Ben Melvin, KM4C - Emergency Coordinator |
Todd Vickery, KG4UZT - Local Government Liaison AEC | Al Whatley,
N4HAW - Net Operations AEC |
Chip Workman, N4SOC - AEC | Dewey Cook, KJ4BYU - Public Information Officer
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ARES of Cleveland County News NEWS - Updated 8/19/2008 New 8/1/2008 - ARES Article in SARC's SHAMRAC - Click Here - Adobe Reader required New 7/10/2008 - ARES/SKYWARN member Lee Jay Mauney, KI4RAK presents program on foxhunting. Thanks Lee Jay for your informative presentation. We're proud of Lee Jay, he's won the past two fox hunts. Thanks also to AJ for his help in Lee Jay's presentation. New 7/8/2008 - ARES/SKYWARN net activated by WA4YBP. Thanks Greg and Wanda for making sure reports got to the NWS. New 6/28-29 - For updates on the 2008 Field Day please see the following links:
2008 Field Day Pictures
NEW 6/12/2008 - ARES of Cleveland County held it's June Meeting at the EOC in Shelby. There were 16 members present. Susan Melvin, EC for Cleveland County thanked the group for their hard work on getting their FEMA Certifications. At meeting time 60% of our membership are certified in 100 and 200 with 57% certified in 700 and 53% in 800. Susan then announced that Dewey Cook had been appointed ARRL PIO, the appointment is at the state level, however, Dewey will be focusing on Amateur Radio in Cleveland County. Susan then made several local appointments within the ARES group. It was decided after discussions with the DEC that a Liaison should be appointed to each Cleveland County Club. Susan decided that the best folks to appoint to these positions would be the secretaries of each group. She therefore appointed Neal Hodges, W4JNH to be Liaison to CCARS and Greg Horne, WA4YBP to be Liaison to SARC. Both gentlemen accepted the appointments. The group then re-capped the busy month of May going over several of the events that we had participated in. Susan encouraged all members to participate in field day this year and went over some of the rules and asked for a commitment from some members to help with setting up and tearing down. This years event will be at Casar Park in Casar. Setup will begin at 9am Saturday June 28, 2008. It was also decided at the meeting to change the SKYWARN repeater to 146.880 since the NWS can reach that repeater from Greer and has been known over the years to monitor that frequency during storm activity. Susan will be editing the Emergency Plan in the coming weeks and getting copies to everyone regarding the change. Susan then turned over the floor to Neal Hodges, W4JNH so that he could demonstrate his superb job on his Go-box. It is the EC's hope that someone will be encouraged by Neal's hard work and ingenuity and will come up with some ideas of their own. Below are some pictures of Neal's Go-box. To View Larger - Click on picture then hit backspace to return
NEW 6/9/2008 - N2COP, Bill Morine Public Information Coordinator for NC ARRL Section appointed DEWEY COOK, KJ4BYU, ARRL Public Information Officer for Cleveland County at the recommendation of Emergency Coordinator, Susan Melvin and District Emergency Coordinator, Bob DeWitt. Dewey's appointment is statewide, however, his focus will be Amateur Radio promotion in Cleveland County. Dewey will be a great PIO for Cleveland County and I'm sure he will do a lot to promote amateur radio in Cleveland County. Congrats Dewey on your appointment, I think you're the best man for the job!
