The OCRA meeting for March was held on Monday, April 10, and was well attended with 25  operators and two CERT volunteers in attendance.  introductions and roundtable.

We started with the usual monthly introductions and roundtable.

Then, we had the Treasurer’s report from Dan KR4UB. We have 68 members paid at this point in time. Dan also said that we should all contact our NC General Assembly to include an amateur radio exemption in legislation currently under consideration (Dan posted an update after the meeting).

Secretary Joel KM4NOU encouraged all to contribute to the website in their areas of expertise. Contact Joel for an account if you are interested.

Dee KU4GC reported that preparations for RARSFest on 4/15 were well underway, and he implored members working at the table to keep documentation on what was sold, but also to volunteer to help!

Steve W3AHL gave the ARES report. While we had problems filling our slots for the “Not So Normal Run,” all volunteer slots for the Tarheel 10-miler are full, for this community service event. Steve also introduced our CERT guests.

Dan KR4UB, wearing his repeater hat, said that we are still working on the the UNC Neurosciences installation, and right now we owe UNC some drawings, on which we are working.

Dave W4SAR gave the President’s report, which focused on Field Day.  He explained that Field Day is a combination disaster drill and contest, and that our club (partnering with DFMA) was #3 of 1,500 clubs entering nationwide! He said we are still fine tuning the bands and working with Band Captains, but should have as many as last year. We are working on a wireless networking installation that will allow communication among logging stations but which will not create RFI. John KM4MDR is coordinating the pot luck, Lad W4ORD is running the Sunday grill, and we’ll be getting help from DFMA (Noble Phelps N4UOQ) for Saturday. Dave is still working to try to make sure we can get as many bonus points as possible. Joel KM4NOU reached out to County Commissioner Barry Jacobs, who has tentatively agreed to visit. See Dave’s April post on Field Day for more information.

For the program, Joel KM4NOU presented the Zoom videoconferencing tool, and turned things over to Bruce N1LN to describe how training on the N1MM software to be used for Field Day will be managed using Zoom.

Attending:

W4MKR – MK Ramm
KU4GC – Dee Ramm
Cert Volunteer – Ken Morgan
Cert Volunteer – Tom Milledge
KA5JUJ – Martin Brody
KD4YJZ – Karen Snyder
N4ZAK – Robert Little
KM4LBW – Chris Florio
N2XZF – Paul Robertson
WA4HHR – Dewey Thompson
Kw4KZ – Chuck Anoia
W1KES – Keith Stouder
N1LN – Bruce Meier
W4BOH – Wilson Lamb
KG4NEL – Jim Jingozian
K4TY – Charles Battig
KB4BM – Rose-Marie Battig
WA4PSC – Howie Hoyt
W3AHL – Steve Ahlbom
W4KIL – Andy Yates
N8BR – Bill Bischoff
W4ORD – Lad Carrington
KW4XL – David Vielbaum
NA4VY – Dave Belt
KR4UB – Dan Eddlemon
KM4NOU – Joel Dunn

The OCRA meeting for March was held on Monday, March 13, and was well attended with 31 operators in attendance! Always fun to hear the introductions and roundtable.

We started with an update from Steve on ARES. He has built and relocated cables in the emergency communications radio room, so they are ready for use. Additionally, he reported that classes are being offered during the first week of May for DHS emergency communications, ICS protocols, and AUXCOMM. Steve said:

• The classes offered below are excellent opportunities, with the AUXCOMM course being the most useful for Amateur Radio operators with an ARES/AUXCOMM interest.  Note that to obtain certification, there is a task book requiring you demonstrate your understanding and ability to perform the tasks, witnessed  by a qualified supervisor.  Which is how critical training should be conducted!  You have about two years to complete the task book signoff, although many of the tasks can probably be completed during the Exercise on May 5th.
• Note that prerequisites are:  completion of IS-100, 200, 700 & 800 courses; a General class license or above; experience with auxiliary communications and a desire to learn how to work with a COML in a NIMS/ICS environment.

See his email of March 13 for detailed information on how to sign up.

Dan presented the Treasurer’s report, including a discussion about the new membership processes. We have the new membership list on the website; dues updates will be posted to this list every two weeks. Dan also reported as repeater coordinator that the 442.15 repeater will be used for upcoming special events (see the website for information). He also reported that RARS is redoing their website, with a new location to sign up for public service events. OCRA leadership will be looking at ways we can also leverage online event signup.

Dee reiterated that we have a total of 4 tables for DFMA and OCRA at the upcoming RARSFest. Jack reported that we do need volunteers to help with DurHAMFest.

Joel and Dan gave a presentation on the member database on the new website, including the ability to collect information on member interests and make this available for search and filtering. We will be expanding our use of this database as we discover other things we want to collect and manage. Dan emphasized that we are doing this with security and privacy in mind, using HTTPS for data transmission.

Dave led a discussion about preliminary field day planning. He had previously posted a message about this, but emphasized that the clock was running and we needed to start detailed planning as we are only 3 months out. Getting band captains identified is critical! Bruce will be organizing CW, Lad will do 20 phone, Adriano will do 40 phone, we’ll run 10 and 15 together. John and Dave will be working on digital modes, and Jack will do a VHF station. A major change will be use of a common logging program, N1MM. Bruce will lead a training session on this. Joel suggested using the Zoom communication program for an online training session, and all agreed that this was a good idea.  Joel volunteered to do a presentation on Zoom at the April member meeting. This will be very helpful to Joel, as he’s out of town on a business trip for the April member meeting, and this way he can not only attend but present!

Dan, KR4UB takes yet another photo with his cell phone and, having editor authority, posts it to the OCRA website within minutes.  Pictured on the lower right corner is Joel, KM4NOU, OCRA Secretary and webmaster giving a presentation of recent capabilities he has recently added to the OCRA website. This includes the change to the website to make the section you are currently viewing,  the home page.  The intent is for the site to become the place where OCRA members can communicate on more of a real time basis, for example Dave W4SAR’s “presidents message” and frequent updates on 2017 Field Day planning. Members who would like to contribute articles of interest to the membership are encouraged to contact Joel the OCRA Club Secretary.

The second part of the demo was of the membership listing page and how members can update their information, whether it be vanity call sign changes, contact information, ham radio interest areas, check their dues expiration date and as has been on the site for some time, the PayPal links for dues payment.  Joel demonstrated how members can obtain their private access secure link to update their information.

He also gave a glimpse of the back end that powers this capability, a site plug-in called “Participants Database”. This tool is very flexible and easy to adapt to however the club membership elects to use it in the future.

Dan, KR4UB pointed out that the site uses SSL or Secure Sockets Layer that encrypts data to and from the user, whether it be from their computer, cellphone, tablet or notepad to the website.  This is the same methodology used for financial transactions over the internet.

Due to the winter storm affecting our area through the weekend, the Orange County EOC will be activating tonight , and at minimum will be active through Sunday. The monthly OCRA meeting, as well as the exam session has been cancelled. Elections for club officers and board members will be postponed until the February meeting.

I had contacted the EOC this morning, asking them to contact me as soon as possible if they believe the training room would be active use or on standby due to events. I received the response just a few minutes ago, and stated they felt it best that we make alternate arrangements as it is not clear when the EOC will stand down.I decided on a cancellation instead of a change in venue as travel conditions on Monday may still be unsettled

Thank you all for your understanding. Get the word out and stay safe.

/for Dave Snyder, W4SAR; by Dan, KR4UB