October 24, 2017

Members present:
w7gfa gary anger
kd7jg joel hinshaw
w4pjs graham hicks
n7nsl ted ivester
kb7rgx camber bybee
w7ixz larry Wilson
w7iya nancy Wilson
kd7vy Irwin smutz
kd7cem don magee
ke7ead jerry brounstein
ki7fxj Tyson brooks
w7jsn Jason fouts
kb7wdi joe Nolan
kf7stp mike orcutt

Joel opened the meeting at 1901
We did a round robin introduction of our names and callsigns

Gary read the minutes of the September 26, 2017 meeting. No changes.

Treasurers report . after reimbursing Joel for the picnic expenses, and calculating in the $300 to Tyson for the repeater upgrade we will have $2068.54 in our treasury.

Tyson reported that the La Grande repeater upgrade is installed and functioning. Some minor adjustments may still be required. Individual operators may need to download some firmware updates to their rigs in order to work digital on the upgraded system.

Fox Hunts. Did one this year. Agreed we still need to build or obtain better equipment and we sill pursue that.

Joel asked what other projecst can we do as a group.

Our next meeting will be on November 28th 2017.

Anybody interested in looking into building or buying better fox hunt equipment, meet at Ted’s home on 11 November at 1000 (10 in the morning) and we will scour the internet for information and ideas.

The digital interface project. Some members are still working on theirs. We discussed issues encountered and possible remedies. Anybody still requiring assistance in building digital equipment contact Joel or Larry.

New Business

Tom Bingham in Joseph Oregon will begin to update our club webpage. He requests photos to add to the site.

Tyson will send him some photos from various events he has attended, which he has also posted to our Facebook site.

As a reminder and for the information of the general public, our club has several VEs and can administer any and all exams.
candidates do not have to travel to tri-cities or Pendleton to sit for an exam.

Graham will host the annual club Christmas dinner at his home on 12 December 2017 beginning at 1400 (2 pm). He resides at 900 Main Street, La Grande Oregon. This is a Tuesday afternoon. Please bring side dishes and disposable eating ware (plates, napkins, knives, forks, spoons etc) Our next meeting on 11/18/17 will be when we finalize preparations and plans. Also. please somebody volunteer to bring sodas, and somebody bring ice.

Joel solicited input on future projects. Your thoughts on projects are requested.
Discussion transitioned into reviving interest in amateurs who are local but not active. Thoughts are that we can do mailings of invitations to reconnect, get radio time, place an announcement in the La Grande Observer, and publicize our VE capabilities.
Larry promised to build a list of local hams, which we can go through and scrub, and then begin to send letters to inactive hams.

In January 2018 we will be electing new club officers. Consider your candidature for the position of President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. (of note, all officers have reached the limit of their tenure per by-laws)/

Ted did an excellent presentation on digital and analog repeater functions, and on encoding and decoding.
He discussed Wires X as well. With the assistance of Tyson he presented a live rendition of using analog and digital on the La Grande Repeater.
Members displayed great interest in such and asked very good questions on the subjects.

The meeting adjourned at 2030.