RARC Meeting Minutes – April 2008

The April meeting of the Rochester Amateur Radio Club was called to order by President KariAnn Wiles, KCØWIP, at 7:04 p.m., April 8^th, 2008. at the RCTC Campus. There were 37 members and guests present.

KariAnn began the round the room introductions.

Meeting Minutes:

RARC Secretary, Daryl ACØID, presented the old and new business from the March 2008 meeting minutes.

• A correction of the March meeting minutes was required in regards to the new meeting location. The minutes had stated that one of the April meeting locations would be room EH 109 at the RCTC campus near the east parking lot. It should have read room EH 109 near the west parking lot.

The March 2008 meeting minutes were approved with the correction.

Treasurer's Report:  Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Checking	$2504.74
Savings	$1485.77
CD @ 3.39% (note 1)	$4354.41
Cash	$20.00
	----------
Total	$8364.92

Transactions this period:

2008 Dues	+$505.00
Donations	+$57.40
Interest	+$0.01
Qwest	-$16.26
RPU(2Q08)	-$80.00

Notes: 1 - CD is repeater reserve funds

Membership status:   90 club members  

Submitted by RARC Treasurer, Bob Hart, KCØGND.

Committee reports:

• Looking at setting up digital modes at the school stations with the help of Bob ABØBW.
• Rob KCØFOW inspected the proposed school station location at Century High School and determined that it should be possible to setup a station there. Rob will present a report to the Eduction Committee next month on his finding and suggestions.
• KariAnn KCØWIP and Doug KDØUGB are trying to find a rack or cabinet to secure the equipment in at Century.

• The Med-City Marathon will be held Sunday May 25th. Eric KFØS is running the event and will have a sign-up sheet for volunteers at the next club meeting. It is the largest event the club does so Eric is looking for lots of people to help. It is an all day event, but you can work as long as you wish at the event.
• More public service event information will be on the event calendar soon.

• Bob has a few more ARES badges to pass out. The current badges are good through the end of 2008.
• We need to do some drills in the near future to test our communications capabilities in the Rushford area.

• Sent an email to those on the contact list to verify contact information. Did not get many responses back yet. If you are on the Med ARES team, please get your updated contact information to John.
• After receiving the contact information requested, a meeting will be held, possibly later in April.

• Finishing up setup of HF and ATV.
• Will be placing a group order for SKYWARN magnetic signs. There is a $10 and a $15 version of the sign. See Steve if you would like a sign for your storm spotting vehicle.
• The EOC would like all storm spotters to provide their driver license number, insurance policy number, and plate numbers for all vehicles used in storm spotting. If you are a SKYWARN storm spotter, please get that information to Steve as soon as possible.

• Some technical committe members did some maintenance work on the 82 repeater. A battery was replaced, and connectors were reseated. They found that the power output was very low. Some work is now being done to the amp by Dave KCØUCN.
• John NØHZN has determined that the tower trailers need to be replaced. Stew WØSHL did some pricing and determined that a new tower would be roughly $700. The Techincal Committee is also recommending that the club try to obtain 2 trailers, one of which should be enclosed so that it can be operated out of.

• The 2008 Clipperton DXpedition was a success. Scott KØMD announced that the Clipperton group will be presenting at the club meeting in August after the RARExpo.

• The Field Day committee report is covered under the New Business catagory this month.

• The RARExpo committee report is covered under the New Business catagory this month.

Old Business:

• There is a group of club members headed up by KCØGND currently reviewing and updating the club bylaws to make them more current. Nothing much is happening currently on that front. The group has drawn up a proposal for providing proxy voting for things such as the annual club elections. For a preview, see the club web site link http://www.rarchams.org/bylaws-beta.htm. There will be a motion at the next club meeting concerning the new bylaws. KariAnn KCØWIP also asked Robert KØRDA and Daryl ACØID to investigate online balloting for proxy voting by the next club meeting.
• Pat NØADQ is currently investigating the options of provding a VE exam session soon after the April 26th Technician class.
• Bob ABØBW gave an IRLP (Internet Radio Linking Project) update. Bob's setup is almost complete, but there are technical difficulties getting the sound card to talk to the radio. Bob offered to give a digital/IRLP presentation as the program for the next club meeting.

