[SMCARA] Minutes of the September 2011 SMCARA meeting

[Walter Rupp]

SWAP FEST AT THE
MUSEUM NEXT MEETING 10/27/11 WITH FOOD AND
FRIEND SHIP - SELL THAT EXTRA GEAR! -(PETE STARTS COOKING AT 1730)
 
 
SMCARA Minutes for 092211
Minutes of the St. Mary’s CountyAmateur Radio Association
meeting September 22, 2011
 
Present:  Many members
and guests, we met in the main exhibit hall (MEH) due to the large turn out.
The President, Peter Butt, (WA3UMY) opened the meeting at
1938 hours. All officers were present. Pete requested that all present give
their name and call sign or state their association with our SMCARA in a “round
the room” sequence. We have the opportunity to reintroduce ourselves again
because we may not have spoken to each other since the last meeting.
 
The Treasurer’s Report was given by Lee Jamison
(N8HTG).  We have $2342.00 +/  in the Treasury.  We have collected $186.00 in dues and have
$75.00 outstanding. Our dues cycle is from July 1st to June 30 each
year. A $20.00 dues payment covers membership, the repeater operations and
other party expenses.
 
The minutes from the last meeting (8/25/11) were approved.
 
Old business was reviewed next.
 
The purchase of an HF antenna for the St. Mary’s County emergency
radio station located in the Museum was approved for purchase. The continued
support of the Museum has been identified for the next two years. The antenna
will be a five element tri-band unit and will be locate on the tower at the
back of the Museum building. The amateur radio station will be used to educate
visitors and to advertise the Museum “on the air”.
 
The amateur radio activities during the hurricane Irene were
reviewed...The highest wind gust was 72 mph.
Two Emergency Operations Centers (EOC) were activated during
the hurricane. The back up EOC was located at the top of the hill in
Leonardtown at the Courthouse. An Icom 7000 HF radio was used as the back up. 
The 04/64 repeater failed due to the lack of power. Simplex
operation was continued on the repeater input using simplex and on .49.
Lessons learned included: to proposition operators, to
expect to remain at your operating station until the eminency is over and to
come prepared with food, medications, water and bedding..
Portable 2 meter antennas were a great help in maintaining
communications.
Ray (call sign?) can be contacted for access and the details
of the EOC located in Leonardtown at the Courthouse.
 
Under new business, we discussed the following:
QSL cards for the Museum radio station. Steve Frank (call
sign?) and Dan Macone (call sign?) were mentioned as providers of pictures of
the station to put on the QSL card. Boz (call sign?) mentioned that the Museum
station could be listed in “The Log of the World”.
 
The membership was asked to consider several dated for the
SMCARA annual Holiday dinner which would be possibly the
first or second weekend in December as we will not meet in November. (12/3 or
12/10 )
 
Pete (WA3UMY) recommended that we step up the “Elmer”
activity for new ham operators. We have trained and licensed many amateurs in
the last year and we need to follow up and support these “new hams” with technical
advice to make their dream of communication to the world a reality. Pete
(K6VLM) and Boz ( ) offered to answer questions from new amateurs. They can be
reached through the reflector (QTH.net).
 
Tom Clarke (W4OKW) provided the repeater report. Due to the
power outage at the 04/64 repeater, a plan was devised to provide backup
emergency power at the site in the future. The 220 MHz repeater is up on
223.9/223/3.MHz.
 
More discussion continued about the D star and Waldorf
repeaters..
 
We discussed some upcoming events for SMCARA in which
members and friends may wish to participate.
These events include:
-Development of interactive displays for the Museum
-Installation of an emergency generator for the 04/64
repeater with auto-start
-Beam antenna installation working party at the Museum
(install the tribander)
-The emergency band plan for 2 meters – use the repeater
input frequency (146.04 MHz) simplex mode.
-Tuesday evening packet radio
-HF antenna installation at Leonardtown Middle School
-Use of the repeater after some disaster when the cell phone
system is either down or jammed with calls. i.e. 9/11
 
SWAP FEST AT THE
MUSEUM NEXT MEETING 10/27/11 WITH FOOD AND
FRIEND SHIP - SELL THAT EXTRA GEAR! -(PETE STARTS COOKINNG AT 1730)
 
Meeting adjourned 2112 hrs.
 
Respectively submitted,
Walt Rupp (W3GYT)