RARC Meeting Minutes - September 2003

The September meeting of the Rochester Amateur Radio Club was called to order at 7:00pm, Tuesday 9/9/03, by President Fred Regennitter (K4IU), with 30 members and guests present.

Reports

  • The August RARC meeting was the Picnic at Foster Arend park, which was well attended and lots of fun. No minutes were taken for August. The July minutes were approved. The Treasurer's report was approved.
  • Treasurer's Report: Bob (KCØGND).
    Checking: $ 1354.08
    Savings: $ 4956.03
    Undeposited dues: $ 25.00
    Cash: $ 30.00
    Total: $ 6365.11
    Major transactions this period:
    • Repeater Fund Income - $3,850.00
    • Other Tax Exempt donations - $371.01
    • Dues - $70.00
    • New '.82 Repeater- $2958.99
    • Repair old '.82 Repeater - $278.00
    • ARRL Liability Insurance - $278.00
    • Telephones - $71.96
    • Field Day and Picnic - $225.69

Committee Reports

  • Technical Committee - John (NØHZN):
    • The new 82 repeater has been taken off the air so it can be modified to remove the 2 sec delay when someone first uses the repeater. The supplier will do this at no charge. We had another mod done at the time of manufacture that allows any ctcss tone to be passed through the repeater. In order to do this a rather large capacitor was added. It takes 2 secs to charge the cap, thus causing the delay. The supplier will perform a mod to have the cap charged all the time.
    • The old 82 machine is back and this is a good time to test it for any future times we may need it. We will now have the capability to service one and still be on the air. In order to test it we need to have it running and it can only run on the 82 freq. So for once, things worked out. Some autodials may not work until we get a chance to reprogram it.
    • The 82 amp has failed again. I have talked with the vendor and they feel there must be a bad component and they will repair it.
    • The amp at the Simpson site: we thought we had an antenna problem because the amp would go to SWR overload when used. We tried on the 82 site and got the same results. Then for a third test we took it to Stew's house and got the same results. Conclusion: the amp is bad. As of now we don't see any need to replace it. APRS is doing fine without it.
    • The Astron power supply at Simpson: Murphy’s law is alive and well. When we removed the amp from the Simpson site we had to turn off the power supply. When we were done we tried to turn it back on. No luck, the switch is bad. I contacted Astron and they are sending a new switch. Simpson is now running off the power supply that had been used for the remote base.
  • Web and Membership - John (KØKTY): John is in las Vegas. Eleven people from the weekend class will be testing at the VE session 9/11.
  • Public Service - John (NØHZN):
    • We are done for the year. There may be an event February 14.
  • ARES - Steve (WØSTV):
    • There will be a big drill 9/13, county wide, at the airport. Check your go packs.
  • Library - Peter (N8MHD): We received a thank-you letter from the library for our donation of license manuals (Tech and Extra) and the Complete DXer.

New Business:

  • Eric (KFØS) proposed that the Christmas Party should be held at Dos Amigos, starting at 6:30. It was so moved and passed unanimously.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:30, a new record.

Program

Following the meeting, the program consisted of a presentation by Don Franck (ADØF), with descriptions and pictures of the Red Cross deployments to disaster sites that he has participated in this year.

Submitted by Peter N8MHD.

| Return to Meetings Page | Return to Main Page |