Join us (next meeting is Saturday August 10 at 6pm) at Pfeiffer Springs Park (shelter 1) Address is 910 Grand Blvd, Cedar Falls IA Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur Association (NIRAA/W0MG) Meeting Minutes, July 2024 There was no presentation this evening in leu of Field Day Review. The July gathering of the Northeast Iowa Radio Amateur's Association (NIRAA) was called to order at 6:04 PM July 13, 2024 at the Waterloo airport by Al (KB0VGG). There were 15 members (12 ARRL) and 1 guest in attendance (locally and remotely) this evening, listed below. MINUTES ------- Adjustments to last month's minutes: Harold's call was missing the "L" in the construction warning Report accepted with 1 adjustment ( K0CQH / KF0KDE ) TREASURER'S REPORT ------------------ activity and balances for period: 6/1/2024 - 6/30/2024: Dave (KD0DK) was not present for the meeting and forwarded his report, presented by Nathan (N0ZYC): Savings (repeater fund) account: $2,705.26 starting balance ---------- -------------------------------------------------- (no activity) ---------- -------------------------------------------------- $2,705.26 ending balance checking (share-draft) account: $1,490.67 starting balance ---------- -------------------------------------------------- $ 25.00 partial testing fees ---------- -------------------------------------------------- $1,515.67 ending balance Deposit made for $25.00 for partial testing fees. The remainder of the testing fees were deposited in July and will be on next month's report (additional $20). Jan and Lois have finished the audit of the club's accounts. The audit passed with no issues. Report accepted ( K0DV / KF0KDE ) Please contact our treasurer Dave (KD0DK) 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's still working, was being brought up in Charles City All three W0MG repeaters are working great, 444.975 really gets out well Chuck's 82 repeater also working great the club 220 repeater works well but isn't getting a lot of use - try it out if you have 220 COMMITTEES ---------- Presentation Committee (Curt/NK0T, John/WB0MAR): (no report) OLD BUSINESS ------------ Al (KB0VGG): next month's meeting will be at Pfeiffer Springs Park. The city is reserving the park in five hour blocks (for $35 ea) now, so if we wanted most of the day we'd need to reserve it for 10 hours at $70. We're just going to reserve from noon to 5pm, which should be enough time for the Junk in the Trunk followed by a quick club meeting. Next year we'll probably find somewhere else that we don't need to reserve or is priced more reasonably. The way it works now is you are guaranteed the shelter if you reserve it, but if no one has reserved it then it's whoever gets there first. So any important event you really need to reserve for so someone else doesn't reserve it or get there first and block you. The club will not be providing food or drink, but Al will bring his grill and cook up anything you bring to eat or share. Expect the grill to be available between noon and 1:30 pm. There will be no testing, but the board will be holding a brief meeting in addition to the brief club meeting. The parking lot size is limited, so park carefully. DO NOT drive or park on the grass or sidewalks. Field Day Review: Al (KB0VGG): weather was better than last year - we got some rain but not a lot of wind. This year's rules still have digital contacts counting as high as CW, which seems unfair, though that's probably just the ARRL trying to encourage interest and growth of the new-ish digital modes We meed to find the club's long yellow runs of high quality coax - it was used last year, Wendel (N0RXB) may still have it? We need to do / update the inventory of the club's property. I currently have the club's spare Decibel antenna, as well as some tower sections that are in bad shape and should probably be sent to recycle. Motion to grant Al discretion to dispose of the bad tower (NK0T/N0ZYC) We still haven't received our deposit back from Antique Acres so that's still available at reduced price for the next time we want to operate there. We may want to just get the ball rolling on next year's Field Day early and reserve Antique Acres for 2025. It would be good to start planning earlier next time, maybe as early as March. Mark (N8TWO): We didn't get started with planning this year's field day early enough - probably due in part to not having a Field Day coordinator. Setup went well but the antennas were pretty close together and there was some near-field interference. We also only got one of the feather flags set up. Doug (K0DV) got caught a bit