July starts the second half of the year and the support and hours of ARES members continues to be impressive. We are running 900+ hours ahead of this time last year. Thanks for all of the support. I am sure that your served agencies appreciate the hard work.
The Board of Directors of ARRL have opened a comment period to receive input from ARES members about the proposed restructuring of ARES. The strategic plan can be reviewed at http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Media%20&%20PR/ARES/ARES%20Strategic%20Plan%20-%20final%20-%20PSC.pdf. It is an extensive restructuring of ARES and creates levels of membership based on the amount of training by the individual member. Cecil Higgins, our SM, and I will be gathering the responses and inputs from the DECs and formulating the response from the Missouri Section. If you have any comments or suggestions, please give them to your EC who will pass it along to the District DEC. I need all of the responses back to me by September 1. If you disagree with a particular section or requirement, offer a suitable alternate.
ARES Connect is coming in August. ECs that have registered their group, will be receiving an email from Headquarters explaining the next steps to set up the database for your group. If you have not registered, please register your group and get the ID. The group registration form can be found at this link: http://www.arrl.org/ares-group-id-request-form
District News
District A: Mike Bellinger, K0UAA DEC
Benton Co. – Members participated in the following nets: MTN, MESN, ARES, and various club nets. The EC ran the Region A Healthcare Net. This month, there were 23 check-ins from healthcare facilities, EMAs, ARES groups, and individual operators. The EC continues to work on ways to grow this important resource. The EC attended the Region A Healthcare Meeting. She reported on last month’s Region A Healthcare Net numbers as well as what efforts were being made to encourage more participation throughout the healthcare and amateur radio communities. She also asked Dennis Jacobs, NXØIA, Deputy Director of the Bates County EMA, to serve as the back-up net control operator for the Region A Healthcare net and he accepted.
The July BC ARES meeting was canceled because the EC was attending CERT Train-the-Trainer Training. The EC reported that the use of amateur radio was covered in this training, once again bringing good information about the hobby as a useful tool during and after emergency situations to light. The EC will be incorporating a communications section into her first CERT class as a trainer in Benton County in September 2018, hopefully utilizing members of the BC ARES. This opportunity will be presented to group members at the upcoming August meeting.
The EchoLink for the 146.925 has been taken offline and will be restored in the near future. An announcement of the restoration will be posted on bentoncountyares.org, the BC ARES Facebook page, Larry’s List, and by other means when it is completed.
Cass Co. – ARES is in the process of finalizing an MOU with one of the fire districts in the county.
Northland (Clay and Platte Co.) – WIN for KC Triathlon/Duathlon July 28 – Northland ARES provided communications in support of 900 entrants participating in 500M water course, bicycle and running events. Limited bumps & scrapes were reported along with a few flat tires. All were quickly handled by support teams. The Clay County Mobile Command unit provided net control via UHF & VHF area repeaters to field operators.
FSQcall – Digital weekly nets conducted Thursday 10:00 AM CDT 3.598 MHz. Fldigi-FSQ mode or FSQcall to check-in. Net control sends announcements beginning
09:45 AM check-in protocol, Call districts, & etc included. Net control will announce a SEMA hosted Conference server number. Net participants share updates, signal reports, Missouri Digital activities. New participants are welcome. FSQcall-MO July net report: Four sessions 48 participants 27 Hours total.
Pettis Co. – 3 HRS. EMA siren test… 40 HRS. SKYWARN
Saline Co. – Participated in KCHEART and MOSWIN nets. SCHC meeting – Planning second exercises w/Fitzgibbon Hospital Aug. & Sept. Formally acquired Call Sign and repeater WBØWMM (Marshall 147.650 Mhz.) Working with EM to setup Tech Class for CERT Trainees.
District G: Ron Tost, K0RGT DEC
Wright County: July Celebration put on by Hartville Churches. Our group helps with communication and by putting on fire works demonstrations.
The following are the volunteer hours reported for the month of July:
| MISSOURI ARES SECTION REPORT FOR : | JUL 2018 | MONTH | YEAR | ||||||||
| DISTRICT | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | TOTALS | |
| Total Counties | 13 | 16 | 12 | 18 | 13 | 13 | 9 | 15 | 6 | 115 | |
| Total Reporting | 8 | 7 | 5 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 53 | |
| Members | 333 | 108 | 256 | 261 | 44 | 124 | 58 | 12 | 125 | 1321 | |
| Plus / Minus | 3 | -2 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Training Ops | 64 | 21 | 15 | 95 | 12 | 35 | 22 | 0 | 1 | 265 | 1684 |
| Svc Hours | 531 | 56.2 | 105 | 624 | 47 | 204 | 169 | 0 | 13 | 1748.2 | 14492.3 |
| Public Svc Ops | 5 | 1 | 2 | 76 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 90 | 289 |
| Svc Hours | 70 | 2 | 17 | 553 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 0 | 0 | 677 | 4938.7 |
| Emergency Ops | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 26 |
| Svc Hours | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 111 |
| Skywarn Ops | 2 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 197 |
| Svc Hours | 40 | 0 | 8 | 79 | 0 | 3 | 64 | 0 | 0 | 194 | 1517.75 |
| Total Operations | 71 | 22 | 19 | 183 | 12 | 37 | 37 | 0 | 1 | 382 | 2250 |
| Total Svc Hours | 641 | 58.2 | 130 | 1276 | 47 | 207 | 268 | 0 | 13 | 2639.2 | 21059.7 |
Have a great August. Don’t forget SET is coming in October. Hopefully, you are planning your exercises.
73,
Jeff Young, KB3HF
Missouri Section EC