January 2007 Meeting Minutes
January 16, 07 by Iroquois County Amateur Radio ClubPresident Carl called the meeting to order at 7:00pm at the Red Cross office in Watseka.
Old Business
The minutes for Dec. 2006 meeting were read and approved. The treasures report was read and approved.
Carl reported that the backup repeater is working well. Ron KC6FJO loaned a 70 watt amp but we had desense and turned the amp off.
The 440 repeater is working well at the Cingular site. Benny and Sam talked to Nita to try to get some donated Mastr II gear and a used PA (for free). She will ask her board and have their answer after their Jan 16th meeting.
Tim, Janet, Daniel, and Carl did a great job cleaning up the basement of RC office. There are still some moldy wallboard to get rid of. Joan said we could give away the rusty metal in the basement to Jeremy if he would like to haul it away.
New Business
Mike reported that the APRS station is being repeated by a station in Indiana, but still no messages are being repeated. If Jeremy can fix the TNC we can place it at the Cingular site.
Phil N9LAH has donated a Motrac repeater to club. We are not sure that we want to use this 1960s tube technology. The KARS club also donated their old MICOR (1980s technology) repeater. Carl, Benny and Sam have been working on it. We need controller and pl encoder installed–then new crystals for our frequencies. This could make a great backup for the 03 machine.
The contract for the WGFA site has been signed by both our club and also WGFA. We can move the repeater after we test the antennas.
Sam and Mike both got bids on a new Kenwood VHF repeater. Mike found the lowest bid from his friends at A-Beep in Joliet. Sam found $1100 + shipping. Mike found $935 and no shipping as we could pick it up in Joliet.
A discussion on the frequencies to go to in case of the 03 repeater goes down. We decided that the second freq should be 147.03 simplex, the next freq. would be the UHF repeater on 444.625. This is for net or emergency traffic for weather net.
Carl G (CD-1) has planned a weather spotter school for March 27, 6:30pm at the Fair Grounds. I hope all of you will attend. We have invited the WX guy and CD-1 for supper at Festia that evening.
Two of our members have passed the General written exam and are waiting on rules to change so that they will become generals. Tim KC9FON and Jermey KB9YZI.
Roy has taken several Emcomm classes and would like to sign up some RACES members from Iroquois county. He will have some application papers to sign at the Feb meeting and would like as many hams as possible to sign up.
Joan has some new Red Cross Training programs on the web.
Go to www.dhs-ngo-pilot.org click on Chicago, click on self Register to get student id and password. Find and order the courses through the Search Catalog interface.
If you have time and want too FEMA has many classes on the web.
Mike then presented a very good presentation on VOIP and the ability to connect any number of dissimilar radio systems together to allow intercommunication among different groups. Example connect UHF and VHF repeaters together. All seemed to enjoy the presentation. Mike worked for hours to set up this demo.
Snacks are to be provided by Benny in Feb and Tim in March.
Net controls for the month are:
Sam Jan 15. Roy Jan 22 Carl 29 and Brian Feb 5.
Snacks of home made? cookies and pop and ice were provided by Steve. Benny is to have snacks for the Feb meeting.
Sam W9QKF
Members present were Carl, Chris, Sam, Steve, Tim, Benny, Mike, Roy and guest Joe K9LPI
