FCARC Meeting Minutes for April 10, 2007
Members & Family Present: 22 Guests Present: 6 Total Present: 28
Don Bollman, KB8LNV
Kelly Boswell, KA5MGL
Perry Carleton, AE5EE
George Carroll, W5GHC
Ken Chafin, N5RKC
David Doty, N5XF and son, Matt
Bill Fill, KD5IC
Dora Anna Fill, NI5D
Randy Harrington, N5RYG
Gary Hawkins, KD5ZQF
Gary Hawkins, KD5YIX
Wayne Johnston, KD4TA - Vice President
Brian Kessler, N1WNC
Marlene Kessler, KE5HQU
Glenn King, N5GK - Custodian
Craig Mangrum, N5CTM - Secretary / Treasurer
Dan Merry, KC5WMN
Frankie Parks, K5FRP - President, and his wife, Hannah
Neal Whitlock, KE5NJI (New Member)
Roger Williamson, N5QNA
Kathy Williamson, KB5RMY
Joetta Williamson
New Members
Guests:
Dan Ward, W5MAN
Ashton Turpin, KE5NDT
Jason Blackwell, KE5NDU
Lance Knittig, KE5NDW
Call to Order
President, Frankie Parks, K5FRP, called the meeting to order at 18:32.
Treasury report is $2196.61
Old Business
Identification Cards - Frankie Parks
Frankie has the new club ID cards. Some of them aren't finished. But you can check with him to see if he has your card. If you haven't signed up for a card yet, what we need is name, callsign, ARRL membership status, class training you've completed, such as ICS 100, 200, 700, 800, any ARRL emergency or other courses, 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 Craig Mangrum at ctmangrum@conwaycorp.net. The ICS (Incident Command System) courses can be found on the club's website: www.w5auu.org.
Perry Carleton reported that he was able to complete two of the ICS courses on line in about three hours. Those courses are currently required by the Arkansas ARES organization. Many thanks to David Turner KD5JKX and MEMS for their support in helping get these ID cards made.
Toad Suck Daze Cancelled
This year the club will not be operating a Toad Suck Daze special event station.
Boy Scouts Search & Rescue Event - George Carroll & Wayne Johnston
Several members from the club assisted in this event. Wayne Johnston and Brian Kessler were setup at the airport on top of Petite Jean Mountain. Perry Carleton, George Carroll, and Craig Mangrum were in Conway for the boys to have someone to talk to. It is important in such an event to have Club members available on the radio, as only limited opportunities exist to talk if the Scouts have to wait to break into HF QSOs. There were around 40 adults and about 200 boys that participated in this event by stopping by the simulated emergency station at the airport. There are pictures of this event on the club's website.
Morrilton Skywarn Class - George Carroll
George Carroll, Wayne Johnston, and Perry Carleton attend a Skywarn class held in Morrilton in March. George said the class went well and that the information was very useful. One thing that George pointed out that is very important is that not only are you to report information during the time of a storm, but also to report any damage you might see over the next few days after a storm.
Marlene Kessler has been training to be a net control operator for the Skywarn nets that are conducted during severe weather in Arkansas. She said she would be at the National Weather Service the next time a severe storm is in the state.
The Skywarn net is held on the CAREN club's repeater on 146.940- in Little Rock. Also, the Holley Mountain link system maybe linked into the net if they experience severe weather. The local frequency for the Holley Mountain link system is 147.030- PL Tone 114.8.
To learn more about Skywarn, you can visit the National Skywarn Page at: http://www.skywarn.org/. You can also visit the CAREN club's Skywarn page to learn more about the net at: http://www.carenclub.com/skywarn.php. Even more Skywarn information can be found at the Little Rock National Weather Service's website at: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lzk/html/skywarn.htm.
New Business
Radio For Arkansas Hospitals - Craig Mangrum, Wayne Johnston, & Glenn King
An email was sent on the Arkansas ARES group on Yahoo. The Division of Health wants to make sure all hospitals in the state have access to ham equipment. The club help install a 2M/70CM dual band radio at Conway Regional a few years ago. But there was some confusion about what kind of equipment was going to be bought. It was mentioned on the ARES training net that HF equipment might be purchased. Craig sent J.M Rowe an email to find out for sure. J.M. was the person that sent the original email.
