Amateur Radio Club of the National Electronics Museum | K3NEM

ARCNEM
K3NEM -- W3HEM -- W3GR
Amateur Radio Club of the National Electronics Museum
MINUTES
of the
12 February 2009
Monthly Meeting

Meeting was called to order at 6:03 p.m. by club president John Paul Howell, AA3WI.

1. ATTENDEES

AA3WI John Paul Howell
AB3CA Jim Smith
AI3Z Fred Heath
K0IQE Alvin Glusick
K3FQP Bob Gardenghi
K3KHG Dean Bush
K3NY Nick Yokanovich
K3RA Rol Anders
K3YH Tom Christovich
KB3GSA Jim Dressler
KB3NHQ Tom Dalton
KB3ORF Laurie Knaack
N3BYN Gary Johney
N3GOO Jim Nowotarski
N3WKE Rusty Schaefer
NG3O Bill Corley
W1TRT Tim Titus
W3DTN Gary Hendrickson
W3WVV Heru Walmsley
W4PBG Chip Weems
WA2DRY Zack Goldstein
WA3ZWC Steve Stitzer
WT3B Bill Thompson

2. MINUTES
The minutes from the 15 January 2009 meeting were approved.

3. REPORTS
(a) Treasurer's Report -- Fred Heath, AI3Z
February bank balance $ 1633.13
Cash on hand $ 66.71
February net worth $ 1699.84

Outstanding debts:
2008 field day food ( $ 489.38)
Donation to museum ( $ 100.00)
Remaining balance will be $ 1110.46

(b) Station Equipment and Operation Reports
i. Report on K3NEM Special Event -- Rol Anders, K3RA
To celebrate the acquisition of the new club callsign, K3NEM, the club held a special operating event Saturday/Sunday 24/25 JAN 09. Approximately 800 contacts were worked. We are already receiving QSLs. Although not close to worked all states, highlights worked include Alaska, Montana and North Dakota.
For those operating the station, the K3NEM license is available in the book at the station along with W3HEM and W3GR licenses.

ii. Northrop Grumman Family Net -- Chip Weems, W4PBG
The regular net is held Wednesdays at 3pm (noon Pacific). Chip reports that there is interest in resurrecting the Saturday net which was formerly held at noon (9 Pacific) once a month. A suggestion was also made that restarting the net as a weekly Saturday net might work better for retaining participants.

iii. Monthly Power Line Noise Report -- Rol Anders, K3RA
The case has been reopened with the Public Service Commission since our noise is still not resolved. It took some time (a month or more) to get a response last time so Rol will report back when we have news. Glen Booth, who has been helping find sources of noise, is away on travel.

iv. Antenna Issues, if any; items for possible Antenna Work Party
* The gap is working pretty well and was used some for the K3NEM event.
* Could put up: 160m, Heru’s preamp
* 80m and 40m dipoles: Have these ever been tuned? Yes, but could redo when putting up the 160m.

v. Station Equipment Issues, if any
* Jim Nowotarski still has the interface box for the Ten-Tech out for repair and plans to return it by the next meeting.
* A hand mike is missing.
* A desk microphone is out: Fred Heath has it out for repair and could not replicate problems at home.
* Several members report problems with our 920. The problem can be described as the receiver just going dead or jumping up and down in what you can hear.
* Motion passes to have Jim Nowotarski N3GOO investigate the possibility of selling our 920 and buying Norm Smith’s Omni from Robyn.

vi. Status of Equipment in Storage -- John Paul Howell, AA3WI
Equipment has been sorted and there will be a Mini-fest at the March meeting to review items in the storage area.

(c) QSL Report -- Nick Yokanovich, K3NY
Nick has a heavy backlog of QSLs to process.
We do not have our K3NEM QSL cards yet.

(d) FIST Report -- Nick Yokanovich, K3NY
FISTS receives 3-4 applications for “code buddies” per week and has about 100 applicants who need teachers right now. Nick mentions that since the “no code” licenses many applicants are not at the level where they can practice with a code buddy and need basic resources before they are ready to get on the air.

(e) Training Report -- Rol Anders, K3RA
Rol is currently teaching an Operating class based on topics from the ARRL Operating Manual. About 17 students are enrolled. Speakers are lined up for a number of topics and more information will be available on the website.

(f) FAR Report
We need a new FAR representative. Our previous delegate, Gary Hendrickson W3DTN, is no longer able to attend. Foundation for Amateur Radio meetings are the 2nd Wednesday of even months (February, April...) in Landover.

(g) E-mail from Colin Ramirez
Colin Ramirez KM40Z wants to visit the Museum on Wednesday Feb 18. Several members volunteered to be available.

4. OLD BUSINESS
(a) Review of Action Item List from Last Month -- John Paul Howell, AA3WI
* John Paul is to finish the End of Year report to the Museum (all data is collected).

(b) Paper work issues related to club name change -- Jim Nowotarski, N3GOO
At the January 2009 meeting the club name was changed to Amateur Radio Club of the National Electronics Museum (ARCNEM). With the name change of the club, the Club Rules and Regulations (i.e., Constitution and By-Laws) need to be updated.

Jim Nowotarski, N3GOO presented a draft of proposed changes and members commented. Jim will incorporate feedback for the March 2009 meeting.

5. NEW BUSINESS
(a) New Logo for the Club
The club needs a new logo and a new banner now that the name has changed.
The Museum has chosen a new logo and one suggestion is to use this logo or elements thereof in designing a new club logo.
Laurie Knaack KB3ORF and any other volunteers will draft logo ideas.

(b) Table at Timonium Hamfest -- Lead POC?
The Timonium Hamfest is Sat March 28 (8-5)/Sun March 29 (8-11). Busy times are 8-2 Sat, 8-11 Sun. Volunteers would be needed for approximately 2 hour shifts. Gary Hendrickson W3DTN has a table reserved if the club does not get our own. Chip Weems W4PBG and Nick Yokanovich K3NY plan to attend.

We will assume the club is to attend but will cancel after the March meeting if there are not enough volunteers.

(c) Field Trip to Storage Area -- Determine the status of the
EVALUATION and HAMFEST piles

(d) Solicitation of ideas for meeting presentations. -- John Paul Howell, AA3WI

6. NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
* The March Technical Presentation will be the first ever ARCNEM mini-fest.
* Gary Mauler has requested help in organizing a Radio Merit Badge event on Saturday, 28 MAR 09.  Please contact Gary Mauler WB3CGE to volunteer.

7. 50/50 RAFFLE

8. TECHNICAL PRESENTATION
Nick Yokanovich, K3NY, gave the February technical presentation on proper QSLing.

Next regular meeting: Thursday 12 March 2009 at 6:00 p.m. local time.

Respectfully submitted, Laurie Knaack, KB3ORF

*** Visit ARCNEM on the Web at http://k3nem.org ***