An update from Len himself!

Hello MARC

I thought it was about time I'd give you an update on my whereabouts.

I finished my tour in Mississippi about 3 weeks ago. From there I headed to Susan's house in Cape Coral. It was an incredible experience assisting in Mississippi. A couple things I learned are you need more than one repeater and you need lots of auxiliary power. After a couple of weeks of R&R -- eating Susan's great cooking and floating in the 88 degree POOL, I suddenly found myself getting ready for Hurricane Wilma. Surprise, surprise.

We put up the storm shutters, got lots of petrol, plenty of water and food and "hunkered down". I ended up volunteering with the Ft. Myer's ARC Alert Team. During the storm, I staffed an evac shelter at Diplomat Middle school. There were 196 total people who rode out the storm in the school. Most of the evacuees were from an barrier island called Pine Island. I was there for about 22 hours. Susan stayed at home with her 2 nieces. I am happy to report we all fared well and there was no damage to the house.

As I write this I am completing preparations to leave in the morning for Ft. Lauderdale. I'll be doing what I did in Mississippi -- assisting with communications and anything else that is needed. The devastation on the east coast of Florida from Wilma is much worse than it is on this coast. It could be weeks before the east coast area gets hydro and phones back on line.

It is very rewarding to be able to help out like this. And every where I go I always wear my MARC hat. I'll keep in touch when I can. Hope all is well with every one in the MARC.

Keep warm --- I am still wearing shorts, sandals and a t-shirt and working on my tan . Hahaha.

Len Foster

[email protected]

You sure are a busy boy Len. We are thinking of you.

Another update from Susan about Len.

Hello to All from Len!

Len called me today from Pearlington, Mississippi. He is working at a different relief center but still stationed out of Diamondhead. Pearlington is closer to the Gulf and was extensively damaged in the storm. Here are some of his observations:

-- the damage is as bad as in New Orleans -- maybe worse
-- tall beautiful pine trees snapped off like twigs
-- enough wood laying around to heat the town of Minden for the winter
-- the high school gym has a water mark 13 feet up on the wall
-- mud and gunk every where in the school
-- houses so badly damaged that you can't tell from looking at them if some last lived in them 3 weeks ago or 3 years ago or 30 years ago
-- taking a lot of pictures but it doesn't really portray what he sees
-- "you need to be here to know the essence of what I see"
-- most of the work is being done by volunteers; people paid to be there are doing very little
-- he met several elderly folks who lost absolutely everything
-- the relief center has free food, clothing, water, ice, cleaning supplies, rakes, brooms, etc, etc.
-- there are 20 port-o-potties and 2 washers and dryers for people to use
-- he does not know where all the displaced people are currently staying

Last week there were 20 Hams there --- today they are down to 5 and tomorrow there will be only 4. Volunteers are dwindling but the need is just as great as it was 2 weeks ago. He is not sure what will happen with communications. It seems to be a day-to-day thing.

The weather remains hot and very humid. I asked him if he lost any weight -- if he could tell by his clothes feeling bigger. he laughed and said --- it is so humid that your clothes just stick to your skin. So if they are too big for you -- you'll never know!

Much of what he tells me reminds me of living through the aftermath of Hurricane Charley last year. Except I think the people of Mississippi and Louisiana have it much worse because of the tremendous storm surge and flooding.

Please keep Len and the people of that area in your prayers.

God Bless,
Susan

Thanks for the update Susan. I'm sure we are all thinking about them.

I emailed Susan for more information about what equipment Len is using. Susan replied that she'd be happy to ask him the next time he phones.

Hi Tim,

I no sooner sent the last email and the phone rang and it was Len. So here is the info you asked for and a few more tidbits.

Freq: 146.700
PL tone 136.5
Uses the cross band repeater in the truck
Only using his Yaesu VX5 radio

Other tidbits...
He is one of the lucky ones because he sets up daily under the canopy of a bank drive-through....SHADE!
Today the relief center served over 1000 vehicles -- people come in daily for supplies --- mostly water and ice
Len is sleeping dormitory style at an elementary school
Meals are served in a large tent
The only building air conditioned building is the school but he finds going into air conditioning makes it that much harder to adjust to the heat again when he goes back outside.
There is a debriefing every night after dinner -- can last up to 2 hours -- but good way to share the day

Take care.

