[FPARC] January Minutes

[Cheryl and Dash Lenartiene]

Here are the minutes from January, 2005.  They are the only ones I have from 
this year.  Will get the others to you when I have them.

Cheryl



FORT PIERCE AMATEUR RADIO CLUB - MINUTES - 1/12/2005

The regular monthly meeting of the Fort Pierce Amateur Radio Club was 
chaired by President, Art Lindell, W4ZEF. Attendance was 15. Visitors were 
K9SHT, Bruce, KF4DNQ, Bonnie, and Steve Setkowski.

MINUTES: The minutes of the December meeting were approved as distributed, 
after motion by Kevin, W4KKW, seconded by Mel, W4DAQ.

TREASURY: Treasurer Carl, KF4KCI's report was approved as distributed after 
motion by Kevin, W4KKW, seconded by Mel, W4DAQ.

Total funds: -- $185.00 designated for WQCS -- $1552.17.


OLD BUSINESS

President Art, W4ZEF, said the Christmas went very well. He said about 20 
people attended. He said the service at Norris' South was excellent.


REPEATER: Art, W4ZEF, asked about the status of our 147.345, 2 meter 
repeater. Carl, KF4KCI, said he has asked S &S towers to put our climb on 
their schedule, depending on if we have the money. Carl said he has two 
invoices from S & S Towers. One is for $650.00 for work already performed. 
The other is a price quote for $1800.00 to install new hardline for the 2 
meter antenna. Pete, KD4SPW, will submit both to the insurance company. We 
agreed to pay S & S now for what they have already done, the $650.00 bill. 
Carl said that leaves us with about $1350.00 left in our Treasury, not 
enough to cover the cost of the hardline install. We discussed waiting for 
insurance proceeds to come through, but they may not pay until after the 
work is done. We believe we have 30 days to pay S & S after the climb. Art, 
said he would like a consensus from the members about waiting for insurance 
or having members chip in to loan the club the money to pay for the climb 
before insurance comes through. Don, KC4GXF, said it is taking months to get 
his ARRL insurance claim paid. Art said he would rather have the members 
kick in some, each, instead of just a few covering it. Enough members agreed 
to cover the cost up front, so we decided to get the climb done as soon as 
possible. Pete, said we may have to increase our insurance coverage 
considering the cost of labor to install hardline.

IRLP: Art, W4KKW, asked about IRLP. Kevin said he has the board, but must 
still get the linking radios from Kurt. He still plans to install it, now at 
his home. He said we will need to get the OK to install an antenna outside 
of WQCS. He said it doesn't need to be substantial. Carl, KF4KCI, will ask 
Randy about an outdoor 440 antenna. Kevin described IRLP for those 
unfamiliar with it. Kevin said he has also purchased an EchoLink board for 
his computer. He said we can have both on the repeater. He will try the 
EchoLink first probably on the 440 repeater soon. He said for now it will 
not require any changes at the repeater site to do EchoLink using the 440 
repeater. Kevin will turn it on and off as he is available. Pete, KD4SPW, 
said he thinks that linking radios may not be necessary per the FCC when 
using a repeater with a frequency above 2 meters. We had quite a discussion 
about using IRLP and EchoLink at the same time on the same repeater.

Carl, KF4KCI, said he did submit a letter to IRCC asking for a donation to 
the club of about 20 old surplus salvage computers.

HAMFEST: Art, W4ZEF, started a discussion about our Hamfest. Joe, KD4BTD, 
said he has reserved the cafeteria for the second Saturday of August. Joe 
said he will confirm the date. The second Saturday is August 13, but he had 
written down August 14. Art said he would like members to commit to Hamfest 
committees at next meeting. Pete, KD4SPW, said the date for the Hamfest has 
been printed incorrectly again in the ARRL Southeast Division Newsletter. 
Art said we need to tell Bill, N4XEO, the confirmed date so that can 
corrected right away.

We discussed having the minutes of meetings available to absent members. 
Pete said he will e-mail the minutes to Cheryl, N9SRO, she will convert, cut 
and paste them into e-mails to send out to all members on the e-mail list.

FIELD DAY: Art, W4ZEF, started a discussion about Field Day. Keith, W4RPE, 
agreed to be Field Day Chairman again. Keith said he will be needing members 
to commit to be Station Captains. Carl, KF4KCI, said the date is June 25 and 
26. Art said he will be towing the club trailer to his home before Field Day 
to check out the condition of our gear. Pete, KD4SPW, will be sending for 
proof of insurance for both Field Day and our Hamfest.

NEW BUSINESS


Kevin, W4KKW, said he would like to raise the prices for our Hamfest. Art, 
W4ZEF, said that we should think about the idea and discuss it next meeting.

Art, W4ZEF, said he would like to raise the cost of dues. He said with a 
smaller club like ours, (which he likes) there is always a shortage of funds 
available. He said we will discuss that at next meeting also.


Art started a discussion about the St. Lucie Repeater Assoc. He said that 
group has maybe 20 dues-paying members. Art said membership renewals are 
down for all clubs. He said that group is really short of funds. He said at 
the last SLRA dinner meeting, it was discussed whether the Assoc. can 
continue as is or if it will need help. SLRA needs to do some antenna work 
for their 146.745 2-meter repeater. Art said it was discussed that maybe 
SLRA needs to be disbanded and folded into another radio club. Art is asking 
if this comes to be, is our club willing to take over SLRA. We had a big 
discussion about this concern.

Art, W4ZEF, discussed the Port St. Lucie Amateur Radio Assoc. He said he 
thought we would have more visitors from Port St. Lucie who are looking for 
an active club.

Carl, KF4KCI, said he thinks it is time to send a donation check to WQCS.

President Art, W4KKW, closed the meeting at 20:05 hours after motion by Mel, 
W4DAQ, seconded by, Carl, KF4KCI.



ATTENDANCE: KD4SPW, STEVE SETKOWSKI, W4DAQ, W4RPE, W4ZEF, N9SRO, KD4BTD, 
WB4NOZ,

KC0KAC, KG4MCE, KC4GXF, KF4DNQ, K9SHT, KF4KCI, W4KKW.

Submitted by Secretary Peter Amar, KD4SPW.