New 5/31/2008 - The Over The Mountain Triathlon in Kings Mountain on May 31st was a large scale ARES public service communications event for the Amateur community. The communication logistics were planned by Ben Melvin, KM4C with direction from the Race Director Ellis Noell (City of Kings Mountain) and everything worked really well. Ben was able to get 28 volunteers for the event. Todd Vickery, KG4UZT donated an antenna he had recently built for his ARES go-kit for the net control radio. Dewey Cook, KJ4BYU was a major asset to the event. Dewey provided a canopy and power cord for the event. Dewey was also available to provide a direct link with rescue and police participants in the event. Dewey also aided a little boy in finding his “lost” father. 15 of the volunteers were from the ARES of CC group while 13 were from other clubs/groups. This event provided a place where members of 8 different groups worked together as one to get a job done. These groups included but aren’t limited to: ARES of Cleveland County, Shelby Amateur Radio Club, Gaston County ARES, Gaston County Amateur Radio Society, Cleveland County Amateur Radio Service, Gaston Area Amateur Radio Club, Mecklenburg ARES, and Mecklenburg Amateur Radio Society. We had 2 emergencies and a lost child. We also were able to aid a cyclist in getting a ride back after having a flat. The group also was able to help race organizers determine when water and cups were needed at the aid stations. We had one operator that was mobile in a new Chris-Craft boat on Moss Lake, one that was mobile in a police cruiser and another who was mobile on a motorcycle. We had 17 positions which expanded into 19 before the day was over. Luckily, we had enough volunteers that some could be split and moved to other locations along the course. The following amateur operators participated in the communications for the triathlon and we thank them for their service on Saturday May 31, 2008. 2008 Over the Mountain Triathlon Communication Volunteers Jeff Blythe, KA4WYC Bill Bridges, N4WH Steven Burke, KI4FAQ Dewey Cook, KJ4BYU Ronnie Davis, KE4VPN Danny Gililand, KG4ZJJ Jane Hamrick, K4JPH Robby Hamrick, WA4RH Neal Hodges, W4JNH Jim Hood, KG4RQT Greg Horne, WA4YBP Wanda Horne, KI4ZEI Frank Kopenec, AI4RF Nancy Kopenec, KB5NIA Ken Ledford, AG4EI Michael Ledford, KI4JCV Manson Long, WA4TIL Ellen Long, KF4QZR Ben Melvin, KM4C Susan Melvin, K4ZXN Cy Rowe, K1CY Pat Rowe, N4DOX Todd Vickery, KG4UZT Don “Pop” Voigt, W4HQF William Ware, KI4ZCT Robert Weaver, KF4KED Al Whatley, N4HAW Robert Zeman, K4VAV
Photos from 2008 Triathlon
5/27/2008 - 10 of our ARES members attended the Basic SKYWARN Class held at the EOC. The class was a refresher for most of our members who attended. Bryan McAvoy an NWS Forecaster who also happens to be a ham radio operator was the instructor. Bryan's presentation was excellent, you can tell he loves the subject! Bryan also informed the ham operators in the class to report to 145.350 and Charlotte SKYWARN since the Weather Service is monitoring that frequency or call the Weather Service directly. There was talk of an advanced class to be offered. 5/24/2008 - Greg Horne, WA4YBP will be Liaison between Cleveland County SKYWARN and Charlotte SKYWARN/NWS. 5/24/2008- We're proud to announce that ARES member Lee Jay Mauney, KI4RAK came in first at the fox hunt in Gaston County today. Other ARES members, Todd Vickery, KG4UZT, Ben Melvin, KM4C and Susan Melvin K4ZXN came in second. We hope you can join us in Cleveland County on Saturday, July 12, 2008 for the next foxhunt in Cleveland County.
Photos provided by KG4UZT Todd Vickery and used with permission.
5/14/2008 - The Catawba Nuclear Drill was a great success. We had 11 members participating in this years drill. Thanks to all of you. below are some photos from that drill. All pictures on this website are copyright of Susan Melvin and SARC, any use without permission is prohibited. 5/13/2008 - A note from the Cleveland County Emergency Coordinator - click here 5/11/2008 - Cleveland County SKYWARN was activated by the EC on 5/11/2008. Storms were spotted in Northern Rutherford, Northern Cleveland and Southern Burke County. One of our local Hams were near the path of the cell and was experiencing hail falling on their house. The report came to the EC via cell phone and was relayed to NWS through their online reporting form. After the storms moved past our county Charlotte Area SKYWARN continued to take reports from Lincoln County and all the way to Cabarrus County as the same cell covered over 100 miles and spawned twisters throughout the area. Charlotte Area SKYWARN should be commended for taking the reports and relaying them directly to the National Weather Service. Thank you Charlotte Area SKYWARN. 5/8/2008 - The ARES of Cleveland County held their May meeting on May 8, 2008 at the Red Cross Building in Shelby, NC. The Red Cross spoke with the group concerning the drill and gave a very informative presentation on what Red Cross does for our community locally and nationally. It is truly amazing what the Red Cross does for the community. I think we should all be proud of our chapter in Cleveland County for what they do for our citizens. Dewey Cook, KJ4BYU, Emergency Manager for Cleveland County also spoke to the group about the upcoming Catawba nuclear Drill. Several other issues were discussed and the group was updated on the State ARES meeting from the Saturday before. Looking forward to seeing everyone on the 14th. 5/7/2008 - Many thanks to those members who participated in the SNS Drill on Wednesday May 7th. Dewey Cook (KJ4BYU), Neal Hodges (W4JNH), Greg Horne (WA4YBP), Wanda Horne (KI4ZEI), Ben Melvin (KM4C), Sam Richardson (WA4BPW) and Todd Vickery (KG4UZT) all participated in this drill. Everyone did an excellent job and I'm proud of you guys. You can read more in the Star regarding this drill by clicking (HERE).
