Emporia Amateur Radio Society
Science Hall 156, ESU
16 July 2016
FINAL
Meeting Minutes:
1. Call
to Order - David, ADØSF, called the meeting to order
at 9:02 am.
2. Meeting
Minutes - The 18 June meeting minutes had been
emailed to the members prior to the meeting. Dwight, KDØOIX, made a motion to
approve the minutes as written, Dean, KDØAZZ, seconded. George, KDØRII, asked that the meeting
minutes be amended with the following corrections/additions:
·
Addition - Section 6 – DK
Review – George, KDØRII and Dwight, KDØOIX be added to the list of DK
Checkpoint workers as they were left off of the list denoting individuals who
assisted with the event.
·
Correction – Section 5 – Lyon
County Emergency Management – Correction of RACES requirements being ICS-100
and ICS-700 instead of ICS-100 and ICS-200 as previously reported.
·
Correction – Section 5 –
Announcement and Reports – Connie’s call sign corrected to KØUER.
-
Discussion was led by George, KDØRII, regarding the proper procedure for
approving minutes including the request for corrections and/or additions. Discussion was tabled without resolution
and/or agreement, thus additional research and/or discussion to be undergone by
Exec. Committee.
3. Treasurer’s
Report – Lonnie, WØNXS, presented the Treasurer’s
report. Linda, KCØUVH, motioned to approve, Dean, KDØAZZ, seconded; report was approved
unanimously.
4. Component
Corner – Jim, WXØU
- SWR
·
Jim, WXØU,
opened with show-and-tell of small canisters that diabetic test strips are
delivered in that make great small storage containers for misc. items with an
offer for anyone to help themselves to several that he brought in.
·
Jim,
WXØU, provided an insightful presentation on SWR including the effects of loss
in cables.
·
Example 1
- 100 foot section of coax on 2M with a 3db loss / 100ft rating.
o If a transceiver is
transmitting at 10W only 5W will be realized at the antenna.
·
Example 2
– same 100 foot section of coax on 2M with a 3db loss / 100ft rating but
instead is an old section of cable that has been laying around outside and
subjected to weather elements so now instead of 3db loss/100ft the cable now
exhibits 20db loss / 100ft, therefore the same radio transmitting at 10W would
only have 1W realized at the antenna.
·
Best way
to measure true SWR for the system would be to use a power meter and dummy load
at the transmitter end and then again at the antenna end.
·
Another
option would be to utilize an antenna analyzer.
·
William,
ADØTV, posed a question regarding the use of BALUNs and Jim, WXØU suggested
that would make a good topic for a future Component Corner presentation.
5. Announcements
and Reports
·
Executive
Committee Meeting – David, ADØSF,
presented a summary of the recent Executive Meetings held 06 July 2016.
o Trailer Update – Lonnie, WØNXS, gave an overview of the current
status of the work remaining to be performed on the trailer which includes:
§ Installing the deep cell
battery and disconnect
§ Trimming the flooring
§ Fabricating and installing the
external coax hatch / mounting plate
§ Tim, KØEMP, also discussed the
need for additional cooling / venting in the trailer.
§ Dean, KDØAZZ, said that box
fan that he provided for use during the DK200 was to be donated to the club
along with the trailer keys that he had made during the setup day prior to the
DK.
o Donation – Tim, KØEMP, said that the club received a $65
donation from an anonymous member to purchase Field Day supplies such as
possibly a Handi-Finder antenna for use during the Fox Hunt. Unfortunately, after checking with the
company that makes the Handi-Finder it was determined that we would not be
guaranteed to receive the antenna prior to Field Day so we would not be purchasing
it at this time.
o Equipment for Sale – Tim, KØEMP, said that the manuals were the only
items remaining to be sold and they were left in Erika’s, KEØGXW, office that
morning as she has volunteered to get them listed and sold via the web.
