FCARC Meeting Minutes for November 14, 2006
Members & Family Present: 20 Guests Present: 2 Total Present: 22
Don Bollman, KB8LNV
Kelly Boswell, KA5MGL
Chris Brannon, K5ELY
George Carroll, KB5HE
Robert Carroll, KA5WVE
Ken Chafin, N5RKC and his grandson, Andrew Flory
Daniel Gladstone, KE5ERL
Ken Halsted, K5KWH
Gary Hawkins, KD5ZQF
Wayne Johnston, KD4TA
Brian Kessler, N1WNC
Marlene Kessler, KE5HQU
Glenn King, N5GK
Craig Mangrum, N5CTM - Secretary / Treasurer
Jon McFadden, N6VC
Irene McFadden, KA6BUP
Will McFadden, KB5DDX
Stewart Nelson, KD5LBE
Frankie Parks, K5FRP - Vice President, and his wife, Hannah
Chester Robinson, N5MEF - President
Guests:
Paul Clampit, K5TCK
Call to Order
President, Chester Robinson, N5MEF, called the meeting to order at 18:32.
Treasury report is $1771.28
Old Business
Members' Only Section
Frankie Parks has been working on updating the looks of the website. He should have it up sometime next week. He is working on the members' only section.
JOTA
The Jamboree On The Air was held on October 21 and 22. The event went very well according to Jon McFadden. He said at first they were going to have 3 trailers, but due to some problems, they all of the sudden dropped to having none. But two trailer towers did show up after all. They had about 200 boys this year.
George Carroll worked one of the two stations. He said they did very will. They made contacts all over Europe including Belgium, France, Germany, and some other countries. Don Bollman worked the other station. Don said they worked a lot of states in the U.S.
They got about 30 names of boys interested in amateur radio. One of the interesting stories that were shared was that while operating, they found a station that seemed to be unusually clear and loud. After listening for a few minutes, it turned out to be the other station on the other end of the camp.
Faulkner County Simulated Emergency Test (SET)
On October 23, Faulkner County had it's SET. Glenn King said this year's test was a simulated tornado that had wiped out the town of Greenbrier. Glenn wrote the following report:
Faulkner County ARES/RACES Emergency Coordinator Report
Faulkner County Simulated Emergency Test
Tornado touch down in Greenbrier
October 23, 2006
ARES/RACES Communications
Faulkner County Amateur Radio Club, Inc.
Emergency Coordinator, Faulkner County
Glenn King, N5GK
Assistant Emergency Coordinator, Faulkner County
Frankie Parks, K5FRP
10:30 AM EC Activates ARES and contacts Assistant EC and informs him of the SET (Tornado touch down in Greenbrier)
10:40 AM EC contacts Craig Mangrum N5CTM and Activates Calling Tree
Assistant EC is deploying to Command Post in Greenbrier
Communications by Amateur Radio is established with MEMS and Conway Regional Hospital
EC is deploying to Faulkner County EOC
11:10 AM EC arrives at EOC
Communications by Amateur Radio is established with Command
Post in Greenbrier and between MEMS office in Conway and MEMS
Central Office in Little Rock.
11:15 AM The following ARES members are deploying to Greenbrier:
Frankie Parks, K5FRP Assistant EC
Jim Elliott, W5JNE
Brian Kessler, N1WNC
Marlene Kessler, KE5HQU
Ken Chafin, N5RKC
Will McFadden, KB5DDX
Stewart Nelson, KD5LBE
Glenn King, N5GK and Craig Mangrum, N5CTM are deployed at the County EOC
Bob Hambuchen, N5OMW is deployed at Conway Hospital
Perry Carlton, AE5EE is deployed at MEMS Office in Conway
11:25 AM The SET is canceled. All personnel are notified.
Thanks to everyone that participated in this year's SET.
New Business
tpoic:*** Officer Election and Club Dues ***
At the December meeting, the club will elect officers. Chester Robinson has stated that he does not wish to continue as club President. As Glenn once said, "this is the meeting you need to attend the most. And if you don't, you may be elected to something."
Also, the club will start taking dues for the year 2007. If you do not pay your dues by the February meeting, you will be taken off the club roster.
