Category Team Updates

ACt Team Updates

Jan 27 2015

Final Response To Joe AC2ND’s Inquiry About ACT (Revised)

Joe replied:

Thanks for the detailed explanation.  It reminds me of the REACT (Radio Emergency Action Civics team) from the 1970’s.  I was in the group in Nassau County when I was a teen.  It predated cellphones was an “eyes and ears” organization.

My Response To Joe: (slightly enhanced and corrected) Yes I remember react. It was another very active group way ahead of its time. Out here in Suffolk it was very busy and paticipated many events.

I spent many years in Brookhaven ARES/RACES. Spent many hours shadowing shelter managers, using the .82 repeater to help with coordination during the Suffolk County wildfires and Hurricane Gloria, attended special events and rebuilt equipment in EOC.

Recently, I asked to be removed from Brookhaven ARES because I don’t care for the current politics. From what I understand, those in charge of Town communications basically ignore ARES. As I understand from a reliable source, Brookhaven ARES is not activated because paid Town employees cover communications.

Self activation gets the job done…

Regards, Gary

Jan 27 2015

Differences Between ARES and ACT

Yesterday I sent out our list of emergency phone numbers to the BNLARC Radio Club via the BNL Reflector. I did receive one response from Joe AC2ND. Joe thanked the Team for the list of emergency numbers and gave our ACT  Site a Thumbs Up.

Joe’s comment was: I am not sure how this differs in mission from ARES.

I sent a reply to Joe and thought I’d share it with our Team:

Hi Joe,

Please read the about page to find out more about ACT.

We are self activated and do not need to be called out by any Federal State County or local Agency which is the primary difference.

Our group is made up of Fire EMS retired sheriffs and others who basically take care of many issues in the community south of the LIE.

For example today we handled an MVA and called it into police dispatch and then dispatched a group member to the scene to take a photograph and check on the status of the individuals.

We don’t do emergency communications per-se because we leave that up to the police fire and EMS individuals who are the real first responders.

We handle missing persons, damage assessment caused by man-made and natural disasters. We also check on seniors and take care of other individuals that may need our assistance.

We also have been monitoring Radio and scanner frequencies all day and will all night and also tomorrow due to the inclement weather.

ACT is relatively new but we have ham friends in Indianapolis and they are starting a second chapter there.

As you might imagine ARES RACES organizations in Indianapolis are huge and well-funded have amazing amounts of equipment and work tightly with the government and police and other organizations there.

So we are hopeful that the second chapter of ACT will spring to life and ideas can be shared between the ACT groups.

Best Regards,
Gary KE2YK

Jan 25 2015

Nets To Meet Weekly Now

Team,

Joe has decided to hold a quick check-in weekly followed by a round table discussion every Thursday evening at 20:00 hours on the W2DQ 2 meter repeater system.

Note that every 4th Net will be a full discussion net. The next full discussion net will be held on Thursday February 19th at 20:00 hours.

As a reminder, if the 2 Meter W2DQ repeater is in use please QSY to the W2DQ 70cm repeater. 

 

 

Jan 25 2015

ACT Meets Facebook

Joe tells me that he had a landline conversation with Jim KB2UDD and another Ham from Indianapolis yesterday evening.
 Jim is a friend and fellow Ham  originally from Brookhaven Hamlet.
 Jim moved to Indy some years ago..
 Jim gave an ACT presentation to his ARES group and they are going to create an ACT Team in the Indianapolis area.  ARES / RACES is taken very seriously in the Indy area.
In response to the news about the Team Indy,  i have created a Joint Team Facebook Group and have given Jim admin access.
The FB group is less than 24 hours old so there is not much to it right now.
Jan 9 2015

Team Meeting Minutes From 1/8/15

Amateur Radio Communications Team Logo ExportACT Team Net: 1/8/15  – 20:00 to 20:34 Hours

 14 check in’s – One Guest Joey KD2FEN

Checked In Were: 

Jim KB2UDD (via Echolink from Indianapolis), Greg KC2GGH, Tony KB2VZG, Zach KD2AEL, Vinny KC2WPP, John KD2DZY, John KD2GIK,  Ken KD2DZZ, Mike N2QOY, Gary N2TBC, Art W2ALW, Joe W2OFD, Gary KE2YK, Joey KD2FEN

 

Health and Welfare:

Speedy Recovery Gil.  We have you in our thoughts!

SCRC 12/16/14 Meeting:

I attended the SCRC Club meeting. ACT was talked about at some length and our Team was granted use of the W2DQ repeater systems for our nets. As a result of the discussion we gained two new members. Gary N2TBC and Jeff N2OEP.

