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

For continued updates visit http://www.WGFARadio.com and http://www.IQESDA.com

Justin

Iroquois County Amateur Radio Club Minutes of the Sept, 2008 Meeting

President Carl opened the meeting at 7:21 pm at the Glenn Raymond School in Watseka. The August minutes
were read and approved. The treasure’s report was read and approved.

Committee Reports

Incorporation and Non-Profit Committee—Mike is in the process of registering with the Charitable Trust Division, Office of the Attorney General. He is filling our the CO-1 and CO-2 forms.

Technical Committee— We plan to rework the controller to make CW id the only id in the repeater.

Program Committee—Roy has planned a program on Traffic handling. We Plan to meet at Glenn Raymond School.

Publicity Committee—Justin was on the radio with a news release from Troy and was expanded to a report of amateur radio.

Justin e-mailed to invite interested parties to go to Champaign to a meeting of Broadcast Engineers on Sept 26. Starts at noon.  See Justin for carpool.

ARES Liaison—Roy reported last month that they annual ARRL SET is to be in October and he will plan a
radio exercise for us. It is to be a surprise net.

Red Cross Liaison—Tim reported that the Red Cross office will be moving to a new location at the end
of October. We will need to take care of the radio room moving.

ESDA Liaison—Sam reported that we still have a chance for a grant from the state for radio equipment.
Next April the Church of Latter Day Saints is planning a emergency preparedness fair.

VE Liaison—

OLD Business

We discussed selling the Motrac repeater but having trouble with the delivery to the buyer in Colorado.
Carl might try to see what could be done by mail. We discussed the possibility of a remote rx at our east
site for the two meter repeater. We have much of the hardware but not all that would be needed.

NEW Business

Troy reported that the radios for the GRS radio project were delivered and we all got a look at the complete HF station.

KARS has been discussing some remote RX sites for the 94 repeater to improve the Skywarn nets.

We talked about a workday at the WGFA site to improve the building including insulation and painting.
Snacks for this month were by Carl and Chris. Oct snacks are to be brought by Mike.

Net control for 9/15 Sam, 9/22 Tim, 9/29 Benny, 10/6 Brian

Meeting adjourned at 7:45 .

Carl and Don K9NR presented a well done power point presentation of their latest DX trip to Monteserrat

Members present— Troy, Tim, Carl, Chris, Mike, Benny, Keith and Sam. Don K9NR was our honored guest

Sam W9QKF secretary

Sam Ripple W9QKF KAE7607

IQ ESDA Coordinator and WGFA News Director Carl Gerdovich reports that the Cissna Park Fire Department and Village officials are assisting some residents in Cissna Park this evening who are evacuating their homes near the Route 49 bridge to the American legion home. No word on how many residents may be affected. Sandbags and sump pumps may be available for residents. Earlier in the day the waters had receded and IDOT officials had . Out of nowhere Pigeon Creek overflowed leading to some of the reported evacuations. Since then sandbags have been requested and are being delivered to the fire station in Cissna Park. Any Cissna Park residents in need of assistance should contact the Cissna Park Fire Department. Cissna Park apparently has things under control at the local level and have not contacted ESDA officials for additional assistance.

The Glenn Raymond School Science Club was recently awarded an equipment grant to help establish an Amateur Radio station at the school. 8th grade science teacher and science club sponsor, Troy Simpson, spearheaded the endeavor as a means to bring another avenue of technology to the students at GRS. Mr. Simpson earned his amateur radio license after the Iroquois County Amateur Radio Club did a HAM radio demonstration for the school’s science club’s 30th Anniversary. He saw this as unique opportunity for GRS students and potentially the start of a lifetime activity.

The equipment grant is sponsored by the Amateur Radio Relay League and provides grants to schools to that incorporate amatuer radio and radio technology in their schools. Glenn Raymond School was one of only 6 schools in the nation to receive the grant for 2008. They received a Kenwood TS-480SAT radio with power supply, two antennas to transmit on a variety of frequencies, and an auto-tuner to help match frequency transmissions. The science club has already received their call sign as fittingly appropriate W9GRS.

The GRS Science Club is incorporating amatuer radio as a means to provide hands-on application of radio technology. Students will learn about how radio waves travel, how radio is used in weather spotting and emergency communications, and participate in contacting other amateur radio stations around the world. Students will also have the opportunity to earn their Amateur License.

The Science Club has also been working closely with the Iroquois County Amateur Radio Club in establishing the station. ICARC club members kicked things off with a demonstration of HAM radio 2 years ago at one of the Science Club meetings and recently held their annual Field Day at Glenn Raymond School.

“I believe this is a great addition to our science club and will give yet another unique opportunity for Glenn Raymond students. They will be introduced not only to the science of HAM radio, but the civic service that amateur radio contributes to.” - Mr. Simpson

The Flash Flood Watch for portions of central Illinois…east central Illinois and southeast Illinois has been cancelled. A Flash Flood Watch continues until 600 am Monday morning for Sangamon County due to water releases from Lake Springfield.

On Sunday afternoon officials from the Illinois DOT, Iroquois County ESDA, the Watseka Police Department, Watseka Public Works and the American Red Cross met in Watseka at City Hall to discuss the mitigation plans for the localized flooding affecting the area. Discussion centered around excess water that has caused a sewer system overload in Watseka. Officials expressed that the system was slowly catching up and it looked as if thing were getting better and the system was catching up. Dan Smith from the Region 7 IEMA was also a part of the discussion.

According to the National Weather Service, the rain waters we have received should not affect us. Carl Gerdovich, Iroquois County ESDA Director and News Director for WGFA Radio said “The rain has let up and the water from Benton and Newton counties should not affect us. The Iroquois River is expected to crest well below the flood stage sometime on Wednesday. We are experiencing localized flash flooding in Watseka and Iroquois County. The Watseka city sewer system was overwhelmed but is catching up and several roads in Iroquois County and in the immediate Watseka areas are closed.” City and County officials have re-routed traffic in many areas. Joel Moore from the Iroquois County Highway Department reports a 1/2 dozen areas with water over the roads and signs are up warning motorists to bypass some areas and to be aware of standing water on roadways. As of Sunday at 4pm, the Route 1 viaduct near Milford was closed and Route 49 near Cissna Park at 1000 N Road was closed.