MEMBERSHIP MEETING MINUTES – October 11, 2014
Stillwater Amateur Radio Association
1618 Pine Street West
Stillwater, Minnesota 55082
President: Peter NØGRM
The meeting was called to order at 9:02 AM.
Secretary’s Report: Steve KAØOBI
The minutes were read from the September 13th meeting and are being posted on the website.
Treasurer’s Report: John N5JLZ
Beginning Balance: 9/1/2014 $3,923.74
Income: Zero
Expenses: $5.00
Ending Balance: 9/30/2014 $3,918.74
Education and Training: Bob WØGAF (Not present at meeting but sent report)
General Class licensing course was cancelled due to nobody showing up. A suggestion was made that changing the evening class is held to Monday or Wednesday may be more convenient and could possibly improve attendance for future classes.
Activities, Programs & Events: Dave WØOXB (Not present at meeting but sent report)
Three projects were completed – 2 new antennas installed and 1 antenna tower system repair. There are 2 Handiham operator projects that are outstanding and/or need additional work. Top priority goes to Handihams and SARA members needing initial antennas. There probably won’t be time available for MAP work until after Dec 8 when Dave returns from Washington state.
“Remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald” Split Rock Lighthouse Special Event (Oct 31- Nov 2) has 20 SARA members attending so far.
Ice Station WØJH/Ø is looking for a small, out-of-the-way lake with little or no fishing and no snowmobiling for the 2015 event. We are checking with Stillwater Parks & Recreation Dept. on lake options around here. Our first choice is to operate over the President’s Day holiday (Feb 14th– 16th).
Scheduled Saturday monthly meeting programs are:
November 8th – Jim WN4GMT will give a presentation about the ham station W6RO aboard the Queen Mary moored at Long Beach, CA.
December 13th – Dan KBØXC from Radio City will be on hand to talk about trends in the Amateur Radio industry. He’ll information about the latest high performance gear.
January 10th – SARA White Elephant Exchange (SWEEP) and the Annual Election of Officers.
Digitial Net: Joe KCØOIO
SARA DigiNet will be returning Sunday, October 12th at 7 PM on 80 meters. Check in at 3.582.150 with the “sweet spot” or center frequency around 1000. However, if Joe is still working to repair the recent water damage to his basement, the net may be delayed until a later date.
2 Meter Net: Rick KØBR
Monitor the SARA repeater at 147.06 MHz /+ offset tone 114.8 Hz at 9 PM on Wednesday nights. The net has been well attended with four to eight check-ins each week.
ARES/Emergency Communications: John KAØHYR (Not present at meeting but sent report)
John reported the results of the Simulated Emergency Test for 2014. There were 26 participants between the two events. Counting check-ins from outside Washington County, there were a total of 38 participants. They covered two shelters, four hospitals, an EOC and two net control stations. Traffic went to 11 counties. There was also traffic passed from Wisconsin seamlessly by the ADA team. Fifteen formal written messages were passed using FM voice, FM digital and HF voice and digital.
Handihams & Newsletter: Pat WAØTDA
Pat requested that for those people submitting articles to be used in the newsletter that they be submitted ideally two weeks in advance.
Volunteering Opportunities: Peter NØGRM
Joe KCØOIO reported that the Oct 4th ADA Walk to Stop Diabetes went very well and that the volunteers received a personal thank you from the event director. They used the new shelter and one of the new heaters to keep the seven volunteers warm and dry.
Membership Update: Shel NØDRX
The club currently has 92 members. 70 are regular and 22 are associate and family members. 13 members have paid their dues for 2015 and 3 members have paid thru 2016.
The business part of the meeting adjourned at 9:28 AM
Program:
Peter NØGRM – Aug 14th to 23rd 2014 Isle Royale Expedition
Peter gave a visual presentation of the history of Isle Royale and showed a map of the northern route he took with his daughter on his eighth trip to this fascinating island. His preparations included designing and building a solar panel charger/controller for his rig’s battery and fabricating a unique front pack in which to carry his radio equipment and solar panel. Along the way he mostly operated CW on 20 meters with his Elecraft KX-3 using a vertical configuration of the Buddipole for an antenna. After encounters with moose and rain and not seeing any other people on the trail for several days, he is still excited to return to Isle Royale for a ninth trip. This lengthy trip was no cake walk as evidenced by he and his daughter losing several toenails shortly after returning from the backpacking expedition.
Steve KAØOBI – July 24th to July 28th 2014 Snowbasin Utah Portable Adventure
Steve related how he flew to Ogden. Utah and drove every day to a mountain location at 6,500’ elevation to set up his Elecraft KX-3 and Buddipole for some SSB QSO’s on 17 and 20 meters. The first day he operated out of a field near a park overlook and his horizontally-configured Buddipole was blown down by heavy winds. He switched to a backup wire antenna but with less success. On the weekend, after setting up beside his rental car in a less windy area, he was able to make contact with SARA members but had the power turned down to 3 watts by mistake. Contacts on 20 meters improved later in the day to allow several ragchews after having increased transmit power to 10 watts. The rental car provided a great portable shack until afternoon temperatures approached 100 degrees. On the next KX-3 QRP trip he will probably operate CW and try some evening operations.
The meeting adjourned at 10:56 AM.
Meeting attendance: 24