Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur Association (NIRAA/W0MG) Meeting Minutes, Oct 2016 The October 2016 meeting of the Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur's Association (NIRAA) was called to order at 7:07 pm on October 8 2016 by Mark Colby (N8TWO). There were 15 members (13 ARRL) and 2 guests in attendance this evening, listed below. Meeting minutes from last month didn't get sent out in time for the meeting, and will be reviewed next month. Treasurer's Report: We have $983.40 in the general fund, following receipt of one new membership. Treasurer's report accepted, (N09ZYC/N0TKC) OLD BUSINESS ------------ Chris reported on repeater status. Service went down recently for about 45 minutes due to a power failure. There's no room to install a UPS at the CF location. Switching to waterloo as a backup would be possible in theory, but it lacks duplexers or a receiver, so it's not practical in the short-term. The club needs to consider other options for repeater support, Chris and Curt don't have much free time lately. Stan is willing but will need to get up to speed on their operation and data. (should be able to get this from Chris or Chuck) Dick gave a final report on our recent swap meet, summarizing info previously discussed. Taryn has the ticket stubs and will be forwarding that to Nathan to do email lookups and checking in QRZ for adding to next year's mailing list. The NCC was happy to host us but the food vendor sounded a bit disappointed in food sales. The only issue we ran into is the location didn't have the expected advance setup of tables and chairs when we arrived. The swapmeet chair and committee are getting a bit worn out and are requesting we mix it up a bit for next year. Taryn reported on the upcoming christmas party, while collecting final attendance counts and confirmations. You will have your choice of the following dishes: - new york strip ($18) - baked salmon ($15) - chicken marsalla ($14) - cheese pizza ($9) - pork tips marsalla ($14) + gluten-free will be available Mark and Stan are getting a jump on next year's field day since Ingawanus isn't going to be an option. Bill Dedic has offered a good location with excellent facilities, it's the best option we've explored so far. (it's across from PEC) Stan has obtained several older windows7 Asus laptops for logging, at least three should be usable though battery power is spotty. Having several laptops already set up for field day, as well as available for testing and user familiarization prior to field day should really help with logging. Jamboree On The Air will be next weekend at Ingawanus. Stan and Curt have been working on a low cost key project for the scouts and Curt has brought in some of the developing projects to present after the meeting. Nathan will be doing some foxhunting, and other hams will be attending to work with the scouts and do a little quasi-field day station-working. We're still working on getting Dave assigned as the primary bank person so he can access things like account balance. This is still registered under Scott. Dick also brought in a summary of the recent swap meet cash flow: $380 collected from 9 underwriters $209 collected from donations at the hamfest (admission was free) ---- $589 total income $ 40 beofeng GT3 radio for grand door prize $300 NCC rental for 1/2 day ---- $340 total expenses $589 income -$340 expense ----- $240 amount refunded to underwriters (65%) We then discussed options for next year such as collecting a small admission fee. Most hamfests in the area have a $7 admission fee, with tables in the $12-15 range. Considerations were made for charging $5 next year for admissions - it will lower donations, but it's difficult to predict if charging admission will be a net-win or net-loss for the club. For now it's just food for thought, we'll revisit this more later. Despite the NCC being a significant cost, it's a very good venue for many reasons. We need to keep in mind that it may not be available next year due to NCC's financial issues. NEW BUSINESS ------------ Elections for 2017 will be held at November's dinner/meeting. In addition to the yearly positions, Chris's board position is up for election. While we will also accept nominations just proir to voting, we took initial nominations tonight. - Chris and Harold nominated for the open board position - Nathan for secretary again - Dave for treasurer again - Curt for vp again - Mark for president again We don't currently have a December program, please contact Mark if you'd be interested in doing a program. Motion to adjourn (W0HHF/N0TKC) Tonight's presentation was by Thom and Curt, Thom showed a movie from this year's field day and Curt brought in low-cost morse code key kits he's been working on for JOTA. 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 VE TESTING AND TRAINING ----------------------- - nov 19 10am cf library, all classes Thom is the contact - one day tech class oct 29 marshaltown Paul Crowly is the contact - local tech classes still TBA HAMFESTS -------- (none) OTHER EVENTS ------------ - Christmas Dinner will be on Saturday Nov 12 at 6:00 pm at the Waverly Diner =============================================================================== 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. 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, NKØT, vp(a)w0mg.net Secretary, Nathan Fisher, NØZYC, sec(a)w0mg.net Treasurer, Dave Knittel, K0CQH, treas(a)w0mg.net Director 1, Chris Conklin, NØCF, dir1(a)w0mg.net Director 2, Stan Johnson, WØSJ, dir2(a)w0mg.net Director 3, Tom Bicket, AEØTB, 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 email, please reply requesting removal from one or both distribution lists. This month's meeting attendance: Members: N8TWO Mark Colby N0TKC Taryn Colby N4HRL Harold Lucas AE0TB Tom Bicket NK0T Curt Wilson W0SJ Stan Johnson W0VJB Vicki Bicket KE0IWP Janice Fitkin KE0IWQ James Fitkin W0HHF Dick Nelson K0DV Doug Vernier K0CQH Dave Knittel W0ALO Chuck Angel N0ZYC Nathan Fisher WD0BWQ David Brandon Guests: KE0DIE Robert Trettin N0CF Chris Conklin