our next (January 10) ham club meeting will be at 2pm at the Waterloo Airport Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur Association (NIRAA/W0MG) Meeting Minutes, December 2025 The December gathering of the Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur's Association (NIRAA) was called to order at 3:03 PM December 13, 2025 at CFU by Al (KB0VGG). There were 14 in attendance this evening for the meeting and tour. TREASURER'S REPORT ------------------ activity and balances for period: 11/1/2025 - 11/30/2025: Savings (repeater fund) account: $2,809.26 starting balance ---------- -------------------------------------------------- (no changes) ---------- -------------------------------------------------- $2,809.26 ending balance checking (share-draft) account: $1,536.38 starting balance ---------- -------------------------------------------------- +$ 261.41 collected in dues ---------- -------------------------------------------------- $1,797.79 ending balance upcoming deposits and expenses: Dave (KD0DK) is heading to Florida, John (WB0MAR) will handle local treasurer duties until Dave returns 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/ MINUTES ------- Adjustments to last month's minutes: (none) Report accepted with 0 adjustments ( KD0DK / WB0MAR ) REPEATERS --------- Al (KB0VGG): The 94 and 82 repeaters are up, Al's is running at Ingawanis while it's in the shop. DMR is good. Ingawanis repeater has been serviced and is in shipment back to us. Cost estimates were $90 to ship, $45 to update for WiresX, $15 for return shipping. (about $150 total) Dave (K9DCR) has been paying for that and will need to be reimbursed. The updated repeater will do analog, D-Star, and Fusion, but not DMR. Boy Scouts are working on setting up port forwarding, VLAN, etc, although they may not be able to make the changes we need to be on their internal network, we may end up setting up on their guest wifi for now. If they're unable to figure out their LAN we may need to purchase a (T-Mobile?) cellular hotspot for digital mode. (that will be around $20/month) In that case we'd also need to find a basic router to handle port mapping. While the repeater was being worked on Ingawanis has been using Al's repeater. After the reworked repeater comes in and gets set up we can start planning the swap-back. (additional info will be available Jan meeting) There's a small consumer-grade UPS out there currently - it's there for the digital mode computer, probably not big enough to run the repeater. The 94 repeater at CFU has a slight bend in the mast, probably from recent storms. Al will replace that when the weather improves. COMMITTEES ---------- Presentation Committee (Curt/NK0T, John/WB0MAR): (no report) OLD BUSINESS ------------ Al (KB0VGG): we're still exploring options for linking nearby repeaters in Iowa (discussion of DMR and how the derecho took it down due to loss of internet) NEW BUSINESS ------------ Nathan (N0ZYC) brought up presentations and the presentation committee - there hasn't been any report from them for awhile, do we want to continue that? John (WB0MAR): we may get more kids interested in the presentations if they were less technical and on topics that were more interesting for kids. Our current "winter hours" for the meeting might also enable more youth to attend our meetings and presentations, we should consider permanently switching our meeting time? (it might also be a popular change with other club members in general?) Al (KB0VGG): also reminder, we can get study guides and books at below retail cost if someone needs them. We also had a test this morning at the Waterloo Airport, all three candidates passed their Tech test. Al (KB0VGG): Barry (W0IY) would like to work HF but has no HF radio, motion to grant access to the club radio. (unanimous verbal approval) Tim (N0CKR) is looking to create a "clearing house" of clubs in the area. John (WB0MAR) looking for updates on Palo? Al (KB0VGG): nothing yet but we may be getting combined with another county (Benton?) sice the evacuation from Palo to here would likely travel through Benton. Motion to adjourn at 3:40 PM ( N0ZYC / W3STS ) Tom (KE0KXL) explained the power availability for the 94 repeater at CFU, including a large UPS and direct plant power. CFU is a gas-turbine black-start facility, and provides crank power for restarting other plants such as Mid-American Energy. The group was then led on a tour of most of the CFU facility, accompanied by a detailed description of plant operations and frequent Q&A from club members. In addition to power generation facilities, a few of the more athletic members also got to hike up to the penthouse to see our club's 94 repeater installation. 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 : John (WB0MAR) has a video presentation on "Most reliable long-distance communications" 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) ATTENDANCE ------- N0ZYC Nathan Fisher W3STS Scott West KF0KDE Danael Zilk WB0MAR John Humpal KD0DK David Kelly KD0DM David Morrow KE0JJE Richard Morgan KF0JPR Randy Albright KB0VGG Al Jones W0EL David Welch KD0WVN Nick Miller KE0KXL Tom Risse N0CKR Tim Busch KF0VVJ Jacob Jacob 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