Join us (next meeting is Saturday February 10 at 6pm) in person at the Waterloo Airport, or via Discord. Click this invitation link to add our server to your Discord app: https://discord.gg/hSPGhWxtZE (there was no presentation for the December meeting) The January meeting was cancelled due to severe winter weather. Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur Association (NIRAA/W0MG) Meeting Minutes, December 2023 The December gathering of the Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur's Association (NIRAA) was called to order at 6:01 pm December 9, 2023 at the Waterloo Airport by Al Jones (KB0VGG). There were 17 members (16 ARRL) and 2 guests in attendance (locally and remotely) this evening, listed below. MINUTES ------- Adjustments to last month's minutes: (none) Report accepted with no adjustments ( N0ZYC / KD0DM ) TREASURER'S REPORT ------------------ balances for period: 11/1/2023 - 11/30/2023: checking (share-draft) account: $2,162.23 starting balance ---------- -------------------------------------------------- $ 937.47 collections from members for christmas dinner meals -$ 12.53 Stripe credit card processor payment -$1,000.00 payment to Elk's Club (meals plus room rental) -$ 925.39 other payment clearing this month ---------- -------------------------------------------------- $ 1,161.78 ending balance savings (repeater fund) account: $1,630.26 starting balance ---------- -------------------------------------------------- +$ 975.00 donations and matching donations toward repeater fund ---------- -------------------------------------------------- $2,605.26 ending balance Please make your club dues renewals online if possible, with Dave being out of state. John (WB0MAR) needs to get to Veridian to sign some documents and that will finish his authorization to cut checks locally as needed for Dave, who can handle most of the rest of the work remotely. Report accepted ( N0ZYC / KD0DM ) 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 https://www.w0mg.net/ REPEATERS --------- Al (KB0VGG): mine is still there, better receive now that the leaves are down 94 is still going strong. Curtis (NK0T) and I are looking at preparing a backup repeater system since our prior backup components have been put into service or aged out of usefulness. The last recent work we did was to replace a bad bit of coax in the rack. Tom (AE0TB): DMR was up before the christmas party. We haven't done a range test yet but it appears to be doing well. Our agreement with CFU has been finalized and signed, they are also providing us free internet. Normally their "not for profit" rate is $57/month but they are giving it to us free of charge. Tom Risse has been all-around very helpful, and has also provided us with pictures of the recent antenna and repeater installations. The latest antenna has been set up, leveled, and galvanized. Chuck (W0ALO): I've disabled and taken down his DMR. It may be retuned and put back up at the farm at a later date. 82 is up. The club's DMR seems to be working well in downtown Waterloo. Tom is also getting in well from Reinbeck. Jan (KE0IWP) reports good operation from Cedar Falls. Dave (K0CQH) noticed Lowell has no problems checking into the 94 from Nashua. COMMITTEES ---------- Presentation Committee (Curt/NK0T, John/WB0MAR): (no report) OLD BUSINESS ------------ Al (KB0VGG) recapped the club's recent foxhunt at George Wyth. Do we want to do a regular foxhunt event? Ideas floated, like quarterly events, or fox-hunts scheduled to coincide with other events like park activations. Kenny (KE4DDE) has seen recent problems with radio interference, and would like to have operators skilled at fox-hunting / RDF available to hunt down interfering transmissions reported to him. Al/Dave (KB0VGG/KD0DM) will be looking into scheduling events. Nathan (N0ZYC): we should try to avoid dates of other nearby scheduled events, to improve turnout. NEW BUSINESS ------------ Tom (AE0TB) has some updates on APRS: Black Hawk county has lost most of its APRS coverage in recent years. Pete Lilja has decided to put his digi-peter back up though. Mark (N8TWO) might be able to set up an APRS node at his home location, he has a radio but will need all the other associated hardware. Nathan (N0ZYC) can do the antenna installation