September 2009 Meeting Minutes

–Iroquois County Amateur Radio Club–
Minutes of the September 10, 2009 Meeting

President Troy opened tonight’s meeting at GRS in Watseka. The August minutes were read and approved. The treasure’s report was read and approved.
Committee Reports

Incorporation and Non-Profit Committee—We have completed all of the steps to file our annual report with the Sec of States office for the second year. We are waiting for more information from the Kankakee club about the 501-C-3 steps
and the info about the Attorney Generals report on fund raising.

Technical Committee—Benny reported that both repeaters seem to be working and conditions seem to be very good with the stalled high pressure over the Midwest.

Program Committee—none.

Publicity Committee—Chris W9CJM reported that the web site now includes a calendar to place important dates and events.
ARES Liaison—None

Red Cross Liaison—
Tim reported that the Pancake breakfast would be on Sept 12. Looking for people to help with breakfast. The ERV training will be on Sunday Sept 13 at the hospital.

ESDA Liaison—None.

VE Liaison—Troy reported that we might need a VEC testing session before Christmas.

OLD Business

Carl is investigating insurance rates for our liability policy and also for the Kankakee club.
Carl K9CS has the paper work done to be the new trustee of W9RWX.

NEW Business

Skywarn Chief Mike reviewed the Skywarn season. So far we have had 5 activations and had one sighting of rotation which did result in a small F1 tornado with some damage to crops and building. Mike reminded us that safety of our members is very important. Our value to the weather service is to report what we see on the ground. They see what’s on the radar. We are planning to try the 444.625 repeater for the next Skywarn session to see if H-Ts are able to get in with out using our base radios. Sam and Mike have a toll free number to call the 24-hour Illinois State Emcomm center in Springfield to report our starting and ending time of the net. This action will place our people under the States insurance plan and if someone gets hurt they might help with our medical bills. When we call they give us an incident number and when we are done we call them and cancel.

Scott has applied for a special event station for Halloween.

Troy and Carl are working on a worked all Illinois counties project for ICARC to sponsor. More details next month.

Net Control Pres Troy would like to have all of us to practice by taking a turn at net control. A possible script is on the web site.
9/14 Troy 9/21 Benny 9/28 Sam 10/5 Rollie. If someone forgets any other person is welcome to pick up the ball and run with it.

Snacks for tonight by Janet and Tim. October meeting is Paul Wilson

Members present Chris M, Carl, Keith, Troy, Rollie, Gery, Chris S, Janet, Justin, Mike, Benny, Tim and Sam. Special guest was Sophie and her high speed dare devil tricycle performance.

Sam W9QKF Sec.

August 2009 Meeting Minutes

–Iroquois County Amateur Radio Club–

Minutes of the August 13, 2009 Meeting

President Mike asked Carl K9CS to conduct tonight’s meeting at GRS in Watseka.  The July minutes were read and approved.  The treasure’s report was read and approved.

Committee Reports

Incorporation and Non-Profit Committee—Carl has picked up and gone over the application for 503 C status. Troy and Carl will be working on completion.

Technical Committee—None

Program Committee—none.

Publicity Committee—Chris W9CJM reported that the web site now includes a calendar to place important dates and events.  The web site is getting better all the time, if you haven’t looked at it lately go to www.icarc.com and we think you will be pleased.

ARES Liaison—None

Red Cross Liaison—

Carl reported the Red Cross has moved to a small room at IMH.  Tim reported that the Pancake breakfast would be in Sept.  Looking for people to help with breakfast.

ESDA Liaison—None.

VE Liaison—Carl reported that VE testing was done on July 19^th 2009 at the Kankakee hamfest.  A young lady had a perfect score on her Extra (said she had perfect scores on Tech and General also). A 9 year old passed his Tech.

OLD Business

Carl is investigating insurance rates for our liability policy and also for the Kankakee club.

We should be able to have our Sept and Oct meetings at Glenn Raymond School.  Backup could be firehouse and Community Center at Crescent City.

NEW Business

The Board has recommended that Troy W9KVR be elected to fill the remaining term of President Mike.  Mike resigned because travel schedule was preventing him from attending meeting.

Tim W9TRF was recommended to be appointed Vice-Pres to replace Roy who has moved from the area.

