploit and learn all the features and show them to the Lee Co. OEM. We would like to prepare forms that are targeted for Lee County and adjacent counties. We asked the Winlink developer to make photos more visible when they are sent with forms and templates because in an emergency photos should be more apparent, but the developer is unwilling to change the software. We had an update on the upcoming Commissioners’ Court meeting in which Lee Co ARES will ask changes of the current MOU with respect of the ownership of the equipment installed. We also extensively talked about our participation at Winer Field Day, the first deployment of our trailer, and the rules and regulations.