when it's time, Curt (NK0T) may have an antenna we can use. (will need coax) Motion to donate some of the club's spare coax to Mark for APRS use. ( N0ZYC / K0CQH ) AL (KB0VGG): discussed the prospect of doing a Winter Field Day this year. Discussion of options for location. Ingawanis is a good location as long as the weather is good, but can get very difficult if the winter weather gets bad. Big Woods Lake is another option, but they're very strict on their in and out times. Antique Acres worked well for Summer Field Day, but it's normally a very expensive venue and we only got it cheap last year due to Sturgis Falls activity nearby. Dave (K0CQH) managed a contact with Battleship Iowa during a special event. They were operating split-freq on 20M, call sign NEPM. It looks like the event is for Pearl Harbor, and operates Dec 6 through 9. http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-advocacy-win-fcc-approves-request-for-pearl-harbor-day-crossband-operations Dave (WD0BWQ) passed away recently, due to complications following a bad fall. Chuck (W0ALO) is getting info on services coming up soon, will forward that to Nathan (N0ZYC) for distribution to the club. There is a "junior broadcast engineer" position opening up at KWWL in Waterloo. Check the KWWL careers web site for more information, or contact the chief engineer at BJOHNSON@KWWL.COM Motion to adjourn at 6:58 PM ( N0ZYC / AE0TB ) UPCOMING PRESENTATIONS ---------------------- presentation ideas: electronics history, radio bug-out bag, alternate power, solar power, spotting electronics scams, mag-loop antennas, broadband blocking filters, Denver/cf robotics club, new director at FEMA, EOC? Contact Al (KB0VGG) if you'd be interested in giving a presentation. Tentative presentation schedule: Jan 13 : Feb 10 : Mar 9 : Apr 13 : May 11 : June 8 : REGULAR EVENTS -------------- - ARES net check-in is at 9pm every Sunday night, on 146.94/34 - Iowa Digital Net runs every Tuesday night at 7pm, 3.5885 MHz USB / 1500 Hz WF (Olivia 8-500) - Iowa 75 Meter Evening Net runs Mon-Sat at 6:00 pm on 3.970 MHz / LSB Also meets at 12:30 pm on same. - Iowa 160 Meter Net runs Sunday night at 9:30 pm on 1.9745 MHz / LSB - DMR checkin 7:30 pm Sunday night on talk group 3119 - Ham Radio Fellowship / Breakfast every Wednesday morning at 9AM at the Wendy's at Love's Travel Stop in Waterloo. (3301 Greyhound Drive) VE TESTING AND TRAINING ----------------------- contact Mark (N8TWO) for current information at classes@w0mg.net UPCOMING HAMFESTS ----------------- (let me know) ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- Don (KD0WGB) has a dual band vertical and a alpha delta dx-dd 80/40m trapped dipole. The dipole is center fed with just an SO-239, you will need a tuner. Total length is 82ft. Both are free to a good home. (they're spares he's not using) W0MG/NIRAA LINKS ---------------- - Club Website: https://www.w0mg.net/ - Membership form: https://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/ - additional club resources: https://vftp.net/N0ZYC/W0MG/index.html - Amateur Radio Practice Site (tests and code): https://www.aa9pw.com/ - Discord server (current invitation link at top of minutes) ATTENDANCE ---------- Members: N0ZYC Nathan Fisher WB0MAR John Humpal N4HRL Harold Lucas W0VJB Vicki Bicket AE0TB Tom Bicket K0CQH David Knittel W0ALO Chuck Angel KF0JPR Randy Albright KF0EGO Donald Utley KD0DK David Kelly KD0DM David Morrow KB0VGG Al Jones KE0IWQ Jim Fitkin KE0IWP Janice Fitkin N8TWO Mark Colby N0TKC Taryn Colby KF0KDE Danael Zilk Guests: KE4DDE Byron Johnson Kenny Jay 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 Members of the board may be contacted over the air or via email: President Al Jones (KB0VGG) pres(a)w0mg.net Vice President David Morrow (KD0DM) vp(a)w0mg.net Secretary Nathan Fisher (N0ZYC) sec(a)w0mg.net Treasurer Dave Kelly (KD0DK) treas(a)w0mg.net Director 2022 Taryn Colby (N0TKC) dir2(a)w0mg.net Director 2023 Jan Fitkin (KE0IWP) dir3(a)w0mg.net Director 2024 John Humpal (WB0MAR) dir1(a)w0mg.net ABOUT ----- NIRAA meets most months on the 2nd Saturday of the month at 6:00 pm, at the Waterloo Airport, in the old restaurant. Parking is available at no cost in the short-term lot. (3 hr free limit) 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