Northwest Oklahoma

by Jay Kruckenberg - K5GUD


We will have a work day at the EOC on Thursday, September 8th
beginning at 4pm. This is before the TSARG meeting, which will be held
the same day in the EOC training room starting at 7:30pm. We will
continue to work on getting radios and power installed in the EmComm
unit. If we can get this done in time we will take this unit out on
the balloon launch that the Kansas/Oklahoma bunch is having on October
15th, starting at 8am. We will also work on getting the EOC
straightened up and organized.

On October 29th the NWS in Norman is having it's annual Weather
Festival, starting at 9am. Rick Smith has invited us down for a quick
get together and tour of the complex. This would be an awesome time to
see and meet some of the NWS personal we work with.

November 5th is Enid's hamfest at the Garfield County fair grounds. We
will have an ARES get together with Mark Conklin and the Enid ARES
group. We hope to develop a working relationship with them as well as
partake in a future training exercise with them.

Monday, September 21st is our next ARES training date. We might start
the Intro to Emergency Communications course, if I can get it worked
up that soon. If not, we might have a Q&A over ICS-100. We need to get
our ICS-100, 200 and 700 training out of the way. This can be done
online in your spare time, or what little of it you have. I would
prefer you work through the course on your own and then let's go over
areas you are having problems with at our meetings. This would help
everyone get done sooner.

As was previously discussed, now that the cooler weather is, here we
will have a standing ARES work day every Thursday beginning around
4pm. There are lots of projects to work on so there is something for
everyone. We all don't have to work on the same project at the same
time. We can split up into groups and tackle many at once.

Melissa Wilkerson has been appointed as the ARES PIO for our group.
She is taking the ARRL PIO course now and hopes to get her ARRL
Certification when she completes the course. Many more appointments
will be coming in the near future.

I have applied for and got accepted to be an Emergency Communications
Instructor for the ARRL. This will allow us to offer the new "Intro to
Emergency Communication" course locally and get our certificates.

Matt hopes to start having some training exercises, both hands on and
tabletop, this fall. Be looking for these to be announced in the near
future.

Matt also reported that the state EOC office will be installing a
D-Star system in the near future. He has also been working hard on
making everyone in the state Homeland Security and OEM departments see
the value of Amateur Radio and its operators as part of the whole
plan.

I would also like to offer a Technician Class Ham Cram Course before
Thanksgiving. Spread the word around and let's see if we can get some
interest in one. Also let me know what date you think would work for
this course.