Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur Association (NIRAA/W0MG) Meeting Minutes, June 2017 The June gathering of the Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur's Association (NIRAA) was called to order at 7:05 PM June 10, 2017 by Mark Colby (N8TWO). There were 17 members (15 ARRL) and 2 guests in attendance this evening, listed below. MINUTES ------- Adjustments to last month's minutes: - W0MG Swap Meet on Sat July 8 at CEDAR FALLS (not Waterloo) Gateway Park - amount of insurance paid was $208 not $228 - Reynard'S GRANDSON owns TJs Minutes accepted with adjustments (K0CQH/N0TKC) TREASURER'S REPORT ------------------ Dave reports we have $1,246.44 in the general fund plus $205 in the repeater savings fund. 33 of our 47 club members are also ARRL members, so our membership percentage looks good, although all members are encouraged to join the ARRL. Report accepted (N0TKC/KE0IWP) OLD BUSINESS ------------ AE0TB: Internet was down on the DMR repeter for awhile but is back up. (the school was having a transformer replaced and a fiber media converter unexpectedly lost power for awhile) N8TWO: We have a tech class coming up with additioal testing. JOTA (Scout's Jambouree On The Air) is coming up on October 21, will begin coordination with the JOTA committee. Hamfest coming up next month, still looking for additional volunteers for cleanup and registration table. N0TKC: Christmas dinner discussion. We have a menu for TJs but if they want something not on the menu (steak, side, salad, etc) he's willing to provide off-menu service as well, although specialty items (like prime rib) will be available without advance notce. We will be collecting an attendance count at the October meeting so they can staff appropriately. AE0TB: Received an email from Craig (N3CAH), he's looking for donations to the vetran's home in Marshalltown for the (re)construction of a ham shack. Also looking for HF/VHF/UHF radios available for donation, in addition to any other associated materials. NK0T: 224.9 repeater is still on the air but you have to kerchunk it and let it ID before you can use it, otherwise it locks up. Looking into it, not sure if it's a controller (hardware) or software issue. NEW BUSINESS ------------ NONE OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------------- NONE Motion to adjourn (N0TZYC/N0TKC) PRESENTATION ------------ There was no June presentation in leu of final Field Day discussion: N8TWO: Still looking for volunteers for 3PM-9PM and 1AM-END shifts. Nathan and Mark will fill in as needed but we'd like to close the gaps as much as possible. N4HRL: The majority of the Salvation Army staff are attending family reunions the week of field day and are unlikely to be able to make much of a showing (if any) this year for us. It may be possible to borrow a member or two from a neighboring group to help out. Ideally they'd like to provide spaghetti for supper and casserole for breakfast. W0SJ: Two longwires have been constructed and one installed on Thursday. SWR one 40-10 is looking good, 80 not so good, but that's before using a tuner. The 80m inverted V will be set up for 80 and 75. (roll and unroll ends to tune) We should try to check in on the Iowa 75M net for some easy points, the net starts at 5om. Wendel has donated some nice low loss high visibility (neon yellow!) foam coax. We also have two end-fed longwire and Mark's 40m vertical to work with, so there's no shortage of aerials. The initial plan is four tables in the shed, three for operators and one for door greeting. Bill's shed is air-conditioned and mosquito-proof so if the temp or bugs are bad we should still be okay. A modern bathroom is also available. We should look into a larger W0MG sign for his driveway entrance as it can be easy to miss. Antennas to be set up that day have already been planned out so setup should go quickly. We may need tables and chairs. (Nathan and Curt will bring a few in case) Chris Goeller (KE0IWO) is considering donating his battery/solar trailer to the club. (and not just for the day, for good), that would surely be appreciated. Several members will be bringing batteries, though there's a good bet that we'll have power well-covered at Bill's place. Solar and generators are also coming in from various members. We do get a bonus for solar/battery, and in the case of digital mode the computers also have to be on solar/battery. (unlike the logging computers which can be on the mains) DMR may not work through repeaters, which makes it basically ineligible for the solar/battery bonus. Stan was not able to get a monoband beam together in time, hip problems. Stan is bringing his 40, 20, and 15M filters, make sure you change the filter when you change the band. Everyone that can please bring headphones. Wendel is working on several independent volume splitting headphone boxes. We'll be bringing the club's 897 radio as well as another one for GOTA and 6M. Bill will probably be setting up his HF radio. Nathan and a few others will bring spare radios to set up as needed. Bill and Nathan have caution tape where necessary. N8TWO: we have laptops configured and tested with logging software. 4 of the 5 are at 2gb now so should be running smoothly. If you're bringing a desk mic, please bring the windscreen if you have it. AE0TB: American Red Cross's ERV (Emergency Response Vehicle) will be making a brief apperance to count as a served agency before it heads to Parkersberg to do the same there, and then on to IWARN. K0CQH: We should get a map of Bill's place up on the club web page as well as facebook. UPCOMING PRESENTATIONS ---------------------- Next month's presentation will be on GO-KIT boxes 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 HAMFESTS -------- - CVARC Hamfest on Sun August 6 at Cedar Rapids http://w0gq.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/2017CVARC_HamfestFlyer.jpg OTHER EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------------------------ NONE 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. 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 N8TWO Mark Colby N4HRL Harold Lucas W0ALO Chuck Angel K0CQH Dave Knittel KE0IWQ James Fitkin WA0TPN Scott Lowe NK0T Curt Wilson W0EL David Welch W0SJ Stan Johnson KE0IWP Janice Fitkin N0TKC Taryn Colby W0VJB Vickie Bicket AE0TB Tom Bicket KD0DK David Kelly K0RTE Gary Korte K0ELJ Ernie Jensen Guests: KB0RSW Randall McClain KB0MGH John Carstensen Members wishing to pay 2017 dues (or have paid and are not indicated above) please contact Dave Knittel.