Minutes of Meeting – January 04, 2011

The meeting was called to order at 1905 by the President Mike, KC9AOM. There were a number of hams present so Mike asked each to introduce themselves.

Everyone reported receiving the Newsletter and by motion of K9TZJ and second of N9ZAF the Minutes of the last meeting were approved as printed with all in favor.

It was mentioned that the wife of Marvin Barker, WA9WQS, had passed away. Marvin is not a current member of the Club but is well known among local hams.

Our Treasurer Tim, KB9VE, reported: Initial checking balance $1,951.89. Disbursements of $7.14 for our State Corporate filing, $21.35 for batteries for the Weather Station and $83.40 for the Web Hosting fee. The total disbursements were $111.89 leaving a new balance of $1,840.00. The dues he has received have not yet been put into the account. After the meeting tonight he’ll deposit everything. Upon motion of N9ZAF and a second by K9TZJ it was moved that the Treasurer’s report by accepted as presented. All were in favor.

The President opened the floor for Nominations for Officers for 2011. There were no additional nominations. Charlie, K9TZJ, moved that the Secretary cast a unanimous ballot for the current Officers. It was seconded by Larry, KB9SCC. All present were in favor. Therefore the Officers for 2011 are:
President          Mike Dewey, KC9AOM
Vice-President  Doug Townsend, KB9DXO
Secretary          Steve Riley, WA9CWE
Treasurer         Tim Galbraith, KB9VE
.82 Trustee        Tom Ecker, KA9SYP
.09 Trustee        Tim Galbraith, KB9VE
Tech. Committee Tom Harbron, W9EEL, Phil Miller, WB9URL, Guido Politano, WB9ZJR President Mike thanked the membership for the show of support and promised to do the best we could to lead the Club in 2011.

Mike announced that we are accepting dues for this year, and several have paid tonight. Membership cards were distributed to those who have already paid. Those paying tonight or in the future will get cards as soon as the Secretary can get them typed up

. .82 Repeater Report: Trustee Tom, KA9SYP, didn’t have any update. Tom, W9EEL, reported that during a Sunday evening net recently the sensitivity was found to be poor. We switched to the low antenna and it came back to normal. A few days later it was switched back to the high antenna and it continues to be OK. During the problem time it was snowing and windy, so perhaps precipatation static may have contributed. We want everyone to be aware of it and should you notice a lack of sensitivity please notify one of the Officers or Technical Committee. We are logging the occurrences and weather conditions with hope of discovering the root cause.

.09 Repeater: Trustee Tim, KB9VE, noted that all is working fine including the IRLP link.

UHF Repeater: Trustee Steve, WA9CWE, indicated it’s working fine.

Web Site: Paul, KC9BKZ, says it’s still working fine. Everyone is encouraged to visit it.

Weather Station: Tim, KB9VE, reported it’s working but some issues are developing. He’s talked to the manufacturer about what the rain gage is doing. He replaced the reed switch, but it’s still acting up (Tom says it recorded 56 inches of rain this morning!). When the weather gets warmer Tim is going to replace the entire unit and we’ll send the old one back to be refurbished.

EMA Report: Tom, KA9SYP, reported that he will be supporting the POCAR event in southern Indiana the weekend of January 14 to 17. They will be operating on 6 FM, 52.54 MHz. with vertical polarization. They are planning on 3 major communications setups and he’ll be taking our Shelter Tent for one site. Anyone interested should listen on 6 for their activities.

He and several other County AHIM T members attended a one-week convention in Denver, CO for All Hazard Incident Management teams. There were over 600 people there this year. There were many interesting presentations and in many cases we’re up-to-speed with our operations, and in some cases we can improve. Overall, they learned a lot.

Our County has the first two fully certified AHIMT members in the State. Tom is certified in Planning, and Dick, K9FOI in Finance. Also the team is getting some funding for the District 6 team. He’s already ordered $4,100 worth of equipment and is ready to order another $55,000 more.

The MCU drivers should prepare for an EVOC (Emergency Vehicle Operator Course) certification class next month. All drivers of emergency vehicles need this certification. It’s an 8 hour class and will be held at Anderson Speedway. Our organization has two certified instructors now.

