Lee County ARES Monthly Meeting, April 16, 2023

After taking care of routine business, Lee County ARES members met to discuss their April 22, 2023 EmComm Trailer Work Day, discussing the plans for the day in details. We considered to acquire more equipment for the EmComm trailer and van, such as a digital scanner and antenna and APRS tracking. Members who participated in a previous work day at the trailer updated the group on the progress done to improve the trailer performance as recommended by the After Action Report of Winter Field Day, such as the success to contact Austin, Cedar Park, Cypress, Houston, College Station, and Giddings itself with the NVIS antenna, the repainting of the desk, the adding of anti-slip tape, and other small improvements. A member discussed the successful  mobile use of the screwdriver antenna, which had not performed well at Winter Field Day possibly for not proper grounding of the generator. Members received also a detail update of the EOC project. The Outreach Committee reported about our day spent in support of Springfest at the Blue Volunteer Fire Department and the invitation to support communications of the upcoming Dash n’ Splash fundraiser at Down Home Ranch. After a lengthy discussion on the details of the event, and our involvement, the group voted to accept the invitation. Disaster plates for the trailer and van were considered, but members decided to keep the callsign plates. AREDN update and the upcoming GRLevel 3 Class were also discussed.