Susan

Good to hear that Len is doing OK.

For those of you interested in the next storm that's approaching the Gulf, here are a couple of links:

This One will take you to the National Hurricane Center's predicted track of Tropical Storm Rita.

This Limkwill take you to the Amature Radio Site "Hurricaine Watch Net". There's much to browse here.

Until later

More information from Len via Susan:

I heard from Len last night. He is in Diamondhead, MS. (Link to MapQuest Diamond Head MS)

It is just off the I-10 Interstate. He is doing fine. His job of course is communications. He is at a relief/supply center where people can come for ice, water, MRE's, clothing, cleaning supplies, etc. Yesterday 980 cars went through and one day there were over 1200. There are lot of volunteers and some military. He gets his meals on site and sleeps at a nearby school. The weather is quite hot but fortunately the school is air conditioned -- the first night he stayed there he thought it was going to snow inside the building! He is working with a number of different people but right now he is the only radio operator. If he needs relief he radios to a command center and they send someone. He says he primarily radios for more supplies. He sends out the request for things such as more ice and water and then sit back and hope you get it. Yesterday 2 semi-truck rolled in full of ice. One truck was from Washington, the other from Utah.

He says hello to everyone.

All the best to you,

Susan

I'll update the website as news becomes available

As most (some, no one) of you know, VA3LGF Len volunteered to assist with the Katrina disaster. He left for Mississippi on Tuesday morning. Tuesday evening I received an email from Susan who said:

Hello,

Len asked me to tell everyone he is just fine in Kentucky. He drove about 1100km today (600 mi for the nonmetric among you) and is in Carrollton, Kentucky. That is about 3 hours North of Louisville. {{Suzanne --- he said hello to your Mom!}} No problems on the road. He is tired tonight but otherwise fine. He plans to arrive on Montgomery Thursday morning.

Keep him in your prayers for a safe journey.

Susan

All the best Len

Well it's been a while campers, but I'm back. All hands on deck. I'm sure that someone out there will start emailing this news item to just about everyone. Oh this will be such fun when it becomes common knowledge. ENJOY!.

A pleasant surprise awaited me in my inbox this morning. Joel VE3CJJ sent me a link to the Hambone Message Board. It's a place for hams to rag chew online. To check it out, just do the CLICK. Thanks Joel.

And for those of you with time on your hands, remember back in January IC announced that it would probably drop the code requirements for HF? You wouldn't belive the fallout on QRZ from that. Give this a CLICK. Sit back and scroll.

As suspected, the picnic is on the Sunday. Events page corrected. Now this was worth getting out of bed.

Things are certainly not quite as boring with the old radio club as I'd thought they were.

Turns out that Brent VE3EJW isn't going to organize the Marathon. He thought he was being asked to organize a walk that would need half a dozen volunteers and not a 24 hour event with 20+ radio operators.

WE NEED SOMEONE TO ORGANIZE THIS EVENT! This is one of the events where Amateur Radio can make itself visible in the community on a scale slightly more exciting than a Sneaker Walk or a Rubber Duck Race. We have (thanks to Len VA3LGF) amateurs coming in to assist from all over southern Ontario. So get a grip on the importance and prestige of this event in our area folks.

If someone in our club does not take charge, then either the Marathon will go on without us and amateur radio gets really GREAT NEGATIVE PUBLICITY, or someone from outside the county will take over the organizing the communications for this event and our club gets GREAT NEGATIVE PUBLICITY. Oooh what a choice.

Oh and don't go away now. There's even more. Got an email from Brian VE3ATB who noticed that the date of the MARC Picnic is wrong. There is no Saturday the 17th this year. So what is it going to be eh? Saturday the 16th or Sunday the 17th? Oh the adrenaline is pumping over this I can tell you. Stay tuned. I expect that we'll hear a lot more about this. Picnics are where the Minden Amateur Radio Club really shines because you don't even need a radio! And organizing it just requires someone to remember to bring an onion.

Received a reminder from Ron VE3ROH via email about the upcoming MARC picnic. Take a look at the events page.

VA3LGF sent an email the other day. Give it a read.

