Pima County RACES

This is a power point presentation developed by AB7AA Bill Hickey, Home Unit manager.

The annual Tour of the Tucson Mountains bike event will be Sunday, April 27, beginning and ending at the Marana Town Hall complex. Radio operators will be needed, as in past years. (see: www.pbaa.org for more information)
73,
Richard Corbett
kc7ovm
Event Bike Patrol Director

When you first joined this website you were asked some basic questions such as email address, call sign etc. From time to time I am asked how to update this and other personal information, so for all of you who have been wondering, here it is.

The first thing you must do is login to the website. To do this, click on the "Login" link under the "Meta" heading on the menu to the right of the page then enter your username and password. After you are logged in to the website click on the "Site Admin" link under the same "Meta" heading as before. You should now find yourself looking at the site administration pages.

On the light blue menu bar, at the top of the page, find and click on the "Profile" option. You should then be presented with a page titled "Your Profile and Personal Options". You may modify or add missing information on this page as you see fit. Don't forget to save your changes by clicking one of the "Update Profile" buttons located at the top and bottom right of the page.

To return to the main RACES web page, click the "View site" link located to the right of the "Pima County RACES" page title.

Good luck and happy blogging!

Training this morning went well. Eleven Home Unit members were in attendance to hear presentations, by myself and Bill Hickey (AB7AA), describing the Home Unit's proposed Emergency Status Plan. Members from the Tucson area included Gail Peterson (N7BXX), Ron McDonald (N9DRG), Bill Stanger (N2MZ), Bill Adams (KC7ZZ), Kurt Cramer (W7QHD) and Bob Campbell (K6PIY). Bruce Johnson (N7NYG) came in from Sierra Vista and Richard Walker (KF7LA), Billie Riner (KL7DSL), Harley Murray (KC5CHM) and Clarence Wenzel (W9ILM) all drove in from Ajo.

The two PowerPoint presentations used at the training session today are available for download. Also available are Bill Hickey's reporting guidelines and associated flowchart document. Click on any of the following links to download the associated documents.

Emergency Status Plan Overview - (Microsoft PowerPoint file)
Status Reporting Flow - (Microsoft PowerPoint file)
Status Reporting Guidelines - (Microsoft Word file)
Decision Flowchart - (Adobe PDF file)

Todays training was an overview of the Emergency Status Plan. Further training will be more specific and will include Home Unit Master station and EOC operation.

If you wish to view the PowerPoint presentations but do not have Microsoft PowerPoint installed, you may download the free viewer from Microsoft here.

The training session scheduled for the 13th of October is an introduction to Bill Hickey's community status reporting concept. Bill has come up with a reporting scheme which has raised the eyebrows of the Pima County OEM&HS management. If successful this reporting scheme, which I am calling the "Emergency Status Plan", may be the foundation of RACES Home Unit activity in the future. It is important to note that while computer software may be used by elements of the plan, the ESP is not a software system as some have speculated.

The training will be an Emergency Status Plan overview so that we can start using the reporting procedures during training exercises. We will cover the goals for the ESP, the reporting structure and its components, basic station equipment required for the various components, radio etiquette as it pertains to the ESP and key information items required.

I have the EOC scheduled from 0900 - 1200 on October 13th, so I figure we can get the training going by 0930 or so. This should give anyone from out of town, who wishes to attend, time to get here.

As I stated, this plan may well become the basis for RACES Home Unit exercise activity in the future. For this system to be successful, we will need your support and participation. Please try to attend the training. I expect that there may be further follow-up training in the future but this session should provide the bulk of understanding of the system.

So that I can get an idea of how many of you may be there, if you believe you may be able to attend this training, please post a comment or send an email to wv7g (my callsign) at shackstuff.net to let me know.

Today, the 18th of September 2007, at a little after 9:00 A.M. the Pima County Board of Supervisors passed and adopted a proclamation which names September 29th 2007 as "RACES Volunteers' Recognition Day".

