MEMBERSHIP MEETING MINUTES – April 8, 2017
Stillwater Amateur Radio Association
1618 Pine Street West
Stillwater, Minnesota 55082
Vice President: Keith AGØH standing in for President Joe KCØOIO who was unable to attend.
The meeting was called to order at 9:07 AM.
Secretary’s Report: Steve KAØOBI
The general meeting minutes from the March 11, 2017 meeting are posted on the website. Please report any corrections to: Secretary@radioham.org
Treasurer’s Report: John N5JLZ
Beginning Balance: 3/1/2017 $3,376.26
Income: $220.00
Expenses: $396.31
Ending Balance: 3/31/2017 $3,199.95(Not including RBP income/expenses)
$17,363.30 (Including RBP income/expenses)
Education and Training: Bob WØGAF (not present)
The Technician Class training will be from March 2nd to April 20th, 2017.
The VE exam session will be held on April 27th at Boutwells.
An Extra Class Study Group that is running at the same time as the 2017 Technician classes has three participants.
New Ham Night will be May 18th at Brekke Park, Oak Park Heights.
Activities & Events: Dave WØOXB
Thursday Eyeball Sessions:
April 20th – SARA Board Meeting.
Radios in the Park – this activity will continue again this year spaced about every 3 weeks at Valley View Park, Oak Park Heights.
M.A.P. – Dave WØOXB
Make sure you notify Dave of any project you need to get done so you can be put on the schedule.
Dave will leave for Washington on April 18th and will be gone for about a month.
Remote Base Project (RBP)
Both of the remote stations are currently up and running.
One piece of gear is still on consignment at Radio City.
The Kenwood 480 is fixed and ready to be tested.
Washington County ARES: John KAØHYR (not present)
The ARES net will be April 15th on 146.985 at 7 PM CDT on the SEMARC repeater at 7PM CDT.
The Prairie Island Relocation Drill will be in July 2017.
SET (Simulated Emergency Test) for 2017 will be held the week ahead of the ARRL SET weekend.
Check the web site www.mnwashcoares.org regularly for current events, net schedule, and other items of significance.
Digital Net: Joe KCØOIO (not present)
The last SARA DIGI Net will be held this Sunday (9th) at 7 PM CDT. The net will start up again in the fall.
Two meter ragchew is held every Wednesday night at 9 PM CDT. You can find us at 147.060 MHz 114.8 Hz Tone.
160 meters SARA Top Band Ragchew is at 1.966 MHz or close by depending on band conditions and interference. They operate every night except Tuesday & Thursday at 8 PM CDT.
SARA Tuesday evening Round Robin RagChew – Will now be operating on 12 Meters 24.955MHz starting at 7PM CDT. Lately no one has requested a switch to 6 meters after the 12 meter ragchew has finished.
SARA Monday morning Round Robin RagChew – It will be operating at 3.855.5 MHz at a new time of 8:15 AM CDT due to propagation changes.
Newsletter & Website: Pat WAØTDA & Dave WØOXB
Thanks to Pat and Dave for putting together the newsletter! Additional contributors are needed. Deadline for the next issue is the last Saturday of April.
DX News: Mike NØODK (not present)
Kingman Reef has been deleted from the DXCC listing. The reef is too close to Palmyra Island to count as a separate entity. The reef is underwater at high tide and now considered part of the Palmyra/Jarvis DXCC entity. This is effective March 29, 2016.
Midway & Kure Islands have both been deleted from the DXCC listing effective August 26, 2016.
The current DXCC list of entities is 337.
Check out www.ng3k.com for DX & Contest Calendar information.
Program Schedule:
Apr: ARRL Update and This is LOTW – Greg KØGW
May: SDR: Icom IC-7300 and Flex 1500 Show & Tell
Old Business:
SARA coffee mugs are on sale for $3 each – See Keith AGØH.
The SARA Oval Sticker/Decals are on sale for $1 each or you can get a free one when you renew your annual membership ($20) for 2017.
The new MFJ-986 manual tuner has arrived and been placed with the rest of the club’s radio gear.
Outfitting of the SARA/RBP trailer will get started after the planning stage is completed.
New Business:
One of our club members had a 2 Meter QSO with Joseph Ferrara N7IV today on the way to the meeting. Joseph was a high school teacher in Minot, ND and is involved in setting up an amateur station at the local high school. If the club ever decided to try to set up a high school station he may be a good resource to contact.
Good of Association:
SEMARC Meeting – their next meeting will be April 25th at 7 PM at the Zion Lutheran Church located at 8500 Hillside Trail in Cottage Grove.
The SARA Kit Build Group has finished their first project – the 360 Workbench Antenna Analyzer. They are currently looking for another build project.
Those members building the antenna analyzer kit include: KCØOIO, WØGAF, KØGW, KEØIYN, KEØIYF, N9TOW, KA8VHF, and N9JNQ.
50/50 Drawing – The pot was won by Ken who donated the money back to the club.
Program – ARRL Logbook of the World (LoTW) by Greg Widen KØGW
LoTW was first released in 2003 and has become the least expensive way to QSL and the easiest way to obtain awards. The computer program is a free download and also free to upload your contacts for confirmation. LoTW has 817,352,945 QSO records and 142,725,012 QSL records.
The LoTW processing time is very rapid and the program is compatible with a number of logging programs so you can upload your existing records to get credit for them. The process of initially getting access to LoTW is well documented to help you begin to take advantage of this excellent resource. There is also a very extensive FAQ and help resource to get your problems solved when working with LoTW. This includes a Yahoo Group, an email address, and a phone line to a live person at ARRL if necessary.
There is no charge to upload your information. The operating funds come from fees for award applications. The end goal is for LoTW to be self-supporting at some time in the future. The program has a number of built-in safeguards that make it more secure than some financial institutions. ARRL awards are the most respected of all because of this security in making sure that confirmations are not able to be falsely created.
The program and meeting concluded at 10:45 AM.
Meeting attendance: 28