[FCARC] Meeting notes for March 2013

[Craig Szczublewski]

Hello everyone, here are some notes from the Monday night Club meeting:

The meeting was called to order at 7:45pm with 13 members in attendance. Minutes 
from the previous meeting and the treasurer's report were read and accepted.

Committee reports follow:

Members in Distress: It was reported that Grant (KC2RCU) will be having back 
surgery soon, and Phil (KC8VTJ) is out of the hospital and recovering.

Education: The Technician Class held by Bryan (KB8ELG) and Lindsay (K8LI) this 
past month has several participants with one opting to take and pass the VE test 
at the end of the class.  Bryan is considering a fall Tech Class this September 
on the 14th, 21st, and 28th.  This will allow us to promote the class well ahead 
of time at several of the bigger events like the Delta Chicken Festival and the 
Fulton County Fair.  The VE Team held a testing session at the end February, 
issuing 2 new General Licenses.  Tom Servoss reports we have one person 
scheduled for March 30th testing, so walk-ins will be welcome.

Repeater Committee:  No major issues to report with the main repeater, we have 
some reports of desense to the East, but otherwise it continues to perform well. 
  We are planning some spring maintenance to the duplexers and will be checking 
the overall health of the system.  Bryan reports that an insurance report has 
been filed for the backup repeater, but no word has been received back yet.  He 
will be following up sometime with the next week to see what the claim status is.

Memorial Committee: Nothing to report.

Membership: we have 48 paid members.  Thank you to all who continue to support 
the club.

Hamfest Committee: The Hamfest will be June 1st at the Tedrow Woodlot.  There 
are flyers available on the website (under the Hamfest section) for posting at 
regional Hamfests.  As in the past, we'll be having a special VE testing session 
during the Hamfest.

Special Events:

1. Field Day: This years field day is on the fourth saturday which actually 
comes on a different date then the National Threshers event in Wauseon.  W 
expect a very good turnout this year because of that.

2. Delta Chicken Fest: This years DCF will be July 12-14, with the Grand Parade 
on the 14th.  Your help on the parade route, as well as manning the booth, is 
always appreciated.  Please mark your calendars.  Lindsay (K8LI) will be 
registering the event as a Special Events Station with the ARRL, although we 
will probably run with club's call sign.

3. OSPOTA: We had such a fun time with the State Parks on the Air contest that 
we are already beginning to plan this year.  No official date has been released, 
but it is typically the Saturday after the Fulton County Fair (the 7th of 
September), more details as we get closer.

Good of Amateur Radio:

1. Several interesting special events stations will be happening this year. 
WD8KRS reported that the American Legion Amateur Radio Club will be holding a 
special events station in November.  Ed also reported that if you are a fan of 
'Last Man Standing', there will be a special events station again this year, 
probably in October.  More details on these as we get closer.

2. Jim (K8JPD) donated his previous beam antenna to the club to put up for sale. 
  One of the club members quickly snagged that deal, and the club had a nice 
$125 donation from it.  Thanks Jim!

3. Last, I have kicked around the idea of a Digital Workshop sometime this 
spring.  I think I am getting closer to set plans.  I tentatively am setting 
aside May 4th and 11th for this event.  It will be held at the Masonic Lodge in 
Delta, OH.  I do not have times yet as I still need to sort out a curriculum, 
but we will be setting up a live digital station to play on and experiment with 
for those workshop days.  The plan is the first Saturday would be discussions on 
interfacing your rig to a laptop and best practices for setting up your 
computer's sound card for best performance.  The second workshop would be 
discussions on software installation, setting up macros, and how to conduct a 
QSO on PSK31 and RTTY.  I would also like to show off JT65 at that time to give 
everyone an idea what that is all about.  So, the major modes would be PSK, 
RTTY, and JT65, and maybe I'll even commit an act of heresy and show how to run 
CW from your laptop using the same setup :-) If you are interested, save the 
dates, the workshop would probably be 10:00am to 2:00pm, but I'll firm up plans 
as the month draws closer.

Upcoming Hamfests:

04/20/2013 Highland, MI (Milford)
05/17/2013 Dayton, OH (5/17 to 5/19)
06/01/2013 Tedrow, OH (FCARC)

Next Meeting:  The next regular club meeting will be April 15th at the County 
Administration Building (same as the Drivers License Bureau), 152 S. Fulton St, 
Wauseon.  The club meeting will be at 7:30pm.

Club Nets:

Weeknights at 10:30pm Bud's Midnight Madness Net -- 147.195+
Wed at 8pm Informal Two Meter & ARES Net -- 147.195+
Wed at 9pm 6M Net -- 50.400 AM on the first Wednesday of the month
Wed at 9pm 6M Net -- 52.525 FM Simplex

That's all I have for now.  Please reply back to me with corrections as I am 
quite sure I missed or misquoted something...

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Craig Szczublewski - KD8KBU