Phil N9LAH was recommended to fill an open board position and Carl K9CS was appointed to the board also.

The membership voted to approve these four appointments.

Carl K9CS was voted to take the club trusteeship for W9RWX.

There was some discussion of removing the club minutes from the web site as all members get the minutes from the secretary.

Net Control  8/17Jake  8/24 Sam 8/31 Sam  9/7 Tim

Scott and Tim won two pairs of hamfest tickets.  Scott took

the Crown Point fest and Tim won the Danville tickets.

Sam provided the cookies and pop for this meeting.  Janet and Tim

will have the treats for the Sept meeting.

Members present  Chris M, Carl, Keith, Troy, Rollie, Gery, Chris S, Scott, Jake, Janet, Tim and Sam

Sam W9QKF Sec.

June 2009 Meeting Minutes

–Iroquois County Amateur Radio Club–
Minutes of the July 9, 2009 Meeting

President Mike opened the meeting at 7:20 pm at the Fire House in Watseka.
The June minutes were read and approved. The treasure’s report was read
and approved.

Committee Reports

Incorporation and Non-Profit Committee—Carl is to pick up and go over
the application for 503 C status. Sam has the annual report for the Sec
of State and the $10 fee ready to be mailed.

Technical Committee—Some people reported trouble getting into 2 meter
repeater and others were getting into machine from many miles north and south.

Program Committee—none.

Publicity Committee—Sam brought copies of publicity in newspapers.
Troy and Sam were on WGFA with Justin promoting “Field Day Fever”
Gov Quinn declared “Amateur Radio Month”. Mike will write a thank you to Maggie Martin
for the tower space and for publicity for FD.

ARES Liaison—Roy is retiring on May 29 and will be going to southern Illinois soon after.
Scott has shown interest in replacing Roy as EC of Iroquois and Ford County.
Roy has resigned as EC and Vice Pres of the Club as of July 15.

Red Cross Liaison—Sam and Tim reported the Red Cross has moved
to a small room at IMH. Red Cross has donated all communication equipment to ICARC.
This includes the low band radio system, ham equipment, antennas, power supplies and
some other equipment. Mike will write thank you letter for the donation. The Red Cross
annual dinner is July 23 rd at the Masonic Lodge at 6:00pm. All volunteers are welcome.

ESDA Liaison—ESDA is improving its radio system and ham frequencies have
been added to the new VHF radio system. We also have UHF radio with ham freqs
but could not afford UHF antenna this year.

VE Liaison—Carl reported that VE testing would be done on July 19th 2009
at the Kankakee hamfest.

OLD Business

Roy KA9MZJ is moving to southern ILL very soon and has resigned as Vice President and EC.
He will be missed. They board will come up with a candidate for the members to
vote on at the next meeting.
Board will be looking for a new trustee for W9RWX in the near future.
This action will require a application to the FCC.

Field day reports were better that last year. We recorded 33 guests including the
Mayor of Watseka (Bob Harwood), and a member of the Iroquois county board
(Susan Wynn Bence)

NEW Business

We have changed the date of the board meeting to the last Thursday of the month.
We are planning to hold the August meeting at Glenn Raymond School.

The Red Cross is planning their annual dinner meeting on July 23 at 6:00pm at
the Masonic Lodge in Watseka. We have a special hand written invitation for all
of the Red Cross radio team to come and eat supper and fellowship with fellow
Red Cross volunteers. Call Sam and let him know if you will be able to attend.
Please call 432-3308 by the 15th of July.

Carl is investigating insurance rates for our liability policy and also for the Kankakee club.

The web site is getting better all the time, if you haven’t looked at it lately go to
www.icarc.com and we think you will be pleased.

We discussed they idea of a remote rx site in Watseka for hand held coverage.
Although we have much of the equipment it would still be a big job to plan for
antenna sites, coax, 440 yagies, tower space, coordination requests and other
problems to overcome.

Their has been discussion about a new State Wide packet system using
WinLink 2000 based email program. Planned frequency is 145.610.

Kankakee is planning two remote rx sites for 34/94 to improve
Skywarn coverage

Net Control 7/13 Troy 7/20 Chris M 7/27 Tim 8/3 Sam 8/10 Benny

Benny provided the wonderful home made Brownies (thanks Dianne)
and ice cold pop. In August the other Marcier brother will try to carry on
with outstanding refreshments for the group’s pleasure.

