Murray State University Amateur Radio Club

Meeting Minutes, February 3, 2009  

The meeting was called to order at 19:08 by President, Randall Winchester.  

In attendance:

The question of the day was actually two questions. “How did you do during the ice storm last week?” and “Were your antennas big enough?” Several people had antennas that were big enough, but a couple of us lucky had antennas that were not. Most did okay during the ice storm and some are still trying to survive until power is restored.  

Minutes – Bill Call motioned to accept the minutes as revised the third time. Motion passed.  

Treasurer’s Report – Previous balance $865.00 minus $14.00 for exams plus a deposit or $189.00 for a new balance of $1,040.00.  

VE Report – Two VE sessions were held. Michael Metcalf and Eli Hooten were both successful and are now Technician Class licensees.  

Systems Report - The 2, 4 repeater was reported off air, but it is running. The antenna is broken and Bill Call has not been able to make it down there to switch to the stand-by antenna. The 9, 4 repeater came thru the storm okay and is still on the stand-by antenna. 443.800 never lost Echolink capabilities due to the MSU internet connection.  

Staff Advisor Report – John Hart requisitioned his departments’ laser printer for use with the EOC during the storm and clean-up. The MSU internet connection is on the state link which was why we did not lose our Echolink capabilities during the storm.  

Net Report – Matt Freeman reported 3 sessions, 0 traffic, 29 stations, 66 minutes, and 31.9 operator hours. This report does not include the storm net which John Hart will provide.  

QSL Managers Report – John Hart passed around several cards that came in from the QSL Bureau. We need to send more envelopes to the bureau.  

Old Business – Litz decoder was passed around for everyone to look at. Randall stated he is going to change the design to 1K resistors and lay them flat instead of standing up and will get rid of jumper wire. A badge laminator works great to make printed circuit boards.  

Bill Call reminded everyone of the weather spotter class on Thursday, February 5^th at 6:30 pm in the Freed Curd Auditorium.  

Ham Bits – “How long will this battery last,” was a presentation on how to determine the life of your battery for the application for which it is being used.

New Business – When you get these minutes you will know I have finally gotten commercial power back.

Two applications from prospective members: Michael Metcalf, KJ4ITH and Pat Stevens-Metcalf, prospective ham. Chuck Williams motioned to accept them as members, John Hart seconded and motion passed with all in favor. Welcome to Michael and Pat.

Program – January Ice Storm 2009 Review by Bill Call and John Hart – “What we did right and what we need to improve on.”  

We never lost our long distance communications. The EOC moved over to the new MSU Public Safety office. If long distance communications had been needed some from the club could have operated the club station with a phone connection to the EOC at Public Safety for local communications. We had operators in Weakes Center communicating with the EOC on VHF. John and Bill were mostly at EOC headquarters. Farmington remote receiver was not on. Better communication the various counties, some of our club members were sent to Benton so the EOC’s in Calloway and Marshall Counties could better communicate. National Incident Management System (NIMS) has different functions one of which is PIO (Public Information Officer) in Calloway County that is Kate Lochte of WKMS. There are numerous PIO’s for different areas, all working together so everyone is on the same page. Twice a day formal briefings between agencies was found to work very well in that everyone was always aware of what was happening and what needed to happen.  

Lesson One –When the EOC first set-up John Hart had the idea for top of the hour check-in and announcements, to save on battery power. A good job was done on passing personal traffic as well as public traffic. Winlink worked great for sending emails thru short wave radio by some hams from Tennessee traveling thru each of our counties and reporting back to the EOC on what kinds of services were available.  

Lesson Two – Bill Call stated that at first he was disappointed that not many members were on the air, but then realized that the ones in the midst of an emergency are the ones least available to assist in an emergency. Would we be ready to help Tennessee, Missouri or Illinois if they needed us in an emergency?  

Someone asked about having cards for club members stating they are certified emergency response personnel. Bill replied that to receive certification for emergency response four courses need to be taken online. These courses are at no cost. You can self-register online.  

In order to be "credentialed", i.e. registered and best able to be used in disaster response, hams need training.  This takes several forms.  First there's training in Amateur radio emergency communications techniques.  The most recognized course is offered by the ARRL, but there's a cost to it; so KY ARES has developed a free course that is worthwhile as an alternative (of course a person could do both).  Please see attached sheet for more information.

John stated he was very impressed with the way everything was handled. The importance of logging all requests was stated. This should be done with the following information: time, date, name of operator, location, the request, contact, location request sent to. This information should be kept in time/date sequence for ease of looking up pertinent information.  

Rich Beam asked how Bill would rate this disaster on a scale of 1 to 10 and Bill stated an 8, a big earthquake would be worse, as we would be cut-off from adjoining areas due to the bridges being impassable after an earthquake.  

Meeting adjourned at 20:47 pm.  

Respectfully submitted,

Debbie Barton, W8IBT

Secretary