[K3PZN-List] April CCARC Minutes

[n3sb at qis.net]

Carroll County Amateur Radio Club
Meeting Minutes, 9 April 2007

President Richard Mitchell, N3III, called the meeting to order at 7:35 PM.
Seventenn members were present. Guests this evening are John Dozsa KB3OWP and
Ken Vrtacnik.

Program:

Rich N3III briefed the club about the 2007 Atlanticon, held in Towson earlier in
the month. One of the items discussed was the PICAXE microcontroller and
development system. Rich also displayed an Elecraft KX-1 transceiver, and
explained that the radio is very good for folks with limited vision since it
sends its configuration settings in CW.

Rich WON an Elecraft KX-1, the Grand Prize at Atlanticon. The unit is being
offered as a club project, to be built in sections by the club members.

Rich also displayed a SoftRock Software Defined Radio receiver kit. He connected
it to an antenna and showed us some signals using the Rocky SDR program on his
laptop. The receiver hardware he was using cost about $10.00.

John W3JJH, our Field Day Chairman, discussed plans for this year. The first
item for discussion is where to do the event. It was rapidly decided to conduct
the event from the FTC, similar to last year. We are also planning to run QRP
Battery again, since we had a lot of fun with it last year. Currently signed up
as station captains are John K3KWO (Digital), N3III (HF CW), and N3SB (HF CW).

Announcements:

The next Board of Directors meeting will be held on Wednesday 18 April, 7:30 PM
at the Fire Training Center. All members are welcome to attend.

The next club meeting is on Monday May 14 2007, 7:30 PM at the FTC.

Chuck N3TOT and Steve N3SB gave an ARES/RACES/DCS presentation to the
Springfield Hospital Center Emergency Planning Committee on Thursday 5-April.

The next DCS Committee will be on Monday April 23, 7:30 PM at the FTC.

The MS Walk will be held on Sunday April 15 at the Farm Museum in Westminster.
CARET has been solicited for help.

The County is planning a large RACES drill on Thursday April 26. The event
includes ALL EOC’s in the state of Maryland. Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia,
and West Virginia have been invited to participate. The event will start at
9:00 AM and last for six hours.

The county has procured radio equipment and accessories to assemble four
go-kits. 

>From the mailbag:

No club mail was available for review.

Secretary’s Report:

Steve N3SB published the secretary’s report to the club’s email reflector. The
report was accepted by the membership present. 

Treasurer’s Report:

Tony KF3AK provided the treasurer’s report, detailing current balances, income,
and expenses. Tony’s report was accepted by the membership present.

Board of Directors Report:

John K3KWO briefed the club on the highlights from the February Board of
Directors Meetings.

Committee Reports:

Field Day Committee: See above.

DCS Committee: Chuck N3TOT briefly discussed the meeting held at the Springfield
Hospital Center.

Repeater Committee: No report.

Station Committee: John AK3Z discussed plans to make some design changes in the
club station, and to clean up the room. 

Membership Committee: No report.

Holiday Party: John AK3Z will investigate some new ideas for the party.

Old Business:

None

New Business:

None

Closing notes:

Tony KF3AK showed the club an article from a 1993 issue of 73 Magazine, about
breadboarding techniques. He’s putting together an order to buy some PC Board
materials. Tony is also preparing an opto-isolator order for sound card
interface building. See him if you are interested in a piece of this action.

John W3JJH won the Brown Bag Door Prize, an SDR kit. 

Jack Kolb told us a story about a team he sent to the North Pole with Pick Axes,
to start the digging process. Every one of the pick axes was fractured the very
first time it was used to dig in the ice. Jack was called in to examine the
problem, and met with the president of the company manufacturing the tools. The
president stopped the manufacturing line and re-tooled to change the metallic
structure of the axes so that they would not fracture.

President Mitchell adjourned the meeting at 9:26 PM.

Respectfully submitted;
Steve N3SB
CCARC Secretary