It’s June already, where has time gone? As we enter the summer season, there are lots of opportunities to participate in public service events, either as part of PCRC or of ARES. Check your calendars and see which events you can help with:

June 21 - There are two events on this day, the Race to the Rescue which supports the North Park County Ambulance (new name for the former Platte Canyon Rescue Service). This is an early morning race and ARES provides radio support to help keep racers safe. Please let Dutch know if you are available to assist.

The second, related, event on this date is Bailey Dayz. This year they have expanded from a one day event into a weekend-long event with booths and activities at the Farmers Union on both Saturday and Sunday while keeping the traditional booths and entertainment on Main Street on Saturday.

We have rented booth space on Main St for Saturday and will be showcasing PCRC, ARES District 6, and Disaster Support Volunteers. We’ll have a laptop playing the Walter Cronkite video promoting Amateur Radio and we’ll have a station set up along with various displays. If you can help staff the booth for part of the day, let me know.

June 28 - OK - this isn’t a ‘public service event’ but it IS our Annual meeting and we’ll have election of officers. Please come to this important meeting and make your voice heard. We have a known vacancy for Treasurer so please consider if you are able to take on this important function. The ARES D6 meeting will follow where I believe they will also be electing officers. D6 has been in need of a secretary and a treasurer for quite some time, surely someone is available to step in and fill one of these roles!

July 27th sees the annual burro races in Fairplay. As has become our tradition, PCRC will be assisting with radio communications once again. I love watching the races and providing support to the racers. Neal and Dolores are coordinating this event so please let them know if you can help out.

August 3rd we help the burro racers again, this time in Leadville. It’s a bit longer drive but still an enjoyable event. Again, Neal and Dolores are coordinating our volunteers.

Week of August 25th - The Democratic National Convention will be held in Denver and they have requested support of HAMS both for essential Convention communications and in the event of some sort of incident during the convention. Jack Frank attended a planning meeting on behalf of ARES D6 and has further information if you are available to assist.

September 12th (a Friday) ARES will be supporting the Colorado Relay Race (formerly Outward Bound). This is a 24 hour, 170 mile relay race on foot and we have been providing support for about 5 exchange points. Another great opportunity to support the community.

October 4th is a major 5 county emergency preparedness exercise. Dutch and Jack participated in the tabletop in preparation for this exercise but they will need many more volunteers for the actual event. This is an ARES event so see Dutch if you can help out.

I urge you to review the above list and volunteer to assist wherever you can, each event provides its own unique experience and an opportunity to show the community what amateur radio operators are all about.

Here we are in April already. Hopefully we’ve made it past the threat of a major blizzard and now it’s time to gear up for the wildfire season. There have already been reports of small brush fires across the state so we need to be prepared.

I attended the community preparedness meeting hosted by the Mountain Resource Center recently and there were a few things that are worth emphasizing. If you need help or ideas on how to make your property more resistant to wildland fire danger, I suggest you check out the FIREWISE site at http://www.firewise.org/

The fire departments agree that following firewise principles is beneficial even if your neighborhood doesn’t go to the level of documentation effort needed to be named a “firewise community”.

We’ve all heard the current push to assemble and have on hand a “72 hour kit” on the theory that if any major disaster strikes, it may be up to 3 days before relief efforts are sufficiently organized to provide assistance to individuals.

Following her experiences with the blizzards in South Park, Lori Hodges states that since we’ve chosen to live where we do, a 72 hour kit should be a no-brainer and that we need to be thinking much beyond this. In reality, we need to have a minimum of one week’s worth of food, fuel, medications, etc. at all times.

In planning ahead for major blizzards or a potential pandemic, we may be confined to our homes for up to a month. This is especially true if a pandemic strikes as we will want to limit exposure to others. Lori says that while it may seem overwhelming to assemble that much food and supplies, take it one step at a time – purchase one or two extra cans of food each time you go shopping, purchase new bags of pet food when you open one rather than waiting until the current bag is almost empty. Small steps add up and over the course of a year, you’ll find yourself much better prepared.

One additional message that Lori had was that when a reverse-911 goes out stating that you should stay home, they mean just that: STAY HOME. She says that a message went out stating that white-out conditions existed and in order to stay safe, residents should stay home. Two hours later, while assessing conditions, she found the grocery stores packed with people attempting to stock up. Unfortunately, all these people shopping added to the potential danger. With white-out conditions, their chances of returning safely to their homes decreased dramatically and they increased the likelihood of emergency responders having to go find them and assist them to safety.

Bottom line – plan ahead! We chose to live in a semi-rural area, it’s our responsibility to ensure that we have food and supplies on hand should we be unable to leave the house for an extended period. Don’t wait for the emergency to be on your doorstep. Also remember, when the emergency management system issues a warning, it’s to your benefit to follow all directions provided.

It's the holiday season once again. Last year, my wish for all of you was for internal PEACE. While that sentiment still holds true, during the holidays and all throughout the rest of the year, I do not want to repeat my words from last year.

This year I ask you to do the following:

1. Count your Blessings. Look at your life and focus on the GOOD things. We all have ups and downs but most have at least a few things that they can look at with a smile on their face. Focus on those... it's been said that you see what you are looking for - if you're looking for the negative, that's all you'll see but the converse is also true. Look for the good and you'll find it in the most unusual places.

2. Appreciate your family and friends. Unfortunately, all too often we take our bad moods out on those closest to us and they rarely deserve it. We all have people in our lives that provide encouragement, moral support, and a shoulder to cry on if necessary. Take time to thank these people for the little things that they do. Gifts are nice, but sometimes the sincere "thank you" is even more important when it comes from the heart.

