BOARD MEETING MINUTES – April 18, 2019
BOARD MEETING MINUTES – April 18, 2019
Stillwater Amateur Radio Association
1618 Pine Street West
Stillwater, Minnesota 55082
Roll Call of Officers – All present with the exception of: Bob WØGAF – teaching Tech License class and Collin KEØIYN – out of state on business.
President: Joe KCØOIO
The meeting was called to order at 5:57 PM.
Secretary’s Report – Steve KAØOBI standing in for Collin KEØIYN
Minutes from the Board Meeting on March 21st, 2019 have been posted on the website. No additional comments from the group.
Treasurer’s Report – Rich ADØSN
Beginning Balance 04/1/2019 $2,905.64
Income $83.00
Expenses $0.00
Ending Balance 04/17/2019 $2,988.64 (Not including RBP income/expenses)
$18,046.24 (Including RBP income/expenses)
Trustee’s Report – Shel NØDRX
Nothing new to report.
Reports of Committees:
Activities & Events: Dave WØOXB
White Rock – the event will be held August 16th, 17th & 18th. Since it has been several years since the last White Rock event, Dave will provide additional details in the near future.
Field Day – June 22nd & 23rd. Permission for overnight operations has been obtained. No more than 6 members can be at the site after sunset on Saturday. The interior of the park building will be closed at sunset but the exterior roofed shelter area will remain useable for operations. In addition, the club operations trailer will be parked on site. A Porta Potty will be available while the building is closed overnight.
MAP: Dave WØOXB
In an effort to plan for MAP projects this year Dave has produced a Project Request & Planning Form that will help prioritize who needs help with a project, what the project is, have the project materials been ordered, how many volunteers are needed, and what the timing is for the project. Dave also emphasized that MAP is not just for putting up antennas but can include a multitude of other assistance with ham radio projects.
Meetings & Programs – Joe KCØOIO
April: Logging Programs for MAC and Linux OS – Collin KEØIYN and Bob WØGAF
May: Welcome to Amateur Radio – New Technician License, now I have questions?
September: Contesting 101 – Bill Mitchell AEØEE
October: SDR dongles, receivers and software – Doug N9TOW and Collin KEØIYN
November: Baluns, Ununs and Chokes – Dave WØOXB
Future Ideas: Special interest clubs, SKCC (Straight Key Century Club), County Hunters, QCWA (Quarter Century Wireless Assoc.), 070, OMISS (Old Man International Sideband Society), YLRL (Young Ladies Radio League), Diagnostic tools – analyzers, DMMs, and other gizmos, Propagation-Can I get there from here?, Station grounding, Tuners-Manual vs. Automatic and Care & Feeding, Setting Up Your Shack, New Technicians – Here’s what you can do now.
Room Reservations – John N5JLZ
John has a new computer program that will assist him with managing various room reservations for our club activities.
Eyeball Sessions – Tech Nights
May 2 – Linux Install Session – Collin KEØIYN
May 9 – What’s a capacitor – Dan KEØIYF
Future ideas – Tune a Duplexer N9TOW, Using Toroids to reduce noise and RFI, Learning CW and Building Speed WØGAF, Diagnostic Tools – Using an Oscilloscope, Hand tools for your workbench, How to read the Solar Reports, The “Tech” in Technician, Antenna Lab – Theory & Design Discussions, and SWR Bridge calibration.
Education & Training – Bob WØGAF (not present – teaching the Tech Class)
The Skywarn Class has been rescheduled for May 4th from 10:30 to 3:30.
The Spring Tech Class has its last meeting on April 18th.
VE Team – Shel NØDRX
The VE session will take place April 25th at Boutwells.
New Ham Resource Group – Brian NØBJE, Holly KEØRZZ, Mark KEØQQN
Flyers will be handed out at the VE Session to announce the New Ham Night on Thursday May 16th at Valley View Park in Oak Park Heights from 6-8 PM.
Students who pass their exam at our VE session will receive a free one year club membership.
Dave volunteered to update the new member welcome letter.
Newsletter & Website – Pat WAØTDA, Dave WØOXB and Holly KEØRZZ
Kudos to Pat for his efforts on getting out the April issue.
Nets & Roundtables
The Monday morning HF net will continue at 9 AM until Dave WØOXB sends an email making it earlier due to propagation.
Repeater – Henry KØHAS & Shel NØDRX
We should be looking for a new antenna site since plans are to shut down the current site by 2028.
A site visit will be scheduled to tune-up the repeater.
Remote Bases Technical Committee
All committee members – Pat WAØTDA, Keith AGØH, Eliot KEØN, Bill NØCIC, and Henry KØHAS.
The Icom 7200 is back up and running with a cabling fix. It appears that the laptop computer at WØEQO is in need of replacement.
Builders Group
Nothing new.
Radios In The Park – Valley View Park, 5575 Ozark Ave. N, Oak Park Heights
May 16 – New Ham Night
June 6 & 27
July 18
August 8 & 29
Unfinished Business
Bring the equipment trailer to Radios in the Park to facilitate planning.
We need to to find a solution to the problem of the portable generator putting out band noise while in operation.
New Business
The next Board Meeting will be May 23rd.
After discussing the possibility of purchasing a Microsoft Office 365 annual subscription, the idea was dropped.
A motion was made, seconded and passed to purchase (2) Yaesu FT-70DR HTs from Ham Radio Outlet utilizing Remote Base funds.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:27 PM.