BOARD MEETING MINUTES – December 29, 2016
Stillwater Amateur Radio Association
1618 Pine Street West
Stillwater, Minnesota 55082
Roll Call of Officers – All officers were in attendance.
President: Joe KCØOIO
The meeting was called to order at 5:59 PM.
Secretary’s Report – Steve KAØOBI
Minutes from the Board Meeting on November 17th, 2016 have been posted on the website. No additional comments from the group.
Treasurers Report – John N5JLZ
Beginning Balance 11/1/2016 $3,416.12
Income $324.50
Expenses $468.71
Ending Balance 11/30/2016 $3,271.91 (Not including HELP income/expenses)
$14,739.05 (Including HELP income/expenses)
Reports of Committees:
Activities & Events: Dave WØOXB
Ice Station WØJH – the event will be held Feb 18th– 20th, 2017. Dave KØAIF has agreed to host again just across from his house on Lake Elmo. An announcement will appear on the ARRL website and in the February issue of QST.
MAP: Dave WØOXB
So far there are several new antenna projects where assistance has been requested for the remainder of this season. A spreadsheet has been created to track these projects, assign volunteers, and schedule installation dates. Since the 12/1 meeting two new antennas have been put up – Jim KDØIPI and Doug N9TOW. Rich ADØSN has ordered antenna materials.
Several levels of priority have been established – #1 – member not able to operate without MAP help and highly motivated to get on the air. #2 – member can operate in limited fashion, not motivated and has done some planning. #3 – member seemingly not interested but has casual wish to get on air. #4 – unassigned. Currently Dave is working on a list of materials to stock that are typically used in these projects and for the equipment trailer.
Meetings & Programs – Joe KCØOIO
December – Ask the Elmer/Stump the Elmer Roundtable – this was very well received and it is suggested that we do one question each general meeting and publish it in the newsletter.
January – SWEEP – new rules will be published in the upcoming newsletter.
February – DMR (Digital Mobile Radio with MNDM) – Trygee Svärd KDØPNQ
March – Working on Classic Radios – Randy Olson KDØVKB
April – ARRL Update and This is LOTW – Greg KØGW
May – SDR: Icom IC-7300 and Flex 1500
Additional ideas for future programs: Arduinos & Raspberry PIs, Microcomputers for Ham Radio; 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.
Education & Training Report – Bob WØGAF
The SkyWarn 2017 Training – Saturday, Feb 25th at the Stillwater Library.
Technician Class 2017 – The first class will be March 2nd and also the Extra Study Group will commence at the same time.
Newsletter & Websites – Pat Tice WAØTDA (not present), Dave WØOXB
The January issue deadline is December 31st with a publishing date of January 7th.
Repeater – Henry KØHAS & Shel NØDRX
Nothing new to report. A suggestion was made that we should have another person able to go to the repeater site who is not afraid of heights.
Unfinished Business
Remote Bases Committee – All committee members (Pat WAØTDA, Keith AGØH, Eliot KDØOTB, Bill NØCIC, and Henry KØHAS) have agreed to serve on the committee. Both remote stations are operating OK. However, it was reported that during tuning the power is dropping to 5 watts instead of 40 watts.
HELP Project – Dave asked Dan at Radio City if he would be open to taking some of our equipment on consignment. Dan said between now and March would be a good time to do so. Radio City receives 30% on consignment sales. Items for consignment: PW-1, FT-847, TenTec Pegasus and Orion.
Eyeball Sessions – January 5th session will feature antenna analyzers – choices, capabilities, and using. Please bring your own analyzer if you have one or follow along. Future projects include: Baluns, SWR Bridge Calibration (KØGW), Building coax cables, FLDIGI hands-on, Exploring JT modes and software, Programming HTs, and Using ACLog. February will include ACLog review and June will have a review of Field Day logging procedures.
Equipment Trailer – The trailer license has been acquired and will be mounted on the driver’s side of the tongue. In the future, we will form a planning group for outfitting the trailer.
SARA’s 25th Year in 2017 – Ice Station will be the first event- all the info will be in the January newsletter along with some historical club information. We decided not to have a picnic celebration at Field Day as an event.
Slate of Officers for 2017 Elections – President (Heitzinger KCØOIO), Vice President (Miller AGØH), Secretary (Bonine KAØOBI), Treasurer (Zuercher N5JLZ), 2017-18 Director’s position (Eggers KDØOTB). Additional nominations can be made just prior to the election at the Jan 14th meeting.
501C3 Application – since everyone has been busy with holiday events, it is suggested that the Board members take time to view the video of the 501C3 seminar from NEARfest available through ARRL. We can then schedule a working session for the Board that would take place outside of the Eyeball night to review this topic and determine the path we want the club to take.
New Business
Website revision – the website needs to be corrected to show the Perkins location as the site of the club breakfasts prior to each Saturday General Meeting.
Nets & Ragchew – 75 Meters is not working well enough to use anymore for our purposes. So the following schedule has been set up for the Tuesday net – 12 Meters (24.955 MHz USB) starting at 7 PM CST. The net will move to 6 Meters (50.316 MHz USB) when finished on 12 Meters.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:14 PM.