[FCARC] November 16 Meeting Notes

[Craig Szczublewski]

Hello everyone, we had our last regular meeting of the year on Monday. As a 
reminder we will be having a club outing to the Barn Restaurant in Archbold in 
place of our normal meeting on December 21. The reservation is listed under 
Fulton County Amateur Radio Club at 7:00pm.  As usual, you are responsible for 
the cost of your meal.  Here are notes from the Monday night Club meeting:

The meeting was called to order at 7:31pm with 22 members in attendance. The 
Finance Report was read and accepted.

Bills Presented: OARC Membership Fee $5

Membership: The club currently has 55 members

Committee reports follow:

Education: KC8UOM reports that as of January 2016, all testing will be moved to 
the Wauseon Public Library at 10:00am. Testing is still the last Saturday of the 
month. The Wauseon Public Library is located at 117 E. Elm St, Wauseon, OH 43567.

Hamfest: The Winter FCARC Hamfest is almost here.  The Hamfest will be Saturday 
December 5th, 2015, 8:00am – 12:00pm (details at http://k8bxq.org/hamfest). 
Door prizes have been arranged and all volunteers should plan on meeting the 
week before to review how the day will flow.  We are planning to meet at 2:00pm 
on November 29th at the Fulton Masonic Lodge in Delta (right next to the 
Library, use the back stairs) to discuss the event, the meeting should not last 
long.

Repeater Committee: The repeater committee has several tasks on hand (carried 
over from last month):

1. repair the cooling fan in the backup repeater (possibly this coming Saturday)
2. procure and install a PA deck for the primary repeater (on hold until the 1st 
of the year)
3. program the new Yaesu Fusion for UHF operation and deploy to the backup site 
(KE8RU has accepted this task and will be working KC2RCU who has prior 
experience in setting up the Fusion systems).
4. run a full service on the duplexers at the primary site (after the holidays)

EC Report: Jim and Bryan attended the annual EMA Communication meeting on 11/12. 
  There are a lot of interesting developments coming out of this meeting.  The 
County and State officials expressed an interest to have a closer relationship 
with the Amateur Radio Community, and were impressed with the level of 
sophistication we have available to use with technology like IRLP and Echolink. 
  Some of the meeting highlights include a new EMA building being constructed 
across from the Fair Grounds where we will have access to meeting facilities and 
a dedicated radio room for a permanent station installation.  Paul Barnaby 
stated there is a ribbon cutting (or ground breaking, I wasn't quite clear on 
this) ceremony on 11/23 for the new building.

It was decided to merge the Emergency Services net with the Club Net and have 
that net starting at 8:00pm on 147.195+ this Wednesday.  The net will begin with 
Emergency Services section and end with Club related announcements and a 
comments round table.  All club members are encouraged to participate, even if 
you only have time for an in-and-out check-in.

Special Events:

November 27: Archbold Festival Of Lights.

We have been asked to assist with the parade route this year by the event 
organizers.  There is nothing new or different to report this year, so please 
plan attending.  We will be meeting at the ConAgra (La Choy for KB8ELG) parking 
lot at 5:00pm.  Email kb8elg at hotmail.com with questions.

Upcoming Hamfests:

12/05/2015 FCARC Winter Fest, Delta

Next Meeting:  The next regular club meeting will be 7:30pm on January 18 at the 
County Administration Building (same as the Drivers License Bureau), 152 S. 
Fulton St, Wauseon.

Weather Spotter for 2016 (forward email from Heather Kost, Fulton Co EMA)

Good morning everyone,
Below is the link to the upcoming weather spotter trainings.  Fulton County 
hosted last year, so our partners will be hosting this year in other counties.

Henry County has the first training coming up on February 3, 2016.
Hillsdale County will be March 14, 2016.
Williams County will be on March 29, 2016.

Please follow the link below to sign up for the training.
I will be attending the first training in Henry County, so I hope to see you there!

http://www.weather.gov/iwx/iwxskywarn#SpotterCalendar

Club Nets:

Weeknights at 10:30pm Bud's Midnight Madness Net -- 147.195+
Wed at 8pm EC Practice Net & Club Two Meter 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 good for now...

Craig Szczublewski - KD8KBU