Members present Chris M, Carl, Justin, Troy, Mike, Rollie, Gery, Roy,
Justin, Benny, Steve, and Sam

Sam W9QKF Sec.

Sam Ripple W9QKF KAE7607

June 2009 ICARC Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the June 11, 2009 Meeting

President Mike opened the meeting at 7:00 pm at the Glenn Raymond School in Watseka.  The May minutes were read and approved. The treasure’s report was read and approved.
Committee Reports

Incorporation and Non-Profit Committee—None

Technical Committee—Mike reported that on one stormy day he had trouble getting in
to the 2 meter repeater with HT while in Crescent City.

Program Committee—Work on field day prep.

Publicity Committee—Carl showed a sample press release from the ARRL field day packet.  Scott is going to use it for a press release from ICARC.

ARES Liaison—Roy is retiring on May 29 and will be going to southern Illinois soon after.  His house has been sold but plans to be here for FD.

Roy also reported that we will need a new EC for Iroquois county as he will resign as soon as move is started. The new person should have 1. ARRL membership 2. One of ARRL Emcomm classes 3. FEMA class IC 100 and IC 700.

Red Cross Liaison—Sam and Tim reported the Red Cross is moving again and would like our help in the move.

ESDA Liaison—ESDA is improving its radio system and ham frequencies have been added to the new radio system.

VE Liaison—Carl reported that VE testing will be done on July 19th 2009 at the Kankakee hamfest.  In our last test one person passed her Tech and has call sign KC9PWZ. Congrats to Milissa on her new ticket.

OLD Business

Mike is still working on the RFI antenna project.

Troy is working on the new control project—Roy came up with a printed certificate.

We plan to use W9RWX call sign in FD.

Field Day fever is planned for Glenn Raymond again this year. Field Day captains are Carl, Tim, Chris M. and Troy.

Operation is from noon to 6PM on Saturday June 27. Setup is from 9am to noon.  Sam is to buy food out of club treasury. Will use GRS radios and other to bring their radios.  We did plan our antennas at the June 11 meeting by meeting at FD site at 6:00 pm to look over and decide on antenna placement.

Troy and Justin bring tents. Phil has main generator with Rollie to bring back up generator.  Talked about have 80, 40, 20, 15, 2, and 6.

Field day 2009 garb is on sale on the ARRL web site.

NEW Business

Carl has a broken 6 meter beam and is ordering new parts for it. Club agreed that if the antenna worked well we would pay for parts and have it as our permenate field day antenna.

We plan to use Tim’s 30 ft tower with 6 meter beam and 2 meter quad.

Scott and Jake have a 10 by 20 tent. Troy ,Tim, Sam and Justin have tents also. Radios from Scott, Carl,
Troy, Chris and Mike.

Troy added our FD site to the ARRL web site.

If Glenn Raymond school is not available we might use the Firehouse in Watseka on Oak and Fifth for the July Meeting.

Snacks for this month were by Rollie. July snacks are to be brought by Benny

Net control for 6/15 Benny, 6/22 Jake, 6/29 Scott, 7/6 Melissa

Meeting was adjourned at 8:16pm.

Program was by more discussion on field day rules and plans.

Sam Ripple W9QKF Sec.

Members present Chris M, Carl, Tim, Troy, Mike, Rollie, Gery, Jake, Scott, Roy, Steve, and Sam

Sam Ripple W9QKF KAE7607

ICARC Meeting May 2009

–Iroquois County Amateur Radio Club–

Minutes of the May 14, 2009 Meeting

President Mike opened the meeting at 7:05 pm at the Watseka Park District Office in Watseka.

The April minutes were read and approved. The treasure’s report was read and approved.

Committee Reports

Incorporation and Non-Profit Committee—None

Technical Committee—Benny reported that both repeaters were working.

Program Committee—Work on field day prep.

Publicity Committee—KC9GNH reported that web site has been improved and signed up

those present for an email list if they wanted to be included.

ARES Liaison—Roy is retiring on May 29 and will be going to southern Illinois soon after.