Tony KB2HRB suggested the Team come up with a backup 2 meter simplex frequency. Tony also mentioned he has Coast Guard radios at his QTH for Team use should the need arise.

Gil KB2WCB offered his mobile communications truck and backup repeater for our use.

HRU:

I attended Ham Radio University on January 4th.. There were three presentations of note.

MESH networking is something I had causally looked into about a year ago. Basically it is an inexpensive way to set up local high speed LAN/WAN Amateur network communications over the air. Those communications include passing voice over ip, video and chat traffic between stations within the MESH network. If the network contains a gateway to the internet then traffic can be passed to other protocols like WINLINK, etc.

http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/

 

ENZEC is antenna modeling software. I found it to be useful and interesting for modeling simple dipoles. Of course with the paid version modeling Yagi’s and more complex antenna systems, feedlines, BALUNS, grounding systems and much more is possible. In its simplest form it’s it is a way to see how a ½ wave dipole antenna will behave in free space BEFORE you cut the wire.

http://www.eznec.com/

 

WARDENCLYFFE was the most interesting presentation. There are reams of information online about Wardenclyffe (now known as Shoreham) and Tesla but to keep a long story short, Wardenclyffe was the home of Nikola Tesla’s lab and a 200+ foot tower. Tesla held over 700 US patents for his useful inventions and was known as the father of Alternating Current. So when you flip that switch think Tesla…

The Wardenclyffe tower is long gone. One of Tesla’s dreams was to provide free electricity worldwide. J.P. Morgan got wind of this and stopped Tesla’s funding. Greed and corruption at its finest. Wouldn’t you say? I guess old J.P.or his cronies wouldn’t stand to give away something they could profit from!  Tesla died a poor, mostly forgotten man in a New York City hotel….

Anyway, the Tesla restoration group finally found a way to purchase what is left of Wardenclyffe. The site is closed and it will take many years and many millions of dollars but the group’s dream is to restore the lab and turn it into a science center for people to visit from all over the World. As a matter of fact the restoration group gets a constant stream of calls about visiting the site. Since the future Museum is presently shuttered, sadly folks who call or email the restoration group from all points on the globe have to be turned away.

The Tesla Science Center Web site has tons of great information on it (as well as countless others about Tesla). On the Science Center site, there is a page for volunteers to sign up and work at the site. Perhaps volunteering for an afternoon is something ACT could think about in the future. Perhaps after volunteering, we might ask about doing an outdoor event one afternoon.

http://www.teslasciencecenter.org/  | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

 

Local Events:

LIMARC will be holding its next HAMFEST on March 8th. Visit the LIMARC Web site for details.

http://limarc.org/

 

Our Team Web Site:

The ACT Web site is not promoted in any way, yet we have had over 1000 visitors in about 30 days.

One of the most important pages added so far is Emergency Numbers. Thanks Ken and Art for supplying information.

Posts To Check Out:

Gil has supplied a list of the gear he has in his rather amazing TAHOE. I recently added a few photos of his mobile communications truck Gil has shared with us. Check out the Post!

Zach has supplied a coverage map of the W2OFD repeater system. Zach has modeling software for creating a cool visual coverage map. Zach has also supplied a map of the SCRC precincts, a list of HF and Federal frequencies.

View the Post about Repeaterbook and the NY Repeater directory for links to those Web sites.

 

Round Table:

  • Lets put our heads together and come up with an on the air Drill in February.
  • Lets come up with a fundraiser for equipment, badges, etc. Radio raffle?
  • Ken mentioned clearing fire hydrants and calling in potholes and other road damage.
  • Art mentioned information about down Crossing Gates and the related phone number. The number will be added to the Emergency Numbers page.
  • Vinny recently offered computers. He also offered routers to the Team for experimenting with MESH networking.
  • John KD2DZY offered LEXAN to be used as insulators for antenna construction. I have emailed John’s email address out to the Team.
  • Vinny supplied favorable comments about using Zello while mobile during his recent trip out of town.
  • Please welcome John KD2GIK as our newest member.

Wrap Up:

In closing please keep our police and service men and women around the World in your thoughts. They work hard and many put their lives on the line 24/7 to try to keep us out of harms way.

Thanks for the use of the W2DQ repeater system during our Team nets and other Team activity.

As a reminder, we are guests and only have secondary use of their systems. In the event the primary 2 meter repeater system is in use, please shift operations to the 70cm repeater system.

In addition, I am going to make a formal request to the BNLARC group for use of their repeater system as an alternate, backup system some time in the future. That request is a longer term goal since the K2BNL system is going to be offline for an undetermined period of time due to tower work.

A special thanks to all who checked in and contributed to the net!

 

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