April 28, 2005

This is to inform every one that I will not be taking on the roll of organizer for the 2005 Haliburton Forest Ultra Marathon. I may or may not be in the country when the Ultra Marathon takes place and for that reason I will not want to commit to the leadership role.

I have enjoyed the event in the past two years very much. The help from everyone went above and beyond anything one could have anticipated. I want to extend a special thanks to Ernie Roylance VE3ERN for all his work, time and effort plus the use of his Motor Home.

If I am still here at the time of the event I will be happy to take a time slot at one of the checkpoints.

Brent Davies has offered to take over as chief organizer. If you have any questions please email Brent VE3EJW, at [email protected]

Len Foster, VA3LGF

Thanks for the work you have put into the event over the past two years Len.

We've been asked to assist with communications at the Sneaker Walk in Minden again this year. Posted it to the Events Page.

Just a couple of things today.

VE3ERN Ernie sent a link to a site that discusses tornado formation. Added it to the CANWARN Page. Thanks Ernie.

Reorganized the News Archives by year. Not quite so cumbersome as before.

Ernie VE3ERN sent me some CANWARN maps and stuff. Well I couldn't figure out where to post them so I created a CANWARN Page. Just look to the left and you'll see I've reorganized the menu too. You'll notice that there is the same number of buttons. That's due to the fact that I deleted the Minutes page. I've read the old minutes and y'know, there's nothing there worth posting. So why bother coding it.

I've been doing a great deal of web surfing lately trying to come up with ideas for a new MARC web page. I have seen some really nice sites that impress me. I have also seen some really horrible sites. Why oh why don't people look at other sites before putting one up? I suppose that's what makes the world go round. Everyone is different and has an opinion as to what looks good. But you know, sometimes what people think looks good is wrong.

I'm sorry. I'm as tolerant as the next guy, but lime green on black is so hard to read and is so dated. I'd love to give you an example or two (or 20) but I'm starting to froth at the mouth so I'd better not. Here's a better idea. Why don't you send me links to sites that you love or hate? I'll even make a new page for them if I get enough.

Ernie VE3ERN asked me to post the brochure for the upcoming (August 27 but ya gotta plan ahead, y'know) VHARA Flea Market. Just because he asked me so nicely, you can do the clicky thing here.

For those of you who are using Firefox, Mozilla has released Version 1.02 which corrects some security issues. You can get the new version by clicking the link at the top of the page. Make sure you uninstall your old version if you plan on installing the new one in the same directory. Don't worry about any bookmarks, extensions or themes you might have. They are not located with the program files, so it's OK to delete the browser.

Amazing what you can find if you keep looking. Oooh I'm so internet savvy. Right. Finally found a link to the Orillia Amateur Radio Club's site on the pager. I've posted it on the Pager page.

I met with VE3ERN Ernie and VA3LGF Len for lunch today. We all agreed that until the front end sensitivity issue with the VA3MIN repeater is resolved we should perhaps use VA3HAL repeater for our primary pager repeater. I have updated the Pager page with this info.

Please note that both Ernie and Len have new personal codes and I have also updated the Personal Pager Code list to reflect this.

Received an email from Len VA3LGF reminding us that the coffee meeting on Friday will be cancelled as the Legion is closed Good Friday.

Glad to see you're back Len and thanks for bringing the sunny weather.

As I had to make a new page for Pagers, I went through the entire site and cleaned up the code (some 4 hours work). Most of the changes were to upgrade to a newer version of HTML. Some of you will notice that things have changed and some won't see a difference. The site, however, is now fully compatible with any browser.

And I guess that somebody is visiting the site as we have had over 900 hits since February 2003.

A week to the day and The Pager information has arrived. Now that some of us have pagers, and that some of us (well me) are as thick as two short planks, I decided to post this info on a separate page where it can be easily referenced. Ain't I a smart lad.

Thanks to Tom VE3UFL and Brendan VE3BWC for the User Codes and Guide respectively.

Just a couple of things today.

Michael VE3LKI of Central Ontario ARES (remember ARES?) sent an email to Ron VE3ROH regarding RAC Liability Insurance. A good read and you can find it here.

Ernie sent me a copy of the latest VHARA Newsletter. It should be available here.

There's more news coming, but I haven't received any details yet on the status of the VA3MIN repeater or the pagers. I'm sure that the info will arrive someday soon.