Boy Scouts - Chartering Venturing Group
George Carroll addressed the club about chartering a venturing group for the Boy & Girl Scouts. This would be boys and girls ages 14-20 years of age. What is needed is 5 committed leaders and 5 scouts. The charter would cost the club $20 and a fee of $10.70 would cover the cost of a magazine and insurance and would apply to the leaders and scout members.
It was decided that before the club commits to this, that Blake Cole, the person overseeing this, would come and talk to the club and give us more details. George is going to invite Blake to lunch one Friday before the next meeting. The details would then be discussed at the next meeting.
Festival Of Lights
Daniel Gladstone said that Jim Rhodes had talked to him about asking for help with the festival of lights that will take place this year in Conway. Daniel sent Craig the following email.
A new seasonal event will be coming to Faulkner County this year. It will be called The Holiday Festival of Light will be held at First State Soccer Park that is located off Dave Ward Drive, west of the new Wal-mart on Trey Lane. This community festival will take place for forty nights beginning Thanksgiving Day and continuing until New Years Day.
Because of some last minute scheduling conflicts, they are in desperate need of some volunteers to help set up the lights displays that will decorate the park during the festival. There will be around 150 of them. Also if you have a 8'ladder and a sledge to drive spikes if you could bring it that would be really helpful.
They are asking any individual or group that can spend some time next Saturday, November 18 to help set up for the festival to participate. We will be out there working daylight(8am) to dark. Individuals or groups can come and help any time of the day. They will provide some food and drinks if you are there during the lunch period.
They could use 100 to 200 volunteers that day and they hope some of you could help spread the word and lend a hand and invite others.
If you plan to volunteer next Saturday, November 18, 2006, then send an e-mail to jwrhodes@conwaycorp.net or call the coordinator (Jim Rhodes @ (501) 470-6640 and let him know your plans so he can map out the tasks for the day and order enough food.
Short Presentation
Wayne Johnston KD4TA reported on using a self-contained solar powered lighting system designed to light sidewalks to provide light all night for the radio relay site during the Arkansas Traveler 100. The system consisted of a small solar cell with three rechargeable AA batteries that could be connected by 15 ft power cords to three different LED lights. Similar systems for one or two LED lights may be found sometime during the year on sale at Home Depot or Lowe's for $6 to $25.
Wayne Johnston also made a short presentation on using "cat can" and "soda can" alcohol stoves to prepare simple meals while deployed in an emergency situation. He started working on the project after using his bulky propane camp stove to make hot chocolate at the Arkansas Traveler 100. He brought a tea-light stove with a Heineken can pot capable of heating 16 oz of water (2 cups) in about five minutes. He also showed a dozen variations of the "soda can" alcohol stoves. The fuel (Yellow Heet) costs a dollar at Wal-Mart or any auto supply store for enough methanol fuel for about 24 meals @ two cups of hot water per meal - e.g. oatmeal and hot chocolate or re-hydrated food and hot coffee/tea.
The best site on the web about alcohol-stove construction is found at
http://zenstoves.net/Stoves.htm#Fuels
One of the best, most reliable, and easiest to build stoves is this "cat can" stove found at http://www.jwbasecamp.com/Articles/SuperCat/index.html
The 3 oz cat food can needed for the stove is available for 27 cents at Wal-Mart. The pot used to heat the water sets directly upon the cat can stove-the ultimate in simplicity and reliability.
The article about using a 24 oz Heineken can for a hot water pot is found at
http://www.freewebs.com/jasonklass/thegearlaboratory.htm
Gary Hawkins made a motion to adjourn and was seconded by Kelly Boswell. Meeting adjourned at 19:05.
2-Meter Net Reminder
The FCARC net meets each Thursday night at 7:30pm on 145.210MHz PL 114.8Hz. The Net Control Operator for October is Craig Mangrum, N5CTM.
Don't forget about lunches at Smitty's BBQ on Fridays at around 11:00 am till we leave.
For more information about the Faulkner County Amateur Radio Club, including news and upcoming events, go to http://www.w5auu.org/
Minutes taken and typed by Craig Mangrum, N5CTM, Secretary/Treasurer