[FCARC] June Meeting Notes

[Craig Szczublewski]

Here are some notes from the June 20th club meeting:

Due to a miscommunication with county officials, we did not have access to our 
normal meeting location at the County Administration Building.  Being typical 
resourceful HAMs and having exceptionally nice weather, we improvised a last 
minute meeting location at Homecoming Park in Wauseon under one of the 
pavilions.  While not the ideal location for a large meeting, we were able to 
conduct our meetings quite effectively and got some
fresh air while we were at it.

http://www.k8bxq.org/sites/default/files/images/20110720Meeting.JPG

The meeting was called to order at 7:45PM, and we had 22 club members in 
attendance.  Minutes from the previous meeting were read and accepted, as well 
as the Treasurers report.  Individual committee reports follow:

Education/VE Report:

Dave Nelson reported we had conducted a testing session on May 28th at the 
Archbold Police Station where we had four individuals show up for testing and 
they passed three new technicians and one new general class.  A special walk-in 
testing session was conducted during the FCARC Hamfest on June 7th with no new 
licenses passed.  Our regularly schedule testing session for June falls on Field 
Day and will be held at the Field Day location in Tedrow at 10:30am.  Walk-ins 
are welcome at this point, but you cannot show any later the 10:45am.  We are 
still planning on a technician class for September 10th and 17th at the Delta 
Public Library, further details will be provided as the date gets closer.

Repeater Committee Report:

Nothing new to report on the primary repeater.  The new power supply continues 
to perform well.  We are going to try to schedule a weekend out at the repeater 
site where we hope to accomplish two tasks: installation of the new 4-bay 
antenna, and relocation of equipment to the new repeater shack.  We are 
attempting to schedule this for the weekend of July 2nd, the weekend right after 
Field Day and right before the Delta Chicken Festival (see below).  We will put 
a call out for volunteers once we confirm that we can get the antenna installed 
that weekend (and weather permitting of course).

Hamfest Committee Report:

Thanks to all who attended the 2011 Hamfest and all the club members who helped 
in making it possible.  We had great attendance and managed to produce a profit 
from ticket sales and 50/50 raffle sales. Door prizes were donated by the ARRL 
and the winner of the 50/50 donated the winnings back to the club (thanks wb8zoi)!

Field Day Committee Report:

Field Day is this coming weekend!  I have been sending out regular status 
updates, so I think this one is pretty well covered.  We are setting up the club 
rig as a G.O.T.A. station (Get On The Air), for any amateur radio operators who 
want to try operating during Field Day, but do not want to haul out a bunch of 
equipment to do this.  Please let me know if you are thinking of stopping out 
and would care to operate so we can set a time slot for you.  The club pot-luck 
dinner will be on Saturday evening starting around 5:30 or 6:00pm.  Bring a dish 
to share if you'd like, otherwise please bring plates and utensils for 
yourself.  For an educational segment for Field Day, KB8ELG will be showing off 
a quick and easy dipole antenna creation with common household items.  Last, 
Field Day setup will begin anytime after 5:00pm Friday evening.  We will 
probably have the big push for setup starting at day break Saturday morning.  
The official contest begins at 2:00pm Saturday and runs for 24 hours.  I 
encourage all Hams to stop out and participate, it's a lot of fun and laughs and 
some good information to be had as well.

We had a nice writeup in the Fulton County Expositor regarding Field Day.  I 
sent similar press releases to Delta, Archbold, and Swanton, so if anyone sees 
that published, please bring me a copy to Field Day.

Special Events:

We have been invited back to the Delta Chicken Festival this year.  A major 
change is that we will be setting up our rigs with the Delta Police and Fire and 
Rescue.  This is a huge deal since we are being presented as part of the 
county's emergency responders.  Another honor is that we will be right next to a 
piece of the world trade center.  We will be assisting with the parade on Sunday 
as well.  The Delta Police were very impressed with how well we assisted in 
managing traffic and would like our help again this year.  The Chicken Festival 
runs July 8th-10th.  We are looking for assistance in manning the club table, as 
well as help with parade traffic on Sunday.  If you are interested in helping 
out, please contact me at kd8kbu at arrl.net.

Other Miscellaneous Notes:

We have 44 paid members.
We also had a Pelican all weather hard shell case donated to the club which 
KB8ELG is currently configuring for housing the club HF rig as part of a "Go 
Kit" for emergency deployment.

That's it for now, I'm sure there are other items that I might have missed.

73,
Craig Szczublewski - KD8KBU