[SMCARA] Revised minutes from 9/22/11

[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) COME EARLY AND HELP SET UP
DOORS OPEN 1800
 
 
SMCARA Minutes for 092211 
Minutes of the St. Mary’s County Amateur Radio Association
meeting September 22, 2011 AS AMEMDE 10/27/11@ 0600
 
Thank you to all who made comments  Walt
 
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 146.04 using simplex mode. A better plan would be to use the output so
when the repeater comes back up, we would be aware of its operation. Thank you
Tom (W4OKW)
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 (KG3BOZ) 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 proposed 220 machine is not on the air
yet and will be on
223.9/222.3 MHz  (220 uses 1.6 MHz split)
and no tones. Pete has a new
controller and it should be on the air soon.

The frequency of  223.5 
MHz  is the simplex channel, similar in
use to 146 .52 MHz on 2M.  Give a listen, as there are a few stations
locally on simplex.
Thank you Tom (W4OKW)
 
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) DOORS OPEN
AT 1800
 
Meeting adjourned 2112 hrs.
 
Respectfuly submitted,
Walt Rupp (W3GYT)