·
Builder’s Corner
o
David, ADØSF, said that very flexible HT
antenna that he showed during the last eyeball meeting is now available through
Comet.
o
Dean, KDØAZZ, passed around a small
tactical-style earpiece that plugs directly into the handheld microphone of
many HTs and his initial reports are very positive regarding the sound quality.
·
Introductions - Introductions
were made and we had 16 members present and 1 guest, Chuck Wells, ADØUY, who
recently obtained his ticket by passing all 3 tests and was licensed as an
amateur extra.
·
Calling the Thursday Night Net – Sign-up sheet
was passed with the results as follows:
CALL
SIGN
|
NAME
|
|
21-Jul-16
|
KØEMP
|
Tim East
|
28-Jul-16
|
ADØTV
|
William Wolcott
|
04-Aug-16
|
ADØSF
|
David Claridge
|
11-Aug-16
|
KDØAZZ
|
Dean Binns
|
18-Aug-16
|
KDØAZZ
|
Dean Binns
|
25-Aug-16
|
ADØTV
|
William Wolcott
|
01-Sep-16
|
KCØUVH
|
Linda Wolcott
|
08-Sep-16
|
||
15-Sep-16
|
KDØAZZ
|
Dean Binns
|
22-Sep-16
|
ADØTV
|
William Wolcott
|
29-Sep-16
|
||
06-Oct-16
|
||
13-Oct-16
|
·
Next VE Exam Session
– held
following the eyeball meeting on Saturday June 18th.
6. Continuing
discussion and activity items
·
EARS Trailer Update
– Lonnie,
WØNXS, provided a brief update that nothing new has been accomplished on the
EARS Community Service trailer since the last eyeball meeting.
o
Dean,
KDØAZZ, inquired if any discussion has been made to acquiring a dual-band
antenna for the trailer so we wouldn’t have to continue borrowing antenna’s
owned by ADØSF, WXØU or WØNXS. Lonnie,
WØNXS, noted that at least for the time being his X30A will remain in the
trailer for use by the club but that there are several potential antenna
solutions on the table for discussion by the trailer committee including
trailer roof mounted dual band antennas.
·
Field Day Update – Dwight, KDØOIX, provided an overview of the final points submitted
to ARRL for the WØEMP Field Day exercise.
o
It was noted that there were actually 950 bonus points total as opposed
to the 850 initial thought as solar counted for 200 bonus points this year.
o
It was also noted that we actually had more bonus points than actual QSO
points.
o
Issues that were discussed regarding Field Day were as follows:
§
RF Interference – it was determined that there is a lot of RF
interference in and around Emporia so a return to Ross Reservation may want to
be considered for next year. It was
noted that a 100 foot tower has been erected there that we could make use of
for antennas during Field Day. Jim,
WXØU, suggested if there is a 100 foot tower available we should consider using
a beam antenna versus dipoles. Lonnie,
WØNXS, inquired if we were to store the EARS trailer at Ross Reservation again
would it be possible to utilize their power for the trailer to keep the
on-board battery charged but also put up a dual-band antenna on the tower such
that we could have one of the Yaesu repeaters in operation from Ross
Reservation.
§
Dwight, KDØOIX, noted that significant SWR was discovered on the 20M
dipole on the system Bud, NØII, was running which utilized both an internal and
external tuner. It was believed that
possibly the internal and external tuners were causing a conflict with one
another as the external tuner was removed from the system and the internal
tuner was able to tune the 20M dipole which allowed the solar station to obtain
more than the minimum 5 QSOs for the 200 solar bonus points.
o
A round of applause and thanks were given to the following individuals
specifically for their efforts in the 2016 Field Day activities.
§
Dwight, KDØOIX, for his organization and efforts to lead the Field Day
activity once again.
§
Linda, KCØUVH, for her coordination of the Saturday evening meal and she
thanked Julie, KDØLYS, for bringing the pies.
§
Bud, NØII and Belinda, KEØCJU, for the solar station, generator and
sponsoring of the porta-potty.
o
It was noted that Field Day is held every year on the 4th
Saturday in June so we should all put it on our calendars now.
o
Dwight, KDØOIX noted that the only place we really lost any potential
bonus points was due to the fact that we didn’t pass any NTES messages and we
didn’t have public service announcements advertising the event.
