====================== IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT ====================== Until January, we will be using .940 or Zoom for our meetings. Doesn't look like the Covid situation is getting any better, for September we will be utilizing Zoom for our meeting. As we get further into the year, this may change. ---------------------------- URL: https://zoom.us/j/96189402488?pwd=SmtZbEFtcTFtRFJJcW92bDUrNC9xdz09 Saturday September 12 at 7:30 PM (Meeting ID: 961 8940 2488, Passcode: 796382) -------------------------- Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur Association (NIRAA/W0MG) Meeting Minutes, Aug 2020 The August gathering of the Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur's Association (NIRAA) was called to order at 7:30 PM, August 8 2020 on Zoom by Harold Lucas (N4HRL). There were 13 in attendance this evening, listed below. MINUTES ------- Adjustments to last month's minutes: Jan's callsign in attendance was corrected. TREASURER'S REPORT ------------------ Dave (KD0DK) reports we have $1,090.18 in savings/repeater fund and $1,471.86 in share-draft. (no adjustments to balance were made) Please contact Dave if you would like to get your dues paid for the year. Our club membership form is also available on our club website at http://www.w0mg.net/ REPEATERS --------- (no report) COMMITTEES ---------- Repeater Swap Committee (Jan/KE0RKO, John/WB0MAR, Curt/NK0T): (no report) Presentation Committee (Curt/NK0T, John/WB0MAR): (no report) OLD BUSINESS ------------ Mark (N8TWO) summarized this year's Field Day, we scored 828 base plus 1070 bonus points. He's also going to check with the scouts to see what they have planned in the way of JOTA this year. The remote station at W0GEN's shed is up and running, though efforts to lower the noise level are ongoing. NEW BUSINESS ------------ John (W0MAR): Are we going to continue to meet online, is a christmas party going to be possible? Harold (N4HRL): we'll be making those decisions on a month-by-month basis Harold (N4HRL): All presentations are currently on hold due to Covid. Mark (N8TWO): we may be able to do presentations over zoom? WinLink is another option worth considering? John (WB0MAR): Is anyone attending any hamfests this year? ARRL still has some events on its schedule online, in addition to their "Virtual Hamfest" tomorrow. They have presentations, major vendor "booths", and some interactive services. Mark (N8TWO): Zoom is limiting us to 40 minutes per session without a paid license - does the club want to pay for a year's license? ($150/yr) We could use the extended time to do classes, board meetings, etc, instead of using the ARRL's limited scheduling? Bill (W0GEN) offers to donate a year's subscription for Zoom. Or does the club just want to pay for it out of the club account? Bill's offer was accepted (KD0WVN/WB0MAR) Nick (KD0WVN): As for starting the meeting, anyone with the license credentials should be able to schedule/start the meeting. Dave (K0CQH) would like a status on our VE testing. Mark (N8TWO) is checking with the CF Public Library. For now we can go to a public parking lot like at a park and do drive-up testing. Curt (NK0T): many sites are using RemotePC to monitor remote testers' computers during testing, our local VE's might want to look into this as an option? RemotePC will only allow a VE to monitor one tester at a time from a given computer. Curt and Bill could do up to four monitoring sessions at a time. Mark (N8TWO): We do have some laptops available, normally used for field day logging? Dave (K0CQH): Many drive-up testers are passing out laminated / plastic covered test sheets, that can be sanitized. Use of VMs on one computer was discussed as an option to using multiple computers. Bill's VM can probably handle this, although we should have our VE's do a test run to see how it goes. Curt (NK0T): There's a new radio direction-finding system called "Kerberos SDR", check it out on youtube. UPCOMING PRESENTATIONS ---------------------- (temporarily suspended) REGULAR EVENTS -------------- - ARES net check-in is at 9pm every Sunday night, on 146.94/34 - Iowa Digital Net runs every Sunday night at 4pm, 3.5885 MHz USB / 1500 Hz WF (Olivia 8-500) (note new day and time as of Feb 2020) - DMR checkin 7:30 pm Sunday night on talk group 3119 temporarily suspended: - 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 VE TESTING AND TRAINING ----------------------- contact Tom (AE0TB) for current information UPCOMING HAMFESTS ----------------- Davenport and West Liberty are coming up OTHER EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------------------------ (NONE) W0MG/NIRAA LINKS ---------------- - Club Website: https://www.w0mg.net/ - Membership form: http://www.w0mg.net/contact/membershipform.pdf - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/waterloo.hams/community/ - Cedar Valley area repeaters list: https://www.w0mg.net/repeaters/ MEETING ATTENDANCE ------------------ N0ZYC Nathan Fisher NK0T Curt Wilson N8TWO Mark Colby N4HRL Harold Lucas W0GEN Bill Dedic KD0WVN Nick Miller WB0MAR John Humpal K0CQH Dave Knittel K0DV Doug Vernier KD0DK David Kelly N0TKC Taryn Colby Peter Schuster Janet Schuster Members wishing to pay club dues (or have paid and are not indicated above) please contact our Treasurer 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 Kelly (KD0DK) - treas(a)w0mg.net Director 2018: John Humpal (WB0MAR) - dir1(a)w0mg.net Director 2019: Stan Johnson (W0SJ) - dir2(a)w0mg.net Director 2020: Jan Fitkin (KE0IWP) - dir3(a)w0mg.net NIRAA meets most months at Windcove (Western Home Communities) apartments at 300 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 https://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