- Date
- 2018-04-21
- Convened
- 09:39
- Adjourned
- 10:15
Officers
- President: Mark Hnatiuk (KG5EYV) present
- Vice President: Phil Gates (N5ZKF) present
- Secretary: Matthew Barry (KG5LYE) present
- Treasurer: Sly Kapchinski (N5GQB) present
Attendees (24)
- Sly Kapchinski (N5GQB)
- John “Pocat” Walpole (K5ZY)
- Ralph Cobb (W5RYC)
- Kerry Miller (WD5ABC)
- Gerald Golub (W5VUI)
- Marty Nau (W5MHN)
- Marvin Lowman (KG5MCN)
- Jim Snell (WA5PMO)
- Brian Walpole (N5BLW)
- Harold Turbyfill (KG5SDG)
- Lucas Hastings (KG5LYQ)
- Matthew Barry (KG5LYE)
- Avery McIntosh (N7ALM)
- Mike Wisby (KA5HIA)
- Phil Gates (N5ZKF)
- Dick Zimmer (W5DZ)
- Kevin Phillips (W5TTY)
- Scott Rodkey (N5WKY)
- Mark Hnatiuk (KG5EYV)
- Juan Ramirez (KG5YSE)
- Jim Laird (KF5YY)
- Ron Hambric (N5SBN)
- Don Conlee (WX5DC)
- Karsten Pearce (KG5YRX)
Health and Welfare
- Moment of silence for Barbara Bush
- Jack Lester (K5JWL) and his sister have been in and out of the hospital
- Charlie Culver (KD5DLW) and his wife have been ill, but are better
Officer Reports
President KG5EYV
- Need immediate help with some field day preparations
- List of prizes from last year
- Keep same price range; amend contents
- Sam’s Club already agreed to $50 gift cards
- Request has been sent to Academy
- Advertizing and Contacting Elected Officials
- Send out letters and emails
- We have names and addresses
- Radio/Television interviews
- Notes/topics to cover
- Newspaper
- Article from last year
- Signs
- Send out letters and emails
- Raffle Tickets
- List of prizes from last year
Vice President N5ZKF
- Welcome, James!
- Newly-Licensed Technician
- Congrats, Harold (KG5SDG)!
- Updated to General
Secretary KG5LYE
Approval of Meeting Minutes
- Not enough for quorum last meeting to approve the February Meeting Minutes
- Motion to approve February Meeting Minutes by N5ZKF
- Seconded by K5ZY
- Passes
- March Meeting notes don’t need to be approved since there was not a quorum
Treasurer N5GQB
Bank Statement
- March Beginning Balance: $4532.64
- -$200.00 for Club Insurance
- +$210.00 for Membership Renewals; Repeater Contribution
- March Ending Balance: $4542.64
Outstanding: -$1465.00 Coax installation
Donut shortage: -$26.36
-$165.00 Checks for the repeater fund needed to be redirected to Sly
- $410 contribution to Repeater
- $300 for unit itself
- $110 left for shipping and insurance (probably cost about $50)
- Any leftovers will go back into the club
- Marvin (WB5PWG) donated several items to the club
- Item breakdown
- Coax
- Connectors/adapters
- Books
- Sold some at Belton Hamfest (raised $512)
- Leftover stuff still for sale to club members
- Item breakdown
- No new memberships
- Currently about 70 members
Old Business
Repeater Tech Update
N5GQB & W5DZ
- New repeater has been installed! (Yaay!)
- Now running 50W
- New bells and whistles
- Voice Recordings / Announcements
- Can only run once every 30 mins for 10 hrs
- No way to repeat
- Voice ID
- still overrides someone talking on the repeater
- In the future: Newer Controller?
- 2 Repeaters in 1 Box
- “A” side is primary W5BCS repeater
- “B” side currently used as control channel
- Yaesu System Fusion
- Currently “Auto-in, FM-out”
- Once noise problem is figured out, we’ll switch to “Auto-in, Auto-out”
- Voice Recordings / Announcements
- Interference still present
- Starts at 19:30, ends at about 08:00
- Not sure what it is
- Broadband noise across multiple frequencies
New Business
VE Test Session Results
- 10 candidates
- 5 new Technicians
- 3 General
- 2 non-passing
Field Day T-Shirt Orders
- Blue and White
Radio in the Park
- it was cold and windy
- 20 m vertical
- contacts pile-up on 20 m phone
- lots of contacts on 20 m CW
- Good outreach, lots of community involvement
Field Day
- Equipment
- Antenna Trailer
- HG Radio
- Radio Setup and Cables
- Computers, Router, NetLogger
- ARES / Sly’s Van
- Advertizement
- Radio
- Newspaper
- Elected Officials
- Prizes / Raffle
- Door Prizes
- Silent Auction
- Raffle Prizes
- Print Raffle Tickets
- Miscellaneous
- HF Operators
- Greeters
- Attendance Sheets
- Set up Signs; Tack Down
- Trash Haulers
- Ice Water
Closing
- Motion to adjourn by N5ZKF
- Seconded by many
- Passes
Presentation by Dr. Don Conlee (WX5DC)
The Problem
- Texas Aggie Storm Chasers (TASC)
- chase storms… safely.
- central and northwestern Texas
- Lack of cell coverage makes communication with TAMU HQ and Spotter Network difficult
- Wanted to develop more robest, reliable means of location reporting
- That got Paul (KF5WGJ) thinking… uh, oh.
Potential Solutions
- Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS)
- AVRT5 / AP510
- Buil-in GPS tracker
- 1 W on 2 m band
- Pre-programmed
- Weak Signal Propagation Reporter
- Dr. Joe Taylor, Nobel Laureate, Ham Genius
- Also developed JT65, WSJT, FT8
- 1-way transmission
- 2 minutes to transmit about 11 chars (1.5 baud)
- Callsign, 4 digit QTH, power/dBm
- Precise timing and set frequencies
- -28 dB signals
- 2 min Extension
- 4 min transmit
- allows 6 digit QTH and/or callsign suffix
- Devices
- WSPR-Lite (200 mw “antenna tester”)
- WSPR-Pi
- Raspberry Pi 3 ($40)
- Wsprry-Pi “Shield” ($30)
- NAVSPARK Mini GPS ($6)
- SSH interface
- Real-time reporting on WSPRnet
- Dr. Joe Taylor, Nobel Laureate, Ham Genius