FCARC Meeting Minutes for March 13, 2007
Members & Family Present: 20 Guests Present: 2 Total Present: 22
Kelly Boswell, KA5MGL
Chris Brannan, K5ELY
Perry Carleton, AE5EE
George Carroll, W5GHC
David Doty, N5XF
Jim Grinder, N5TSG
Gary Hawkins, KD5ZQF
Wayne Johnston, KD4TA - Vice President
Brian Kessler, N1WNC
NEW GENERAL Marlene Kessler, KE5HQU
Glenn King, N5GK - Custodian
Craig Mangrum, N5CTM - Secretary / Treasurer, and his wife, Janine
Stewart Nelson, KB5LBE
Frankie Parks, K5FRP - President, and his wife, Hannah
Joe Seiter, KI5ZT
Roger Williamson, N5QNA
Kathy Williamson
New Members
John Nordlund, AD5FU
Kayla Dowdy, KE5JYX
Lynette Dowdy, KD5QMD
Guests:
Neal Whitlock, who passed his technician test last night.
Call to Order
President, Frankie Parks, K5FRP, called the meeting to order at 18:28.
Treasury report is $2154.61
Old Business
Repeaters, PowerPoles - Glenn King
Glenn now has powerpoles in and ready for sale. Also Glenn gave an update on the repeaters. The 146.970 and 146.625 are both down at the current time. Glenn said the parts for the 146.970 are in. He is waiting on an analyzer to do the work. He wants to have an antenna party to check out the DB224 antenna before we put it up on the tower to make sure it is working properly. No date was set for that. He has the 440 loops made to put on the antenna. The 145.210 needs a new crystal put in it. Glenn said that after the 146.970 is fixed and on the air, he'll take the 145.210 down to do the replacement. After the repairs are made, we'll move both repeaters to the same location.
Identification Cards - Wayne Johnston
Wayne showed the club the current example of the ID cards. David Turner is making them for us. A sheet was passed for everyone to put their name, callsign, class training, such as ICS 100, 200, 700, 800, any ARRL emergency or other courses, and also organizations that members are a part of, such as ARES and Skywarn. All the class information will be put on the card. For the members that didn't get to attend the meeting, please send your information to Wayne or Craig.
New Business
P.O. Box Reimbursement
Glenn King paid the $40 P.O. Box rental for the 2007 year. The club voted to reimburse him for this expense.
Toad Suck Days
Toad Suck Days and the club's special event station that we normally do every year has slipped most everyone's mind. It is too late to advertise the event in QST magazine so the club voted not to do the event this year.
Boy Scouts Search And Rescue
The Boy Scouts will be participating in a search and rescue at the Petit Jean airport on March 17th. The event will be from 3-5pm. The club has been asked to setup a station and do a presentation on amateur radio. Wayne Johnston is going to take the GOTA station that he had setup last year at field day. He plans to leave for the event to setup about 9-10am on Saturday. Anyone that wants to go and help out needs to contact Wayne.
Perry Carleton, Brian Kessler, and Craig Mangrum have volunteered to monitor for the boys to have someone to talk to. Anyone that wants to help monitor may also do so, also. Operation will be from 1:30pm - 5:00pm.
Frequencies for this event will be 145.210- (114.8pl), 146.940-, and 146.520 simplex. For HF will primary be 7260 MHz on 40 m (with 7285 MHz & 7235 MHz
secondary) using an NVIS antenna If that band never works or gets bad later in the day, then I will try 3987.5 MHz on a dipole or NVIS.
Field Day 2007 - Wayne Johnston
Field Day '07 is rapidly approaching. The dates this year are June 23rd and 24th. What Wayne is looking for right now is for everyone to be thinking about what they'd like to do this year. There has already been talk about having it at Laurel Park again this year. But it was mentioned that Hendrix University has offered in the past to let us setup on campus. A few members are looking into whether this offer is still good.
One thing that Wayne specifically mentioned that he wants everyone to think about is having a deployment on Saturday morning. The county has told us that in the northeast section of the county, they cannot make contact when units are in that area. Wayne wants to see if the club can deploy to different spots in this dead zone that they have mapped out and see if we can make contact back to the field day location. We will need 8 people to help with the field day setup. Those 8 will have to stay at the field day location. The other members willing to participate will be deployed that morning in 2 or 3 man teams.
"Message Follows" - a recurring segment for meetings about communications - Wayne Johnston
This month, Wayne asked some questions that focused on what amateur radio operators should do or not do during an actually emergency situation.
Q1. What do you do if a message you receive concerns a death within the disaster area?
A1. We do not handle death notices. The right thing to do is tell the person to give it to the Red Cross
Q2. What if a person sending a message wants get a new address one the person the message is going to because the reply back states that person has moved?
A2. We pass the message as we received it. No changes should be made. There should be no response to the sending about the message being inaccurate.
Q3. How do you indicate a "." that's in a message?
A3. X on the message form and spoken as "x-ray" and it counts in the word count.
Q4. If you are assigned to a hospital or shelter with evacuees and one of the evacuees wants you to transmit a message, what do you do?
A4. That is "health & welfare" messages. During an actual disaster, our primary purpose is to handle priority or emergency traffic only for officials and emergency personnel. Health and welfare usually goes through the Salvation Army.
Q5. How do you pass "health & welfare" traffic?
A5. We pass it through the National Traffic System. The net control station can decide to pass it along or not. Amateurs in other areas may still be dealing with a disaster and not at a point where they can pass this information along.
Presentations - Wayne Johnston
Wayne Johnston did a presentation on a Moxon Antenna for 2m. He showed us how he made the antenna using PVC pipe. One he had made used the PVC to support the antenna, which was on the outside of the pipe. Another one he had made had the antenna inside the pipe.
The handout will be posted on the club's website. www.w5auu.org Please give it a day or two to be posted on the site.
Upcoming Events - Craig
Hamfests:
2007 Hanging Judge Hamfest
Fort Smith Area Amateur Radio Club
Talk-In: 146.94, 146.64 (PL 88.5), & 444.500
Contact: John L. Eddleman, KC5JBY
Location: Columbus Acres Fort Smith - 10203 Columbus Acres Road
http://www.HangingJudgeHamfest.com
Service Events:
The CAREN Club in Little Rock has asked for our help with a few events. We have helped them in the past. Anyone that wishes to help should contact Jerry Dixon on the Tuesday Night CAREN Club Net at 7pm on 146.940- or by email n5wvi@aristotle.net. You can also find out more information at http://www.carenclub.com/ Please notice that there are two events listed on each date.
April 21 please: CAREN Club - 1st event Little Rock at Catholic High School. 2nd event Lake Maumelle. We need folks to cover both events, especially the 5K high school run in Little Rock.
September 29: CAREN Club - 1st event Arkansas Marathon in Benton/Saline County. 2nd event Big Dam Bridge.
Wayne Johnston made a motion to adjourn and was seconded by George Carroll. The meeting adjourned at 19:24.
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 March will be Perry Carleton, AE5EE.
*** We are looking for a net control for April! ***
Don't forget about lunches at Smitty's BBQ on Fridays at around 11:00 am till we leave.
Next Club Meeting will be March 13, 2007.
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