New Business:

• Dave KØVH presented the findings of the Field Day committee's investigation of what should be done at Field Day, and where it should be held. Dave mentioned that Scott KØMD and Pat NØADQ had been working on Field Day planning for the past few months. The committee was now in charge of presenting options to the club for a vote. Dave also mentioned that we need to publicize Field Day better. We need to get the word out to the media before the event happens to make the public better aware of what we do.

  The options that were presented for the 2008 Field Day event were:

  A. 4A station at Pat's farm
  B. 2A station at Century
  C. RCTC as an alternative
  D. GOTA in A or B.
  

  Peter N8MHD also presented the option of providing an emphasis on education as well as on contesting. It was thought that we could educate new hams and at the same time provide a 5A station.

  A motion to go with option A with a 4A or 5A station was presented. Ballots were distributed to club members to vote on a location. After an 8 minute break, the ballot count was announced. The Kasson location at Pat's farm was chosen "27 or 28 to 5". The motion passed to have Field Day at Pat's farm.

  Dave KØVH passed a sign-up sheet around for people to choose what activites they would like to be involved with during Field Day.

  Some interest in getting an optimal call sign for Field Day was voiced. A motion was passed that the Field Day committee decide whether the club should obtain a call sign for Field Day by next club meeting.

 

• Stew WØSHL asked if anyone had the ground wire trencher that belongs to Curt Preuss. If you know where it is please contact Stew. Stew also announced that he will be putting the various equipment belonging to Curt Preuss on the consignment sheet to sell at The Spy Shop Direct.

 

• Stew WØSHL asked that the Technical committee investigate whether we really need to provide the auto-patch function on the 82 repeater any longer since most people have cell phones now. It was decided that since we still need the phone line to the repeater for control purposes, we essentially get the auto-patch function for free so we might as well keep it. There was no further discussion needed on the topic.

 

• The RARExpo committee chairs gave a brief update on the expo.

  Stan KDØBQ addressed the cost of the expo. He reported on several steps that had been taken to help reduce the costs. Those included the college agreeing to co-sponsor the event, and moving the hamfest from the arena to the 15000 sq. ft. performance court space. That drove our costs way down since we no longer are required to pay for the space used. Even more cost savings have been achieved by moving the banquets to the college cafeteria.

  Scott KØMD presented the program for the WØDXCC convention part of the expo. He went over the speakers that are attending and the presentations that they plan to give. He also described the numerous workshops that will be held by Yaesu, ICom, and many others on a wide variety of topics.

  John NØHZN presented the latest news on the hamfest part of the expo. He asked that anyone that has contacts with vendors to please get that contact information to him so he can go after them to get them to attend the hamfest. He also talked about the hamfest logistics and setup. John also asked that anyone attending area hamfests or swap meets to please pass the word around about the RARExpo. He has some handouts that you can take to distribute at those locations so talk to him before you go.

  KariAnn KCØWIP presented what is new on the Dakota Division portion of the expo. Jay Bellows and other ARRL people will be presenting. There will be more on that on the web site at a later date. Bob ABØBW will be putting the ARES portion of the program together. There are also some public service demos planned with the EM50. KariAnn's main goal is to make this portion of the expo interesting and appealing to the non-ham portion of the public.

 

• KariAnn KCØWIP announced that club meetings will continue to be held at the RCTC campus location in room EH 109.

The business meeting was adjourned at 8:46 p.m.

Respectfully submitted, Daryl Mowrer, ACØID

Program:

Stan KDØBQ gave a tour of the RCTC campus facilities. He showed us room SH 210 in Singley Hall which is a larger room that we could have the club meetings in if needed. He then showed us some of the class room space that will be used during the RARExpo. We were also directed to the large space that will be used by the vendors during the hamfest portion of the expo. The facilities at the RCTC campus are very impressive.

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