Board Meeting Minutes – August 25, 2016
Stillwater Amateur Radio Association
1618 Pine Street West
Stillwater, Minnesota 55082
Roll Call of Officers – A quorum was present with five of seven officers in attendance. Keith AGØH & Peter NØGRM were absent.
President: Joe KCØOIO
The meeting was called to order at 6:02 PM.
Secretary’s Report – Steve KAØOBI
Minutes from the Board Meeting on April 21st, 2016 have been posted on the website. No additional comments from the group.
Treasurers Report – John N5JLZ
Beginning Balance 7/1/2016 $2,988.74
Income $100.00
Expenses $0.00
Ending Balance 7/31/2016 $3,088.74 (Not including HELP income/expenses)
$14,720.89 (Including HELP income/expenses)
Reports of Committees:
Activities & Events: Dave WØOXB
Past Event Recaps:
New Ham Night May 19th – Good event that is helpful for new hams to see how easy it is to get up and running with just a wire and simple portable radio.
Mobile, Portable, & Go-Kit Picnic w/WashCoARES June 11th Brekke Park – Gives people a chance to show and explain their approach to portable ops and give others useful ideas. Suggestion made to schedule it every other year.
Field Day June 25 & 26 at Autumn Hills Park – another successful event that has been done the same way for several years. It may be time to test the interest level of doing 24 hour days which would require more planning and finding operators that want to do the overnight shifts.
Radios in the Park – these are great when the weather permits. The July 7th event was rained out. We might consider adding a September 8th event at Valley View Park.
Remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald – Nov 4,5,6 – this year’s event will fall on the first weekend of the deer hunting opener. Be sure to make motel reservations early. The notice will be in the Nov issue of QST. We will again be sponsored by Radio City. There will need to be different arrangements made for Saturday night dinner this year. We may want to explore purchasing larger totes to carry the club radio kits so that each kit contains a complete set up of cables, tuner, power supply, and radio.
Ice Station WØJH 2017 – We will ask Dave KEØAIF if he is willing to host this event again in 2017 on President’s Day weekend.
MAP: Dave WØOXB
Need to update spreadsheet used to track projects and volunteers.
Three additional antenna projects are waiting to be scheduled: John N5JLZ, Dan KAØIYF and Mike NØODK (Mike will be gone for 3 weeks in Vietnam beginning Oct 15th)
Please keep in mind that Dave will be in WA from Oct 4-27.
Meetings & Programs – Joe KCØOIO
May – SOTA (Summits on the Air) – Jim KDØIPI did a great job explaining how to get involved in this outdoor activity.
September – On the Waterfall – Live! – Joe KCØOIO
October – VKØEK Heard Island – Bill AEØEE
November – Using RCForb – Pat WAØTDA
December – Ask the Elmer/Stump the Elmer Roundtable
January – SWEEP (SARA White Elephant Exchange Party)
Feb to May Ideas: Show & Tell of SDR & Hybrids (ICOM 7300 & FLEX 1500), Explanation of how to set up a home station, What else besides HT’s you can do as a Technician Class, Go over to Stillwater HS to look at their station, DMR (MotoTRBO) Digital Mobile Radio, Arduinos & Raspberry Pis, Microcomputers for Ham Radio, Special Interest Clubs: SKCC, County Hunters, QCWA, 070, OMISS, YLRL, Operating Portable Roundtable, and FISTS.
Additional Ideas: Antenna Analyzers, DMMs and other Diagnostic Gizmos, Baluns, Ununs, Chokes, Propagation – Can I get there from here?, Station Grounding, Tuners: Manual vs Automatic + Care & Feeding.
Education & Training Report – Bob WØGAF
General Class starts Sept 15 at the Library. The VE session is scheduled for Nov 10th at Boutwells. We need to determine if there is any interest in having an Extra Class Study Group in the spring of 2017.
A motion was made, seconded and carried to purchase two sets of General Class instructor packages and an Extra Class manual to replace the outdated one in the library.
Newsletter & Websites – Pat Tice WAØTDA, Dave WØOXB, Peter NØGRM
The deadline for the Sept issue is August 26th and it should be published by September 2nd.
Repeater – Henry KØHAS & Shel NØDRX
The license renewal was received for the repeater.
The Digipeater plan is to use a Kenwood D700 as the digipeater. We need to decide what size cabinet is needed for secure mounting and to install it.
Unfinished Business
HELP Project – The router at WØEQO is OK and does not need to be replaced. There were sales of nearly $1,000 at MAGIC Swapfest in July. Gary Grivna Electonix Repair can give us estimates on the repairs needed for two TS-570 radios. He may be willing to work some barter deal since he has shown an interest in some non-functioning gear from Handihams – Drake TR3, FT847, IC706 MKII, and the TenTec Pegasus.
We would like to allocate $4,000 for Remote Base operations to cover future radio and computer replacements. There should be a process established for regular maintenance of Remote Bases and related expenses.
About $100 should be sent to Nancy to cover the Sales Tax bill for July & August HELP 2016 sales.
Eyeball Session build project suggestions – Baluns, portable wire antennas, Buddisticks, Roll-up J-poles. SWR Bridge Calibration (KØGW).
New Business
Discussed the pros & cons of acquiring a new small trailer (5’ x 8’) that is on sale for about $1,599. It would be used to store heaters, ice shelters, and screen tents that are currently in members’ garages.
Since Joe KCØOIO will not be available on Sept 15 or 22 for the next Board Meeting; the date was changed to September 29th.
The club received an email from the American Diabetes Assoc. asking for the club to help with their annual ADA Charity Walk held on October 1st. This is a Saturday morning event which is a 3 or 5 mile course. It starts at 7:45 AM and is usually over by 11 AM. The event is a good example of using direct net control and is a good way for new members to participate and get experience with their HT’s.
Dave WØOXB suggested we try adding another HF net for 75 meters that would be accessible to club members that don’t have antennas for 160 meters. Initially, it will be once a week on Tuesday night on a frequency suitable for General Class on SSB above 3.8 MHz.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:42 PM.