Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur Association (NIRAA/W0MG) Meeting Minutes, July 2019 The July gathering of the Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur's Association (NIRAA) was called to order at 7:27 PM July 13, 2019 by Harold Lucas (N4HRL). There were 16 members (14 ARRL) and 2 guests in attendance this evening, listed below. MINUTES ------- Adjustments to last month's minutes: Crrection to the minutes: Dave (K0CQH) will be making reservations for the August picnic Minutes accepted with 1 adjustment (N4HRL/NK0T) TREASURER'S REPORT ------------------ Dave (K0CQH) reports we have $ 2,120.61 in the general fund and $ 1,090.18 in savings / repeater fund. Please contact Dave if you would like to get your dues paid for the year. There are two checks outstanding ($10 and $8.99). Shelter #1 has been reerved for the park for the club picnic next month. (this is the larger shelter, not shelter #2 that we used recently for field day) We have it from 5:30am = $10.30 pm. (cost was $22) Report accepted (N0ZYC/N8TWO) REPEATERS --------- Curt (NK0T): the 220 doesn't have a tone decode and timed out a lot recently due to tropo keying it down, adding tone is on his list of things-to-do. Chuck (W0ALO): 82 is ok, DMRs are working, the 94, it's getting close to ready for swap. (possibly on Monday?) Will be taking it to Bill's (W0GEN) for testing and then off to the water tower to swap out for the Micor. Next on the agenda is to get the linking maxtracs from Chris (N0CF) and get the hospital link back up COMMITTEES ---------- (none active) OLD BUSINESS ------------ Dave (K0CQH): we need to contact Chris (N0CF) and get custodianship of the repeater transferred (does Chris have to initiate this?) Curt (NK0T) motions for Nathan (N0ZYC) to work on transferring custodianship from Chris to himself. (AE0TB/C0CQH) Mark (N8TWO) with a field day post-motum: We made over 100 contacts, including JOTA. 20M CW was interfering with 40M (the filter was inline, it just wasn't being very effective) Salvation Army's food was good as usual. Attendance was rather low, and the day went relatively uneventful. AUGUST CLUB PICNIC ------------------ Al (KB0VGG) cooked the meat at last year's club picnic, we should contact him to see if he'd like to do it again. (he also provided meat, if he's up for it again this year we really ought to reimburse him for that expense) Taryn (N0TKC): Al may not be available this year, we need to have some alternate main dish plan Dave (K0CQH) can supply condiments and table cloths but won't be able to assist with cooking. (reminder: there is NO electricity at the shelter) For now will start alternate plans unless we hear otherwise from AL. Nathan (N0ZYC) motions to approve up to $150 (should be MUCH less than that) for chicken and potato salad etc at Walmart (N4HRL/K0CQH) Dave (K0CQH) will also be bringing a cooler to keep the potato salad in so it stays cool. Nathan (N0ZYC) will bring cold tap water. Nathan (N0ZYC) will email out RSVP requests to get a head-count for food etc and forward that to Al/Dave. Everyone please plan to arrive by 5:30, with food served at 6:00. Again the picnic is Saturday August 10, at shelter #1 at Lookout Park. (at Park Drive and Mandalay Drive in Cedar Falls) Suggest you bring utensils and a plate, and a side dish/dessert if you wish) RED CROSS INVENTORY ------------------- Last month Harold (N4HRL) and Nathan (N0ZYC) went to the club radio room at the AMC to do an inventory. There was quite a lot of equipment there, as well as a lot of other club historic information such as club records, pictures, negatives, old minutes, and a lot of newspaper clippings. The oldest records found were from 1933! There also seems to be a few slight changes in the club's name over the years. Nathan scanned hundreds of film negatives, dozens of photographs, and a load of newspaper clippings and will be getting them to Tom for incorporation into the club's web page. Does the club have a preference of what we do with the originals? (if they are to be kept, who / where are they going to be kept?) We found the club's antenna analyzer! Everything that wasn't nailed down was removed from the room for photographing. A small amount of junk was thrown away (useless old hardwware, blank forms, etc) and things were packed back into the room and tidied up a bit. It could still use a bit of reorganizing, but space is limited. Harold got his case and operating manual for the FT-897 he recently bought from the club, and materials were removed to be turned over for scouting, club secretary, and club treasurer. The only equipment that was tested was the old PC, it boots up fine to Windows XP and is running some really