[LeArc] Learc Sept. Meeting Summary

[Jesse Risley]

We had a short business meeting last night.  There were eight members and two guests present at the meeting.  

The gentelman from Hancock County was unable to attend, so there was no formal program this month.  Mark discussed his transmitter "Crystal," and the club entertained the idea of hosting a hidden transmitter "fox hunt" sometime in the near future.  An informal hunt might be held this weekend at Lake Argyle just as a trial event.

The only item on the agenda was the old business issue of Sunday evening nets.  There appears to be little interest in anyone serving as a net control operator for the net, and the nets were entertaining very few check-ins when they were last held.  It was decided to formally suspend Sunday evening club nets for the time being.  However, it was encouraged that anyone monitoring the repeater on Sunday evenings at 8:00 p.m. jump on the repeater and try to get some informal ragchewing started.

We also discussed the current changes ongoing with public safety frequencies.  Some agencies are moving to trunked, digital systems (i.e. the ISP's use of the STARCOM 21 APCO 25 digital system), whereas others are gearing towards complying with 800 MHz Nextel public safety rebanding issues or even preparing for the move to narrowband systems to comply with forthcoming FCC deadlines.  This will require the purchase of newer scanners in many cases, making current consumer-grade scanners obsolete in many instances (especially those with crystals).  Hams will likely be among those asked for help with this situation when members of the general public find that some of their favorite scanner frequencies begin going silent.  If anyone has any questions about some of the newer systems, they can be referred to me via email: kb9tma at yahoo.com.  We will likely have a program in the near future dealing with current happenings in the public safety communications
 sector, as well as a future program on ham radio digital communications technology.

Upcoming hamfests: Belvidere, Sept. 12 and 13 (http://www.chicagofmclub.org)
                               Peoria, September 19 and 20 (http://www.Peoriasuperfest.com)


Regards,

Jesse, K9JLR