Minutes of Meeting – November 03, 2009

The meeting was called to order by the President, Mike, KC9AOM, at 1900. There were 22 present and signed in on the attendance sheet. Mike asked for any corrections to the Minutes of the September meeting posted in the Newsletter. None were offered and upon motion of WB9URL and KB9NTG the minutes were voted approved as printed.

There were no reports of Silent Keys.

Treasurer Tim, KB9VE, reported that the initial checking balance was $2,492.66, there were disbursements of $204.16 for the January to September telephone line, $7.14 for the State Corporation Report for a total disbursement of $211.30. Income in the form of dues of $34 for a total checking balance of $2,315.36. A motion to approve was made by N9HJJ, seconded by KC9JWO, and all present voted in favor.

.82 Repeater Report – Phil, WB9URL and Guido, WB9ZJR, in the course of a QSO this morning evaluated the coverage of the .82 and .09 repeaters as Guido went north on I69. They found that the .09 repeater was useable at mile marker 80, both receiver and transmitter. The .82 repeater receiver dropped out at mile marker 70 but the transmitter was still strong. It appears that there is still a receiver issue on the .82 repeater. Steve is going to retune the duplexer when he gets a chance. Perhaps that will decrease the losses thru the receiving side.

.09 Repeater Report – No issues reported

. UHF Repeater Report – Steve reported that in the last few months the power in south Anderson was lost twice, and the repeater doesn’t always come back up in the operational mode. Therefore, he added a UPS to keep it going until the power comes back on. Additionally, the repeater is going to be moved to the small building at the base of the WGNR tower which has power from the station generator. The UPS will then keep the repeater on until the generator comes up. The WGNR primary tower was repainted recently and we discussed that feat.

Web Site Report – Paul, KC9BKZ, reported that it’s doing just fine. We do need some additional pictures of member stations to post on the site. He has also posted pictures of the recent EMA Communications Division activities.

IRLP & Weather Station – Tim, KB9VE, indicated that the IRLP has been operating flawlessly. The weather station is working well too, but the rain collector seems to be a “debris magnet” and he has to come out to clean it regularly. Tom, KA9SYP, reported that during a recent EMA activation he met the new Post Commander at District 51 (Pendleton), his third day. In the course of discussions (3) of the troopers were telling how much they liked our on-line weather station and they used it from computers in their cars. They particularly liked the “road temperature” report. We do need to look into getting the other weather station up and going. Tim has used the proposed interface technique on his weather station and it works just fine.

EMA Update – Tom, KA9SYP, reported that the budget had been cut significantly for 2010. He met with the District 6 Task Forces yesterday and finalized the funding for the (6) Task Force groups from the ’07 money. There wasn’t much available. The first H1N1 clinic is tomorrow at Hoosier Park. He and Dick, K9FOI, have visited every school and made plans for those activities, but due to the lack of vaccine that plan was scrapped and the public drive-thru clinics will be held for the 5 risk groups. The next one will be on the 12th and Alexandria. The groups we know will be participating at Hoosier Park include APD, MCPD, Anderson Medics, Anderson University Nursing Students, Ivy Tech Nursing Students, The Hospitals, Private Carriers, the Government Center employees and Hoosier Park. Steve, WA9CWE, reviewed the prepared ICS205 Communications Plan for this event. Tom reviewed the overall plan.

Weather Update – Tom, W9EEL, reported that an El Nino is running that typically results in milder winter weather. He also showed and explained to us the National Weather Service predictions for temperatures by month thru the winter.

New Member Applications – The Secretary, WA9CWE, presented the application of Rick Rogers, KC9LGP of Anderson, Dick’s Grandson (WA9STB). Upon the motion of WA9CWE and KC9AOM, the membership voted to approve Rick for membership and he was welcomed into the Club.

EMA Communications Update – Steve, WA9CWE, reviewed the Run-the-Mounds Communications Exercise last Sunday. Many of the communicators were present and we briefly discussed the event. The Road Runners Club appreciated our support again this year.

Paul, KC9BKZ, asked for input into the 2010 Event Calendar that is posted on the web site. We looked and it and asked that if anyone has any event they’d like to have posted to notify Paul.

We discussed the on-line web sites that can assist with license test preparation. Steve used www.hamtestonline.com. Paul has used www.eham.com. We looked at both and discussed the features of each. There are others out there too. Using these sites can speed up the learning of the question pool and improve understanding.

Upcoming Activities – the Fort Wayne Hamfest is on the 14th and 15th.

Old Business – The planned antenna repair is not likely to happen due to the budget constraints with EMA.

New Business – Mike reminded everyone that the Ham-Of-The-Year award is available and anyone who wants to nominate a ham should contact an officer. We also opened nominations for Officers for 2010. There were no nominations made and it will be held open until the January meeting.

Dick, WA9STB, reported that Bob, K9IND, has moved to an assisted living condo. The equipment he’s selling is listed on the Madison County ARC website. Bob has the same TX and email as before.

We are accepting dues for 2010. (14 received so far tonight)

Phil, WB9URL, mentioned that in Nuts & Volts he read an article that you can check that an infrared controller is working by looking at it with your cell phone camera. We tried it and it actually works. Thanks to Phil for that trivia.

Technical Presentation – Steve, WA9CWE, presented information and a demonstration on the “Tone Alert Monitors” we use on the .82 repeater. He demonstrated his alert monitor receiver, showed the “old” (1973 by W9EEL) tone alert board, the “new” (1988 by WD9AES) board, and reviewed the schematic of how each works. Thanks to Bill, WD9AES, there are still some boards and components available if someone wants to build one.

Tom, W9EEL, reported that the National Weather Service has set up a new transmitter in Muncie on 162.425 MHz. He and Steve have been monitoring it and it is being debugged at this time. Dave Tucek indicated that it’ll cover as far west as Madison County, so it won’t be good for giving us information to our west. We intend to continue to use the Indianapolis station for our primary information source but encourage everyone to listen for this new setup.

Larry, N9HJJ, announced that the Madison County ARC Christmas Party is on December 12, at 6PM at Perkins. Everyone is welcome.

The door prize drawing included not only a gift card but also four Fort Wayne Hamfest tickets. The gift card was won by Phil, WB9URL, and Hamfest tickets went to Dave, KB9NTG, Carl, KD9DR, Joe, KC9KHP, and Tom, KA9SYP.

The meeting was adjourned at 2021.

Respectfully Submitted,
Steve Riley, WA9CWE
Secretary, ARC