Update after the meeting from Craig: I have received an email back from J.M. stating that the equipment being considered for purchase is 2M/70CM dual band radios.
Field Day 2007 Updates - Wayne Johnston
There has been a lot of discussion about Field Day this year. Field Day will take place Saturday, June 23rd and Sunday, June 24th. The club has members trying to find out more information so we can start getting things finalized on the location and dinner plans. Right now, the club's most desired location is to hold the event somewhere on campus at Hendrix. The club also decided to see if the school's cafeteria would cater our dinner on Saturday evening.
The reason Hendrix is our first choice for this event is because during this event, the Governor's school will be going on. This is a great chance for us to hold a class for those students and also hold a test session. John Nordlund has volunteered to teach the class for those outstanding high school students attending Governors School. This also gives us a great chance to demonstrate what amateur radio can do and to show all the reasons the students and the public why they should be interested in becoming amateur operators. This gives the club a chance to also show government and emergency officials why we can be valuable during an emergency. We also want to be sure that Field Day meets all the club members' expectations with opportunities for contesting, experimenting with antennas, socializing, etc.
Many more details will be provided as the club irons everything out. Please check the club's website for more updates. Also the official website for Field Day is http://www.arrl.org/FieldDay.
Club Newsletter - Frankie Parks
Frankie discussed how several members have talked about the club starting an electronic newsletter. He stated that for right now, the idea was to try to publish the newsletter every 6 months and possibly as frequent as every 3 months. Frankie asked who would be interested in taking ownership in the newsletter and to make sure that content would be available. Glenn King, Ken Chafin, Perry Carleton, Marlene Kessler, Craig Mangrum, and Wayne Johnston volunteered to provide information on a regular basis for the newsletter.
Repeater Updates & Workdays - Glenn King
There is a workday schedule for April 14, 2007 at Gerald Hogue's house. Gerald is ready is ready to put an antenna on his crank over tower. Everyone is to meet at Gerald's at 9am. For those that want to get up early, several members are going to meet at Cracker Barrel at 7:30am.
Glenn filled the club in on what needs to be done at the repeater sites. There are some new antennas that need to be installed. Glenn has batteries to install. The club can talk more about the batteries and decide which repeater or repeaters to put on battery backup. He stated the 145.210 repeater needs new crystals and to be tuned up. The 146.970 repeater is about ready to be installed. After it is installed, Glenn said he would take the 145.210 repeater down and do the work on it. And there are 4 UHF repeaters that are about ready to be put on the air. David Doty has a 6M repeater ready to install.
Glenn brought up that there is a repeater committee. Bud Shamberger donated the 146.970 and 145.210 repeaters years ago and had the stipulation that there would be a committee of 3 members. Of the members that were voted onto the committee, Glenn is the only member left. He said he was thinking that a 5-member committee would probably be best and each member would stay on the committee indefinitely. The committee would discuss what needs to be done, but would bring all proposals before the club. The club voted to create the committee that Glenn discussed. Club members that volunteered to be on the committee were Randy Harrington, David Doty, Ken Chafin, Glenn King, George Carroll, and Frankie Parks. Gerald Hogue was suggested as another committee member since he owns a repeater. Kelly Boswell moved to accept these volunteers and Craig Mangrum 2nd the motion. The club voted to accept these members to the committee.
Glenn stated that there were several things the committee needed to consider. Where to put the 146.970 repeater? Did the members want to place it at the same site as the 145.210? Which repeaters to put on battery backup? Glenn also said that one thing that needs to be done was to put in some power vents to vent the fumes from the batteries.
Update On Faulkner County Communications Efforts - George Carroll, Perry Carleton, Wayne Johnston
Wayne stated that on March 31 he decided to take a ride to see what the area in the northeast corner of the county looked like. The county emergency agencies have said that they have trouble communicating with anyone dispatched to that area. The county has asked the club to see if we can communicate from Conway to that area.
Wayne said he called Perry and George to see if they would be available to monitor VHF signals sent to them from that area. They could communicate, but only when the terrain was favorable. Many ridgelines, valleys, and hills made direct communications difficult with Conway by the 146.520 MHz repeater. But Wayne noticed there were a lot of high places that might be good for communicating with relay stations that would provide coverage to the back sides of hills and valleys.
