[FCARC] May 19 Meeting Notes

[Craig Szczublewski]

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

The meeting was called to order at 7:30pm with 21 members in attendance and 2 
guests. Minutes from the previous meeting and the treasurer's report were read 
and accepted.

Committee reports follow...

Education: The VE Team reports the April 26th testing session had no one in 
attendance, the individual that called to setup the session did not show up 
unfortunately.  There are no reservations for the end of the month.  There will 
be a special VE testing session on June 7th coinciding with the FCARC Hamfest.

Repeater Committee: We had good luck with our repeater tuneup in April.  We have 
a noted improvement in receive sensitivity, and were able to marginally increase 
the output power as well.  The PA unit is still on the bench awaiting additional 
parts, but expected to be back in working order soon.  K8LI reported that he was 
able to acquire a "new to us", pulled from service, Kenwood Repeater that is the 
same model we currently run.  This was a good deal at less then $600 including 
shipping.  The current plan is to put the acquired Kenwood out to the backup 
repeater tower, along with our spare DX-300 controller.

Memorial Committee: No report.

Members in Distress: No report.

EC Report: K8JPD has asked any club members, who would be available to help with 
any emergency operations, to provide him a list of HF, VHF, and emergency power 
assets you have at your disposal.  He has developed a form assist in gathering 
this information which I will be sending out to the club shortly.  It is 
important to stress that this is just for K8JPD's use as club EC and will allow 
him to better coordinate with local and county officials if they call on us for 
help.

Membership: We have 42 members up to date on dues so far.  Thank you for your 
continued support.

T-Shirt Committee: No report.

Hamfest Committee: The Hamfest is June 7th at the Roth Family Woodlot in Tedrow. 
  Anyone assisting with the Hamfest setup and coordination should plan on being 
on-site by 6:00am.  KB8ELG is still looking for a volunteer to manage ticket 
sales at the entrance, but will take on the job if no one steps forward.  If you 
have the time to assist, please contact Bryan direct at kb8elg at hotmail.com.

Good of Amateur Radio:

1. The Fox Hunt scheduled on May 10th obviously did not happen.  We may try 
again after the Hamfest and Field Day.  We apologize that this was not better 
managed, but ultimately will need to be coordinated by a group that has the time 
to put this together in a professional manner.

2. Field Day is approaching fast.  It is June 28th-29th this year, and we are 
asking club members who want to operate to sound off and let us know if you plan 
on running the full length of the event, or even just part of it.

3. Correspondence was received from the Fulton County Fair Board.  Our booth 
price was raised from $75 to $100.  Despite the increase, the club voted to 
proceed with reserving our spot again.  We are going to be putting up a sign-up 
sheet on the website which you can specify a 2 hour block you can participate in 
running the booth.  This is an easy task as it involves answering any questions 
about Amateur Radio and playing on the club rigs (VHF and HF).

4. Correspondence was also received from our county EC, Heather Kost, who 
informed us that a Wauseon school teacher is interested in having a 30 minute 
presentation on Amateur Radio and how it can be used during Emergency 
Communications.  KB8ELG will follow up and suggest Field Day might be a good 
opportunity to see this type of service in action.

5. Last, KD8KBU will be checking with a local sign company in Delta to see about 
getting a dual purpose vinyl sign that can be used as a banner or table skirt 
that will have the club name, website, and repeater frequency.  This can be used 
at all of the events we participate in.

Upcoming Hamfests;

06/01/2014 Chelsea, MI
06/07/2014 Tedrow, OH (FCARC)
06/15/2014 Monroe, MI
07/20/2014 Van Wert, OH

Next Meeting:  The next regular club meeting will be June 16th at the County 
Administration Building second floor (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...

Craig Szczublewski - KD8KBU