Red Cross Liaison—W9QKF reported the Doug Walker and Lou came to Watseka to teach

a Disaster Assessment class on May 9th. Carl and Tim have taken more Red Cross classes

and Doug and Lou will provide more if we come up with interested students

ESDA Liaison—Drills planned with public health dept and hospital. This is to be a full scale in

June of this year. This drill may be cancelled because we had the real thing at the end of April.

VE Liaison—Troy reported that testing could be at Glenn Raymond School on May 21st, also

testing will be held at the Kankakee ham fest on July 19th.. VEs that are planning to be at the

test session are Tim, Sam, Mike and our leader Carl.

OLD Business

Dues for 2009 were collected from a total of 19 members and we hope that a few more will pay

dues next month.

ESDA had a weather spotting school on April 14, 2009. The meeting place was in Crescent City

grade school at 6:30 pm.

Thanks to Clay N9IO the APRS machine is now a super digi and seems to work very well

at the east site.

Field Day fever is planned for Glenn Raymond again this year. Field Day captains are Carl, Tim, Chris M. and Troy.

Operation is from noon to 6PM on Saturday June 27. Setup is from 9am to noon. Sam is to buy food out of club treasury.

Will use GRS radios and other to bring their radios. Could use W9RWX or W9GRS call sign.

We hope to plan our antennas at the June 11 meeting by meeting at FD site at 6:00 pm to look over and decide

on antenna placement.

Troy and Justin bring tents. Phil has main generator with Rollie to bring back up generator.

Talked about have 80, 40, 20, 15, 2, and 6.

Field day 2009 garb is on sale on the ARRL web site.

NEW Business

As Sam is going to 70 years old next year he will not be running for the Sec-Treas job.

He will be transferring the trusteeship of W9RWX to a younger club member. He also

plans to donate full ownership of the W9QKF repeater to the club. Thirty years has been fun

but time for new blood to take over.

Justin has transferred to a new server but we should not notice any big difference in the

ICARC web site.

Snacks for this month were by Justin. June snacks are to be brought by Justin.

Net control for 5/18 Chris M, 5/25 Sam, 6/1 Jake, 6/8 Scott, 6/17 Benny

Members present for the Feb meeting were, Troy, Tim, Keith, Chris M, Gery, Rollie, Mike,

Justin, Benny and Sam.

Meeting was adjourned at 8:16pm.

Program was by Justin and Benny on laptops and wireless internet cards.

Sam Ripple W9QKF Sec.

Sam Ripple W9QKF KAE7607

April 2009 Meeting Minutes

President Mike opened the meeting at 7:05 pm at the Glenn Raymond School in Watseka. The March minutes were read and approved. The treasure’s report was read and approved.
Committee Reports

Incorporation and Non-Profit Committee—None

Technical Committee— Carl K9CS was added to the tech committee. K9CS and K9TA tightened the connectors on repeater and noise appeared to be better.

Program Committee— The meeting for next May will be at the Park District office on the corner of Third St and Cherry St. Carl and others will build some field day antennas as a learning project.

Publicity Committee—KC9GNH and KC9OQM have been working on the web site and it seems to be leaner and easier to read.

ARES Liaison—None

Red Cross Liaison—K9CS reported the Doug Walker is willing to come to Watseka to teach a Disaster Assessment class on May 9th. Tell Carl if you are interested.

ESDA Liaison—Drills planned with public health dept and hospital. This is to be a full scale in June of this year.

VE Liaison—Carl reported that testing could be at Glenn Raymond School on May 20 or 21st, also testing will be held at the Kankakee ham fest on July 19th.

OLD Business

Dues for 2009 were collected from a total of 19 members and we hope that a few more will pay dues next month.

ESDA is planning to have a weather spotting school on April 14, 2009 and we are to encourage hams and other public safety groups to attend. The meeting place will be in Crescent City grade school at 6:30 pm.

Thanks to Clay N9IO the APRS machine is now a super digi and seems to work very well at the east site.

NEW Business

Field Day fever is planned for Glenn Raymond again this year. Field Day captains are Carl, Tim, Chris M. and Troy.

Chris M. is to talk to Sherry at the park district to see if they would be able to offer us a place to meet if we could not use GRS for some reason. We plan to use the park district office for the May meeting.