by surprise due to interference from the electric fence, though Dick (W0HHF) was able to get that shut off quickly to get the CW group back on the air. The yard did get mowed but there were still a lot of flies, probably inevitable with the horses on the property. A fly swatter or bug spray might have helped. Mark (N8TWO): only Nathan (N0ZYC) worked overnight. We really should have had at least two operators to be on site overnight. We tried to set up solar charging on both the lead acid and lithium batteries at the same time on the same panels, and that didn't go so well. We ended up splitting the panels into two separate groups, and that got the solar working much better. Also, trying to run stations by supplying power over a long wire to the solar charging station didn't work well, too much drop even with heavy wire. We moved the batteries over to the stations and let the charging go over the long lines, which worked well. So in the future, place batteries at the radios whenever possible. Nathan (N0ZYC): Mark (N8TWO) set up a tent by the antenna in the round run, and that worked really well to keep the mosquitoes away while operating all night. Stan (W0SJ) had built a small net enclosure we used a few years back, that might have been helpful, does anyone know what happened to that? Curt (NK0T) said Mike (KZ0MBI) had it stored before he moved, haven't seen it since. (it may also need repair) Do we want to start discussion of this year's Winter Field Day now? Al (KB0VGG): we had good antennas the last two years at Ingawanis, the only major problem with that site is there's often a lot of snow on the ground and it's difficult for vehicles to get around the camp in the winter. Mark (N8TWO): one big benefit of the scout camp is it's VERY rf-quiet out there. Al (KB0VGG): unrelated to field day, we got some feedback from the last test session - everyone needs to be quiet during testing time - leave the area if you want to chat. NEW BUSINESS ------------ Al (KB0VGG) is looking for presentation ideas. Dave (K0CQH): are any of the new club members interested in a presentation on CW? Though a lot of the new members probably don't even have a radio that will do CW - most start with just a UHF/VHF HT. Maybe we could do a "learner's cw net" regularly on one of the repeaters? Mark (N8TWO)/Doug (K0DV)/Dave (KD0DM) like that idea but maybe better to meet in person in small groups. How about Dave/Doug/Dave get together and see if they can come up with a CW group. Curt (NK0T): how about a presentation on soldering? A lot of the new hams have no experience with soldering. Another fox-hunt would be nice. Scout Jamboree is coming up in October, but the scouts are planning events at Rydell (pinewood derby etc, just a 4-hour event) and aren't interested in a fox-hunt this year. Maybe we could set up a station, do a small-scale JOTA? (general discussion of meeting locations for CW and ham classes) Al (KB0VGG): if you need a book to study for your license or upgrade, contact Al or Mark (N8TWO), we will get you a discount plus free shipping. Nathan (N0ZYC): what do we have in the way of promotional hand-outs for club events like testing and Field Day? Mark (N8TWO) and Al (KB0VG) have some older printed hand-outs. Most of the promotional materials the ARRL is making nowadays is online for users to download and print themselves. CVARC Hamfest is coming up on August 3 at the Lynn County Fairgrounds in Central City. Motion to adjourn at 7:12 PM ( N4HRL / KF0KDE ) 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, soldering, CW Contact Al (KB0VGG) if you'd be interested in giving a presentation. Tentative presentation schedule: AUG 10 : (club junk-in-the-trunk and picnic at Pfeiffer Springs Park) SEPT 14 : OCT 12 : NOV 9 : ELECTION DINNER DEC 14 : 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 ----------------------- Sept 14: testing at the Waterloo airport contact Mark (N8TWO) for current information at classes@w0mg.net or Al (KB0VGG) on class/test day at 319-243-8819 UPCOMING HAMFESTS AND EVENTS ---------------------------- August 3: CVARC Hamfest at the Lynn County Fairgrounds in Central City ANNOUNCEMENTS ------------- (let me know if you have an announcement to make) 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 NK0T Curtis Wilson N4HRL Harold Lucas KD0DM David Morrow KF0JPR Randy Albright W3STS Scott West N8TWO Mark Colby K0CQH David Knittel K0DV Doug Vernier KF0KDE Dan Zilk KB0JIT Paul Sipes KF0QCT Aja Stallman KB0VGG Al Jones N0TKC Taryn Colby KB0RSW Randy McClain Guests: KF0PBS Noel Dietz 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