| President: | Jack Reed | WA4FXX |
| Vice President: | Dennis Bodson | W4PWF |
| Secretary: | Adam Hahn | AI4QB |
| Treasurer: | Mike Ingles | KG4RKL |
| Activities Chairman: | Gary Sessums | KC5QCN |
| Editor: | Adam Hahn | AI4QB |
| December 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Meetings: | Usually Third Tuesday of each month, 7:30 P.M., Red Cross, 4333 Arlington Blvd. (US 50), Arlington,VA. Nonmembers are invited to attend. |
| Net: | Tuesday (except meeting nights) at 7:30 P.M., 145.47- MHz FM |
| WWW: | http://www.w4wvp.org/ |
| Affiliate: | ARRL, FAR |
| Information: | Jack Reed, WA4FXX, wa4fxx@amsat.org (e-mail), (703) 685-7933 (phone). |
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The December 18th meeting of the Arlington Amateur Radio Club will be held at the usual time (1930L) and place (4333 Arlington Blvd).
HO-HO-HO! It's that time of year again, the holiday party will beheld after we attend to club business. Come one, come all, and bring a small gift from the junque box (less than $5 value) for the swap.
73,
--Adam, AI4QB, AARC Secretary
President Jack/WA4FXX called the meeting to order at 1935L and
welcomed all attendees. Introductions were made. Attending, besides FXX,
were:
Ken/WB4AKK, Chuck/KI4DHW, Gary/KC5QCN,
Adam/AI4QB, Arthur/W4ART, Mike/NW3V, Ian/KI4DTP,
Dennis/W4PWF, George/KR4MU,
Andrew/KI4THF, Mike/KA8OPJ, Mike/KG4RKL, Paul/WG4M
WA4FXX- Minutes publised on web- MSP to accept
KG4RKL gave treasurer's report.
w4pwf: FD: w4wvp came in #1 in category. congratulations to all, we did well and had a good time. Other than that things are as quiet as can be. re: BPL, went to court of appeals. Judges seemed to have read all the material very closely. Opinion of those who are there that ARRL did well and the FCC didn't. Justices seemed to come down hard on FCC about for instance redacted information. Don't know what's going to ahppen or when. The best we can hope for is to remand it back to the FCC.
kc5qcn- md/dc section digital mode meeting at armed forces retirement home. Was god event. $20 got CD, lunch. QST editor and Mr. APRS (bob bruniga) were there.
wa4fxx: Marine Corps Marathon- how many people participated? two hands
w4art- better organized than usual. Ran net controls form retirement homes in DC, didn't check out too well ahead of time so had RFI issues during race. Not sure why they used that location.
wa4fxx- one smithsonian operator is a resident at the home, may have had something to do with it.
w4art- used repeaters for everything, not sure how simplex would have worked.
kc5qcn- listened to nets before running the 10k race, saw some people with HTs and rubber duckies during the race
w4art- probably should teach standard procedures and voice op issues
ki4thf- used handheld, by jefferson memorial. hardest part was finding location.
wa4fxx- prefers simplex, beacuse if it works during testing it's going to work during the real thing.
wa4fxx- next, red cross exercise on 11/3- some people set up mt. olivet shelter, others set up station to communicate with the shelter. Lots of people participated. Ai4go helped relay, he's in a good location for that. Ian, what was your take.
ki4dtp- everything went relatively smoothly. Problem at mt olivet was that you couldn't get an antenna outside, so you had to use an indoor antenna. Used jpole.
w4art- wrote notes about what happened. Most concerned with RF safety issues. The way the kit comes, there's a basket and magmount antenna. set it up on the table right next to the operating position, which puts you inside the danger zone. Found a window a little ways away and set up there. jpole is a little bulky, 2band antennas are about as effective. Instead of rg58 put some lower loss (213 or lmr400) cable in the kit, 50ft length. Good after action- talked about the need to get antennas outside. talked about setting up x-band repeater outside so you can use HT inside at low power.
ki4thf- first time setting up, did a lot of listening, watching, and doing. Good experience.
nw3v- scenaria was supposed to include power loss, but that wasn't simulated. Red Cross volunteers looked like they did a great job setting up shelter.
wa4fxx- saw this before when we set up at Ward's, finally got antenna up high enough and used simplex to pentagon. Able to do some simplex from rubber ducky at window of EOC. didn't want to use base antenna there for some reason.
