Meeting began at 1902 with a round-robin introduction of all present.
Gary Anger read the minutes of January’s meeting
Since last meeting Mike Orcutt, the treasurer, deposited $200 to bring the account balance to @2030.95. Forty more dollars of membership dues came in tonight bringing our account balance up to $2070.95.
We have 15 paid members as of tonight’s’ meeting.
Old Business
Last month we elected new officers, or rather, existing officers are remaining for 2015. Ted did request that others consider accepting positions next year to relieve existing officers.
The potential new repeater. Reduced cost is good through March 2015. The model we were looking into has potential problems and we are awaiting word from Marc Peterson (a member of the ARRG group) on upgrades and fixes. The .980 repeater (W4PJS) is functioning but does not like to work well if interfered with. Steve Hendrix put out that if we could relocate that repeater to a more suitable location that we could likely restore it.
Ted stated he is still looking at the DR1X though. He gave us an overview of the DR1X features to bring us back up to speed. Ted is in contact with Marc Peterson and is learning more about the DR1X.
Larry Wilson mentioned the possibility of re-registering the potential new repeater as W7GRA/R, and he will look into the requirements for doing so, prompted by Ted to please do so.
Field Day. Ted will look into holding Field Day 2015 on the Union County Fairgrounds. Mike Orcutt has tried to contact the fairgrounds personnel to no avail. The fairgrounds reportedly allows dry camping. We also discussed briefly, the possibility of using Pioneer Park or any other other city park, for more visibility.
Steve Hendrix brought up the topics of signage, media coverage for field day for additional points in the scorage. Other activities that could accord us more points would be public official attendance, from firefighters, to Mayor, to Governor and in between.
7QP QSO Party. The 7 area Contest/Party is May 2 and 3, 2015. Ted handed out a printout of the rules for the 7QP. Further discussion indicates it is an easy contest to work, not stressful as other contest can be, and therefore a great way to overcome any microphone fright, get used to your gear, and use various modes of transmissions.
The question of holding a summer BBQ was thrown out for thoughts.
When? Where? We decided to bring up that subject in March to discuss further and narrow it down.
Fox Hunts: We discussed how many we should attempt to hold. Are three too many? Could just a few of us get together to practice? Should we get together to build direction finding antennae? Could we experiment with frequency offset equipment in addition to using signal strength meters? We also discussed holding some radio direction finding training to help those who would like to participate in a Fox Hunt, and for the general knowledge of all as there is always a possibility that we may be asked to help locate a signal source. We tabled the Fox Hunt topic for the March meeting as well. Mike mentioned the possibility of trying Direction Finding on aviation frequencies.
ARES Membership. We presently have at most, seven ARES team members. David Jensen is recruiting and encouraging others to join. Ted gave us an overview of the raison d’etre of ARES i,e, emergency services, assistance to the Red Cross, and our only function so far, support to the Union County EOC. Our ARES station is at the EOC in the La Grande Police Station. Training is easy. Contact David Jensen or Ted Ivester for more information and/or for a tour of the EOC. Additionally, there is still some administration work that needs to be completed in order to allow ARES access to the Office of Emergency Management trailer which holds the equipment.
Club Insurance: No new information.
By-laws: No change yet
Ted discussed SEAPAC Ham Convention. This year it will be held from 5 – 7 June in Seaside Oregon, at the convention center. Ted passed out flyers for the SEAPAC convention.
Marc Larson (K7OWG Silent Key) radio gear. Update is that one of Marc’s grandson’s may want at least some of that equipment, so for now, the removal of Marc’s equipment by some of us is on hold.
New Business:
Nothing added.
We segued back to the W4PJS repeater situation, with a few more questions being thrown out. For now, the decision to purchase a new repeater is on hold.
Following our discussions, Larry Wilson put on a very good program on HF Digital programs. He put together a quite informative slide show and in-depth narrative, complete with audio clips of some of the various digital signals out there.
The meeting adjourned at 2030.
Present at the meeting were:
Gary Anger W7GFA
Mike Orcutt KF7STP
Ted Ivester N7NSL
Jessee Hale KA7ISH
Steve Ratzlaff AA7U
Steve Hendrix KA0DEK
Larry Wilson W7IXZ
David Jensen W7DFJ
Nancy Wilson W7IYA
Brian Don KF7UED (first night with us – welcome)
Don Magee KD7CDM