·
Veteran’s Day KØV Special Event Station – Dwight, KDØOIX,
noted that he has already submitted for and we have obtained KØV again for this
year’s Veteran’s Day special event station.
o
We have the call sign for 5 Nov through 11 Nov.
o
Club
members can operate anywhere and it does not need to be from the ESU Shack as
long as we don’t have 2 people on the same band/mode at the same time.
·
Kansas QSO Party – Dwight,
KDØOIX, said that we will be operating in the school category for the Kansas
QSO party which is scheduled for August 27-28
o
We
will be operating as KØE for the “E” in “Sunflower”.
o
We
typically operate in 3 hour blocks with 2 person groups.
·
WØEMP on LOTW – Dwight,
KDØOIX, reported that he is in the process of getting LOTW (Logbook of the
World) setup for the club’s new call sign WØEMP.
o
All
QSLs will be confirmed through LOTW as well eQSLs.
o
Dwight,
KDØOIX, will be the club’s QSO manager.
o
Note: Dwight displayed several eQSL cards on the
video screen that have already been received.
·
Weather Ready
Nation
– Dwight, KDØOIX, reviewed the basic requirements for the EARS club to be WRN
(Weather Ready Nation) ambassadors, such as agreeing to discuss being prepared with
the public.
o
Handouts
were available providing additional details
o
Dwight
suggested that we all review the information and make a motion at the next
eyeball meeting if we want to participate as being WRN Ambassadors.
·
Lunar Kanza Ride – David, ADØSF,
presented an overview of the EARS club involvement with the Lunar Kanza ride
which will occur later Saturday afternoon and expressed that if anyone was
interested in volunteering there were more spots available for additional
operators.
o
Current
list of volunteers:
§
David,
ADØSF
§
Sean,
ADØSG
§
Dean,
KDØAZZ
§
George,
KDØRII
§
Andrew,
KDØRTY
§
Sean,
KDØWUF
§
Corey,
KEØITF
§
Lonnie,
WØNXS
·
Wade’s Ride – Lonnie, WØNXS,
reported that he has not received a reply from the event organizers regarding
our potential participation and will follow up again prior to next eyeball
meeting. Wade’s Ride is a local
fundraiser for the prevention of SIDS to be held on 08 Oct.
·
Builder’s Corner
(continued) - George,
KDØRII, inquired as to when we would be doing the Show-and-Tell portion of the
meeting as he had brought something to show.
o
George,
KDØRII, presented a Delta Lightning Arrestor Model # LA302R that he had
purchased which is rated at 3W / 1 Φ (single phase) costing approximately $25-$40.
·
New Business /
Additional Discussions
o
Jack,
WØFRU, stated that he is recently unable to connect the 443 repeater to
Echolink – Jim, WXØU, said that they have been going through some IP upgrades
that may have affected it so he would look into it.
o
Additional community events that EARS could
potentially use for Special Events were discussed:
§ Symphony in the Flint Hills
§ 25th Anniversary of Main Street Emporia – end of July
§ Great American Market
o
Linda, KCØUVH, stated that the Jackson
County ARES club in Kansas City will be helping with a preparedness exercise on
24 August 2016 focused on sheltering in case of an event on the Madrid Fault.
§ Those individuals interested in assisting with the NLE Mass Care
Exercise should contact: Mike Bellinger,
K0UAA - 816-363-1118 - MBBelling@aol.com
o
Lonnie, WØNXS, reminded everyone that there
will be a special event station (WW1USA) operating from the WWI Memorial in
Kansas City. Licensed amateurs will
receive a discounted rate of $5 for museum entrance and 3 guests will be
admitted for only pay $5 each as well per licensed amateur.
7. Presentation – No presentation.
8. Adjournment – The meeting adjourned at 10:22 AM.