May 2005 meeting Minutes

Iroquois County Amateur Radio Club
Minutes for Month of May 4, 2005

President Steve 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.

New Business

Benny made motion, Mike second, to elect Carl K9CS to be new Vice-Pres. The
vote was passed and Carl accepted the office of Vice Pres.

Benny motion, Carl second, to reimburse Sam for gas and concrete blocks for
the 440 enclosures. Motion approved.

The new enclosure for 440 repeater was brought back from Chicago last week
by Sam, Benny, Jerry, and Jim Ward. The concrete blocks for foundation were
installed by Benny and Sam and enclosure was placed on blocks by Benny,
Jerry, Bill and Sam. Steve is going to wire up with 220 volts soon.

Mike KC9HHT is a new dues paying member and also joined the ARRL through the
club. The club gets to keep $15 of the dues to the ARRL for new members.
Anyone who renews or joins ARRL for first time–we get to keep some of the
dues money for the local club. See me before you renew or join for first
time.

We had a donation for repeater use by Brian KC9FAV. Thank you Brian

The frequency for use at Dayton is going to be 146.085 simplex. As there
could be as many as 30,000 hams with a minimum of 90,000 HTs–this will be
our freq.

Mike has new radios, both Kenwoods, and they look like first class
equipment. A TS 2000 and a new handheld, new tripod, dipole, and triband
for VHF, UHF and– get this– 1.2 gig. Tim has 1.2 gig also.

Backup UPS battery was discussed again for 03 repeater. Might use Sam’s big
computer UPS. This site has propane backup but delays a few minutes before
turning on. This few seconds resets the controller to default voice id.

Carl K9CS has used a Vertex Red Cross radio several times and reports that
the Red Cross simplex repeater is working very well to the Vermillion county
line.

Sam reports that the GMRS repeater is also working very well. Justin has
donated a neat little GE UHF radio to the club and Sam has sent it off to be
programmed with GMRS frequency. Thanks Justin.

There was a very lively discussion about what might be done to improve HT
coverage in Watseka on the 2 meter repeater. It has some problems at this
time. Jerry, Benny, and Sam are to work on the repeater to remove the
preamp and retune the duplexers to see if that will help with the present
antenna position.

As the repeater seems to work OK at a distance—KKK to Rantoul,north to south
and Kentland to Chatsworth east to west—maybe we are shooting over the heads
of HTs 7 miles away. Carl can see all of tower and yet HT does not work
well and without noise. One of the options discussed was a remote receiver
site at the the Watseka site. We can have have 2 feed lines so a remote
site will be possible with a 2 meter rx linked to a uhf tx to a uhf rx into
a voter into the 03 machine. We also have the elevator site as far as we
know.

Benny was kind enough to bring in a birthday cake and cold pop. All members
enjoyed cake and pop and almost all members present have a birthday in the
month of May.

At the June meeting we might try to meet at a local restaurant around 5:45
to have supper together. Listen on repeater to see if anyone wants to try
for good meal and fellowship with brother hams.

Meeting was over at 9 pm.

Sam Ripple

Members present were

Steve K9TA
Carl K9CS
Sam W9QKF
Benny KC9GWD
Mike KC9HHT

New ICARC Skywarn Leader

Dear ICARC Hams

I think there is a weather school tonight in Watseka for Fire Dept and others.

Good news. Mike KC9HHT has agreed to become the Skywarn leader for theICARC effort.

Mike has some new equipment on the air and still more to install. He is ready on 2 meters and 440 and will soon have HF antenna ready to go. I am sure that Mike will take an interest and will appreciate the effort of all of us in the event of sever weather. Just because we have a leader we still need the help of all of our ops. We don’t have to wait on Mike to start the
net each time–we all need to feel free to start in case Mike is busy or out of the area or not aware of the coming bad weather. The stations to the west and south will generally know of bad weather before the people to the north and east. I am sure we will hear more from Mike in the coming weeks.

He needs to work on plans and talk to all of us to make sure that we are on the same page.

Our current plan was very simple–have Jerry or Sam or anyone else collect info from Iro County and pass to KKK repeater and phone in to 911 center for serious winds, hail, rotation.

What to do if no one on 94 repeater? What are the repeaters that NWS is listening to? 147.150 is a very big repeater in Indiana for KC9COR.

Sam Ripple
W9QKF KAE7607

2 Meter Repeater Scare – Red Cross License

We had a scare last Thursday with the 2 meter repeater–lots of interference. We think that it has been solved. The controller is still not acting right but at least range is very good.

I think that the Red Cross license is on the way. I got to talk to hams in charge of communications for the Red Cross at Dayton and next day got paperwork.

My wife and I are both retiring from our jobs on Tues and Wed for Rosie. My retirement party is one Tue and Rosie’s is on Wed night. I will not be able to be at the radio meeting this month but Steve and Carl will have a great meeting.

The 440 project is still in the works–paper works has been resubmited. Steve has most of the material for the wiring of the 220 volts.

Guy in charge of weather bureau called Mike and I other day.

Some members might like to have supper together on Wed night before meeting. Listen to repeater to arrange the event.

73 Sam