Murray State University Amateur Radio Club

Minutes of the January 8, 2008 Meeting

The meeting was called to order by President, Randall Winchester at 1905 hours. In attendance were:

Self-introduction of members took place and “What are your amateur radio goals for 2008?” was the question of the day.

Terry Martin donated a 19” monitor, a printer and cables to the MSU ARC club station. Thank you Terry.

Minutes – Randall asked for any corrections to the minutes which were emailed last month, no corrections noted. Minutes accepted as emailed.

Treasurer’s Report – Bill Call reported making a check for $14.00 for VE fees bringing our balance to $859.83

Systems Report – Bill Call reported the performance on the 94 repeater went down on December 22nd after a thunderstorm and that on December 29th he visited the site and could see no new obvious damage, but that the antenna was very wet. He switched to the Ringo Ranger back-up antenna even though no obvious problem and repeater operation is improved. Bill will be ordering a new antenna to replace the main antenna in the future and is looking at a Ringo Ranger. All other systems are operating with no changes.

The 94 repeater output is 80 watts out of the duplexer and the 440 repeater output is 35 watts out of the duplexer.

Staff Advisor Report – Nothing new on the progress of the tower relocation. A hold had been placed on the construction of the new Public Safety Office due to cost over-runs, but the funds needed have been approved by the Board and hopefully the construction will now continue and there will be progress on the tower relocation.

Net Report – Matt Freeman reported 4 sessions, 0 traffic, 31 stations, 69 minutes and 35.65 operator hours.

Website Report – Matt Freeman reported routine maintenance only on the website.

VE Report – Bill Call reported that an exam session was held on December 15th at 9:00 a.m. in our regular meeting room of the IT Building. There were two people taking the exam, 1 person upgraded to a General Class license and the other will be retaking the test at a later date.

QSL Manager’s Report – Valerie Barrett reported that one card needs to be mailed to the QSL Bureau but that we first have to include some type of confirmation that we are affiliated with ARRL.

No further reports.

Old Business – Litz Decoder is ready for testing. Dale and Valerie volunteered to take on that project.

Congratulations to Matt Freeman on being chosen for the Ham of the Year award.

Ham Bits – Sunspot Cycle. The sunspot cycle is approximately 11 years and we are now at the beginning of Cycle 24. DX gets better on bands above 10 MHz, and the cycle should peak about 2011-2012.

Program – Dale Barrett was not able to provide a program for tonight due to a family emergency. Bill Call brought a Show & Tell item. A little black box (cost $133.00 w/shipping) used as a frequency standard for calibrating frequency counters. It requires 26 volts DC and after 10 minutes a 10 MHz signal is generated which is 1000 times more accurate than WWV.

New Business – Bill Call announced that on February 11th there will be a Basic Skywarn Training session and plans are to have an Advanced Skywarn Training session about 4 weeks later.

Randall Winchester announced that he is trying to make arrangements for a Amateur Radio licensing class for kids. He has provided materials to some interested students and would like to start classes by the beginning of February if possible. Classes would probably consist of 5 study sessions and 1 test session.

There being no further business. Whipple Walker made a motion to adjourn, Dale Barrett seconded, all in favor and motion passed unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 2010 hours.

Respectfully submitted,

Debbie Barton, W8IBT, Secretary