Chris M. has offered to make a personalized ham decal for the back of your car or truck. Let him know if you want one. Chris had new V8 handheld with GPS and Blue tooth and pressure gauge for show and tell.

Janet brought in a large amount of ham items from the AES ham fest and shared with all members. Two ham fest hats were won by W9LIZ and KC9OQO. Both were seen proudly wearing them to their cars after the meeting. Chris was wearing hers “rapper” style.

Field day 2009 garb is on sale on the ARRL web site.

Carl and Chris S. donated a new Tech Q&A manual to the growing club library.
Mike has a possibility of getting a slightly damaged RFI antenna for some of our radio equipment.

Benny brought in a 900 Meg yagi antenna, and Scott brought his home made 2 meter beam for show and tell. While Benny’s yagi was better made Scott’s was a lot cheaper (free)—made from old TV antenna.

Members discussed the Monday night net. All seemed to agree that the main purpose of the net is to train our members on proper net operation.
A second purpose is to foster good relations and friendship with both the KARS and ICARC groups. We can all encourage local hams to check in on Monday night.

Snacks for this month were by Tim and Janet. May snacks are to be brought by Justin.

Net control for 4/13 Jake, 4/20 Scott, 4/27 Roy, 5/4 Brian, 5/11 Benny

Members present for the Feb meeting were Carl, Chris S, Troy, Steve, Jake, Tim, Keith, Chris M, Roy, Gery, Rollie, Scott, Mike, Phil, Janet, Justin, Paul, Benny and Sam.

Guest was Daniel Focken and Harry WD9FYF

Meeting was adjourned at 8:38.

Program was by Carl on the making of dipole antennas for our field day effort.

Sam Ripple W9QKF Sec.

Sam Ripple W9QKF KAE7607

ICARC Meeting Minutes – March 2009

Iroquois County Amateur Radio Club– Minutes of the March 12, 2009 Meeting

Vice-President Roy opened the meeting at 7:10 pm at the Glenn Raymond School in Watseka.  The February minutes were read and approved. The treasure’s report was read and approved.

Committee Reports

Incorporation and Non-Profit Committee—None

Technical Committee— None

Program Committee— The meeting for next April will be at Glenn Raymond
School. Carl and others will build some field day antennas as a learning project.

Publicity Committee—No report

ARES Liaison—Roy had a very good report on the state exercise held
on March 10, 09. Six Iroquois county hams reported into the net.

Red Cross Liaison—Antenna supports were mistakenly removed from
roof and destroyed by landlord. Reported to police. CD-1 called landlord
and complained that critical communications were disrupted during a flood emergency.

ESDA Liaison—Drills planned with public health dept and hospital. This is to be a full scale in June of this year.

VE Liaison—Carl reported that at the VE testing on March 5 two hams upgraded to general from tech. Jake and Chris M. are new generals and Billy passed his tech test. Testing will also be done at the Kankakee hamfest in the month of July.

OLD Business

Dues for 2009 were collected from a total of 19 members and we hope that a few more will pay dues next month.

ESDA is planning to have a weather spotting school on April 14, 2009 and we are to encourage hams and other public safety groups to attend. The meeting place will be in Crescent City grade school at 6:30 pm.

The Kankakee club will not be needing our old Motrac cabinet.

Scott is still going to bring us info on the bouncy house children’s ride planned for July Firefest.

NEW Business

March 13 and 14 is an advanced weather school at the College of Dupage.

Our Micor is still in Kankakee and we hope to get time to look at it in the coming days.

Field Day is planned for Glenn Raymond again this year. Chris M. is to talk to Sherry at the park district to see if they would be able to offer us a place to meet if we could not use GRS for some reason.

Carl made motion, Steve second to have Sam email Jerry to accept his offer of a new DB-224E with the club picking up the $150 shipping costs.

Chris M offered to help Justin with the ICARC web site.

Snacks for this month were by Steve. April snacks are to be brought by Tim.

Net control for 3/16 Jake, 3/23 Scott, 3/30 Roy, 4/6 Brian,

Members present for the Feb meeting were Carl, Chris S, Troy, Steve, Jake, Tim, Keith, Chris M, Roy, Gery, new member Rollie KC9OZZ and Sam.

Guest was Daniel Focken.

Meeting was adjourned at 8:38.