The proclamation was the first thing on the Pima County Board of Supervisors agenda. Present to accept the framed procamation was Chuck Michels (KB7RFI), Joe Thompson (N3SRU) and Tim 'TJ' Gugliotta (KD7LUP). Following the reading of the proclamation, Tim explained the origin of the term 'HAM' and used our involvment in the DM exercise on Monday the 17th of September as an example of how we are called upon to serve Pima County and the community.

A PDF file of the Board of Supervisors agenda item summary is available here.

At 7:30 AM on Monday the 17th of September we will use the communicator system to announce the start of the DMAFB exercise. This exercise will provide practice for transporting numerous patients to area hospitals.

We will practice having a C-130 transport people from a distant disaster (like Katrina) to Tucson. We have been notified and have a group of fire personnel and Suntran Buses on hand to provide transportation to all nine hospitals. We anticipate about 100 patients.

We will provide backup communications for the area hospitals and the EOC as have done many times before. Those people that can respond are welcome to do so along with those that have already arraigned to participate

Thanks you for your support.. Chuck

dm-assignments-needed.pdf

Please print out this notice and follow up as soon as possible so that we can plan our manpower requirements for the D-M exercise in September.

Warrior Hookup Process

(Right/Left = your back to front of rig)

Check revision date against web site

1. Secure interior. Chairs and loose items. Lower antennas.

2. Retract steps.

3. Dead bolt doors with black double edge key.

4. Extend mirrors on truck.

5. Log mileage on truck.

6. Check power. 12V Master switch for chassis (not comms) located L. Upper left of electrical panel. Push off, Pull on. Off when stored.

7. Towing equipment stowed in right front outside locker.

8. Please wear gloves found in locker from this point on.

9. Mount ball hitch stowed in locker on tow vehicle using pin and cotter pin. Stow any hitch removed from truck in it's bed.

10. Unlock tongue padlock. Pull back lever on tongue latch so it can accept ball.

11. Raise hitch (power switch located on left of tongue light) above ball height

12. Back tow vehicle toward hitch. Stop when truck facing edge of ball is slightly forward of hitch.

13. Lower tongue to ball so that tongue moves slightly forward to cover ball. Then settle some weight on truck but do not completely retract stand.

14. Get round 1.5' leverage pipe from locker.

15. EXTREME CAUTION: Attach each of (2) leveling bars one at a time. (Note: it may be necessary to move tow vehicle and trailer into a better position for attaching bars. If so follow steps 17-21 to move) Chain side up. Fit to receiver first. Then unpin and lower chain lock on tongue. Fit third chain link from loose end to lock catch. Make sure the two free links dangle below the link being fitted. Use extreme caution. With two hands use tube to raise lock lever to past center position. Lever can swing down and break your arm or worse. Hold tube in position and secure lock with pin.

16. Repeat for other leveling bar.

17. Attach sway bar to right side of tongue and receiver. Pins pass through holes on bar but not through balls. Tension lever to snug.

18. Attach (2) safety chain to cut outs on receiver.

19. Attach chassis power plug to truck.

20. Attach break breakaway cable. Do not attach directly to safety chain catch on truck. Loop through cutouts at hitch and then to safety chain.

21. Completely retract stand so full weight is on tow vehicle.

22. Pull wheel chocks.

23. Stow wooden block and chocks in tow vehicle unless repositioning rig for leveling bars.

24. If fueling trailer be sure 12V power is off.

Rev 8/17/2007 - JRT

Announcing the North American Simplex Alliance 5th annual Eyeball QSO Picnic

October 21, 2007 12:00 Noon - ???
Reid Park - Ramada #15
Talk-in 146.52 simplex

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The N.A.S.A. Group is a very loosely knit group of Amateur Radio Operators in the Pima County Arizona area that enjoy the hobby and spend most of their on the air time on Simplex. We have had nine picnics since Feb. 2003 with great success.
The purpose of the picnic is to meet some of the folks we talk to and put faces with voices. If you can come out and spend a little time with us at the picnic we look forward to the fellowship !

For more information send an email to (KB5B) Terry Hashman, [Terry's callsign] at comcast.net, or talk to anyone in the group on 449.875 pl 100.00.