Murray State University Amateur Radio Club

Minutes of the April 1, 2008 Meeting  

The meeting was called to order by President, Randall Winchester at 1903 hours. In attendance were:

Self-introduction of members took place with the question of the day being “What antenna project do you have planned for Spring?”  

Minutes – Randall asked if there were any corrections to the March minutes. George Knecht made a motion to accept the minutes as written, Dale Barrett seconded. Motion passed unanimously.  

Treasurer’s Report – Bill Call reported a deposit of $15.00 was made and the new balance is $1,049.83. We have 23 paid members.  

Systems Report – Bill Call reported no changes from last month.  

Staff Advisor Report – John Hart reported, not much new although he had a visitor that was interested in having a ground set-up (Earth station) for KentuckySat. He is going to check into getting some funding for that possible project. Whipple Walker suggested that when we paint the tower we install a sign stating MSU Amateur Radio Club with the day, time and location of our meetings. Everyone thought this sounded like a good idea.  

Net Report – Matt Freeman gave his report for March. The net had 5 sessions, 0 traffic, 40 stations,103 minutes and 68.6 operator hours. 

QSL Manager’s Report – Valerie Barrett reported receiving 3 QSL cards from overseas. One card came from Slovenia from 2003, one from Italy 2005, and one from Guyana 2005. All were SSB contacts.  

Old Business – Field Day, John Hart suggested having a Field Day committee and to possibly come up with several locations for Field Day and draw one from a hat on Saturday morning. Then proceed to that site and set-up our operations. About 10 people expressed an interest in participating in Field Day. The Field Day committee will consist of John Hart, Powell Henderson, Bob Aldrich and Denis Barton as Chairman. If you have any ideas for Field Day please submit ideas to any of the above committee members.  

Whipple Walker reported that Marshall County will have their Field Day operations at Mike Miller Park in Draffenville.  

It was asked if anyone had ordered the Antenna Launcher kit that was in the program Dale Barrett presented at the March Meeting. John Hart responded that he has one on order.  

Randall asked for a motion to authorize purchasing the parts for the Litz Decoder prototype. John Hart made a motion to authorize up to $50.00 + shipping for the parts for Litz Decoder prototype. Debbie Barton seconded. Motion passed unanimously. Randall Winchester will do the artwork for the boards.  

Area Hamfests:

            April 12^th, FreeFest, (replaced Memphis Hamfest, Mid-South Amateur Radio Association.

            Talk-In on 147.30 (no tone)

            Bartlett Station Municipal Center Banquet HALL, 5868 Stage Road, Bartlett, TN  

            May 3^rd, 8^th Annual Hamfest, Hopkins County Amateur Radio Association

            http://www.wb4jro.net/hamfest_flyer.htm

            Talk-IN: 146.61 (PL 100)

            Hopkins County Emergency Management Building, 130 North Franklin St, Madionsonville, KY  

May 24^th, GeorgeFest or Dayton South. Located between Draffenville and Aurora on Hwy 68 at “Forgotten Past.” 

Ham Bits – SPLAT – A VHF path propagation predictor. It is only available for North America and is free, but you do need to register to get information from your location. K4MSU is a registered user. The URL to the website is: http://cs.ecok.edu/~bw/SPLAT/  

New Business – John Hart made a motion to allocate $200.00 for purchasing a new top section and painting the small tower. Whipple Walker seconded the motion. Motion was brought to a vote and passed unanimously.  

Election of Officers – Currently serving are Randall Winchester, President; Dale Barrett, Vice President; Debbie Barton, Secretary; and Bill Call, Treasurer.  

Bill Call made a motion that all serving officers remain in their respective positions, Whipple Walker seconded. Dave Barrett responded that he could not continue as Vice President due to work obligations that are coming up. Bill amended his motion to all serving officers except Dale Barrett continue in their respective positions and Whipple Walker seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.  

The Vice President is responsible for the programs and to officiate at any meetings when the President is unavailable. Bill Call nominated Matt Freeman for Vice President, Matt accepted the nomination and John Hart seconded. All in favor and motion passed unanimously.  

Program – Denis Barton presented a program on Propnet. The website is www.propnet.org and you can download the free program and obtain further information there.  

There being no further business. Randall Winchester adjourned the meeting at 2006 hours.  

Respectfully submitted,  

Debbie Barton, W8IBT, Secretary