Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur Association (NIRAA/W0MG) Meeting Minutes, May 2018 The May gathering of the Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur's Association (NIRAA) was called to order at 7:10 PM May 12, 2018 by Harold Lucas (N4HRL). There were 17 members (16 ARRL) and 2 guests in attendance this evening, listed below. MINUTES ------- Adjustments to last month's minutes: (none) Minutes accepted with no adjustments TREASURER'S REPORT ------------------ Dave reports we have $1,823.46 in the general fund plus $228 in the repeater savings fund. Dave (K0CQH) wrote a check on 4/27/18 in the amount of $228.00 to Black Hawk Insurance for the club's liability insurance. Report accepted REPEATERS --------- No one is aware of any open issues or outages with any of the local repeaters COMMITTEES ---------- Field Day 2018 (W0GEN/AE0TB) Field Day will be (as usual) the main topic for next month's club meeting. NIRAA Swap Meet 2018 (N0ZYC/KZ0MBI/N8TWO) Harold (N4HRL) asked for an update on a possible swap meet. Mark (N8TWO) reported that there is currently nothing planned. STIM (W0VJB) (no report) OLD BUSINESS ------------ Taryn (N0TKC) updated club members on the Christmas party plans to move to Nana Roses's in Reinbeck. Randall Hager (K0RMI) was in attendance and discussed plans for Field Day. (Randall is the Field Day chairman at IWARN) NEW BUSINESS ------------ There was a board meeting prior to the club meeting, all board members except Nathan (Secretary) were present. (out of town) The following were discussed: - Dave (K0CQH) provided a current treasurer's report (as above) - Dave (K0CQH) wrote a check on 4/27/18 for $228 to Black Hawk Insurance for the club's liability insurance. - Taryn (N0TKC) reports that the Corner Cafe in Reinbeck has closed. The Board approved moving the Christmas party to Nana Rose's in Reinbeck, which had previously been the club's second most preferred popular choice. - Taryn (N0TKC) stated that the Club has a tower at Al Jones' residence. Stan said there is also a beam and rotor there as well. It was the Board consensus to offer these items for sale to club members at a later date. Items need to be inspected and the sale would be conducted via sealed bid. No time was set for this. - Options were discussed regarding the month of August, where we normally have an informal gathering that varies from year to year. (and whether or not we would like to just resume regular club meetings in August) It was the Board consensus to have a club/family potluck in lieu of a club meeting this year. Dave (K0CQH) discussed receiving a letter from Betty Mathias. Her husband John (deceased) was active in REACT and she has his radio equipment to be disposed of. The equipment needs to be evaluated for value. Contact Dave (K0CQH) if interested. Harold (N4HRL) mentioned plans for topics for upcoming club meetings. The June topic will be Field Day preparation. Please contact Harold if there is a topic you would be interested to see, or if you havw a topic you would like to present. Tom (AE0TB) started a discussion regarding the start time of the club meeting. The scheduled time is 7:30 pm though tonight's meeting started early at 7:10 pm. A discussion followed and it was decided to stick with 7:30 pm as the official meeting starting time. Motion to adjourn at 7:30 pm Thank you Harold and Dave for taking notes for the meeting as I was out of town - Nathan PRESENTATION ------------ Tonight's presentation was by Maureen Mehmen (Assistant Emergency Manager at Black Hawk County Emergency Management) on EOC operations. UPCOMING PRESENTATIONS ---------------------- there will be no June presentation in leu of Field Day preparations 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 Ansborough Ave - hams meet informally at 12pm every Tuesday at Taco Johns on University Ave - Iowa Digital Net runs every Tuesday night at 7pm, 3.5885 MHz USB / 1500 Hz WF (Olivia 8-500) << NOTE! FREQENCY HAS CHANGED EFFECTIVE FEB 2018 >> - DMR checkin 7:30 pm Sunday night on talk group 3119 VE TESTING AND TRAINING ----------------------- - ongoing tech-to-general class usually meets at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Tuesdays at 6:00 pm contact is Al (KB0VGG) UPCOMING HAMFESTS ----------------- - CVARC Midwest TechFest: August 4-5 Linn County Fairgrounds, 201 Central City Rd, Central City IA http://w0gq.org/hamfest-2016/ OTHER EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------------------------ (none) W0MG/NIRAA LINKS ---------------- - Club Website: http://w0mg.net/ - 2018 membership form: http://www.w0mg.net/contact/membershipform2018.pdf - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/waterloo.hams/community/ - Cedar Valley area repeaters: http://w0mg.net/repeaters/ =============================================================================== This month's meeting attendance: Members: KD0DK David Kelly NK0T Curt Wilson N0RXB Wendell Wagner AE0TB Tom Bicket KE0IWP Janice Fitkin KE0IWQ James Fitkin W0VJB Vicki Bicket N0TKC Taryn Colby KA0DBC Lois Johnson W0SJ Stan Johnson K0CQH Dave Knittel WA0QXF Clark Willoughby N0CF Chris Conklin W0ALO Chuck Angel N0RWY Dennis Orona N4HRL Harold Lucas N8TWO Mark Colby Guests: W0EL David Welch K0RMI Randall Hager Members wishing to pay club dues (or have paid and are not indicated above) please contact Dave Knittel. Officers may be contacted over the air or via email: President, Harold Lucas, N4HRL, 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 2016, Taryn Colby, N0TKC, dir1(a)w0mg.net Director 2017, Stan Johnson, W0SJ, dir2(a)w0mg.net Director 2018, Dave Kelly, KD0DK, dir3(a)w0mg.net The NIRAA club has changed meeting and location time as of March 2018. Please join us at Windcove (Western Home Communities) apartments at 5300 South Main St in Cedar Falls. We are meeting on the 2nd Saturday of every month at 7:30 pm, please note the change im time. 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. Many members are also monitoring channel 3119 on DMR. Our club website is at http://www.w0mg.net/ . Primary email contact is Nathan at sec(a)w0mg.net 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. - Nathan Fisher Secretary, W0MG