The program was a demo by Troy and Carl on Logbook of the World and Chris M brought his new Icom radio for show and tell. Troy and Carl’s program was done on the overhead computer projection screen.

Sam Ripple W9QKF Sec.

Sam Ripple W9QKF KAE7607

ICARC Meeting Minutes – 02/12/2009

President Mike opened the meeting at 7:20 pm at the Glenn Raymond School in Watseka.

The January minutes were read, corrected 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 theCharitable Trust Division, Office of the Attorney General. He is also filling our 28 pages for the IRS.  The report is almost ready to send in.

Technical Committee— Steve and Benny reported that both repeaters were working well. Steve has prepared a small heavy duty light for heating.

Program Committee—We decided the March meeting would be a demo of EasyPal slow scan TV and Skywarn info by Mike. The meeting will be at Glenn Raymond School.

Publicity Committee—No report

ARES Liaison—No Report

Red Cross Liaison— We still need to work on antennas. The signs could be removed from old office and the big Red Cross sign could be put up over the door.

ESDA Liaison—Drills both table top and full scale to be later this year.

VE Liaison—Carl reported that we have VE testing on March 5 at the Glenn
Raymond School. Testing starts at 7:00pm in science room. We conducted a VE test session on Feb 7th with two people and one person passed the Tech test.

OLD Business

Dues for 2009 were collected from a total of 16 members and we hope that a few more will pay dues next month.

Member voted to buy 2 general study guides to have to loan out of our library.  The books were received and placed in our club library.

ESDA is planning to have a weather spotting school soon and we are to encourage hams and other public safety groups to attend. Kankakee will have their weather spotting class on March 4 at KCC.

Pictures of field day and work on north site have been added to the web site.
The top latch on north site door needs to be moved slightly. We would like to get a key to the north site to have for emergency use only.

NEW Business

Carl suggested the Field day is June and the April and May meeting could be
building and testing of wire dipoles. Sam suggested that we include a lesson on soldering connectors.

March 13 and 14 is an advanced weather school at the College of Dupage.
Carl is planning to go.

We voted to donate to the KARS club the old Motrac cabinet in Sam’s garage. We will strip out and try to sell the radio inside.

Troy reported that another school roundup is on Feb 9-13th and that W9GRS would be on the air for several hours. They have made 72 contacts in first 4 days.

We need to add more Decon to north site. Our Micor is still in Kankakee and we hope to get time to look at it in the coming days. We discussed the idea of getting a new 03 repeater to replace the Mastr II.

Scott mentioned that the bouncy house at Firefest needed a group to man it over the July 4 and 5th.

All members filled out our membership forms to aid in having a quick way to contact each other for bad weather conditions or other emergencies.

Snacks for this month were by Paul. March snacks are to be brought by Steve.

Net control for 2/16 Jake, 2/23 Troy, 3/2 Brian, 3/9 Scott

Members present for the Feb meeting were Carl, Chris S, Mike, Troy, Benny, Steve, Phil, Jake, Scott, Tim, Keith, Chris M, Paul, Gery, and Sam.

Guests were Daniel Focken and Rollie KC9OZZ

Meeting was adjourned at 8:38.

Paul provided our snacks.

The program was a demo by Phil on logging programs and Carl
brought his new K3 radio. Phil’s program was done on the overhead computer projection

Sam Ripple W9QKF Sec.

Sam Ripple W9QKF KAE7607

Minutes from January 8th, 2009 ICARC Meeting

President Mike opened the meeting at 7:10 pm at the Red Cross office in Watseka. The December 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 also filling our 28 pages for the IRS. Sam and Mike worked for a few hours and almost done.

Technical Committee— Steve and Benny reported that both repeaters were working well. Carl donated another Kenwood 7950 but we had trouble with that one also. Steve took that radio home and fixed it. It is working at Sam’s house and will be taken to the east site when weather is warmer.

Program Committee—Phil reported that the Feb meeting would be a demo of logging programs. The meeting will be at Glenn Raymond School.

Publicity Committee—Chris has talked with Justin and both will be adding content to the web site.

ARES Liaison—Roy reported by e-mail that 3 new ARES members were added last month bring the total to 14 for our ARES units. All reports were filed with the SEC but not to ARRL at this time.

