Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur Association (NIRAA/W0MG) Meeting Minutes, July 2017 The June gathering of the Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur's Association (NIRAA) was called to order at 7:01 PM July 8, 2017 by Mark Colby (N8TWO). There were 18 members (15 ARRL) and 6 guests in attendance this evening, listed below. MINUTES ------- Adjustments to last month's minutes: - clarification, we haven't formally decided on TJ's yet for our christmas dinner Minutes accepted with adjustments (N0TKC/AE0TB) TREASURER'S REPORT ------------------ Dave reports we have $1,296.55 in the general fund plus $205 in the repeater savings fund, this does not include expenses for the NIRAA swap. ($84 for the DMR radio grand door prize, and a refundable $250 deposit) We received $225 in collections, and paid $110 for the shelter rental so we actually came out a little bit in the black this time. Report accepted (N0ZYC/N0TKC) REPEATERS --------- NK0T's repeater is undergoing a "durability test", currently locked down (working on that) AE0TB: no changes N0CF: no changes FIELD DAY ANALYSIS ------------------ - there were no complaints or suggestions from any of the attendees - although we had a good number of people in attendance for setup, a number of people weren't actually participating in the setup, and Bill was a bit overburdened with doing the setup as a result - W0SJ: suggest we send Bill a thank-you for hosting the event - N0TKC: we should also include a thank-you for the salvation army's participation. We can try to get them signed on Mon/Tues. - N0HHF will provide cards - K0CQH suggests we pass the hat to help reimburse the salvation army for their food costs, in addition to the bell-ringing duty we usually do in reciprocation - W0SJ was intereted to know how the antennas performed, there were zero issues with them, they all appeared to work great. The filters were very useful this year - K0DV: the vertical ended up being more useful this year than the horizontal, more convenient - NK0T: we need to get the waterfall working on the K3, 40m CW was running very well but was challenging to hunt down stations without the waterfall - we could have used more CW operators - we had considered changing our classification, but 2A worked out well for us again - NK0T: we should have a station set up *in advance* for digital mode. The morning of field day is NOT the time to be shaking the bugs out of digital operations. (we missed the report copy as a result of delays in getting set up) Wendel's audio splitter boxes worked well, though we had some breakdowns, we could use more of those for next year, with built-in options for both 1/4" and 1/8" plugs - K0DV is willing to help teach operators CW. Also suggests we get together more powerpole extensions. - the new logging laptops were working pretty smoothly. there was a brief networking issue but was quickly sorted out. - N8TWO Chris Goeller (KE0IWO) has donated his solar/battery trailer to the club, thank you Chris! The trailier is *just* small enough that it doesn't require tags too. - NK0T inquired about any maintenance needs for the trailer. With its built-on solar, it just needs to be left in the sun to keep the batteries trickle charged. We might want to convert it to 24v though and build in a 24->12v converter as we have in several other power supplies for field day. Bill's 24->12v inverter will need to be tested and probably filtered. - N8TWO: the NIRAA signs really need to be upgraded to something larger and double-sided - N8TWO has been chairing field day several times running and would like someone else to take the reigns next year. SWAP MEET ANALYSYS ------------------ - W0HHF: Attendance this year was somewhat disappointing. We had a fair number of buyers but not very many sellers. Our attendance was around 50, and we would have ran into the red on the event if we hadn't received some last-minute donations. There are still a few table registration paymnets that need to be delivered to Dave for deposit. The venu was good though, parking, facilities, shelter, space, ease-of-access were all good. We did NOT get our event listed in QST, that was probably an important factor in our low attendance, we need to make sure that happens EVERY year. (we WERE on ARRL though) Timing may need to be adjusted though, being so close to the 4th of July this year. (which also impacted attendance) We might want to move it a week later. Dick has been chair of the swapmeet for the last four years and is stepping down to let someone else handle next year. - W0EL (Dave) volunteers his building as a possible location for next year. He already has a huge amount of government surplus to sell on location, with plenty of space, shelter, facilities, and parking. The surplus getting listed should add to the attraction of the event. - W0SJ: suggest we contact someone at Heartland Recovery to see if they would like to participate and help attract more attendees next year. NEW BUSINESS ------------ W0ALO: there's an upcoming drill at the airport - Aug 23 a simulated crash just over the 6 lane south of the airport in the park area. Partial water crash, 45 passengers. The new radio dispatch system won't be ready by then unfortunately. Highway patrol, Waterloo PD, Waterloo Fire, CF fire CF PD are all participating. Also expecting to work with local hospitaps, salvation army, american red cross, and more. It would be nice to get the NIRAA involved in some capacity as well. The drill is expeted to last about 90 minutes, should be wrapped up by 5pm. We should have more details at the next meeting. N0HHF has a select charity horse show August 5-6 at the national cattle congress, starting at 8am, they coul use some volunteers for communications. The list of volunteers shrunk rapidly once it was noticed this was the weekend of CVARC. THERE WILL BE NO AUGUST MEETING, as we traditionally do an informal get-together this month of the year. Venus under consideration: - Lookout Park - Waverly Pizza Ranch Motion to adjourn (N0ZYC/N0TKC) PRESENTATION ------------ Tonight's presentation was by AE0TB/WA0TPN on go-boxes UPCOMING PRESENTATIONS ---------------------- September's presentation is expected to be on Emergency Power, speaker TBD 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 UPCOMING HAMFESTS ----------------- Sept 16: Peoria Superfest 2017, Peoria IL http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/peoria-superfest-2017 Sept 23: CFMC Radio Expo, Belvidere IA http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/cfmc-radio-expo OTHER EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------------------------ - we have a testing session coming up on Sept 16 at the CF Library - looking to schedule ~5 people for tech classes - JOTA (Jambori On The Air) coming up on Oct 21 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 AE0TB Tom Bicket NK0T Curt Wilson K0CQH Dave Knittel W0SJ Stan Johnson W0DTD Robert Trettin KE0IWQ James Fitkin W0ALO Chuck Angel N0CF Chris Conklin KA0DBC Lois Johnson KE0IWP Janice Fitkin N0TKC Taryn Colby W0VJB Vicki Bicket N0HHF Judi Nelson W0HHF Dick Nelson W0EL David Welch N0RXB Wendell Wagner N8TWO Mark Colby Guests: KB0MGH John Carstensen Wendy Memke Garrett King Ethan King Crystal Worrell Joseph Worrell Members wishing to pay 2017 dues (or have paid and are not indicated above) please contact Dave Knittel.