Perry stated that he has a friend that is an EMT that lives at Greenbrier that has also served in the National Guard. He stated that his friend has done a lot of research as to what the best high points would be to communicate. Perry talked to this friend and asked what areas in the four corners of the county might be best for communicating. In the SW corner, the Easterwood area was suggested. In the NW corner, around Damascus at the Boy Scout camp would be a good point. In the NE corner, Buffalo Hump close to Quitman is another good spot. And in the SE corner, the best spot would be Clinton Mountain area near Camp Robinson. His friend has a topographical map of the county and is going to loan this to Perry and assist Perry as much as he can. Perry and Wayne are going to keep working on trying to find the best spots and other spots to communicate from.
Wayne also pointed out that this was the county's idea and not the club's. He said the county is very concerned about the communications to these areas and may look to us in the future to help with emergencies and disasters. George and Wayne stated one of the big concerns was the gas pipelines catching on fire. A gas company rep had asked the volunteer fire departments in the area if they could pump 100,000 gallons per hour to fight a pipeline or wellhead fire. Obviously the gas company was not familiar with limited pumping capability in the rural areas, as the answer was "this isn't Little Rock."
Anderson Power Pole Tool For Club - Frankie Parks
With several members converting to Anderson Power Poles as power connectors so that radios are interchangeable with power sources to save on time during emergencies, there has been talk about the club purchasing a crimping tool for the Power Poles. Gerald Hogue has mentioned at a lunch that he has one and is willing to loan it out for short periods of time to members that need to borrow it.
Presentation(s) - Wayne Johnston
1st presentation was on doing radio email/text files without using a TNC. This was given using a computer presentation along with handouts for the members. The presentation will be available at the club's website.
In order to transmit radio email files all you need are a radio, antenna, and a computer loaded with DigiPan 2.0 to generate audible tones. No TNC or connecting cables are needed as the audible sound from the computer speakers is fed into the radio mic. To receive, the audible sound from the radio speaker is fed into the computer mic. If you deploy with only a radio, take along a CD with DigiPan 2.0 on it and use their computer to send their email!! This method will have value in an emergency, as all other methods require either a TNC, a cable connection between hardware, and registration. This method avoids all the potential problems of configuration and adjustment inherent with additional hardware and connections.
The 2nd presentation was on a 2m Rope Ladder antenna about 20 ft long that could be rolled up for transport. As currently configured, the antenna has an SWR of 1.3 at the design frequency 146.52, the ARES simplex frequency. When the spacing is perfected, design plans will be finalized
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.
Public Service Announcements - Craig Mangrum
Craig told the club that he had heard a commercial on the local country music station, Y-107 FM, that organizations and clubs could email or fax their events to the station and they would put them on the community calendar and announce the events for free. The club liked this idea and Craig is going to talk with the radio station more about this.
George stated that any events that the club wants in the papers, to write up the articles and give to him and that he would get them in the paper. Frankie pointed out that if the club gets a write-up in the paper before field day, that we would get extra points. Kelly Boswell said we might also try to get the radio station to come cover field day.
Reimbursements - Glenn King
Glenn asked the club for some reimbursements. He took the guys that put in the dead-men at the repeater site to lunch. That was $38.48. He also had a bill for the parts that were used to rebuild the 146.970 repeater's duplexer for $61.05. And he also bought two DB-212 loops at the Russellville Hamfest for $50. The total reimbursement Glenn asked for was $149.53. Kelly Boswell moved we reimburse Glenn and Randy Harrington 2nd the motion. The club voted to do so.
Upcoming Events - Craig
Field Day 2007
June 23 & 24
(No Exact Location Yet)
Conway, AR
Hamfests:
Bartlett Hamfest
April 14
Location: 5868 Stage Road, Bartlett, TN
Benton County Radio Operators' Club
April 28
Location: Bentonville, AR
R.E. Baker Elementary School
301 NW 3rd Street
Dayton Hamvention
May 17-21
Dayton, Ohio
Some club members are going to attend.
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 in 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.
Bill Fill made a motion to adjourn and was seconded by Kelly Boswell. The meeting adjourned at 19:50.
2-Meter Net Reminder
The FCARC net meets each Thursday night at 7:30pm on 145.210MHz PL 114.8Hz. Net Control for April is Frankie Parks, K5FRP. The Net Control Operator for May will be Glenn King, N5GK.
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