Emporia Amateur Radio Society
Science Hall 156, ESU
19 March 2016
Meeting Minutes:
1. Call
to Order - President, Tim East (KØEMP), called the
meeting to order at 9:02 AM in SH156 with 13 members (one new member, Jim,
KD9ADN) and 1 guest present.
Prior to proceeding through the agenda items Tim East (KØEMP)
gave a short presentation on repeater use and courtesy.
2. Meeting
Minutes - The minutes from the 20 February 2016
meeting had been emailed to the membership previously and were briefly discussed
then approved with no changes requested.
3. Treasurer’s
Report – David Claridge (ADØSF) presented the
Treasurer’s report:
Tim briefly discussed some equipment the
club has for sale, George Phoenix, KD0RII, requested Tim send him the info so
he could put it on the EARS webpage.
4. Component
Corner – Jim
Belford, WX0U, gave a presentation on transistors, how they function and how
they are used, using a voltage divider example and Ohm’s Law.
5. Announcements
and Reports
·
Executive
Committee Meeting – David
Claridge, AD0SF, gave a brief synopsis of the Feb 26 Executive Committee
Meeting. Primary topics presented were the club
goal of being self-funded through membership dues and donations, update on
trailer construction status and insurance needs, club license renewal and
address update and interest in changing the club call sign, and need to
update/use of repeaters (Fusion repeaters). Dean Binns, KD0AZZ, also mentioned
that he had to withdraw from the trailer committee due to his Aunt that passed
away and him having to handle the arrangements.
·
Builder’s Corner –
o
George Phoenix (KDØRII) presented a Palomar
Engineers VLF converter he purchased that operates from 10-500 kHz and 3.5-4.0
MHz. Also discussed two new bands being opened, 2200 MHz and 630 MHz, and the
slinky antenna he built and presented at an earlier meeting.
o
Jim, WX0U, also passed around a new Chinese
duel band mobile radio he bought off Amazon.com to try out that he thought
might be good for events like the DK200. It is a Leixen VV-898, very small,
5/10 watt, cost about $80. He also
passed around a 3D printed drone he put together.
·
Calling the Thursday Night Net – Sign-up
sheet was passed with the results as follows:
DATE
|
CALL SIGN
|
NAME
|
24-Mar-16
|
KDØOIX
|
Dwight
Moore
|
31-Mar-16
|
KCØUVH
|
Linda
Schock
|
07-Apr-16
|
KDØMQF
|
Robert
Neer
|
14-Apr-16
|
ADØSF
|
David
Claridge
|
DATE
|
CALL SIGN
|
NAME
|
21-Apr-16
|
KDØAZZ
|
Dean
Binns
|
28-Apr-16
|
KDØAZZ
|
Dean
Binns
|
·
Next
Exam – UPDATE:
VE Session has been scheduled for Saturday, April 16th – Time
TBD
6. Continuing
discussion and activity items
·
Trailer
Committee Update – Work is continuing with furniture
installation and procurement of electrical components. Results of insurance
research by David, AD0SF, with State Farm was presented and discussed. State Farm can provide a Comprehensive/Collision
policy for $76.00 annually with a $500.00 deductible or $96.00 with a $250.00
deductible. After a discussion of what
is and is not covered by the policy, Mike Pate, KC0NFG, moved that we go ahead
with the $96.00 policy and Sean Claridge, AD0SG, seconded. Before a vote was
taken George Phoenix, KD0RII, requested and moved that the motion be modified
to specify that the insurance premium be taken from the trailer fund. Dwight
Moore, KD0OIX, seconded. After further
discussion, the vote on the original motion was 10 for and 3 against and on the
motion amendment it was 7 for and 5 against. Amended motion passed.
·
KØV
Report – From last
meeting, Dwight Moore (KDØOIX) reported that the
Veteran’s Day Special Event call sign (KØV) has been reserved again for Nov 5th – 11th. There was no update, no new information.
·
DK 200
Update – Time East (KØEMP) reported that this years’
DK course has been approved and that the JEEP Club now has 9 Ham
Operators. Per discussions with the DK
promoters this year the event will be a directed net with the JEEP operators
and EARS operators working together. Tim
will be Net Control and we will have three fixed checkpoint stations plus net
control in addition to the mobile JEEP units.
Covering net control and three checkpoints and to allow shifts to cover
the long event will require from 10 to 16 operators, ideally. We will try to get Jim Cummins from the DK
committee to come to our May meeting to give a presentation on the DK.
·
·
Field Day Update – Dwight Moore (KDØOIX) discussed having the event in the same
location as last year (ESU practice fields) and being able to have the trailer
on the side of the field unless it rains.
Discussion was held on past difficulty with operating as a 3A station
and whether we should operate as 2A this time.
Also discussed limited value of having a VHF station and having a GOTA
station. Consensus was we should go with
2A and not have a GOTA station, and if someone wanted to set up a VHF station
they could. A vote/decision on the
declaration of a 2A vs 3A station and the use of the GOTA station was not
taken/made so should be done at the next meeting. Dwight mentioned the safety officer position
(David Claridge, AD0SF volunteered) and an idea to use pvc pipes at the ends of
the dipole antennas to get the ends higher off the ground. That would improve
antenna performance and help keep people from accidentally contacting the
antennas during operation. Dwight also suggested we set up an operator schedule
to help coordinate operating times and operators. Also discussed setting up the
popups a little differently to have a socializing area away from the operating
stations and maybe even having a station set up in the trailer.
·
Additional Discussions
o
Discussion was held regarding
the EARS club license (KBØSSR). The renewal application was submitted for
KBØSSR. Discussed applying for a vanity call to get a shorter call and maybe
trying to get Don’s call (AA0DF). It was brought up that Don had a grandson who
is currently in the military but was very close to Don and may want to have
Don’s call. Other calls were checked on,
K0EKS and K0LYO are currently available.
The topic was again tabled for future discussion with the executive
committee to provide further research into the potential options and steps
needed.
o
EARS Club membership statistics
were presented by Tim
Total Paid Membership:
|
26
|
ARRL Members:
|
20
|
ARRL Percentage:
|
76.92%
|
RACES Members:
|
3
|
RACES Percentage:
|
11.54%
|
ARES Members:
|
9
|
ARES Percentage:
|
34.62%
|
ARRL Reg. Instructors:
|
5
|
Instructors Percentage:
|
19.23%
|
ARRL Volunteer Examiners:
|
9
|
V.E. Percentage:
|
34.62%
|
o
o
Wayne Lemmons, KA0ZVZ, brought
up that we have license books at the Emporia Library that need to be replaced
with current ones. Wayne moved that we
provide new books to the library, Mike Pate seconded. Motion passed with 1 nay
and 11 ayes.
7. Presentation – David Claridge,
AD0SF, presented three YouTube videos. One was entitled Amateur Radio Today
narrated by Walter Cronkite, then one on a home built spark gap transmitter and
finally a re-creation of the SOS signal sent by the radio operator on the
Titanic using a spark gap transmitter.
8. Adjournment – The meeting adjourned at 11:13 AM.