5/3/2008 - The EC (Susan Melvin, K4ZXN), SKYWARN AEC (Ben Melvin, KM4C) and member June, W4LPL attended the State ARES meeting in Raleigh. I hope more of our members will be able to attend this meeting in the future as it was very interesting. It was very nice seeing Bob, K4RLD and meeting WA4MOK, Bernie Nobles Section Emergency Coordinator and KD4OZI, Paul Robinette, Western Branch Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator. It was also nice to hear an update from Tim Slay, N4IB and meet other EC's from across the state. I will be giving an update to the members at the next ARES meeting on 5/8/2008. You can read more on this meeting at http://www.kd4ozi.org - this is the Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator for the Western Branch's website. 4/26/2008
- The District AREA 13 meeting took place at the Cleveland County EOC.
Following are Bob DeWitt, K4RLD's notes from the AREA 13 meeting. Joe, the EC from Catawba County was recognized for reaching the goal of having the EC and AECs certified in IS-100, IS-200, and IS-700. Susan, the EC of Cleveland County was also recognized in that category as she and her AECs have earned certification. Cleveland County was further honored because half of their ARES members are fully certified as well. It was decided that the next meeting will be hosted by Gaston County and will be held on one of two weekends (either July 19th or July 26th). As soon as Gaston County confirms the meeting location and date, we will notify everyone. Following the meeting, Dewey Cook KJ4BYU( who recently upgraded to General and is a member of Cleveland County ARES) who serves as the Director of Emergency Management for Cleveland County conducted a tour of the facility for the ARES visitors. Thanks again to all those who attended and thanks to all of you for all that you do on a daily basis to serve your counties and Amateur Radio. 73 Bob DeWitt K4RLD 4/19/2008 - ARES/SKYWARN of Cleveland County were activated at the request of emergency management on Saturday 4/19/2008. 22 ARES members checked in with net control (KM4C) and 2 non-ARES members also participated. I appreciate everyone's quick response and readiness to help out. Below is a map of the response - the Red Triangle is the approximate location of the tornado that touched down near Fallston.
4/17/2008
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At the third meeting on April 17, 2008, Ben Melvin, presented
Our April meeting started at 7pm on April 17, 2008. The meeting was
conducted by Ben Melvin, KM4C – Assistant Emergency Coordinator. Ben
demonstrated packet and a new packet program geared towards ARES messaging.
The program was called OUTPOST and allows for the use of tactical callsigns for
ARES. Ben then informed the group of the upcoming Over-the-Mountain
Triathlon coming up on May 31, 2008. Ben passed around a sign-up sheet the
triathlon and is looking for a few more operators to help out. It was
announced that our next meeting would be on May 8th (The second
Thursday in May) so that Emergency Management and The Red Cross can speak to our
group before the Catawba Nuclear Drill on May 14th.
4/15/2008 -
Cleveland County honored by the National Weather Service as a
Thanks to those who have completed their required FEMA training! Your dedication to this group is much appreciated. Our readiness for emergencies is top priority.
On February 7th, 2008 - Cleveland County EC and Cleveland County AEC's attended Advanced Skywarn Spotter Training at the National Weather Service in Greer. Enjoyed the class, tour of the NWS and meeting the staff. To View the current membership roster for ARES of Cleveland County, please click on the members link to the left. Thanks to those that have formally registered with the Emergency Coordinator. To register online please click on the Online Registration link. Fill out the form and submit it, the form will be emailed to the EC and an email will be sent confirming your registration and acceptance into the ARES group. For Information of Amateur Radio happenings in and around Shelby - go to http://www.shelbyhamfest.org and click on the current month's calendar. January 26, 2008 - Susan Melvin, EC, Ben Melvin, AEC and Todd Vickery, AEC attended the Area 13 EC/AEC Meeting in Charlotte, hosted by the Mecklenburg County ARES. The EC's reported information about their ARES group and then John, WB2NHQ, EC for Mecklenburg County gave a presentation on the Red Cross ECRV and offered those present a chance to Look inside. 17 radios! 14 antennas! Awesome. Below is a photograph of the AREA 13 EC's and the ECRV (Emergency Communications Response Vehicle) which is a 2002 Chevy Suburban.
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5/13/2008 - An
Important Note from your EC regarding Cleveland County SKYWARN -
Click Here (updated 8/19/2008) |
