Meeting notes from SD State Link Steering Committee Meeting October 08, 2005 at Eldon W0RTD's QTH in Pierre

Introductions - sign-ins

Site Reports -

Terry Peak - no known issues since the 2 M PA failed and was repaired in August.

Rapid City UHF - the station was installed in August and worked fine until about two weeks ago when it quit. Limited access until next week when the gear will be looked at.

Philip - The stations seems to be working fine, but may be part of the double-beep courtesy tone problem. More work is needed.

Murdo - Two meter antenna needs work. Tower guys are loose and PARC plans a work party. The station needs ventilation help and Eldon and the PARC are going to look into a scheme to move air through the building.

Pierre - Problems in hitting the station sometimes or being heard. PARC will look into it.

Reliance - Seems to be working fine since being put back on the air in July. The site now covers great on highway 34. May also be involved in the double-beep courtesy tone problem. Also the station needs ventilation help and Eldon and the PARC are going to look into a scheme to move air through the building.

Wessington Springs - Thanks to the fence maintenance crew of Floyd WB0MZB and Jim KD0S and Ed W0SD for the fine repair work. No known problems. Don AA0F and Ed W0SD have winterized the site.

Humboldt - 12 VDC distribution problems after recent lightning storm blew up various 110 VAC power supplies. Temporarily back on the air with loaner power supplies but no battery back- up until the regular gear is repaired and returned. There is also some as-yet unidentified intermittent problem with the UHF station receiver going partially or completely deaf. Howard

KG0R and Ed W0SD will keep an eye on the situation.

Turkey Ridge - From time to time local TR two meter traffic isn't being heard going out on the link. The UHF gear needs to be checked out once Humboldt UHF receiver situation is resolved. Two meters is working fine since the defective channel element was replaced.

Garden City -The two meter repeater was working fine in August? The UHF link gear is inoperative or in need of work? Apparently new link gear is and has been on site.

Financial report - Checking balance is $152. Yearly obligations for recurring expenses (site rental, power, insurance, etc) are in excess of $1,200. In the roundtable discussion, additional costs were discovered that are being borne by individuals and groups.

The Murdo power situation was just one example cited.

This increases the pressure on SDARC to identify additional funding sources, and find folks to lead the fund raising activities.

Shifting some of the costs off to the clubs was discussed with the caution that this may end up being a two-edged sword if individuals decide to cease their funding if they feel the club to which they belong is carrying the load.

The power bill at Reliance will be new to us and Eldon has suggestions as to how and when it needs to handled.

The new Reliance radios need to be reimbursed.

The costs for Eldon and the PARC to add ventilation at Murdo and Reliance also needs to be covered.

Checks need to be made payable to SDARC and mailed to Ed Gray W0SD - 43804 257 Street, SALEM SD 57058-5907. The Council is 501(c)3 qualified as a registered non-profit charitable organization with the IRS which makes some contributions tax exempt. Contact Ed for details.

Site Assessment sheets - Ed handed out the new Site Assessment Sheets to all present. The purpose is to start the process of capturing each site's details for equipment installed, physical access, powering arrangements, costs per year, and all of the other information that are needed to manage each of the nodes on the link.

It was mentioned that these sheets and the data contained can be used by the budget committee when figuring out what needs replacing at candidate sites, or can also be used for rolling up possible grant funding requirements.

Please fill in the sheets and return them to either Howard or John as noted on the first page, and they will input all of the information in a database. The database information will be available for review and update or correction as necessary at the 2006 Spring meeting, and probably at each meeting thereafter. The information in the database will be considered a living document. None of the information will be available to the general public; it's for the link's own internal use only.

These are the folks who will either fill out the survey sheets, or will get them to the appropriate groups to do so:

Rapid City = Al W0PUF (Alt - John WB6GHA)

Terry Peak = John WB6GHA or Jerry KG0GG (NHARC)

Philip = John WB6GHA or Jerry KG0GG (NHARC)

Murdo = Jim KD0S (PARC)

Pierre = Jim KD0S (PARC)

Reliance = Jim KD0S (PARC)

Wess Springs - Don AA0F

Humboldt = Howard KG0R (SEARC)

Garden City = Dick W0SIR

Turkey Ridge = Dick W0SIR

Long Range Planning Committee - Ed discussed the formation of the LRPC to help set standards for orderly growth, and also start the process for figuring out the best way to start thinking about replacement of old gear. The committee members are Ed and Don who will be the founding members, and John WB6GHA and Howard KG0R and Dick W0SIR volunteered and were appointed to fill out the committee.membership. It was decided the committee should be called the Long Range Planning and Technical Standards Committee.

North Link - The discussion about growth triggered a long conversation about the new North Link, it's desire to link into Pierre to reach the state government with NWS information, and how the North Link and the State Link might interface if there was a need and desire to do so. Right now there are a number of unanswered questions about any kind of interface, and the companion problem of adding another VHF repeater to Snake Butte.

Building Vents - Jim KD0S believes that the very high temperatures at Murdo are impacting the site's performance. Both Murdo and Reliance need added ventilation facilities.

Commercial Power Failure Alarm - Don states that the controllers were built with the ability to change the pitch of the IDers with the thought that this feature could quickly alert observant users that the commercial power had failed.

The newly formed technical committee with look into this and provide suggestions about how this great feature can be applied to each station with batteries. More information to follow as it's developed.

Emergency Planning - Jim Ward (State EM and Comms and PARC member) brought some great information and suggested that the link steering committee really needs to step up and be heard by the new Em Comm readiness committee on which Greg Hall WB0RJH now sits. This group has been commissioned by the governor to produce a white paper on Amateur Radio's capabilities and preparedness to serve.

Timing and willingness to work with the state for recognition is critical right now.

Leadership in the amateur community needs to be identified and Jerry KG0GG is our bridge between the ARRL and the Em-Comm-ready hams in the state.

The role of the SDARC was discussed, especially with the link's capabilities of reaching so many very quickly in addition of all of the HF folks that would check into the SD daily nets.

All of this has to be pulled together as input for Greg who will than get the information into the governor's office as a possible Em Comm plan.

The recent Simulated Emergency Test (SET) was cited of an example of the activities and capabilities that Greg and his team need to know about while constructing the white paper for the governor's office.

SD Link Emergency Planning Team - Ed W0SD and Jerry KG0GG are going to be reaching out for volunteers to staff a team which will develop whatever is necessary to make sure that the link is as ready as possible for emergency use.

Emergency Planning (Training) - The pending need to get the area amateurs trained and certified was discussed, and the consensus is that the handwriting is on the wall as far as the served agency's needs for us to be able to claim some form of certification. The ARRL courses were discussed, and Jim reminded the attendees that many of the FEMA IS courses are actually available to us from our state web site at:

http://oem.sd.gov/Preparedness/Training.htm

Future Meetings - Dick suggests a Spring 2006 meeting to update and continue the activities discussed above. The consensus was Yes, and Eldon's place is centrally located and available with some advanced scheduling. Thoughts and ideas from all participants are welcomed on this.

Time and date of the next meeting as well as a tentative agenda will be sent out via the Yahoo Groups reflector.

As it was past 4 pm at this point, the meeting was adjourned but not before a hearty Thank You from all participants to Eldon for the use of his generous facilities.

(Notes taken by WB6GHA who is solely responsible

for errors or omissions.)