Join us (next meeting is Saturday March 8 at 6pm) at the Waterloo Airport, or via Discord. Click this invitation link to add our server to your Discord app: https://discord.gg/Uyz4jeQKhW (2025) Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur Association (NIRAA/W0MG) Meeting Minutes, February 2025 The February gathering of the Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur's Association (NIRAA) was called to order at 6:01 PM February 8, 2025 at the Waterloo Airport by Al (KB0VGG). There were 16 members (14 ARRL) and 1 guest in attendance (locally and remotely) this evening, listed below. MINUTES ------- Adjustments to last month's minutes: (none) Report accepted with no adjustments ( N0ZYC / N0TKC ) TREASURER'S REPORT ------------------ activity and balances for period: 1/1/2025 - 1/31/2025: Savings (repeater fund) account: $2,705.26 starting balance ---------- -------------------------------------------------- (no change) ---------- -------------------------------------------------- $2,705.26 ending balance checking (share-draft) account: $1,608.43 starting balance ---------- -------------------------------------------------- +$ 262.28 dues ---------- -------------------------------------------------- $1,870.71 ending balance upcoming deposits and expenses: An operator in Portland, Maine has joined our club for access to the club's remote station Report accepted ( N0ZYC / N8TWO ) Please contact our treasurer Dave (KD0DK) if you would like to get your dues paid for the year. Club dues can be paid in person at the meeting or online on our club website at https://www.w0mg.net/ REPEATERS --------- Chuck (W0ALO): 82 still working well, putting out about 70 watts Al (KB0VGG): 94 repeater is working great, hearing well. Only 30W out though, we have plans to increase that to 120 watts. (the hardware has been gathered) 444.975 is also working great, performance North of Waterloo is excellent Keep in mind it's both analog and fusion, so if you hear digital on your analog receiver, that's not a malfunction, that's just a fusion transmission. My 444.55 is still a little deaf. Benton County has received a full repeater setup from Vinton. The club's DMR needs more use. COMMITTEES ---------- Presentation Committee (Curt/NK0T, John/WB0MAR): (no report) OLD BUSINESS ------------ Al (KB0VGG) gave a Winter Field Day wrap-up: - "never trust a piece of coax" (we spent awhile troubleshooting what turned out to be some bad coax) - spreading out the antennas really helped - the scout camp is very RF-quiet (really good for receive) - we needed more dedicated night operators - overnight was an issue though because we had no JS8Call or CW stations running, leaving us with voice as the only possible option overnight, in a small room full of sleeping people, so we just didn't - the food was good and plentiful NEW BUSINESS ------------ Al (KB0VGG): Bernie used the remote to do net management on 75m - he needs help with staying online. Motion for the club be willing to comp him a year's membership ( KD0DM / N0TKC) Al (KB0VGG): Me and Mark (N8TWO) need to get ham classes going Mark's church would be ok with us using their location for classes Contact Al if you would like to study or test Al (KB0VGG): Spoke with Antique Acres, we have them reserved for Summer Field Day (Sat and Sun) Mark (N8TWO) might come Friday night with his smoker and get that set up before camping overnight. We're not sure if Antique Acres will let us do any antenna setup on Friday though. Al (KB0VGG): We found the club's good (yellow) coax, along with other repeater parts - it was rediscovered at Brenda's (KE0IDF) "out building". Nathan (N0ZYC): Nick (KD0WVN) has been given a mix of 14 and 17 inch dell monitors, most of which are on articulating stands. They mainly have DVI and VGA inputs, though some may have other inputs as well. Contact Nick if interested. Curt (NK0T) was recently hospitalized with a 3cm kidney stone. Al (KB0VGG): International Radio Day is on April 18. (Good Friday, before Easter) It's normally run as a sort of "ham radio open house". We could participate in a public place (such as Hawkeye, maybe in their TechWorks parking lot?), might be inviting the media to stop by too. Mark (N8TWO): do we want to start planning Summer Field Day now? Al (KB0VGG) fishing for a Chair for the event, no volunteers, we'll table it for next month. Mark (N8TWO): do we want to do