Meeting Minutes, January 5, 2010
The meeting was called to order at 7:13pm by Vice-President Chuck Williams. He opened with a cheery(?) snow scene picture.
In attendance:
| Chuck Williams KJ4HBK | Bill Call, KJ4W |
| Dale Barrett WB7D | Valerie Barrett KG4OCJ |
| Marvin Kiehl W9CFT | George Knecht KI4RZY |
| Mary Erickson KJ4NZU | Mike Erickson KJ4OPI |
| Tim Edmonson KA4WWS | Gary Cooper KJ4EBQ |
| Mike Metcalf KJ4ITH | Pat Stephens-Metcalf KJ4QEC |
| Matt Freeman WX4MET |
The Introductions Question(s) of the day was: “Did you receive any Ham related Christmas presents? Do you have any Ham related projects planned for 2010?”
Minutes – Bill Call motioned to accept the minutes as emailed, Tim seconded. Motion passed.
Treasurer’s Report – Bill Call reported expenditures of $7.00 (VE fees), $52.25 (repair/upgrade parts for UHF repeater), deposit of $75 (dues & exam fees), and a new balance of $1242.20. 2010 dues are payable!
Systems Report – Bill Call reported that the UHF repeater had suddenly begun producing spurious outputs—he got two telephone calls from persons reported recognizing his voice coming over their TV sets, and another call from the Sheriff reporting hearing him on a public safety channel. He shut the repeater down on December 5 and took it home to repair it. No obvious problem showed up on the bench, but the old power amplifier was suspect since it had produced spurs at one point and was being overloaded as a repeater amplifier. Bill had a commercial 100 watt repeater-duty amplifier that had been donated when its transistors blew, and had since obtained some transistors at a good price; so he repaired that amp and installed it. Our UHF machine now has nearly triple the output as before. He also changed the PL tone to 91.5Hz to match the other repeaters, and did some other maintenance work. The repeater was reinstalled on Christmas Eve. At first it was thought that the receive sensitivity had decreased, but measurements indicate that it is normal. We might look at the antenna sometime when weather is favorable, and see if any problems are there. A newer version of EchoLink was installed, which appears to have made EchoLink connections more reliable.
The 94 machine noise has been low most of the time, but seems to be a bit worse after a rain. We need to inspect the connectors of that antenna again sometime.
The other systems are working normally.
Staff Advisor Report – None; John is celebrating his 25th Wedding Anniversary, congratulations!
VE Report – A VE session was held on December 23 and Mike Erickson passed his upgrade to General exam. No other VE sessions are scheduled at this time.
QSL Managers Report – No
cards received.
Net Report –Matt Freeman
reported for December 4 net sessions, no traffic, 118 minutes, which calculates
to 114 operator-hours.
Other – George reported
that both
Ham Bits – “Show and Tell” – Mike KJ4ITH showed off his version of the tennis-ball antenna launcher; very neat and compact. Chuck showed off his new mobile anemometer, a mag-mount unit made by Vortex. See http://www.inspeed.com/anemometers/Stormchaser_Mag_Wind_Sensor.asp
Old Business – none.
New Business – we have been asked to provide communications assistance to the MSU Cycle Club on February 27, for their inter-collegiate race like we did last spring. A signup sheet was passed around. Any members not present who may wish to participate are asked to contact Bill Call or John Hart. More details next meeting.
A weather-spotting class will be scheduled soon.
Matt needs Net Control Operators for the Monday night net. He is willing to handle the reporting of data, but will be unavailable most Monday nights this spring. Bill, Chuck, and Tim volunteered. Any other members who are willing to assist should contact Matt.
Program – Dale Barrett presented a program on Software-Defined Radios (SDR). He presented some of the mathematics behind radio operation, and showed the difference in how SDR’s handle the process of modulation. He showed a Flex Radio unit which he had, and the control screen for the program which controlled it. More information may be seen at: http://flex-radio.com/ He also briefly mentioned the Ten-Tec Orion II, another approach to SDR.
Chuck adjourned the meeting at 8:49pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Bill Call, KJ4W
Acting Secretary