REMINDER: our next (December 13) ham club meeting will be held at Cedar Falls Utilities (CFU) at 3pm, with a tour of the CFU plant facilities following the meeting. CFU is located at 1 Utility Parkway, near Hwy 58 and 12th Street / Waterloo Road Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur Association (NIRAA/W0MG) Meeting Minutes, November 2025 The November gathering of the Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur's Association (NIRAA) was called to order at 5:24 PM November 11, 2025 at the Cedar Falls Family Restaurant. There was no presentation this evening in leu of elections and Christmas dinner MINUTES ------- Adjustments to last month's minutes: Mark (N8TWO): Correction for the W0MG fusion repeater: it will only do Fusion locally, not over the internet. Report accepted with 1 adjustment ( KB0RSW / N0TKC ) TREASURER'S REPORT ------------------ activity and balances for period: 10/1/2025 - 10/31/2025: Savings (repeater fund) account: $2,809.26 starting balance ---------- -------------------------------------------------- (no changes) ---------- -------------------------------------------------- $2,809.26 ending balance checking (share-draft) account: $1,572.98 starting balance ---------- -------------------------------------------------- -$ 36.00 Al (KB0VGG) cashed check fr shelter rental in August ---------- -------------------------------------------------- $1,536.98 ending balance upcoming deposits and expenses: (none) Report accepted 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 --------- (no report) COMMITTEES ---------- Presentation Committee (Curt/NK0T, John/WB0MAR): (no report) OLD BUSINESS ------------ Mark (N8TWO) gave a JOTA recap: we were expecting 20-24 scouts, and saw about 50 scouts plus adults. We need more club volunteers for these events. Next year's focus will be on the Electronics merit badge. We'd like to help with soldering, maybe assemble an offset attenuator from a kit. The scouts enjoyed our JOTA activities, and it was also the warmest JOTA event anyone can remember. Klondike Derby is coming up, still waiting to hear more details from the scouts. The Wednesday before (spring) Field Day will be an "open program" day at camp, we might want to use that as a shakedown for Field Day? Winter Field Day is in 2 months. (Jan 24-25) NEW BUSINESS ------------ Al (KB0VGG): it's getting dark at 6pm, are we going to move the meeting time earlier for a few months? (discussion of times) 2pm sounds acceptable, unanimous agreement to change meeting time to 2PM Dec-March. John (WB0MAR) discussed details of upcoming CFU tour. 2pm is a little early, we'll need to meet at CFU at 3PM for the tour and meeting. Al (KB0VGG): we have a new repeater but the firmware is old and it can't go on the internet until upgraded. The cost is estimated at $45 plus shipping. Motion to approve up to $245 for repeater firmware upgrade. Mark (N8TWO): we're waiting on the scouts' I.T. and legal to sign off on ethernet VPN access at Ingawanis. (we tried using the WiFi but it didn't work out) We're temporarily using their internal network. VPN will require port forwarding and a separate VLAN. ELECTION -------- President Al (KB0VGG) and Treasurer Dave (KD0DK) both would like to step down if anyone is interested in the position, but there were no volunteers. There was some discussion about the new director, Jan (KE0IWP) was not interested in running for re-election. Scott (W3STS) was interested and nominated. VP Dave (K9DCR) and secretary Nathan (N0ZYC) also ran unopposed for re-election. All positions running unopposed were confirmed by unanimous verbal vote. Motion to adjourn at 7:10 PM ( N0ZYC / N0TKC ) 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: JAN 10 : FEB 14 : MAR 14 : APR 11 : MAY 9 : June 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 ---------------------------- Feb 28 - Perry RF Winterfest - 2.5 hr drive from Waterloo 8am-12pm at National Guard Armory, 2930 Willis Avenue Perry, IA 50220 $10 admission, $15 tables, test registration at 9am Talk-in Frequency 145.190 (-) 114.8 tone URL: https://www.arrl.org/hamfests/harc-winter-rf-fest-5 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 Don (W0DT) has a number of radios for sale Don (KD0WGB) has a Zero Fire ground plane vertical (10-80m, 43ft) 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) MEMBERS ------- (no roll call was made this evening) 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 2024 John Humpal (WB0MAR) dir1(a)w0mg.net Director 2025 Randy Albright (KF0JPR) dir2(a)w0mg.net Director 2026 Scott West (W3STS) dir3(a)w0mg.net ABOUT ----- NIRAA meets most months on the 2nd Saturday of the month at 2:00 pm (winter meeting time) 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