March 22, 2016

Grande Ronde Radio Amateur Association: Minutes of 3/22/2016

Meeting called to order by Ted at 19:10 PST.

Michael read the minutes

Treasurer’s Report: Current Balance is $2376.60

No membership report given (unless I just didn’t hear it)

Old Business:

  • Status of club repeater firmware.
    • We upgraded to our now current firmware in December.
    • the newest firmware allows for wide/narrow selection of bandwidth.
    • allows channel spacing from 25k and 12.15k
    • the newest firmware also will allow us to interface with the HRI2000 box that will allow us to connect the repeater to the internet, also allowing us to use WiresX
    • newest firmware to release in a couple of weeks
    • more discussion
  • more discussion on various things, including the Joseph repeater providing the weather and time.
  • Larry is still working on registering the repeater for coordination
  • Ares Membership
    • no progress has been made since the last membership meeting
    • discussion about speaking with David Jenson ensued
    • those interested need to pass the training from the fema website. courses needed are as follows
      • ics 100
      • ics 200
      • ics 700
    • Diploma is given at the end of certification process
  • Emergency communications open house is on May 14th from 13:00 to 16:00 PST.
  • We talked about the 145.15 (pl 110.5) repeater and the events that happen on tuesday evenings on it(I did not catch the topic of this, but I think it was the same topic as the e-com’s open house
  • club insurance – done
  • bylaws – done -needs sent to Tom
  • projects
    • field days
      • Volunteers needed (mike@kg7uav.com) can take emails regarding this until better organization is developed
      • Mike A. has been driving to multiple sites and comparing. Bird Track seems like the best site at this point
      • Organizers need to discuss the number of stations, antennas and FOOD PREP. This also spilled over into antenna projects discussion
    • Fox hunts
      • we had 3 last year and the goal is to have 5 this year
      • april 16th at 14:00 will be our first Mike A [KG7UAV] to be the fox
      • More fox hunts to come
    • Summer BBQ
      • Joel Volunteered his home. Gail will find out about it (soon I hope!).
      • Labor Day – Sept 5th at 13:00 PST -date set
    • Christmas Party
      • topic Deferred by Ted
    • Assisting hams on getting on the air. Several club members need assistance. List is as follows.
      • Mike O [KF7STP] needs to use a picker to repair his antenna at 40ft
      • Jessie Needs an Antenna put up has one tree to work with
      • Camber needs an antenna put up. space constraints.
      • Joel Needs a ground guy to help with reinstalling his director for 20m
      • Ted needs assistance installing a new Flange Bearing. and Possibly new cable for raising and lowering his tower.

New Business

  • 7qp
    • Saturday May 7th
    • Maybe different modes could be used by operators
    • It was decided that this would be a good tuneup for Field Day!
  • Antenna Projects
    • Discussion about end fed antennas
    • Ted is working on an Antenna party
    • To be Discussed next month.
  • Home Brew Projects
    • discussed working with other club members or non members to build different projects.
  • Steve and Ted to work out meeting Location
    • April to be the last set location, discussion is to determine if we will continue to use the fire hall
  • Relay Race – August 12th and 13th – Tabled

We welcomed Tim Wong [BH1CVG] to the meeting. He has been a Ham operator since he was 10 years old! He is from China. I personally had a conversation with him at the close of the meeting. I truly enjoyed the conversation. A very friendly gent! I look forward to enjoying the Air Space with him!!!

Show and tell — Joel Presented his homemade Transmit/Receive relay “Boat Anchor” Very nice work was done on this! Larry has been involved with Joel on a few projects. Props are given to them, for working so diligently on these projects. Thank you for sharing!

Meeting adjourned at 20:42 PST

Attendees: 15

KF7STP Mike Orcutt

KB7RGX Camber Bybee

KD7JG Joel Hinshaw

KE7WDI Joe Nolan

KA7ISH Jessee Hale

W7GFA Gary Anger

BH1CVG Tim Wong

KB7DRI Barbara Hicks

W7IYA Nancy Wilson

W4PJS Graham Hicks

Justin Abernathy

KD7CEM Don Magee

KG7CEL Chris Noyes

W7IXZ Larry Wilson

KG7UAV Michael Abernathy

N7NSL Ted Ivester