RARC Meeting Minutes – June 2008

The June meeting of the Rochester Amateur Radio Club was called to order by President KariAnn Wiles, KCØWIP, at 7:08 p.m., June 10^th, 2008. at the RCTC Campus. There were 37 members present including several newly licensed hams.

KariAnn began the round the room introductions.

Treasurer's Report:  Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Checking	$1770.51
Savings	$1485.9
CD @ 2.75% (note 1)	$4354.41
Cash	$20.00
	----------
Total	$7630.71

Transactions this period:

2008 Dues	+$25.00
Interest	+$0.01
IBM United Way	+32.40
RAREXPO	+145.00
Class Fees	+405.00
Class Expenses	-508.45
Qwest	-$16.33
RAREXPO	-50.00
'.82 repairs	-857.92

Notes: 1 - CD is repeater reserve funds

Membership status:   105 club members  

Submitted by RARC Treasurer, Bob Hart, KCØGND.

Meeting Minutes:

RARC Secretary, Daryl ACØID, thanked Bobby KCØNXB for taking the May 2008 meeting minutes in his absense.

• Bob ABØBW said that a correction was needed for the May meeting minutes. The date of the RochesterFest Parade was incorrect. It should have been June 27th instead of June 22nd.

The May 2008 meeting minutes were approved with the correction.

Committee reports:

• The 440 repeater is running fine. Still need to pull it to do maintenance on it.
• The 625 repeater is working good. The status of Echolink was not known at the time of the meeting.
• The 82 repeater has been getting a lot of attention lately. A new amp was installed. Dave KCØUCN has been putting in a lot of work on the repeater. He has the output working great now. The input side, however, still needs more work. Dave is going to pull the repeater and put it on the bench for a closer inspection. When he does that he will be replacing it with the old repeater temporarily.
• We are currently looking for another cabinet for the 82 repeater. With some of the recent changes that have been made the equipment no longer fits well in the current space. We are talking to the Mayo Civic Center and IBM about possibly obtaining a cabinet from them.

• For this meeting's program, Dave KØVH will do a presentation on Field Day. Stan will also show a video presentation including shots from last year's Field Day. Dave has a sign-up sheet for different field day activities that he will also pass around.
• There is a new ARRL QST Editor that is from SW Rochester. Stan is going to ask him to do a program sometime in the near future. His name is Kirk Kleinschmidt, NTØZ.

• This coming weekend is the ARRL VHF Contest. It's all modes working grid squares. On 2 meters, you aren't allowed to use repeaters or the common 146.52 simplex frequency, but you can use the other simplex frequencies.
• There are a few new countries on the air including Mayotti Island, and St. Bartholomew.

• Bob is Still working on what to do for drills this summer around the Rushford area. He is going to pick a date and have a people sign up. Then we'll just have people take their equipment out to various spots along the Mississippi river and we'll see if we can pick them up here in Rochester.
• The ARES badges expire in December. New badges will be distributed between December 2008 and March 2009.

• There is a SKYWARN net on the first and third Mondays of every month at 9:00 PM on the 147.255 repeater. The first net was held June 2nd and was a big success. This is a joint county venture with Wabasha and Winona taking part in the first net. Wabasha has offered to work our NE part of the county, and we have swapped maps with them. We have also agreed to do net control for them if they are short handed. It was a really good first net.
• Mike Bromberg of the Olmsted County EOC got his ham license after the last VE Exam session. His call sign is KDØEBO.
• Steve has more SKYWARN maps if anybody needs one.
• There is a joint venture underway to try DStar crossband into the cities. Within a couple of weeks we should be able to talk on 440 crossband to hams on the DStar network in the twin cities area. Talk to Steve or Rob KCØFOW for more information on this development.
• We will be updating the Red Cross antennas from a 2 meter JPole to a dual band vertical.

• Last weekend was the Diabetes Tour de Cure event. It was rained out after it started. It was good we were there to warn the organizers and the participants of the bad weather.
• Steve WØSTV reported on the RochesterFest parade being held June 27th. We will use the 625 repeater for the event. If you are helping, you need to be at your station by 5:45 PM. The parade starts at 6:15 PM.
• There are rumors of a Centurion to be held in August. More on that at a later date.
• The Rochester Half-marathon will also be in August. More on the web site later.
• Greg KCØEEU will be heading up the RochesterFest Triathalon. Contact Greg if you would like to help.
• More public service event information will be on the event calendar soon.

• Bobby KCØNXB reported that school is out for the summer so there is no activity at the school station.
• Bobby also reported that he and his family are moving out of town June 26th.
• There is a tower available at Longfellow that has been donated to us to use at the Century school station. Bill will investigate how we can get the tower dismantled, moved, and reassembled at Century.
• Bob KCØGND asked that Bill NØNUV get a DOU between the school and the club completed and delivered to him as soon as possible. Bill will report on this at the next meeting.

• The Field Day committee report is covered by the program this month.

• John NØHZN reported on the Expo. Reservations are starting to come in.
• John attended the TwinsLAN tailgate hamfest at the 3M plant, and handed out about 300 fliers. Many people there said they knew about the Expo and were planning to attend.
• We are still working on getting vendors to attend. If you know of any dealers, please talk to the about the RARExpo and ask them to join us. Fliers have gone out to 100 vendors so far and we've only heard back from 2. The gas prices are a real issue with the vendors.
• So far we have two confirmed vendors:
  • Radio Shack
  • Radio City
• There will be flyer work coming soon. Flyers have to be prepared for mailing.
• Tickets for the RARExpo are on sale now. See John or the web site to purchase yours.

Old Business:

• The 82 repeater repair will continue. We have a good plan on that.
• The feasibility of proxy voting will be discussed at next month's meeting. Part of the ongoing club bylaws rework being headed up by KCØGND needs a resolution to the proxy voting question. Daryl ACØID and others will investigate if we can use our web server to provide a proxy voting capability, and report on that at the next club meeting.

New Business:

• Don KCØQGB announced that his son, Bryan KCØWIJ, will be back in the next week and will be an active member in the club again. Bryan says "Hi!" to everyone.

 

• Bob ABØBW reported that his IRLP node is up and running. On Saturday nights at 7:00 PM there is a national SKYWARN net. To get on the net, you enter a code which puts you onto a reflector. The number for the reflector is 9129. Bob said if he is not around on Saturday evenings, anyone can put the node onto the reflector by entering the code. The IRPL node is on the 440 repeater so anyone with a 440 rig can turn the reflector on and participate in the net. More infomation on the SKYWARN net can be found at www.viopwx.net

 

• KariAnn KCØWIP mentioned that there is a vision impaired ham in the area that would like to participate in the club activities. He is looking for transportation to club events. He lives in a condo at the Holiday Inn South. Please contact KariAnn if you can help provide transportation.

The business meeting was adjourned at 8:47 p.m.

Respectfully submitted, Daryl Mowrer, ACØID

Program:

Stan KDØBQ started the program with a video presentation that he prepared using footage from last year's Field Day. Dave KØVH then gave a great presentation on the upcoming Field Day activities. A sign-up sheet was also passed around. If you are interested in participating with other club members at this year's Field Day, contact Dave KØVH. You can also find more information on the club's main web page .

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