Red Cross Liaison— We still need to work on antennas. Tim and Carl have a plan and are working on it. We would like to have a loop HF antenna if possible. Tim has the bases on the roof and we will wait for better weather. Scott will ask for some help from fire department for a ladder.

ESDA Liaison—Drills both table top and full scale to be later this year.
VE Liaison—Carl reported that we might have VE testing the first part of March.

OLD Business

Dues for 2009 were collected from a total of 15 members and we hope that a few more will pay dues next month.

Member voted to buy 2 general study guides to have to loan out of our library.

Members discussed having info for the change to DTV but no action is planned.

ESDA is planning to have a weather spotting school soon and we are to encourage hams and other public safety groups to attend.

NEW Business

Troy reported that another school roundup is coming on Feb 9-13th and that W9GRS would be on the air for several hours.

Pres Mike thanked former Pres Carl and the committees for their hard work last year.

All members filled out our membership forms to aid in having a quick way to contact each other for bad weather conditions or other emergencies.

Snacks for this month were by Benny. Feb. snacks are to be brought by Paul.
Net control for 1/12 Jake, 1/19 Tim, 1/26 Scott, 2/2 Brian, 2/9 Carl

Members present for the Dec meeting were Carl, Chris S, Mike, Troy, Benny, Steve, Phil, Jake, Scott, Tim, Janet, Chris M, Paul, Gery, Justin and Sam.

Meeting was adjourned at 8:38.

We enjoyed the delicious brownies baked by Benny along with ice cold Coke and cookies.

The program was a DVD on 5 Dxpeditions to 5 rare locations.

Sam Ripple W9QKF Sec.

Sam Ripple W9QKF KAE7607

Minutes of the December 11, 2008 Meeting

President Carl opened the meeting at 7:10 pm at the Red Cross office in Watseka. The November minutes were read and corrected then 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 also filling our 28 pages for the IRS.

Technical Committee— Steve and Benny reported that both repeaters were working well. Carl reported the APRS repeater radio was making a spur on another frequency and was taken off the air. Carl replaced with another Kenwood 7950 but had trouble with that one also. Steve took that radio home to work on it.

Program Committee—Roy and Phil reported that the Jan meeting would be a DVD on 4 famous DX trips. Feb is to be logging program.

Publicity Committee—Justin reported that National Weather Service had a ham appreciation day on Dec 6th.

ARES Liaison—No report

Red Cross Liaison—Carl reported that the Red Cross office was moved to the new location at 106 S 4th St. and the communications room has radios and some new furniture. We still need to work on antennas. Tim and Carl have a plan and are working on it. We would like to have a loop HF antenna if possible.

ESDA Liaison—Drills both table top and real live to be later next year.

VE Liaison—. VE testing in Kankakee was Nov 13. ICARC had VE test on the 11th of Dec. at the Red Cross office before our regular meeting. Nine tests were given. Troy passed Extra, Scott passed general, Paul Wilson is a new tech. Joeph from Dewey IL passed the tech.

OLD Business

Pres Carl read a list of ICARC projects for 2008.

NEW Business

The elections for the 2009 officers and board members was held by secret ballot with these members elected.  President Mike KC9HHT, Vice Pres Roy KA9MZJ Sec Treas Sam W9QKF.  Board members for 2009 are Steve K9TA, Benny KC9GWD and Tim W9TRF.

The Unit 9 tower and antenna may be used for a GRS repeater project.

Steve suggested that if we keep having APRS trouble we should get some new equipment.

Snacks for this month were by Carl and Chris. Jan. snacks are to be brought by Benny.

Mike provided a fine selection of headphone and mikes as 3 lucky members won one in our 3 drawings.

Net control for 12/15 Troy, 12/22Steve, 12/28 Benny 1/5 Brian

Members present for the Nov meeting were Carl, Chris, Mike, Troy, Benny, Steve, Phil, Roy Tim, Janet, and Sam.

We were very pleased to host guests Scott, Chris M, Jake, Gery, Paul Wilson and Joe

Meeting was adjourned at 8:38.

Janet brought back an outstanding bunch of Monical’s pizza and bread sticks with loads of extra cheese. A good time was had by all.

Sam Ripple W9QKF Sec.

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