Murray State University Amateur Radio Club

Meeting Minutes, October 6, 2009

The meeting was called to order at 19:00 by President, Randall Winchester.

In attendance:

Minutes – Bill Call motioned to accept the minutes as amended 4:30 pm today, John Hart seconded. Motion passed.

Staff Advisor Report – John Hart reported that the mast for the satellite antenna has finally arrived and been installed. He and his class are preparing for a couple of balloon flights this fall with the first to take place in about 3 weeks. The balloon flights will have APRS and a camera onboard and a future flight may have crossband repeater onboard. Two of his students are interested in amateur radio and one is currently studying for the exam.

Systems Report – Bill Call reported that all the repeaters are operating, it was suggested that the intermittent problems could be power related problems.

Treasurer’s Report – Bill Call reported expenditures of $14.00 for exam fees, and a new balance of $1137.45.

VE Report – Two exam sessions this past month, one immediately following the meeting last month and one on September 15^th. Two perspective licensees took the test with one, Candace Aldrich passing her exam. Candy’s call is KJ4OZU.

QSL Managers Report – Valerie Barrett reported there were no new cards.

Net Report – Matt Freeman is missing the net report for the 28^th but is reporting on the three sessions he has the information for. 3 sessions, 0 traffice, 61 stations, 32 minutes and 32.5 operator hours.

Randall Winchester & Mike Metcalf provided information on Heater Meals which was distributed to everyone in attendance. A drawing was held to give away the one boxed meal that was passed around so everyone could see what they were. For those not in attendance a Heater Meal is an all-in-one boxed meal (with up to a 5 year shelf life) for Emergency preparedness. The drawing was won by Debbie Barton.

Old Business – Chuck Williams and Randall Winchester will be applying next week, for a club station license for the Murray Independent School District (to be housed at Murray Middle School, at this time) and hope to have the license by spring. Terry Ward made a motion to have MSUARC provide support (non-monetary) for the MISD club station on an as requested basis. John Hart seconded and everyone was in favor, motion passed.

New Business – Bill Call brought up the Christmas Party plans. Debbie Barton with the help of Bill Call, Valerie Barrett and Mary Erickson will plan the Christmas party. If anyone has any dates that are impossible for them please email one of the above people to let them know. We are looking at the first two weeks of December, it could possibly be any day of the week but we will be looking for Friday, Saturday or Sunday as first options. We will do our best to make it convenient for everyone. There will be a gift exchange Chinese Auction style. The gift limit is $10.00 for a new item or 30 pound maximum for used equipment.

Ham of the Year nominations will be next month with Debbie Barton, Matt Freeman and Valerie Barrett tabulating the votes.

We had two new licensee’s apply for membership, Mike and Mary Erickson. Bill Call made a motion of accept their applications with several people seconding the motion. Motion passed. We would like to welcome Mike & Mary Erickson to the MSUARC.

Program – Chuck Williams gave a presentation on Fall Weather with sites and sources to find out more information on weather conditions and weather spotting. If you would like this information either emailed to you or on a disk please contact Chuck and he will be glad to get the information to you. One good site mentioned was www.skywarnonline.com

John Hart spoke a little about IP addressing and that Amateur Radio has a class A license (44.0.0.0 /8) and Kentucky has a class B license for Amateur Radio (44.106.0.0 /16). The Kentucky license is the equivalent of about 65,000 licenses and he has been in contact with the coordinator for these licenses. At this time he and his class are in the process of designing a network scheme for amateur radio IP addresses to make coordination of the address licenses easier. It is possible John will be involved in this project for quite some time.

Randall Winchester adjourned the meeting at 19:55.

Respectfully submitted,

Debbie Barton, W8IBT

Secretary