wa4fxx-asked Jim to go through one of the kits again so everyone knows.
w4art- there was no inventory included in the kits, so didn't know what was supposed to be there.
wa4fxx- upcoming Emcomm events. Skywarn recognition day, 12/1. Setting up station at Sterling.
wa4fxx- hurricane season almost over, now just worried about ice storms. Check out your own personal kits, rotate your water.
wa4fxx- elections. no formal nominations yet. alan/ko4ala is retiring as activities chair. MSP to elect current slate for other positions. Gary/kc5qcn nominated. MSP to elect him.
wa4fxx- phone SS was this sunday, got the room but no interest. nobody showed up by 1145L and closed up. projects: spider antenna, solar charger, QRP transmitter project.
wa4fxx- ki4mb repeater changes. status/thoughts on ARES directions, since ko4ala is returning from that as well. would like to give ki4mb very great thanks for maintaining the repeater for all these years. would like to get repeater-knowledgeable folks and people who know ki4mb together to talk about this. nw3v/ka8opj/w4art/kr4mu- could you form a committee to talk about what to do about this. MS and unanimously P to give ki4mb honorary life membership for in recognition of his support of the club and the community by making the 145.47 KI4MB/R available for general, AARC, and ARES use.
AI4QB had to leave, and asked for a volunteer to continue taking minutes. Mike, NW3V, volunteered. [the rest of the notes were taken by Mike, NW3V- thanks, Mike! - Adam]
Mike, KA8OPJ, noted some obligations a repeater owner would have.
NW3V asked whether anyone thought NVFMA or NERA might be interested and appropriate to manage the system. W4ART said NERA might be able to help, and had gear. He asked whether anyone present had a station monitor. WB4AKK said that he did. "What kind?" "Cushman." "Calibrated?" "Yes..."
Mike, NW3V, volunteered to call KI4MB, proposed to do so after the meeting, and proposed to propose a meeting of KI4MB and the repeater committee (W4PWF, NW3V, KA8OPJ, and KR4MU) on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Jack, WA4FXX, said that his personal preference was for the AARC to help KI4MB maintain the repeater to the best of our ability (rather than own it).
ARES matters: Jack, WA4FXX, communicated some thoughts of ARES Arlington County Emergency Coordinator KO4ALA and himself (AEC): given the size of Arlington County and the size of the Arlington County ARES roster, and other factors, that the primary mission of Arlington County ARES should be serving the [Arlington County Chapter of the American] Red Cross, and the secondary mission should be mutual aid to neighboring ARES groups (some also RACES groups), and anyone else who needs help. Jack also asked ARES members to think about the merits of merging with a neighboring ARES group: Falls Church, Alexandria, or Fairfax County (also RACES). Jack said that KO4ALA wished to retire as ARES Arlington County EC, and asked any ARES member interested in serving as EC to contact him.
Dennis, W4PWF, suggested that the question of incorporating be raised again at the next meeting.
Treasurer Mike, KG4RKL had a device for laminating the ID cards printed by Art, W4ART.
A Member who wishes to remain anonymous donated some ARRL Handbooks to be awarded at the seasonal party to be held, as usual, at the December meeting.
Ken/WB4AKK presented a very interesting program, and said that he would make his "slides" available as bits, not atoms, to the Secretary/webmaster. If one remembers only two words of the presentation, remember hflink.com. That website has info on three of the topics Ken discussed: PSKMulti, MARS ALE, and, especially, PC-ALE.
Ken noted that Internet gateways allow PC-ALE users (e.g. in remote areas) to send email to the Internet.
Playing the game requires a little more than a PC, soundcard, and appropriate software; it also requires a Computer Aided Transceiver (CAT)-compliant transceiver, which can be tricky, because implementation of the quasi-standard varies by manufacturer.
Ken mentioned some other gotchas, such as transceivers with receivers that require relay-bandswitching within one band. Ken was certainly expert in these matters, because he does MARS ALE at his QTH, 24/7. He invited members to see it in action, by prearrangement.
The business portion of the meeting was adjourned at 2049
Respectfully submitted,
--Adam, AI4QB
AARC Secretary
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The Arlington Amateur Radio Club
4333 Arlington Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22203
