Murray State University Amateur Radio Club

Minutes of the June 5, 2007 Meeting

The meeting was called to order by Vice President, Dale Barrett at 1910 hours. In attendance were:

Introduction of members followed.

Program – Dayton Hamvention by Dale & Valerie Barrett was postponed until the July meeting as no-one could log onto the computer.

Minutes -  The minutes for May 2007 were unanimously approved as published after a motion by George Knecht and seconded by Whipple Walker.

Treasurer’s Report – Bill Call reported the current balance as $725.83

QSL Manager’s Report – Valerie Barrett reported receiving 2 QSL cards, one from North Carolina for field day of 1995 and one from Maryland for May 11,2007 . Will check the log to see if a QSL was sent.

Facility Advisor Report – John sent a report to Bill Call for presentation. The proposed building will require the relocation of the main tower for the MSUARC. Bill Call, David Brickeen and John Hart met and discussed possible locations for the tower. On June 5^th we received approval for the move to the east end of the I&T building. Antenna height above ground is to be preserved and the possibility of upgrading the tower to a self-supporting, and also moving the conduits containing the feedlines and control lines was discussed. We will actually gain from this move since our feed line losses will drop by approximately 2.5 dB at 10m, 7.5dB at 2m and a whopping 14dB at 70cm (assuming shortening the feedline length by 500 feet). At this point, the cost of these options (concrete base and 2 – 20’ sections) is being considered as part of the building construction costs. Whether this will remain the case as the project moves along remains to be seen. The key to making our case strong is to have the systems used regularly. We cannot operate field day each year and expect that to be sufficient for us to take the position of the tower being critical infrastructure. John believes that operation on a monthly basis would make our case much stronger.

 The need for fencing to prevent climbing and the possibility of access to the tower from the roof was discussed after the presentation.

Systems Report – Bill Call reported that there are little annoying problems. Farmington needs improvements but he hasn’t been able to get there yet. 94 is working fairly well – some sensitivity problems. UHF system sensitivity is also down and needs tuning up. When the UHF system is tuned up Bill will also change the PL tone to 91.5. The Hamlin repeater is working fairly well and the APRS Digipeater is working fine.

Net Report – Not available

Old Business – No old business

New Business – Application for membership was received from Bob Aldrich, WD8OWA.  Bill Slayman moved to accept his application, Whipple Walker seconded and the motion was approved unanimously.

Application for membership was received from Candy Aldrich, XYL of WD8OWA and she is planning to take the license exam in the future.  Bill Call moved to accept her application, Bill Slayman seconded and the motion was approved unanimously.

Field Day – June 23-24, 2007 . Bill Husfield reported that the Marshall County Radio Club has the Mike Miller Park reserved. The site is near the Volley Ball field and has a permanent ground rod installed. The noise level there is good to go. A discussion ensued of whether to have a combined field day with Marshall County or have a separate field day as MSUARC. Motion to hold a combined field day with Marshall County Radio Club at Mike Miller Park was made by Bill Call, seconded by Bill Husfield. There being no further discussion a vote was taken and the motion passed unanimously. Last year 4 rigs were available but there were not enough operators to use all the rigs.

Dale and Valerie held a raffle of items picked up at Dayton with the following people winning prizes:

Bill Husfield                            Candy Aldrich                        Powell Henderson

Bob Aldrich                            Jiren Shah                              Whipple Walker

Debbie Barton                       Bill Call                                   George Knecht

Bill Slayman has all his rigs for sale due to his moving and the import duties to Brazil , if anyone is interested please contact him.

There being no further business. Bill Call made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Bill Slayman, motion passed unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 2005 hours.  

Respectfully submitted,

Debbie Barton, W8IBT, Secretary