November 9, 2013

GENERAL MEETING; President Peter Howard NØGRM started the meeting at 9 a.m.

SECRETARY’S REPORT: The minutes have been approved as posted on SARA web-site. Our new SARA FaceBook page is up and running.

TREASURER’S REPORT:   Shel N0DRX (help me out Shel –  I didn’t hear the numbers on the recorder)

ACTIVITIES & EVENTS:   Dave W0OXB was not present for the meeting but Peter Howard stated in his behalf that the Split Rock event was a big success with approximately 1000 contacts.  He reminded members that the 160 meter net (Round Robin Rag Chew) is held everynight on 1.903 Mhz at 8:00 p.m.

President’s Report:  Elections will be held in January.  See this month’s newsletter for further info. All positions are open and everyone is encouraged to participate.

Peter NØGRM announced that members can now bring one or two items to the monthly Club meeting to sell.  Please, no boat anchors or non-ham items but remember:  if it doesn’t sell, you must take it back home.

Keith Miller AGØH stated that pictures of the 2013 Split Rock Special Event have been posted on the Club’s Flicker site.  The URL to enter into the address line on your browser is:  www.flicker.com/photos/stillwater_arc.  (There is an ‘underscore’ line _ between the word stillwater and the word arc)

Keith also added that NØUC (Dick Roberts of SEMARC) is running an FLDIGI 2 meter digital net every Wednesday night at approximately 2030 hours for any interested operator.  Check in begins on the 146.985 repeater after the normal net finishes.  NØUC will ask for check-ins and then move to 144.950 to do the digital portion of the net.  All check-ins are then asked at the end of the net to return to 146.985 where they can exchange information and questions.

TRAINING/ EDUCATION: Bob Jensen WØGAF stated Shel Mann NØDRX will conduct a VE session on Wednesday Nov. 13, 2013 starting at 1800 hours.

REPEATER:   Henry Schwartz KØHAS outlined two problems we are having on the club’s two meter repeater: 1-  There are times that low level signals cannot be heard by our repeater.  This is caused by RF noise being generated inside the King Stack by Excel.  The higher the noise is, the more it covers up incoming low level signals.  There is nothing we can do about noise generated by Excel.   2-. From time to time, we occasionally hear what sounds like a rolling pipe noise.  Henry believes some of this is caused internally by mixes of different frequencies.  He added that going to a split PL transmit/receive pair might eliminate part of the noise.  He is planning on visiting the repeater site to program the repeater after the meeting.  We will keep the users transmit code as 114.8 so nothing will change for anyone who is currently accessing the repeater.  We will change the receive PL code to 156.7.  If members have a transceiver that is capable of using a receive PL code, then switch it from 114.8 to 156.7.

DIGITAL NET:   Joe KCØOIO Said that the SARA digital  net will be held next Sunday, November 17th, at 1900 hours on 3582.15 as scheduled.  He’s had several people express interest in getting on PSK and other digital modes and want to practice with us. He explained that he had several conflicts in his schedule in the past which required him to cancel the net.  Hopefully, those conflicts are over and he should be able to hold the net on Sunday nights without further cancellations.  Those with Elecraft KX3’s who would like to participate will be able to do so as he will use PSK31 as the digital mode on November 17th.

PROGRAM:  Peter NØGRM showed how he does his remote operation while backpacking. He covered power requirements, planning, antenna, weather, equipment care, and the unusual environment, challenges when operating remote.

Bob WØGAF guided us thru how the Island activating and registering process works. He had some great pictures of some of his island operations in the Boundary waters.

Both brought and explained the equipment they used for their field operations and answered questions from the members after the program. Thanks to Peter and Bob for a very enjoyable program!

Respectfully submitted,

Dan Lee ADØDV, Secretary

APPROVED:  December 13, 2013