[K3PZN-List] January 2008 CCARC Meeting Minutes

[n3sb at qis.net]

Carroll County Amateur Radio Club
Meeting Minutes, 14 January 2008

President Rich Mitchell, N3III, called the meeting to order at 7:38 PM. Nineteen
members and 2 guests were present.

Announcements:

The next CCARC meeting will be on Monday February 11th at the Emergency Services
Training Center in Westminster.

The next BoD meeting will be on Monday January 21st, 7:30 PM at the FTC.

The BARC Mini-fest is coming up on Wednesday January 23rd. The event is FREE!

The Odenton Hamfest is on January 27th. 

>From the mailbag:

The club’s mail was briefly reviewed and dispositioned. 

Secretary’s Report:

Steve N3SB published the secretary’s report from the November 2007 meeting 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. The report was accepted by the membership present. 

Board of Directors Report:

Two reports were published to the reflector. No club members desired to have the
reports read.

Committee Reports:

Repeater Committee: Steve N3SB reported – the K3PZN BBS was down for about a
week in December. The PC appeared to have no power. Steve exchanged the power
cables for the PC and the monitor, and both powered on.

Technology Experimenters Committee: Rich N3III reported – Rich displayed his
68HC908 breadboard, which he has assembled into a cabinet with a sizable
breadboard area for additional circuitry. He has an LCD and a DDS module, which
are additional building blocks that can be plugged together to make complete
applications.

Old Business:

The Four Band KX-1, with its automatic antenna tuner, has been completed and
checked out. The kit has been delivered to Jack Kolb, with the hope that he
gets his license again.

New Business:

Nominations Committee: President Mitchell formed the Nominations Committee at
the December BoD meeting. Nominations are now open. 

Field Day Committee: President Mitchell formed the Field Day Committee at the
December BoD meeting. The club will have an opportunity to vote on the type of
Field Day we’ll have at the February meeting.

Presentation: 

Jack Kolb gave the club a presentation on Aurora Borealis. The presentation
included viewgraph slides, a visual demonstration of the Aurora’s shape over
the North Pole, and a DVD Movie.

Other:

Pat N8PK brought four PICetSat modules to the meeting. One is working fine,
while the other three need some debugging.

Joe N3YIM brought in some goodies from his ham shack, free to a good home. He
also brought in an HF antenna, which will be put into the barn.

ARES/RACES Updates: Steve N3SB reported – The County RACES drill was held last
Tuesday January 8. The Western Region repeater is currently off-line, requiring
the net to use its alternate frequency. Unfortunately, the radio at the EOC was
not programmed with this alternate frequency (this should soon be fixed) The
RACES team was able to monitor the net by connecting an HT to the antenna
feedline.

The Carroll Office of Emergency Management advised us that our grant request had
been turned down. A seminar was held on Thursday January 10 to discuss 2008
grant applications, which should include a 3-year plan for improvements.

The County is offering CERT Training classes; all members of the CCARC are
encouraged to attend one of these FREE training classes. Flyers about the
classes were made available.

Several new developments in EMCOMM Digital Communications have appeared
recently: 1) PSKMail software is being developed which provided an over-the-air
connection to your email account using PSK-31, PSK-63, PSK-125, or PSK-250.
Linux-based software is also being developed to perform similar activities; the
software is available as a complete Linux live distribution that runs completely
from CD-ROM. Additionally, sound-card modem software has recently become
available which complies with MIL-STD-188-110A, (thus it’s fully documented and
legal to use) and can operate as fast as 3200 bps. This package, called
RFSM-2400, looks like it could be a faster, cheaper alternative to PACTOR III.

Bill turned over a CCARC mailbox key to Steve N3SB.

Door Prize – Joe N3YIM won a CW Transceiver Kit. Anyone who knows Joe will
appreciate the humor in this.
 
Closing notes:

President Mitchell adjourned the meeting at approximately 9:15 PM.

Respectfully submitted;
Steve N3SB
CCARC Secretary