Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur Association (NIRAA/W0MG) Meeting Minutes, September 2017 The September gathering of the Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur's Association (NIRAA) was called to order at 7:00 PM September 9, 2017 by Mark Colby (N8TWO). There were 19 members (13 ARRL) and 1 guest in attendance this evening, listed below. MINUTES ------- Adjustments to last month's minutes: (none) Minutes accepted with no adjustments (n0tkc/n0zyc) TREASURER'S REPORT ------------------ Dave reports we have $1,467 in the general fund plus $205 in the repeater savings fund. We received a refund on our damage deposit for our recent swap meet. Report accepted (mn0zyc/n0tkc) REPEATERS --------- no updates OLD BUSINESS ------------ Chuck gave a report on the recent ARES drill. It sounds like they had a good turnout and the drill was pretty realistic. This year's simulated emergency was for a 45 passenger plane that crashed short of the runway, with part of the wreck involving water and part on land. The NIRAA had 11 members in attendance, and the chief of police took notice of our presence. It sounds like the three dispatchers were totally buried with traffic just trying to handle the emergency, and they had no 911 calls to deal with. Fire dispatch was also going through them, which would add to the congestion. Cedar Rapids was their failover, but with only 7 channels to work with it wouldn't have helped much anyway. We did have a portable DMR repeater on-site as well, which would prove very useful in such an emergency. The airport holds Readyness Drills yearly, but for every one live drill, the other two are "tabletop" and don't involve such physical activation. Tom rports we had 14 hams on the sign-in sheet, and he will be submitting a Simulated Emergency Test Report to the state. Our participation was also mentioned in several local newspapers. It looks like our participation got us some good publicity as well as recognition from the local officials, and that's something we can always use. Taryn had a christmas dinner report for us also. Apparently no one is interested in steak, and hasn't heard of any other off-menu special requests. Again, we are scheduled for Saturday November 11 at TJs in Reinbeck, seating to start at 5pm. Dinner is pay-at-the-table, and an average meal will cost around $9. There are gluten-free and other special-needs items on the regular menu. NEW BUSINESS ------------ Mark announced the local scouts council will be conducting a camporee on Saturday Oct 14. (the day of our next club meeting) He would like to get together plans for club participation, inlcuding radio operations, simple antenna construction, work on the radio merit badges, and possibly a foxhunt. This year we will be working with actual boy scouts, not cub scouts, so expect ages 12-18. Volunteers for a quick committee were solicited. Stan gave us some updates on Bob Trenton's condition following his recent illness. Bob is recovering up in Rochester after suffering a severe stroke last week. He was actually IN Rochester for unrelated medical reasons when it hit him, so he received very fast treatment. Lois will pic up a gift card for signing at Monday's breakfast. Motion to adjourn (n0zyc/nk0t) PRESENTATION ------------ Tonight’s presentation was by KB0VGG (Al) on emergency power and NK0T curt on using smith charts and software to create cheap j-poles UPCOMING PRESENTATIONS ---------------------- October's presentation TBD REGULAR EVENTS -------------- - ARES net check-in is at 9pm every Sunday night, on 146.94/34 - hams meet informally at 9am every Monday morning at HyVee on University Ave - hams meet informally at 12pm every Tuesday at Taco Johns on University Ave - Iowa Digital Net runs every Tues night at 7pm on 3572.5 / 3574 ctr USB - DMR checkin 7:30 pm Sunday night on talk group 3119 VE TESTING AND TRAINING ----------------------- - ongoing tech-to-general class - 2017/09/16 VE testing, contact Tom (AE0TB) dir3@w0mg.net - 2017/11/25 VE testing contact Tom (AE0TB) dir3@w0mg.net UPCOMING HAMFESTS ----------------- (none?) OTHER EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------------------------ - JOTA (Jambori On The Air) coming up on Oct 21 - NIRAA Christmas Dinner at TJs in Reinbeck, Nov 11 at 5:00 pm W0MG/NIRAA LINKS ---------------- - Club Website: http://w0mg.net/ - 2017 NIRAA Membership form: http://www.w0mg.net/contact/membershipform2017.pdf - Cedar Valley area repeaters: http://w0mg.net/repeaters/ =============================================================================== The NIRAA club meets on the 2nd Saturday of every month at 7pm in the basement of the Red Cross building (2530 University Ave) in Waterloo. Anyone interested in ham radio is welcome to attend. Our primary club repeater is on 146.94 mhz, negative offset, PL tone of 136.5 hz, with coverage centered in Black Hawk County. Many members are also monitoring channel 3119 on DMR. Our club website is at http://www.w0mg.net/ . Primary email contact is Nathan at sec(a)w0mg.net Officers may be contacted over the air or via email: President, Mark Colby, N8TWO, pres(a)w0mg.net Vice President, Curtis Wilson, NK0T, vp(a)w0mg.net Secretary, Nathan Fisher, N0ZYC, sec(a)w0mg.net Treasurer, Dave Knittel, K0CQH, treas(a)w0mg.net Director 1, Harold Lucas, N4HRL, dir1(a)w0mg.net Director 2, Stan Johnson, W0SJ, dir2(a)w0mg.net Director 3, Thom Bicket, AE0TB, dir3(a)w0mg.net - Nathan Fisher Secretary, W0MG You're receiving these meeting minutes because you have given the NIRAA club your email address for minutes or announcements. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, please reply requesting removal from one or both distribution lists. This month's meeting attendance: Members: N0ZYC Nathan Fisher NK0T Curt Wilson AE5EI Joe Hoepfner WA0QXF Willoughby Clark KE0IWP Janice Fitkin K0CQH Dave Knittel WA0EEY Raynard Engel KE0IWQ James Fitkin KB0VGG Al Jones W0SJ Stan Johnson W0VJB Vicki Bicket N0TKC Taryn Colby KA0DBC Lois Johnson W0KER Rose Angel W0ALO Chuck Angel AE0TB Tom Bicket N8TWO Mark Colby KD0DK David Kelly N4HRL Harold Lucas Guests: KD0YKM Marlo Anderson Members wishing to pay club dues (or have paid and are not indicated above) please contact Dave Knittel.