Present at meeting were
W7GFA Gary Anger
KA0DEK Steve Hendrix
W7IXZ Larry Wilson
W7IYA Nancy Wilson
KD7JG Joel Hinshaw
KA7ISH Jessee Hale
KF7UED Brian Don
KB7DRI Barbara Hicks
AA7U Steve Ratzlaff
N7NSL Ted Ivester
W7PJS Graham Hicks
Meeting began at 1912. Gary read minutes of March meeting. No changes recommended.
Treasury report. Treasurer not present so no known change. $2090.95 was last reported kitty.
Membership report: 20 Paid members
Round Robin introductions of all present.
Status of 980 repeater. Yaesu has approved purchase of new repeater by our club. Ted has ordered the repeater, with an expected arrival within a month.
Larry Wilson gave an update on the renewal of the existing repeater and changing the callsign from W4PJS to W7GRA. No historical information on original repeater and callsign approval has been found. The missing information is technical in nature, i.e. desensitization, line loss, etc. Since no historic data has been located we may need somebody to conduct the required measurements. When we change to the new repeater we will need to conduct measurement tests on it for documentation. Site of new repeater will be at the Grande Ronde Hospital, at roof level, but inside shelter.
Ted will need the assistance of two strong men to help move the old and the new equipment to the new location. Date and time of such move yet to be determined.
Ted would like somebody to stow a table that belongs to the club. Who has some room?
Field Day. The Union County Fair Grounds does not have many trees from which to run antennae, but it does have plenty of poles. We could possibly use stand-alone poles to hold up antennae.
Space for antennae at the fair grounds is an issue if we use dipoles. Question posed: Does anybody have an vertical antennae? We discussed some other potential locations for field day. We discussed power, having to use extension cords, or using generators. Ted would like any volunteers to also look at the fair grounds and assess the possibility of setting up there. There are also a lot of power lines at the fairgrounds, possible sources of interference, so it may be a good idea to take a portable HF rig there to assess noise/interference prior to deciding if that is a good site. Ted will continue to scout other possible locations for field day.
7QP QSO Party, May 2 & 3, 0600 – 1200 Pacific Daylight Time. Participation is encouraged. Those without a radio could work with those who do have a radio. Graham said his house is open for all to use, but since he doesn’t have a logging laptop somebody would need to provide one. Joel said he would send out a reminder e-mail on this topic.
SEAPAC June 5 – 7. Three things to see/do: Flea market, Commercial Vendors (i.e. Yaesu, etc) and Seminars. Attendance is highly recommended. Ted passed around of list of the scheduled seminars.
Summer BBQ. Date, time and place yet TBD. We decided to table this topic until a meeting when more members are present.
Larry happily volunteered Gary to send out a reminder e-mail of our activities on occasion. Just a recap, such as the minutes of the meetings already do.
There may still be an e-mail issue in that some members are not receiving all of the e-mails. Larry will attempt to get a printout of the e-mail addresses entered into the collective e-mail group, and we can then verify our e-mail addresses at our meetings.
Fox Hunts. Decided they do not have to take place in the summer only. Possible next Fox Hunts dates are September and October 2015.
ARES. Join ARES. Reminder that there is a Simulated Emergency Training event on 4/25/15 and also one in October 2015.
Club Insurance. We still need to know what any policy would and would not cover, such as electrocution, accidents, mishaps while moving above-mentioned repeater, Fox Hunts, etc.
Gary will pursue and get more details and ask for an example policy.
By Laws. Ted will work on changing them to read that our meetings will be on the 3rd Wednesday monthly. Reminder here though that June 2015 meeting will the on 6/10/15, not 6/16/15.
Field Day. Discussed who may be willing to participate this year and what equipment each participant may have. We need somebody to help set up our logging network.
We discussed holding classes for Technician Class aspirants and decided we should hold said classes this Autumn/Winter. And, if we want to get our newly licensed hams to become active we need to Elmers and help get them going.
Community Event involvement, i.e. Crazy Daze Derby Dash, let’s keep our potential involvement in mind.
Back to the moving of the repeater from Ted’s residence to the Grande Ronde Hospital, Joel Hinshaw and Steve Hendrix volunteered to help, as well as Gary, time allowing.
Our next club breakfast will be at the Flying J in La Grande on the 1st Saturday of May, May 2nd at 0900. Joel will send out an e-mail reminder.
Joel presented a program on Grounding and Bonding. How to, Why to. He referenced articles from Feb and Mar 2015 QST Magazine.
The meeting adjourned at 2041.