old logging software. Most of the radios in the room are very old AMC units, of questionable usefulness. Many of them are probably on bands or programmed with channels no longer in use. We should probably get a technical person from AMC to come over and evaluate what can be removed or that they would like to upgrade. There are several old power supplies built into the desk, with questionable electrical conditions such as cracked insulation and tangled wiring on both the DC and AC sides. We should probably have someone stop by there and improve the electrical safety of that equipment by repairing, replacing, or removing the hazards. (some of it may not pass the Smoke Test when powered on) There are several somewhat homebrew power supplies installed under/inside the desk, hard-wired to the radios on the wall shelves. Chuck (W0ALO): most/all of the AMC radios should have current frequencies in them. (we found NO ht's in the room, just mobiles on 12v power) NEW BUSINESS ------------ CVARC hamfest is coming up on August 3-4 at the Fairgrounds in Central City. Admission is $10, tailgaiting is free with admission. (call in advance for an indoor table. (for an extra $10-15?) Stan (W0SJ): Carol Cooper passed away recently, and he was contacted by her attourney to work out the distribution of her radio gear. After a brief visit, a lot of the gear was determined to be soaked by cat urine, and will need minor to major clean-up. (it's corrosive and will attack copper - it can corrode wires and dissolve circuit board traces) Nothing will be sellable on eBay without cleanup due to cat damage. He suggested the gear be donated to the club, toward the establishment of a club station (at W0GEN) that can be used remotely by other hams. (of course after cleaning up the gear we can use) The attourney was completely in agreement with this arrangement as it matched Carol's wishes in her will. Among other things, there's an Icom 7600 and a KW amplifier (which Curt NK0T is interested in) to place. Stan will provide an update at the next meeting. Nathan (N0ZYC) has purchased a 1KW pure sine wave inverter for donation to the solar trailer, so we will have reliable powder to keep our data-logging laptops running even if AC power isn't available. It needs to be checked over to make sure it doesn't interfere with the radios on field day before we install it. Stan (W0SJ) will be assisting with installing additional filters if necessary to make it RF-quiet. Motion to adjourn (NK0T/N8TWO) PRESENTATION ------------ Tonight's presentation was by Tom (AE0TB) on American Red Cross (and he brought the ERV "Emergency Respose Vehicle" for us to look at too) UPCOMING PRESENTATIONS ---------------------- AUG: (FAMILY/CLUB PICNIC) SEP: TOWER SAFETY, MARK HAS A 20 MIN VIDEO, NATHAN TO HELP OCT: STEM AND EMERGENCY POWER NOV: (XMAS PARTY) DEC: PATRICK RONIGAN FROM READLYN HAS A PROGRAM ON SUNSPOTS AND SOLAR WEATHER 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) 319-243-8819 2ND FLOOR CF LIBRARY 10AM next class: (contact Al) - scheduled club testing for 2019 will be held at the Hudson Library, at 401 5th St in Hudson, from 9:45 am - 1:00 pm on the following dates: -Sept 21 additional testing dates may be added as needed UPCOMING HAMFESTS ----------------- (none noted) OTHER EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------------------------ (none noted) W0MG/NIRAA LINKS ---------------- - Club Website: http://w0mg.net/ - 2019 membership form: http://www.w0mg.net/contact/membershipform2019.pdf - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/waterloo.hams/community/ - Cedar Valley area repeaters list: http://w0mg.net/repeaters/ MEETING ATTENDANCE ------------------ Members: N0ZYC Nathan Fisher N4HRL Harold Lucas K0CQH Dave Knittel W0SJ Stan Johnson N0TKC Taryn Colby W0VJB Vicki Bicket KA0DBC Lois Johnson KB0RSW Randy McClain N8TWO Mark Colby NK0T Curt Wilson AE0TB Tom Bicket N0RXB Wendell Wagner W0ALO Chuck Angel KD0DK David Kelly WA0QXF Clark Willoughby W0VJB Vicki Bicket N0ZYC Nathan Fisher KE0IWQ James Fitkin KE0IWP Janice Fitkin N8TWO Mark Colby N0TKC Taryn Colby Guests: W0EL David Welch K0DV Doug Vernier Members wishing to pay club dues (or have paid and are not indicated above) please contact Dave Knittel in person at our monthly meeting or by email at treas(a)w0mg.net 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 NIRAA meets most months at Windcove (Western Home Communities) apartments at 5300 South Main St in Cedar Falls. We are meeting on the 2nd Saturday of the month at 7:30 pm, anyone interested in ham radio is welcome to attend. 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 http://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