a Park Activation in May as a practice "shake down" run for Field Day? Good time to test radios, refresh our memory on logging, etc. Dave (KD0DK): maybe we could go outo to Bill's (W0GEN) a week or so before Summer Field Day? Dave (KD0DK): we coud also bring radios to the May meeting, to test gear? Mark (N8TWO) will bring the logging laptops Nathan (N0ZYC) suggests we get more of those laminated band-plan sheets Scott (W3STS): do we have a list of allowed modes for this year's Field Day? yes they should be posted. Mark (N8TWO): our Winter Field Day experience shows we need more operators, and need to work out our radio problems BEFORE the event starts. Dave (K9DCR) has replaced Joe Hoepfner (AE5EI) as the Iowa Digital Net Manager. (Olivia 8500) Motion to adjourn at 6:41 pm ( N0ZYC / K0CQH ) (there was no presentation this evening) UPCOMING PRESENTATIONS ---------------------- presentation ideas: electronics history, radio bug-out bag, alternate power, solar power, spotting electronics scams, mag-loop antennas, broadband blocking filters, Denver/cf robotics club, sodering, new director at FEMA, EOC? Contact Al (KB0VGG) if you'd be interested in giving a presentation. Tentative presentation schedule: APR 12 : MAY 10 : JUNE 13 : JULY 11 : Aug 9 : Sept 13 : REGULAR EVENTS -------------- - ARES net check-in is at 9pm every Sunday night, on 146.94/34 - Iowa Digital Net runs every Tuesday night at 7pm, 3.5885 MHz USB / 1500 Hz WF (Olivia 8-500) - Iowa 75 Meter Evening Net runs Mon-Sat at 6:00 pm on 3.970 MHz / LSB Also meets at 12:30 pm on same. - Iowa 160 Meter Net runs Sunday night at 9:30 pm on 1.9745 MHz / LSB - DMR checkin 7:30 pm Sunday night on talk group 3119 - Ham Radio Fellowship / Breakfast every Wednesday morning at 9AM at the Wendy's at Love's Travel Stop in Waterloo. (3301 Greyhound Drive) VE TESTING AND TRAINING ----------------------- contact Mark (N8TWO) for current information at classes@w0mg.net or Al (KB0VGG) on class/test day at 319-243-8819 UPCOMING HAMFESTS AND EVENTS ---------------------------- (let me know) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- Randy (KF0JPR) has a pair of HyGain yagi new in box for sale, asking $100 ea Doug (K0DV) has a 6m beam new in box also that's looking for a new home W0DT has a number of radios for sale W0MG/NIRAA LINKS ---------------- - Club Website: https://www.w0mg.net/ - Membership form: https://www.w0mg.net/contact/membershipform.pdf - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/waterloo.hams/community/ - Cedar Valley area repeaters list: https://w0mg.net/?page_id=1736 - additional club media and resources: https://vftp.net/N0ZYC/W0MG/index.html - Amateur Radio Practice Site (tests and code): https://www.aa9pw.com/ - Discord server (current invitation link at top of minutes) ATTENDANCE ---------- Members: N0ZYC Nathan Fisher W0ALO Chuck Angel N4HRL Harold Lucas N0TKC Taryn Colby KF0PBS Noel Dietz W0VJB Vicki Bicket AE0TB Tom Bicket KF0KDE Daniel Zilk N8TWO Mark Colby K0CQH David Knittel KF0JPR Randy Albright W3STS Scott West KD0DM David Morrow KD0DK David Kelly NC0N Cory Hill KB0VGG Al Jones Guests: KF0SJH Dave Powers Members wishing to pay club dues (or have paid and are not indicated above) please contact our Treasurer in person at our monthly meeting or by email at treas(a)w0mg.net Members of the board may be contacted over the air or via email: President Al Jones (KB0VGG) pres(a)w0mg.net Vice President David Roberts (K9DCR) vp(a)w0mg.net Secretary Nathan Fisher (N0ZYC) sec(a)w0mg.net Treasurer Dave Kelly (KD0DK) treas(a)w0mg.net Director 2023 Jan Fitkin (KE0IWP) dir1(a)w0mg.net Director 2024 John Humpal (WB0MAR) dir3(a)w0mg.net Director 2025 Randy Albright (JF0JPR) dir3(a)w0mg.net ABOUT ----- NIRAA meets most months on the 2nd Saturday of the month at 6:00 pm, at the Waterloo Airport, in the old restaurant. Parking is available at no cost in the short-term lot. (3 hr free limit) Our primary club repeater is on 146.94 mhz, negative offset, with a 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 https://www.w0mg.net/ and the club's primary email contact is sec(a)w0mg.net You're receiving these meeting minutes because you have given the NIRAA club your email address for minutes and announcements. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, please reply requesting removal from one or both distribution lists. - Nathan Fisher (N0ZYC) Secretary, W0MG