Iroquois County Amateur Radio 147.030+ and 444.625+ - Meetings 2nd Thursday at the Red Cross Office in Watseka, IL

Iroquois County Amateur Radio Club
Minutes for Month of March 2, 2005

President Called Meeting to Order at 7:15pm at Red Cross office in Watseka.

Old Business

Report of Minutes of Last Meeting were read and approved.

Report of Financial Condition of Club was read and approved.

We have collected dues from Ted WA9GGU. Thank you Ted.
Sam reported that we have a new collection of video tapes from the ARRL that
can be used for programs. There are 10 tapes in the set. We will store
them in the Red Cross office for now.

Pres Steve presented an engineering study done by Jerry and Howard AK9F on
the present antenna on the 03 repeater. It seems to indicate why we have
trouble with HT coverage in Watseka. All agreed that coverage to the north
and south is just great. We don’t seem to have many users to the west so
coverage is OK for 3 directions.

The Red Cross simplex repeater might have had some interaction with a 47.42
to 460.575 link in the Chicago. We called Paul W9BWP on Benny’s cell phone
to see if there was any interference. He said not now. They use DPL on the
UHF repeaters

New Business

There was a very lively discussion about what might be done to improve HT
coverage in Watseka. We had several ideas—some would cost much more that
others. Some are probably almost impossible.
1. Try to adjust the antenna to a different place on Jerry’s tower (if
possible). Turn up the mast instead of down?
2. Add a second antenna and co-phase with present antenna.
3. Link the 444 repeater to the 03 repeater with a ham cross band repeater.
4. Add a second feed line at the Cingular site for a 440 Simplex frequency
up to about 150 feet—add a ham cross band repeater out on the 03 input. On
a ham uhf HT set up a simplex 446.000 frequency to get into the cross-band
radio with PL encode and decode. The antenna for high band would be very
small. Only need enough to hop to Jerry’s tower.

We plan to go to Schaumburg to pick up the enclosure, feed line and
connectors after March 22, 2005.

Red Cross has indicated that IMH might be interested in a ham radio in or
near the ER. Sam is to contact ER nurse to see what they have in mind. Our
group seemed to think that a radio that combines HF with VHF and UHF would
be best. Feed line and antenna along with power supply would be needed.

Motion to Close Business Meeting was passed around 9:30

Snacks of cookies and pop were enjoyed by all.
Sam W9QKF

Present
Steve K9TA
Sam W9QKF
Benny KC9GWD
Ron KC9FJO
Mike former W9CCI

Hey Guys

Brian and Benny came up with a web site that could be of interest if you are wanting practice code or work on the upgrade for a new license.

Justin and Carl G (CD Director) have a Weather Spotter School Program set for March 30, 2005.

Kyle KC9COR has a school set for March 3, in Indiana.

I noticed that the League has some emergency communications courses. They are 8 weeks and are done over the internet. They cost $45 but if you complete the course the cost will be returned to you. If any interest lets talk about it at club meeting.

I have ordered some tapes for programs for radio meetings–I hope that they will interest the group.

We have about $375 in the club treasury.

Red Cross simplex repeater is working. GMRS repeater is working. Tim KC9FON has his GMRS license along with his father and father in law. They are easy to get but cost $80 for a five year license. Output of the repeater is 462.675 if you want to put in your scanner.

We need to select a new Vice-Pres at the next meeting.

Sam Ripple
W9QKF KAE7607

Guys and Gal (W9LIZ)

I talked to Carl G (CD-1) today and he reminded me to tell all about the Weather Spotting Class to be held in Crescent City on Wed March 30 at the firehall. This is a meeting of the Mutual Aid Fire Group in Iroquois County but they have invited hams, red cross workers, media, cops and others for basic training in weather awareness. It would be nice if we had a good
number of hams to show up.

Also Carl G. asked if their was any interest in our group forming a ARES or RACES group. What we lack is some dynamic person who is interested enough to lead and put in the hard work to get a group going. As I read from the links on our web page ARES is a group that will work with any group needing emercomm. RACES is a group that only works with CD or sheriff dept. (lots of info on our web site about RACES and ARES)

At the present time I would describe our emercomm group as an informal ARES group. Several of us are commited to the Red Cross but many of us would help local gov and CD if their communications had failed.

I think we have better vhf, uhf, GMRS, and 47.42, and cell phones capabilities now than we have ever had in the past. All four of our repeaters seem to be working very well. No doubt we can do more (training, practice, and learning,)–we have a few new hams that we need to elmer to make sure that they get started with antennas and radios and get on the air.

I would like to see someone take off on the Winlink 2000 project–anyone interested?

Please look at the ICARC.com web site–I find new info all the time and have really picked up some good info on the links. We are on Google and all you have to do is type in ICARC and its the first link. How neat is that?

We have had several mentions on WGFA in the morning of club meetings and we are in the newspaper every month also.

We have our IRLP setup working fine and of course we have one of the best contest stations in the country in our group. I can set up Echolink in about 5 min if we would need that.

All in all it looks like we have had great advancments in ham radio in the past year or so.

Don’t forget the club meeting on Wed April 6th at 7:00pm at Red Cross office. We only had 5 members at the last meeting. Also let Steve or I know what would be any good ideas for club meetings?

Listen on 147.03 444.625 462.675 47.42 and in Watseka 446.000

Sam Ripple
W9QKF KAE7607