Amateur Radio Club of the National Electronics Museum | K3NEM

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ARCNEM
K3NEM -- W3HEM -- W3GR
Amateur Radio Club of the National Electronics Museum
MINUTES
of the
08 April 2010
Monthly Meeting

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

1. ATTENDEES

A13Z Fred Heath
AA3FB Chuck Angel
AA3WI John Paul Howell
AB3CA Jim Smith
K3NY Nick Yokanovich
K3RA Rol Anders
KA3KQM Al Kealey
KB3GSA Jim Dressler
KB3ORF Laurie Knaack
N3GO Bill Corley
N3GOO Jim Nowotarski
W1TRT Tim Titus
W3DTN Gary Hendrickson
W3YRS Al FitzSimons
W4EE Jim Laughter
W4PBG Chip Weems
WA2DRY Zack Goldstein
WA3AER Ted Bauer
WA3ZWC Steve Stitzer
visitor Paul Roscosky

2. MINUTES
The minutes from the March 2010 meeting were approved.

3. REPORTS
(a) Treasurer's Report -- Fred AI3Z:
Started January with $1447.35. Took in $18 on snacks and $20 on 50/50. Had another 40 members pay dues; ended Jan with $1923.35. Fred was out in March; 7 members were added in March and another 2 tonight for a total of 59 members! Should be starting April with $1995.35.
(b) Station Equipment and Operation Reports
i. Northrop Grumman Family Net, Weds 3pm ET – Chip W4PBG / Bob K3FQP
Can always get several of the stations on the net despite noise/propagation, so net has continued to run. Had about 9 participants last time. However, noise is hard on net control operator at museum.

ii. Equipment issues
Yaesu microphone intermittent problem still an issue (just fails to put out audio sometimes). Everyone is just using headset instead.

iii. Antennas/Work party planning for spring
Items we might need to do:
-Put up 160m dipole.
-Heru’s preamp: not ready yet. Fred to look into what it would take to replace this. We will schedule a work party when Heru’s preamp is ready.

iv. Monthly Power Line Noise Report – Rol K3RA
Work report: Rol had been asked to check the noise while power was off on one of the lines. Noise was as bad if not worse even though work was going on. Glenn Booth of BGE confirmed Rol’s & Jim’s observations, fixed one noise, and found a new one.
Progress with FCC/PSC: Rol contacted Laura Smith and is working with ARRL to explain the situation to BGE.

(c) QSL Report – Nick K3NY, Tim W1TRT
8 new countries confirmed, as well as new bands for interesting countries.

Total expenses to be reimbursed to Nick: $516.83 for the last 1.5 years of QSL expenses (this includes the cost for 5000 new cards, our stamps, paper and ink, and subtracts out $72 received)

The club received our first DXCC on March 18, 2010! We received a pin and certificate from ARRL.

(d) FISTS Report - Nick K3NY
Nick reports that applicants keep trickling in.

(e) Training Report -- Rol Anders, K3RA
Extra class exam will be held on April 20.
Rol has already had 12 inquiries about the Tech course, which will start on April 27 and run 7 sessions through June 8.
***This session of the Technician class will still use the 1st edition of the Ham Radio License Manual (not 2nd edition) because the new exam questions do not go into effect until July 1.

(f) FAR Report - No report. We still need a FAR Representative.

4. OLD BUSINESS
(a) Exhibit space for new rotating exhibit of our special/historic equipment
Rol and Jim still plan to talk to Mike about setting up an area.

(b) Station appearance cleanup
Tom Christovich, Jim Nowotarski, and Ted Bauer are pricing ideas to improve layout/appearance of station, and will present back to club. No report yet.

(c) Gary Mauler's trailer
The club had discussed converting an old, approximately 20ft trailer owned by Gary Mauler into a mobile communications vehicle. Jim N3GOO talked with Ulis K3LU but no firm plans made.

(d) Storage area moving
Cannot move our stuff until the area our items will be moved into is emptied. Volunteers may be needed to help move club storage.

(e) Field Day planning
Jim N3GOO will confirm whether Field Day will be held at Gary Mauler’s and the club will plan Field Day further at the May and June meetings.

5. NEW BUSINESS

(a) Additional considerations for station redesign
Since we are looking at appearance cleanup of the station, members raised related concerns.
1) Make at least one of the operator positions fully wheelchair accessible.
2) Would the club like to have a satellite position in the station? If so, we need to let Chip know our decision within the next 3-4 months. Chip has offered to donate equipment (not including computer) for integration into the station, but if not, is planning to sell, as he no longer uses it to full capacity.
Members discussed:
Concerned - will we have sufficient opportunity to use satellite equipment? Do not want it to gather dust.
Do we have roof interfaces/Could we put satellite antennas up? Yes, antenna does not have to be high, only about 3m, and Chip has the antennas.

(b) D-Day Commemoration (W2W)
D-Day special event will be held June 5 and 6.

6. NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

BRATS Hamfest: July 18

Technical presentations - Suggest or volunteer by contacting John Paul!
Upcoming: May – planning Field Day; June – show & tell

Next regular meeting: May 13 2010 at 6:00 p.m. local time.

Respectfully submitted, Laurie Knaack, KB3ORF

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