Minutes of Meeting – September 06, 2011

The meeting was called to order at 1906 by the President, Mike, KC9AOM. All present had signed the attendance sheet and there were no new faces present.

All reported having received the Newsletter and upon motion of Alan, KC9JWO, and a second by Charlie, K9TZJ, all were in favor of approval of the Minutes of the July meeting as provided in the Newsletter.

There were no reports of Silent Keys.

The Treasurer was not able to make the meeting so there was no report. It will be provided at the next meeting.

Tom, W9EEL, reported for the Technical Committee. After the .82 repeater failed it was thought that the controller was lost, and they were prepared to buy a new controller. When they went to the site and reset the repeater everything seemed to be OK. They found that calling in on the control line resulted in no ring signal. It was an AT&T line and when Anderson Tool changed providers this line lost service (They changed on 7/1/11). Steve, WA9CWE, provided a UHF receiver to use as a control receiver so that we could use that as the primary control for the repeater. It worked first time it was interfaced to the controller. An antenna was purchased and EMA provided the antenna mount.

When the repeater failed again after a thunderstorm Brian, KC9NCR, went to the site and found that the Kenwood RF package was in some kind of weird state. He recycled it and all was OK. Apparently we took a direct strike that goofed things up.

.09 Repeater – Everything seems to be working OK.

UHF Repeater – Steve, WA9CWE, explained the move and installation of the new RF package. Tim, KB9VE, and Charlie, K9TZJ, pitched in and the entire job was completed in a little over an hour. The output is the same as the old package and the receiver sensitivity is slightly better. The new location has emergency power from the station generator in the event that city power is lost. Pictures of the project are on the web site, and we looked over them and explained the installation to the membership.

Web Site – Paul, KC9BKZ, reported that the site is working fine. He’s adding pictures taken by Charlie, K9TZJ, of the training for set-up of the Health Department tent. The site got a message today from another repeater trustee who had done a search and found that our .09 repeater was controllable from the internet. He was requesting further information on how it’s done. Tim will be the person who will respond since he’s most familiar with that aspect of our repeater.

VE Testing – Paul, KC9BKZ, reported that the monthly testing has been going very well. We’ve had people take tests and pass every month. Anyone General of above is eligible to become a VE (Volunteer Examiner). A VE can only test for his class or lower so Amateur Extra Class holders are most versatile, but anyone who would like to become a VE would be welcome. That takes pressure off our current group of VE’s so they can miss a testing session and still have sufficient VE’s to conduct the session. Three VE’s are required to conduct a testing session. Go to ARRL web site for training and test to obtain credentials.

Steve, WA9CWE, told the story of an amateur from southern Indiana who grew up in Anderson in the ‘40’s and was looking for information on a ham named Albert Titus but he couldn’t remember his call. He sent a couple of messages thru the Club web site and Steve corresponded with him as a search was conducted. Steve’s wife researched and found that he was a well known person in the community and was in charge of the Anderson Police Department radio system for many years making it one of the best ones in the State. He was frequently written about in the newspaper. Gene Sample (who was the first President of the Madison County Amateur Radio Club when it changed after WW2 from the Anderson Amateurs Radio Club) and Bob Shoemaker finally came up with the call W9ICY for Albert. W9ICY was active in the radio clubs back then.

EMA Update – Tom, KA9SYP, reported that as usual the County is broke and we expect the EMA budget to be cut for next year. The E911 Board is active and is moving the County dispatchers from the Jail to the Anderson Dispatch Center in October. There’s a lot of State EMA activity, most at the District level, and that is where the grant money is. Our County is actively involved and participating in the district activities and we’re benefitting from the funding. Money is coming to our County because of the leadership that our folks are providing to the District activity. There is a major activity coming up April 14-16, 2012. The Colts Camp activity went extremely well. The event was rated almost perfect by the Colts organization, which is much higher than prior locations. Tom and the team set up a Command Center in the Colts Conference Room. This was a secure area in which there was not phones, texting, emails, etc. Non-Colts personnel have NEVER been allowed in this area before. Our members are the FIRST. Plans are already being made for next year. We might use a tent instead of the MCU. The next exercise is this weekend at the Tipton Pork Festival. This is an exercise for the AHIMT (All Hazards Incident Management Team).

The HAZMAT team is a new subset of the District Team structure. Also a new vehicle was received Monday to pull the AHIMT Trailer (our old CERT trailer). A radio cabinet is completed and will be used in this trailer and/or we can use it for our activities. It has a two meter rig and a low band rig in addition to the commercial radios, power supply, etc. There are also two computer network cabinets. One was used at the Colts Camp. Mike, KC9AOM, reported that 4 portable JPS units have been purchased for the District and one will go in our MCU and one in the AHIMT Trailer. The other two will go to other counties that have a high level of activity. The first Thursday in October will be an LEPC Tabletop exercise involving Nestle.

Weather Update – Tom, W9EEL, discussed the State Fairground accident. That was the same storm that hit Madison County. We also had a concert going on in Alexandria that the Operations guys were participating. The Warning Division gave a timely warning of the gust front and the concert was shut down and everyone left just before the front arrived. The Alexandria organizers were disciplined and willing to shut down their event. The thunderstorms got about 8- 10 miles from Elwood and just stopped in Tipton County.

Tom’s weather update is that it’s cold, a result of tropical storm Lee to the south. The result is gusty winds tonight. It’s not coming straight toward Indiana. We will get a fair amount of wind and rain. Long term we’re in “neutral” right now and we probably will stay that way thru the winter.

Dale, KV9W, reported on a new event coming up this Saturday. “Indiana Parks On The Air” will be an event to activate amateur stations at every State Park in Indiana (Ohio started this and will be on the air this weekend too). The Madison County ARC will be set up and operating from 12 Noon to 8PM. They will be set up just inside the entrance and to the left. Everyone is invited to come out to participate.

November 6 is the Run-The-Mounds Communications Exercise.

The State ARES test is October 1 & 2.

Old Business – None

New business – None

The Technical Session was a discussion of Spotter Training and the “UCAR”. It has two components: Role of the SKYWARN Spotter and SKYWARN Spotter Convective Basics. Dale, KV9W, reported that there are 155 slides of cloud formations, etc, and they are very good. This is free and can be found on QRZ.com

There was no other items for discussion so a motion for adjournment by K9TZJ and seconded by KB9SCC was approved. The meeting was closed at 2007. Mike, KB9DJU, won the door prize.

13 Present

Respectfully submitted,
Steve Riley, WA9CWE,
Secretary, ARC