A Monthly
Publication of the Middle East Tennessee Emergency Radio Service, Inc.
Editor: Larry Osterman, W8JYQ
(e-mail to w8jyq@arrl.net)
METERS Website: www.metersinc.org
President's Statement for March 2005
by
Wow! We have
had a very busy month. We've had TEMA training, Skywarn training, and some of
us have had meetings with the hospitals, and of course several teams have
already inspected and tested their respective hospital radios. Of course, we
have also spent a great deal of time planning and coordinating the hospital
radio exercise scheduled for Monday, March 21. My thanks to
Alan Sims, KG4MMG, and
That's the
good news. The not-so-good news is that we devoted a significant amount of time
on the Knoxville Marathon communications plan, only to be told late in the
process that we would not be needed. My thanks to David
Hoffman, KE4FGW for all his hard work planning for, and recruiting for, the
I know that
we are all been a bit overtaxed this month, so that is why I have decided that
we will slow down the pace for a while. I have cut
back on the TEMA training for now to give us a break. We also need to free up
some time to devote more effort to the hospital radios. There are more to get
up and running, and we need to start testing them on a regular basis.
Please be
sure to come to our meetings. We have a lot of important work ahead of us, and
we can't do it without your participation and our mutual preparation. I know
that you will have a tremendous sense of accomplishment when we are all
suitably trained. Now is the time to re-commit ourselves to developing our
skills and become effectively prepared. Our community is counting on us.
Dick Wolf,
WI8X, our trainer, will help us be better prepared. Please be sure to attend
the March meeting to see what he has planned. Many have expressed their
appreciation for Dick's training sessions. He keeps us on the edge of our seat
and enjoying the whole show. I don't want to let the cat out of the bag, but
you don't want to miss his next installment.
Training Opportunities:
Now:
Hospital radio tests, contact
Now: EOC
tours, contact
Mar 22:
METERS meeting with another EMCOMM training lesson brought to you by Dick,
WI8X.
Please pay your METERS dues now! We need your
support. Please contact METERS Treasurer,
>
---------------------------- Original Message
>
Subject: Strawberry Plains Half
>
From: "Donna Murphy"
<donnarmurphy@yahoo.com>
>
Date: Wed, February 23, 2005 4:27 pm
>
To: “David Hoffman” <
>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
> David,
Ø Thanks to you and your crew for your
excellent radio support during the
Ø Strawberry Plains 1/2
(Congratulations David,
and all participants.)
The
By David
Hoffman, KE4FGW, METERS Activities Committee
I just want
to offer my Many Thanks to everyone
who volunteered their time and effort to communicate for the Knoxville Marathon
on March 20, 2005. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out for us. It seems that the overall organization was
pretty set on using their own two-way radios to cover
the entire event from the beginning. It
sounded pretty exciting to them (at first) that we would offer them our time
and commitment, to carry out communications for them in such a large-scale
event. This was their first inaugural
marathon comprising 26.2 miles of downtown roads and bike trails. They had several courses lined up including a
full marathon, a half marathon, a 5K run, a 1.2-mile kids
run, and a relay run. They are expecting
over 5,000 runners from many states and some foreign countries to
participate. But as time went on, I kept
getting the feeling that they were fully intending to run the entire event
using their own (untested) two-way radios.
I was preparing for a communications failure when I got confirmation
from them that they indeed did want to do all of the key communications on
their own, and that we could just work the water stops.
We train as
communicators with these events, and use them as practice to carry out a
directed net for passing emergency traffic back and forth to officials. We were unable to use this event as such, and
therefore, I had to respectfully decline the services that I had originally
offered them. I wish them the best with
this event, but it was obvious that they did not see the value that we could
bring them using our skilled volunteers, our time, and our equipment for their
communication needs This does not mean that we will no
longer work any public service events for the Knoxville Track Club. I believe that KTC had very little input to
the decision-making when it came to overall planning for the Knoxville
Marathon. The KTC really does appreciate
our efforts and skills for their events, and we’ll continue to provide them
with our communications skills as needed. So again, I thank everyone who
volunteered to work this event.
David Hoffman - KE4FGW
Invitation to 2-Mtr SSB Mode
By Alan Sims KG4MMG, (Knox Cty EC &
METERS VP)
For you
all-mode radio operators who have not tried 2-mtr ssb, you dont know what you
are missing. The ssb part of 2-mtrs is noise free, no fm carrier as with fm
simplex. Using 2-mtr ssb offers another mode that is great for emergency
traffic since no repeater is needed. You can use the same 2-mtr fm antenna to
do ssb, just ask Gary AG4XO. Gary and I have used ssb with great results
with a group of operators using 2-mtr ssb for round-table qso’s.
If you are
one of the non-users of your all-mode transceiver on 2-mtrs, please feel free
to ask me about the 2-mtr ssb Net & Time. We’ll be glad to hear you and
your radio. Don’t waste that high-dollar rig: make it pay off for your
hard-earned money. Hope to hear you soon on 2-mtr ssb.
Short Facts from ARRL’s Dec. 24th,
‘04 Newsletter:
A poll of 3707 Hams: Number of vhf FM xcvrs owned: only 1 - 10.3%, 2 or 3 - 35.0%,
4 to 6 -
30.5%, Over 6 - 20.0%, None - 4.2%…
Did everyone see James Dulley’s article on home windmills for power generation in the Knox News, Home Section, Friday, March 18th? In checking out the websites for vendors mentioned, the lowest cost windmill system that seemed appropriate for ‘ham’ use was priced at $497. It’s a Model #450207 by Windstream Products, and delivers 120 Watts at 12 vdc. It comes with a controller that regulates the charge to your battery system. You provide your own pole and wiring. Another manufacturer that may have something useful is Windbugger, but their system prices seem to start at over $1100. I have asked these folks if they have something for our use, at lower cost. More later. (If you have some other sources, please let me know. Thanks. – Larry O.)
Found these in a small monograph from a retired church leader: “Secrets of Success”.
a) Work at something you enjoy, that’s worthy of your time and talent. Forget the $$$.
b) Give people more than they expect, and do it cheerfully.
c) Be positive and enthusiastic, a greeter, a smiler, a friend.
d) Treat everyone you meet like you’d want to be treated. (The golden rule!)
e) Be forgiving of yourself and others.
f) Be helpful, generous, and have a grateful heart.
g) Commit yourself to quality, to constant improvement and learning.
h) Persistence, persistence, persistence.
i) Understand that Happiness is not based on possessions, power, or prestige, but on relationships with people you love and respect.
j) Be honest, be loyal, be consistent, be trustworthy.
k) Be decisive even if it means you may be wrong. Mistakes are OK, if admitted.
l) Take responsibility for every area of your life. Don’t blame others.
m) Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life you will regret the things you didn’t do more than the things you did.
n) Take good care of those you love, but especially take care of yourself.
o) And lastly: Don’t do anything that wouldn’t make your Mom proud.
C u soon - Larry O