Saratoga Amateur
Radio Association
The
meeting was called to order by Vice President Don Anastasia, AA6W, at 7:42PM,
with 6 members and 1 guest present. To begin the meeting, Don Anastasia
mentioned the recent installation of J-pole antennas for emergency
communications at Argonaut and Foothill elementary schools. Don Also said that
city of Saratoga staff would again issue photo ID badges for those who have not
received them in the past. This should occur sometime after the first of the
year. Also, the ARES District Emergency Coordinator will provide current
expiration stickers for existing badges based upon a recent report on the
activity levels and preparedness of existing Disaster Service Workers (DSW) in
Saratoga.
Presentation:
Steve
Whitt, AD6XV, Assistant District Emergency Coordinator for Santa Clara County
ARES/RACES, told us about a recent completion of upgrades to the existing
Packet radio emergency communications system. The changes were required to
increase the reliability, stability and availability of the system. One of the
improvements addressed the tendency of the system to not work properly when
several packet stations attempted to connect. Another change facilitated access
to the system by packet stations at the northern and southern extremes of the
county by establishing strategically located digipeaters.
Steve
told us that the upgrade team replaced the two county-purchased HP computers
with older technology 486 computers because the PCI-based HP computers could
not resolve certain port assignment conflicts. The replacement 486 computers
proved more compatible with the DOS-based packet software.
Access
to the packet BBS system from the southern and northern parts of the county was
improved by placing a digipeater on Crystal Peak for improved communications to
Gilroy and Morgan Hill, and a digipeater in Milpitas to allow access from areas
to the north. The system, still in its testing phase, has been working reliably
since it was placed in use. Steve encouraged the members present to try the
system.
The
BBS is now W6XSC-1. It is located on top of the County Executive Office
building at 70 West Hedding. Its frequencies are 144.910 MHz, 223.660 MHz, and
441.500 MHz. You can connect to it on any of these frequencies using the
command: <c w6xsc-1>.
The
system also can be accessed using the digipeaters on 144.910 MHz. The Milpitas
digipeater is W6XSC-6 and can be used by giving the command: <c w6xsc-1 via w6xsc-6>. The
digipeater on Crystal Peak is W6XSC-2 and can be used by giving the
command: <c w6xsc-1 via w6xsc-2>.
The
purpose of the emergency communications packet BBS is to provide a
communications link that will allow city EOCs to send RIMS reports to County
officials in the event of a breakdown in “RIMS-Net,” an Internet-based
communications system. RIMS reports using Lotus Notes RIMS no longer is in use.
Steve
presented a packet primer to bring everyone up to speed on the system, and
finished the presentation with a live demonstration of how to access the system
using a transceiver, TNC, notebook computer running Windows Hyper Term, and a
j-pole antenna. Using only 10W, he was able to connect with the packet BBS as
explained above.
With
no further business to be discussed, the meeting was adjourned at 9:01PM.
Submitted
by John McCartney, W6JJJ, filling in for John Glass, NU6P, SARA secretary for
2002.