Minutes of Meeting – July 07, 2009

The meeting was called to order by the President, Mike, KC9AOM, at 1900. There were new folks present so Mike asked all to introduce themselves.

The minutes from the May meeting were approved as printed in the Newsletter upon motion of KA9SYP and KB9ZLP and approval by all present.

An update on Dick, WA9STB was requested. WA9CWE reported that an email from Dick indicated that he was home from the hospital and recovering slowly. It was mentioned that Dick can accept visitors 9A-9P for short visits.

Treasurer Tim, KB9VE, reported: Check balance was $2,566.78. Disbursements of $28.92 for cleaner for the repeater maintenance, $60 to Lectro Communications for the service call, $25.20 for the Vanity Call Sign fee and $60 to the PostMaster for the PO box for a total of $174.12. Income was $100 in dues for a new balance of $2,492.66. The report was accepted upon motion of N9HJJ and K9TZJ. All approved.

.82 Repeater Report – WA9CWE reported on the maintenance that he and W9EEL performed. He passed around the dissembled antenna relay that was found to be the primary problem. We discussed other possible work to be done and noted that if we had to pay the entire cost to replace the primary antenna and feedline our treasury would drop to less than $1 . Mike reported that EMA may be able to help out with the cost. Gene, KB9WI, noted that he was pleased that Burr’s call, W9OBH, is on the repeater and he has fond memories of Burr each time the repeater ID’s. Others agreed.

.09 Repeater Report – Tim, KB9VE, noted that the repeater is working fine and the IRLP is getting a lot of air time. He’s not certain of the reason for the difficulties with the ARRL News for the last two weeks other than there was none scheduled for the weekend of the 4th.

UHF Repeater Report – Steve reported that it has been working fine but there was a problem when the site lost commercial power. The RF package didn’t come back on when the power came on so it had to be turned off and on with the help of the station Chief Engineer.

Web Site Report – Paul, KC9BKZ, noted it has been doing fine and getting a lot of hits and page reads indicating a lot of interest including those who are not members of the club.

Weather Station – Tim, KB9VE, reported it’s working OK. The rain gage quit for a while but he found that “a bird had some very good aim” in the collector. He cleaned it out and that feature has worked fine since.

Tom, KA9SYP, mentioned that we may be able to put the other weather station on St. Vincent property in Elwood. Tim discussed the interfacing options of either a computer or a Davis interface where a computer isn’t required. Tim and Tom will get together and decide on the best course of action and review if any items are needed to get all the features working since we borrowed some parts to keep the primary station operating. We really need someone to understand the interfacing of the current unit so we can develop the same appearance on the second site.

EMA Report – Steve thanked everyone who has responded to the last Stormnet alerts. We continue to have difficulty finding observers in the northern part of the county and he appreciates the guys from the central who go north, primarily KC9NCR and KC9HYZ.

The Mobile Communications Unit has been out for the Health Department “Point-of-Distribution” exercise and a HAZMAT Table-Top exercise in Anderson today.

The State RACES Exercise is upcoming on the 18th, and we’ll call a net at 9AM. The MCARC members will man the low band stations and do the check-ins on SSB and the digital modes. The State RACES Grant provided the digital interface needed. The guys will have it hooked up prior to the test.

Weather Report – Tom, W9EEL, is not in attendance as he’s teaching an observer class for the Pendleton Fire Department this evening. Tom, KA9SYP, says that the volunteer departments are planning to disperse their equipment when the weather is bad, so training of the firemen will give us many additional eyes on the weather. This will supplement our Stormnet observers. We’ll work on ways to interface their reports into our network and add them to the Plan.

New Member applications – We have received applications from Dale Bales, KV9W and Jon Fields, KC9PWR. Both are in attendance tonight. Upon a motion by WA9CWE that Dale and Jon be accepted into full membership in the ARC and a second by KB9WI, the membership voted unanimously in favor. Dale and Jon were welcomed into the Club.

Upcoming Activities – the Indy hamfest is this weekend. The Broadripple Hamfest is on August 1, the MCARC Tailgate Party at Lectro is August 8, and the Greenfield Hamfest is sometime in August.

Larry, N9HJJ, reported that the Madison County ARC repeater on 145.390 has been replaced effective last weekend with a new RF unit and it is now fully PL’ed with 151.4. Steve reminded everyone to update their transmitters to transmit the PL in addition to receiving it. The EMA radios have been reprogrammed to include this PL.

Old Business – None

New Business – Mike asked the membership what level do we want to put links on our website? Tim, KB9VE, suggested that he’s suspicious of anyone who solicits us to put their link on our site. Others felt the same way. Upon motion by Charlie, K9TZJ, that we keep the site clean of this type of links and a second by KB9VE, everyone voted in favor. Our WebMaster, Paul, KC9BKZ, was instructed to keep these types of links off the site. He is fully supportive of the decision.

Technical Presentation – none. This is the first meeting this year that we didn’t have something lined up. Members are asked to volunteer to do a technical session.

Upon motion of K9TZJ and KC9JWO the meeting was adjourned at 1939. 15 Present.

Respectfully Submitted,
Steve Riley, WA9CWE, Secretary, ARC