March, 2011    

Our next meeting is Tuesday, March 1, at 7:00PM in the EOC Training Room. We have some important Club business to discuss related to Liability Insurance (See below). Please make every effort to attend.

Remember the StormNet Training is on Tuesday, March 15, at 7:00PM. This years’ class will be held at the new Ivy Tech Conference Center just north of 600 North on State Road 9. This building was a funeral home and is on the west side of the road. Our speaker will be David Tucek from the National Weather Service in Indianapolis. Plan to attend and bring along any friends/family members who are interested in severe weather observation. This is one of the most important activities of our Communications Division and our County Amateur Operators. Thanks for your support in the past and this coming season. We want to have even more trained observers in the field, so invite any of your amateur friends who can help. As Tom has reported to us in the past Madison County has had the most reported tornados of any county in the State. It’s not because of our location but because we have so many trained observers out there watching and reporting them.

Welcome to our newest member, Bryan Frank, N9BLF. Bryan’s application was approved at the January meeting and we welcome him to our Club. Bryan’s been a ham for a number of years and has many volunteer responsibilities including Chief of the Richland Township Volunteer Fire Department.

If you have not submitted your dues contribution for 2011 yet, please do so as soon as you can. You can send them to our mailbox: Anderson Repeater Club, Inc. PO Box 615, Anderson, 46015. Or you can bring them to the meeting (preferred so we get a chance to have an “eyeball QSO”). Another alternative is to bring your check to our Treasurer Tim, at Anderson Automotive Color on Scatterfield Road. Feel comfortable leaving your money with any of Tim’s employees as they have been receiving dues for us for many years! Members who we have received dues to date are: WD9AES, KC9AOM, W9BLF, KC9BKZ, WB9BSU, WA9CWE, KD9DR, N9DR, W9EEL, N9HJJ, K9IND, N9JDR, KC9JWO, KC9KHP, KC9LGP, KC9NCR, KB9NTG, KB9SCC, WA9STB, KA9SYP, K9TZJ, KB9VE, KV9W, KB9WI, N9XXT, KG4YEV, N9ZAF.

We’re preparing to take on another important project. As you know theAmateur Volunteer Examiner Testing has been given here in Anderson once a month for the last several years. A number of local hams became VE’s, some of whom are in our Club, and have been dedicated to making sure it happened monthly. The results have been outstanding. An average of 4 or 5 people per month have shown up from all over central Indiana to get into our hobby for the first time, or to upgrade an existing license. Anyway, the VE Liaison has decided that he wasn’t going to continue. Therefore, Paul, KC9BKZ, has set up with the ARRL to become a VE Liaison and to continue this testing. Most of the VE’s have agreed to continue to help and a couple of us have applied to be VE’s so we can help too. In order to ease this transition we have indicated that our Club would be the sponsor. If you review the calendar on the ARRL or our Club websites you’ll see that the testing continues at the same location and date/time.

Anyway, we believe that it’s in our best interest to protect ourselves and our Club by obtaining Liability Insurance for the Club, our meetings and activities like this VE Testing. We have obtained a quote thru the ARRL’s program (Marsh U.S. Consumer - a service of Seabury & Smith, Inc.). The cost is $320 for the annual premium. It’s a big hit to our Treasury, but needs to be seriously considered as we take on this important obligation. Please come to the meeting to discuss this matter. By the way, if you have an interest in becoming a VE Paul is anxious to have others become certified and help out at the testing. The more VE’s we have the easier it is to have at least 3 VE’s (required) at each testing session. Get on the ARRL web site and find the information related to becoming a VE. An open book test is required to be submitted with the application to the ARRL. There is no cost to become certified. Since you can only proctor license classes equivalent or below your own it’s best if you have an Amateur Extra license, but a General or Advanced Class licensee can be certified too, and will be valuable at testing sessions. If you have additional questions contact Paul (KC9BKZ).

If you attended the January meeting you know that the election of Officers for 2011 resulted in the re-election of the 2010 slate. We all thank you for your continued support and look forward to continuing the activities of the Club in 2011. For review, the leadership team is:
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
Technical Committee:
Tom Harbron, W9EEL
Phil Miller, WB9URL
Guido Politano, WB9ZJR

I hope you have taken the time to visit our web site regularly. Paul continues to keep it current and looking good. If you have items of interest submit it to Paul to be posted. We had so much on the site that our available storage became full and Paul had to remove quite a bit of info. It’s all archived, so if you are missing something that you remember seeing in the past and need it contact Paul. He’ll find it for you.

Hope to see you at the meeting on Tuesday. We usually have 15 to 20 members present, so join us for an evening of fun.

73,
Steve, WA9CWE
Secretary, ARC