3. Do something for someone else. It's amazing how much better you'll feel when you put a smile on someone else's face. It's even better when you do this anonymously. Do something nice for a stranger. My family looks forward to the "Angel Tree" available at our local church. We get one angel for each member of the family and feel good that we're making a small difference in someone else's life. There are many opportunities especially at this time of year to reach out to others in our community. I've heard many stories of various "Random Acts of Kindness" being done in our area. A car at a drive-up coffee stand paying for the customer behind them, customers helping each other out when one is caught short-handed at the register, etc. This doesn't even need to be a monetary contribution; it could be volunteering your time at a soup kitchen or volunteering elsewhere.

73

It's been a busy summer. Pete (NEØT) and Dutch (KØAWS) have spent many hours and miles working on the repeaters and it appears that our link reliability has increased significantly. I thank both of them for their time and dedication. We are still looking forward to the new repeater site in the vicinity of Richmond Hill Rd. I also want to thank our new treasurer, Nancy (KØNNC), for her efforts in summarizing our budget data from the past several years which gave the executive board a good look at where our money has gone in the past and to help us to plan for the future.

Jim (KAØNZZ), Nancy (KØNNC), and Bob (KCØFLZ) have all worked hard in trying to get amateur radio awareness into the Platte Canyon school district and were finally successful in sparking interest at the elementary school. Their first step right now is to get antennas installed at school before the snow starts flying. In addition, they will be providing technician license manuals for the principal and science teacher to review so that they can better plan what and how we present information to the school kids. I'm sure that they will be sharing more of their plans with us at upcoming meetings.

Club members and members of ARES District 6 have also been busy with public service events. We started the summer supporting the Race to the Rescue in support of the Platte Canyon Rescue Service, coordinated by Dutch. The same day we teamed up with Disaster Support Volunteers to host a booth at Bailey Day. Later on, we supported the Pack Burro Ass-ociation with their burro races in Fairplay and Leadville, under the excellent leadership of Neal (KØUEM) and Dolores (KBØEKH). We wrapped up the summer season supporting the Colorado Relay, again under the leadership of Dutch. The participants and organizers of each of these events appreciate the assistance of amateur radio operators and I believe the operators all enjoyed the opportunity to serve while also getting practice at operating on a semi-controlled net.

As we gear up for the holiday season, make sure you take time for yourself!

73

August already? Where has the summer gone?

The radio club has been busy and that’s good. We re-elected most officers and selected a new Treasurer at our annual meeting in June. Congratulations to Nancy (KØNNC) for accepting the position of Treasurer and thanks to Padre (WØWPD) and Jack (WØDSV) for agreeing to continue for another year.

The club once again shared a booth at Bailey Day with Disaster Support Volunteers (DSV) and ARES District 6. Using contributions from several members we set up a mobile VHF/HF rig and a laptop computer using a battery and inverter which demonstrated our ability to function without commercial power supplies. The laptop was used to present the ARRL video on Amateur Radio. Jack used his ingenuity in creating a method to anchor the two middle legs of the radio club display board to a table giving it much more stability in case of rain. He also updated some of the photos for the board and laminated them.

Some club members are assisting with communications for the Burro Races in Fairplay (last Sunday in July) and Leadville (first Sunday in August). The race organizers are always very appreciative of our efforts and I believe the volunteers have a good time as well. I know I always do!

Please join us on our Wednesday evening nets to share what’s going on in your life, radio related or otherwise!

73, de SHARON

NØDSV

Time has gotten away from me lately. If you’re like me, this time of year is supremely busy. I encourage you to remember to take time for yourself, we all need a certain amount of personal “downtime”. You may define “downtime” however is most appropriate for you.

If you’re planning a vacation this summer, I sincerely hope you enjoy it. Remember to take weather into consideration for all of your summer plans. Storms can come up quickly with little or no notice in many areas of this country and we’re certainly no exception here in Colorado. No matter what your plans are, be sure to bring at least an HT along and have it programmed to local repeaters in the area you plan on visiting. As mentioned in the news article that Jack (WØDSV) posted on the discussion forum, having access to an HT enabled a HAM who was out riding his motorcycle to assist another cyclist who had a serious injury. It may be you or simply someone you meet on your travels who can benefit if you have your equipment along and it’s programmed in advance.

Also, a reminder that our meeting in June is early so as to not conflict with Field Day. It will be preceded by a Pot Luck and we hope to see many of you there. Please let Nancy Stitt (KØNNC) know if you can be there and what you can bring. We will be having our annual election of officers at the meeting so please try to attend.

Here it is, almost April as I write this and, dare I say it? So far no significant snowstorms in March (where’s the wood I should be knocking on?) What a strange winter it has been with the majority of our snowfall during what is typically our lowest snowfall period. The experts tell us that we now must start preparing for fire season and all that wonderful snow will lead to more growth of grasses and other “ladder fuels” so be on the lookout!

Those of us who are also ARES members should be checking our “go bag” and brushing up on COMM procedures. I personally recommend spending some time monitoring our local fire channels. While listening to the Park County Sheriff channel can be interesting and you’ll hear a lot of traffic stops especially on the weekends, you’ll hear much more practice of the Incident Command System (ICS) on the fire channels if you’re lucky enough to hear some calls.

Virtually every fire call will result in someone, often the first on scene, declaring himself (or herself) “Command”. The designated Commander will then coordinate requests for additional personnel or tell dispatch that sufficient personnel are on scene. You’ll hear this played out over and over if you have the patience to listen long enough. From the most minor traffic incident to medical calls to a fire that may or may not turn into a significant event. By following these protocols on every routine call, they become habit and don’t need to change when something “big” comes along.