Dick and Tom have met with the County Commissions including the newly elected one. They expect everything to be fine with them and our group. We are working to incorporate the Anderson EMA members into our group. They are being invited to all of our activities and meetings. Our last big activity was the Presidental visit to Kokomo.

Weather Report: Tom, W9EEL, reported that the NWS is saying that January should be below normal in temperature. We are in a quiet period now. In December there were 27 days out of 31 in which there was snow on the ground. He doesn’t expect any big storms upcoming.

The Secretary presented the New Member Application of Bryan Frank, W9BLF. Upon motion of WA9CWE and KC9AOM the membership voted to accept Bryan to full membership.

Upcoming Activities: On Saturday, January 15 is the State RACES Test. We’ll be participating by manning the ECC and calling a net on .82 at 9AM. The County Club guys will man the low band equipment to communicate with the State EOC as we have done in the past. On Tuesday, March 15 at 7PM will be the annual StormNet Training Class. It’ll be held at the Ivy Tech Conference Center north of 600North on SR9. Dave Tucek will be the presenter again.

Old Business: Steve, WA9CWE, presented the official document to make the Club a Supporting Member of the ARES of Madison County. This was initially approved at the November meeting and he asked that the membership vote in support of it again after he read the actual wording (See Attached). Upon motion of WA9CWE and second of K9TZJ the membership voted all in favor of this action. The officers will sign it and get the original document to the EC, Dale, KV9W.

Tom, KA9SYP, reported briefly on a national exercise that he’s working on. He’s been in Washington, DC participating in planning for a 3 State, 14 EOC Communications and WebEOC exercise. Even though it’s being driven at the Federal level he reported that there has been specific interest and request for amateurs and the ARRL to participate in this exercise.

There is also a Federal District 5 Exercise coming up in June that includes 23 counties in Southern Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky. Preparations have been going on since last year and activities continue. This will be a multi-day event. Our county is not expected to be involved, but perhaps our district AHIMT may be asked to respond.

Dale, KV9W, reported that our State has a vacancy for the ARES EC, and they are taking applications for anyone interested in taking on this responsibility.

Show-And-Tell: Tom, KA9SYP, showed the new Antenna Analyzer that he received just before Christmas. He’s used it to check and tune his 5 antennas and has found a bad piece of coax. It’s a “Rig Expert AA-54 from Array Solutions” and it’s advertised in QST. He paid $336 for it. The unit covers .1 to 54 MHz., ham bands only, and measures SWR, Frequency, Multiband antennas, coax length, and many other characteristics. The display can provide line graphs or bar graphs and it’s easy to use and understand. Additionally, software is provided to interface it with a computer. He’s used a number of other analyzers and believes this one is one of the easiest to use.

Technical Presentation: Tom, W9EEL, presented information on the Earthquake that occurred last Thursday, December 30, just north of Elwood. He showed us the information from the USGS report and the Indiana University Seismograph data. He discussed in detail the magnitude scales and what they physically mean. We discussed damage, energy, types of soil that contribute to earthquakes, building construction and much more. Our discussion went on for an hour and we learned much about earthquakes here and in California.

Upon motion of K9TZJ and KA9SYP the meeting was adjourned at 2030. There were 20 present.

Respectfully Submitted,
Steve Riley, WA9CWE, Secretary, ARC



Attachment for ARC/ARES Agreement approved at this meeting:

The Anderson Repeater Club, Inc. a 100 Percent Amateur Radio licensed membership and ARRL Affiliated Club located in Madison County, Indiana voted at a regular meeting on November 2, 2010, and reconfirmed at a regular meeting on January 4, 2011:

TO BECOME A SUPPORTING GROUP OF THE AMERICAN RADIO RELAY LEAGUE AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE (ARES) OF MADISON COUNTY, INDIANA

All regular members of the Anderson Repeater Club, Inc. will be considered to be active members of the ARES of Madison County, Indiana unless they notify the Emergency Coordinator (EC) of the ARES or Secretary of the ARC of their desire to forgo participation in the ARES.

This affiliation will continue until notification in writing of either party of the desire to discontinue this agreement.

The ARC Secretary will provide the Madison County EC with a listing of members yearly for ARES records.

_____________________             _____________________
President, ARC, 2011             Vice-President, ARC, 2011

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Secretary, ARC, 2011             Treasurer, ARC, 2011