Flotilla 06-07 Staff Officer Reports

November 2005

FLOTILLA COMMANDER’S REPORT:

As the boating season winds down 67 members are looking to projects and training that will be done during the colder months that are approaching. Most of the Flotilla’s facilities have been taken of the water or will be very soon. All vessels are safe and tucked away for the coming winter…see you in the spring.

There will be no Flotilla Meeting in December.

This January the Flotilla in cooperation with the Westchester Emergency Communications Association will offer an amateur radio class. There will be 5 classes with a test at the sixth. There is no charge for the class there is a study guide which is $19. Upon successful completion of the test the student will have a “Technician” license.

Congratulation’s to Frank Maresca on being appointed National Vessel Examination Department Branch Chief for Special projects and to Bob Daraio who has been appointed National Vessel Examination Department Division Chief. Keep up the good work!

 The Flotilla’s holiday party will be Sunday December 4^th at 5:30pm at Henry’s on the Hudson in Peekskill. Members may bring a “significant other”. The first hour will be an open wine and beer bar. There will be a fee of $5 per person to cover the tip. Questions contact Rick Veit  762-8824 or Karen Caldwell  736-3466.

 Don Elmendorf was the Flotilla’s guest speaker in October. The topic was recognizing bio hazard materials. It was a most interesting discussion which included an array masks, bio suits and hand outs. Thanks Don!

The Division voted to contribute $200 to OBCC’s Toys for Tots fundraising program. There will be no Division meeting in December.

Bill Smith and Phil Porteus are working on an AUXNET repeater. The idea is to erect a 40-50 watt repeater for our area that will allow us to expand our current AUXNET range many times over. The advantages will benefit not only our Flotilla but Division 6 and Division 10 as well. At the past division meeting Bill made a presentation to the Division Bridge and Commander Young who was our special guest for the evening.

Visit  http://shopauxiliary.com/ to find discounted products and services from Amazon.com, Soft Choice, Office Depot, and more. 

The NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts (ENC) in vector format are available for download free at: http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/enc/download.htm

Although not yet official, all the NOAA charts in raster format as generated digitally by Maptech may now be downloaded free from the Web by going to:
http://www.freeboatingcharts.com/

An Ice Patrol Workshop is scheduled for 0930 on Saturday 10Dec05 at CDW (Essex County Airport; Caldwell Air Service).

Happy Thanksgiving

Materials

Jon Romero

ALL REQUEST HAVE BEEN ORDERED FROM ANSC

Bill Smith

A project is underway to establish an Auxnet repeater in our AOR. This repeater will greatly extend the reach of our Auxnet radios (such as the Icom M-88s purchased by the flotilla earlier this year). This repeater will allow us to communicate with each other over a greater part of the county (remember that an advantage of AuxNet is that we are allowed to use it on land).

Furthermore, neighboring flotillas and divisions will be able to make use of this improved AuxNet reach. We hope this will provide an opportunity to better knit us together with those counterparts through formal and informal communication nets.

I have secured approval from the district CM officer to establish a repeater using the newly allocated national AuxNet frequencies. Phil Porteus is researching the components that would need to be purchased, Phil and I are exploring several options for a repeater/antenna site and Sandy Weiser has been in contact with our Division leadership to explore funding options.

Chris Gagne has been enlisted by the web site committee  to help out with website maintenance. Ha has taken over much of the routine updating of the website and we look forward to increasing participation by Chris in these endeavors.

A centrally maintained list of flotilla members’ email addresses has been created. This list will allow the sharing of members email addresses among authorized officers. This will relieve officers from maintaining their own list, ensure consistency in the list of addresses used, and provide one place to make additions and corrections. If you feel you are not getting any flotilla emailings, please contact me with your proper email address. I will see that our list is updated (and all authorized officers will immediately benefit).

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