Membership Meeting Minutes – May 9, 2015
Stillwater Amateur Radio Association
1618 Pine Street West
Stillwater, Minnesota 55082
President: Joe KCØOIO
The meeting was called to order at 9:02 AM.
Secretary’s Report: Steve KAØOBI
The minutes from the April 11th, 2015 meeting were approved as published.
Treasurer’s Report: John N5JLZ
Beginning Balance: 4/1/2015 $3,102.61
Income: $0
Expenses: $5.00
Ending Balance: 4/30/2015 $3,097.61
Education and Training: Bob WØGAF (gone fishing)
Spring Technician VE Session was held April 30th at Boutwells from 6 to 9 PM. There were 22 examinees. The end result was 17 new licensees: 12 Technicians, 4 Generals, and 1 Extra.
New Ham Hands-on Skills & Demo – scheduled for May 21st from 6:30 to 8:30 PM CDT at Pioneer Park, Stillwater. Topics to be discussed and demonstrated include: programming radios, using repeaters, operating simplex, checking into formal nets, and using common protocol on VHF & UHF, plus do’s and don’ts. Don’t hesitate to bring your personal handheld for individual programming assistance.
Activities & Events: Dave WØOXB
Thursday Night Eyeball Sessions – Held every Thursday at 6:00 PM CDT at the Stillwater Public Library. We currently don’t have a meeting room for 5/28 or 6/4.
Field Day 2015 is scheduled for June 27th to 28th at Autumn Hills Park, Oak Park Heights.
Mobile & Portable Operating Show ‘N Tell – scheduled for Saturday, June 13th from 9 to 10:30 AM at Autumn Hills Park, Oak Park Heights. Coffee, donuts, and soda will be supplied. Event will include assembling mobile and portable stations, erecting and matching antennas, grounding, and hints, tricks and tips. Come and share your own experiences.
White Rock Tri-state Special Event – planning for September18th – 20th.
Handihams: Pat WAØTDA & Dave WØOXB
HEARTS (Handiham Equipment Assessment Repair & Tracking Service) – volunteers are needed now to help.
Radio Camp – August 18th – 24th at Camp Courage, Maple Lake, MN. VE session will be held on Sunday, Aug 23rd in the Woodland Dining Hall.
Handihams will be at Dayton Hamvention May 15th -17th in Booth 330 by Flex Radio.
Washington County ARES: John KAØHYR (not present)
Washington County Prairie Island Reception Ctr Drill on June 10th and FEMA graded exercise on July 22nd. A training session to prepare for these events will be held on May 21st at the Washington County Gov’t Center (see details in their Newsletter or contact John Regan at jeregan@mnmicro.net. Also check this website for current events, net schedule and other items of significance.
Digital Net: Joe KCØOIO
SARA DigiNet will be on summer hiatus.
2 Meter ragchew will be on Wednesday night at 9 PM CDT. 147.060 MHz.
1.966 KHz Round Robin Ragchew – 8 PM CDT every night except Tue. And Thur.
2015 Field Day: Keith AGØH
Will be held on June 27 & 28 at Autumn Hills Park. Set up will start at 9 AM. Scheduled to be on the air at 1 PM until sundown. Our station will be a category 2A with the callsign WØJH. We will be back on the air Sunday from 9 AM until 1 PM. This year the event co-chairmen are Keith AGØH and Joe KCØOIO. We will have a hands-on logging software run through on June 11th at the eyeball session using all three laptops.
Newsletter & Website: Pat WAØTDA, Dave WØOXB, Peter NØGRM, & Keith AGØH
Thanks for all the articles submitted this season and for everyone’s hard work.
Future Programs scheduled:
Sept – Joe KCØOIO and Bob WØGAF –Smart phones and tablets in the shack.
Oct – Mike Paskeuric NØODK – Fun with DXing.
Nov – John Dean KØJDD – APRS
Dec – Amateur Radio Trivia Challenge
Jan – S.W.E.E.P. (SARA White Elephant Exchange Party) and elections
Feb – Keith AGØH and Mike WAØKKE – SSTV & DSSTV
Old Business:
Ironman Bike Tour use of repeater – Last Sunday April 26th. It was set to be used from 6 AM to 6 PM as the primary user. They reported good coverage except on the North end. It worked better than last year.
New Business:
SARA coffee mug – Keith AGØH showed a mock-up of a cobalt blue mug with a yellow graphic of the Stillwater Bridge. He can get 72 of them and offer them to club members for $3 @. A show of hands demonstrated plenty of interest for us to go ahead with an order.
SARA sticker/decal – John N5JLZ has been researching an oval design with the same graphic as the coffee mugs with a black or colored border. He will work on a mock-up. His research indicates they can be offered for $1 @. Dave WØOXB proposed giving one with each annual membership.
Good of Association: Joe KCØOIO
Hamfests coming soon – May 15th -17th – Dayton Hamvention
July 11th – Magic Repeater Group Yard Sale in St Paul.
SEMARC Meeting – May 26th – at Zion Lutheran Church, 8500 Hillside Trail S, Cottage Grove.
ADA Tour de Cure – Saturday, May 30st – see Joe KCØOIO or contact Sgt Monica Vogel KCØVNL at m1vogel@q.com or call Hennepin County Sherriff’s Office (952-200-4755) if you can volunteer.
The business part of the meeting adjourned at 9:44 AM.
Program: Mike Tabbert KCØIQW Broadband Hamnet (formerly known as HSMM-MESH)
High-speed multimedia radio (HSMM) is the use of wireless data networks primarily over 2.4 and 5.8 GHz amateur radio frequencies using commercial off the shelf hardware like the Linksys and Ubiquiti devices.
HSMM can send most of the traffic that the Internet currently does. The main difference being that with HSMM it is mostly wireless. Users must be careful to comply with FCC regulations under Part 97 content.
The hardware needed is: high gain antenna, amplifier, power supply and a portable mount. Mesh nodes communicate with other nodes over Wi-Fi frequencies and only talk to other mesh nodes on the wireless port.
ARES can leverage a mesh network for email, internet access, intranet, keyboard to keyboard chat using instant messaging, weather radar, video with IP cameras, and VoIP for point to point calls.
Meeting was adjourned at 10:55 AM.
Meeting attendance: 17