BOARD MEETING MINUTES – December 14, 2017
Stillwater Amateur Radio Association
1618 Pine Street West
Stillwater, Minnesota 55082
Roll Call of Officers – All officers were in attendance except Bob WØGAF.
President: Joe KCØOIO
The meeting was called to order at 6:01 PM.
Secretary’s Report – Steve KAØOBI
Minutes from the Board Meeting on November 16, 2017 have been posted on the website. No additional comments from the group.
Treasurers Report – John N5JLZ
Beginning Balance 11/1/2017 $2,783.72
Income $574.50
Expenses $727.00
Ending Balance 11/30/2017 $2,631.22 (Not including RBP income/expenses)
$16,624.15 (Including RBP income/expenses)
Reports of Committees:
Activities & Events: Dave WØOXB
Ice Station WØJH – will be held on Presidents Day weekend (Feb 17, 18, 19 in 2018) at Dave KEØAIF QTH in Lake Elmo. A notice already appears on the ARRL website. There will soon be a listing in the QST magazine.
MAP: Dave WØOXB
There are a number of future projects already on the books. Due to the cold weather, the outdoor antenna projects will likely have to wait, however, some of the other indoor projects may proceed as time allows. Dave would like a way to keep an up-to-date listing that would allow him to schedule projects and at the same time provide a way for members to volunteer their time for projects based on a schedule. A method for volunteers to sign up can be implemented via Google Drive. An update of those projects could also be listed in the monthly newsletter.
Meetings & Programs – Joe KCØOIO
January – SWEEP
February – FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) – Skip KSØJ
March – Electro Magnetic Pulse (from a nuclear detonation) and CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) and their effects on ham radios – John KAØHYR & Skip KSØJ
April – WØAIH Contest Station – Paul Bittner WØAIH – Falls Creek, WI
May – BITX40 Builders Showcase
Additional ideas for future programs: Special Interest Clubs: SKCC, County Hunters, QCWA, 070, OMISS, YLRL; Operating Portable Roundtable, Diagnostic Tools: Analyzers, DMMs and Diagnostic Gizmos; Tuners: Manual vs. Automatic + Care & Feeding; Setting up your Shack; New Technicians: Here’s what you can do now; Show us your Shack-Supersize, SSTV, ATV.
Eyeball Sessions – Skills Night
Projects include: Toroids to Reduce Noise, SWR Bridge Calibration (KØGW), exploring FT8 and WSJT-X software, programming HTs, DX Labs Suite, Logger32 & N1MM (NØODK).
Education & Training Report – Bob WØGAF (not present)
The SkyWarn class will be held Feb 24th and the Tech class will start March 1st and end April 19th with VE examination on April 26th. The library has been booked for March. Dave will do the posting for the classes.
VE Team – Shel NØDRX
No report.
Newsletter & Websites – Pat Tice WAØTDA (not present) & Dave WØOXB
The January issue deadline is December 30th with a publishing date by January 6th.
Repeater – Henry KØHAS (not present) & Shel NØDRX
Dave WØOXB will contact Henry to set up his training as part of gaining access to the repeater site. The Digipeater parts are all at Joe’s house and will be brought to an eyeball session to be assembled and tested after he drills some ventilation holes in the box.
Remote Bases Committee – Pat WAØTDA, Keith AGØH, Eliot KEØN, Bill NØCIC, and Henry KØHAS.
No report.
Dave mentioned that Paul WØAIH had offered to be a site for one of our remote stations as long as it does not interfere with his contesting.
Builders Group – The Bitx40 project has an email list going with 14 people who will be building the kit. The first run of the kit sold out and there will be some improvements made before the second run is available.
Unfinished Business
Remote Base Project – There are still two items that are at Radio City on consignment – the Kenwood TS570 and the Kenwood TS480 200-watt transceivers. It looks like the TS570 has been sold. Since there haven’t been any members interested in the Elecraft K3 or the Flex-1500, we will take them to Radio City for consignment sale.
Equipment Trailer – The remainder of the wiring projects will be done in April 2018. Joe has the parts now to repair the roof vent lid.
New Business:
The following nominations have been made for officers for 2018:
President – Joe KCØOIO
Vice President – Bob WØGAF
Secretary – Collin KEØIYN
Treasurer – Rich ADØSN
Director 2018-19 – Doug N9TOW
Simonet Award Committee – It has been recommended that the committee be comprised of no more than three. The three would include past recipients and then fill out with officers. The next committee will be comprised of recipient Dave WØOXB plus the President and Vice President.
Equipment Inventory – a lot of club gear is currently scattered amongst club members. It is suggested that a board project for the 1st quarter 2018 be recording an inventory of the quantity and location of all the club equipment (including what is at the repeater site).
Special Event Sponsorship – In the past when we list Radio City as a sponsor for our Special Events on the ARRL website, it looks like we have been including their web address. In the future we want to no longer include Radio City’s web address in those notifications.
Potential 2018 Special Event – there is a possibility of doing a White Rock Special Event in early August 2018. We will put a notice in the January newsletter asking how many people would be interested in participating in that event.
Autumn Hills Park – John will reserve the park for both 2018 Field Day and 2019 Field Day when he goes to make reservations on Jan 2nd.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:27 PM.