NOVEMBER 2017 BAARC SECRETARY’S REPORT

THURSDAY-November 30, 2017 – 4:00 PM – BAARC BOARD MEETING MINUTES – BRAINERD FIRE STATION

President: Steve Mott NØCRM
Vice President: John Luce WØWY
Treasurer: Doug Bergsnev WØDWB
Secretary: Ron Finger KØGOP
Past Presidents: Charles Lane W5CCL, Al Doree WØRC
Director At Large: Lyle Amundson KØLFV
Director of Emergency Communications: Dave Schuldheisz KØISZ
Repeater Trustee: Mitch Ahrenstorff ADØHJ
Community & Special Events Coordinator: TBD

Attendees: Steve NØCRM, John WØWY, Ron KØGOP, Lyle KØLFV, Dave KØISZ, Al WØRC, Shirley KØDCW, Mitch ADØHJ, Roger WØWUG, and John W3MQD. The President opened the Board Meeting at 4 PM.

Secretary’s Report: 

  • Membership roster: 91 members with 30 unpaid for 2017. The Club roster can be found on the Club website under the “Resources/Members Only”  Current paid members can request an individual password for access via the “Contact Us” form. The secretary will send email reminders to members with outstanding dues.
  • Minutes: The October 2017 meeting minutes will be posted to the “Club Blog” area.
  • Correspondence:
  • Documents: Updated 2018 Officers ballot and 2018 Hamfest Flyer.
    • Need description of Community & Special Events Coordinator Will draft and submit to Board for input.
  • 65′ of LMR provided to WJJY as goodwill gesture.
  • Membership ID’s: proposal to hold off providing photo Membership ID badge until they start to Pay dues or become an active club member. Will develop 1-year “Complimentary Membership” card for new Hams.
  • Keep the $5.00 dues increase implemented in 2017 for $25 individual membership.
  • Will develop a “Property of BAARC” sticker on the back of the ID badge, to be turned in after lapsing membership.
  • Motion to accept: Dave KØISZ, SecondAl WØRC,  

Treasurer’s Report: The President presented the Treasurer’s report which was forwarded to the board showing all month’s account transactions and balances to date.

  • Motion to accept: Lyle KØLFV, SecondAl WØRC, Passed

Membership Meeting Programs: The President reviewed recent and future Club programs and events. The December 2017 BAARC Holiday Party will be held on Thursday, December 14, 2017 @ 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM at the Brainerd Chamber of Commerce facility at 224 W Washington St, Brainerd, MN 56401.

Upcoming Events: 

Brainerd Jaycees Ice Fishing Extravaganza

  • January 27, 2018
  • http://icefishing.org/
  • John WØWY to coordinate with Lt Scott Goddard and John Bowen for CWC Sherriff trailer use
  • Need an event coordinator; Mark Cross KEØLFQ volunteered at the main club meeting

Mid Minnesota 150 Sled Dog Race

CQ WPX SSB Contest March 24-25, 2018

Digital & Emergency Communications: 

UPDATE: 11/30:

  • Duluth SKYWARN link is still working: N0EO
  • EOC refit: John W0WY reported per John Bowen the EOC is still in disarray at this time. Will advise when ready for us to reactivate our station setup there.
  • John Bowen agreed to our future use of their training room as well.

Old Business: 

New Club Storage container

  • Nameplate by Tom KTØMMY with key holder info is complete and installed.
  • Inventory of Club Safety Vests is now stored there.

Webserver

  • Move Website Server computer into the new rack at Crosby.
  • Nick has a newer bigger better server… Hard Drives, (Nick/Lyle)

Club Remote Station

  • Pat WØOPW is working on a fan dipole for 80m, 40m, 20m.
  • Will need to mount and test the antenna at the high-rise when completed.

Repeater Sites:

  • Gull Lake:
    • Hardline connectors for Gull Lake. ~$35-45 7/8″ Mark originally provided, but have been used by a Radio Tower Engineer. We will need to obtain a new connector after all.
    • Technology decisions to be made: What are we going to use the site for? 440 and APRS.
    • Cabinet/Enclosure for Gull Lake Repeater equipment. (Rack mount DR1/2X, Rackmount controllers, rack mount computer, rackmount webserver) ~$900.
      • Mitch will have the treasurer place the order.
      • We will arrange for pickup to save shipping costs. Mitch will Coordinate with the vendor and either Al or John for a pickup date. 
  • Crosby:
    • Second new cabinet at Crosby (target….$) At some point in time it would be nice to have that cabinet purchased.
  • Crow Wing Power:
    • Install 3rd common Rackmount linking computer/controller/
    • When can we get this completed? Mitch has it at his house was delayed by the Gull Lake tower site work.
  • Cross Lake:
    • No new items.
  • High-rise Site:
    • No new items.

Repeater Equipment and linking :

  • Due to the firmware that is running on the Wires-X machines, we have hit a limitation with the processing power of the Latte Panda PC’s.
    • LattePanda Ebay auctions are in place (Mitch listing these for Club)
    • Minimum bids and “buy now” prices have been set.
    • Staged, multiple listing Ebay sales.
  • Mitch has developed a procedure to standardize the audio levels of the System Fusion repeaters and will allow us to set them up all the same way. We need to plan that effort out after this Wires-X test has completed.
  • We have tested a different processor including a common rack-mount PC/Wires-X system that can be replicated at each of the repeater sites and supports our common goal to have common equipment across our systems.
  • A replacement computer provided by Lyle still has the same issues
    • The Newer rack mount system PC’s (2 At Crosby are working)
    • Nick completed the third one for Crow Wing Power replacement.
  • Discussion regarding upgrade to DRX-2 systems.
    • The new model DR2-X cost would be either $300 or $500 depending upon what options we choose.
    • We do have a bad DR1 that came back from the Duluth club not working. We can send that one in for an upgrade.
    • Motion to trade in DR1X for $300.00 was made and approved at the October meeting.
    • Application has been filled out and delivered.

Misc Items:

  • Sell 10 of the Motorola 750’s?
    • These are now less popular Ron will sell on eBay
    • Ron will list for Club on ebay per October meeting motion.
  • Provide a check to Crow Wing County Fairgrounds for $200? (Goodwill gesture; We held 3 events there this year (Field Day, Tailgate Hamfest, Trailer exercise/WW CQ event)
    • John motion to pay the county for our use
    • Will present at a Crow Wing County Fairground board meeting.
  • New 2018 Club Application form is needed (Ron will provide to Mitch for posting on the website)

New Business:

  • New Club trailer heater: We would like to measure and confirm the current draw on the small club trailer heater. It does not seem to be working. Al WØRC will measure.
  • 925 DARC room request: to have a persistent (default) connection to that node. Motion presented and approved to give it a try.
  • CQ WW SSB contest: and small communications trailer exercise update:
  • https://brainerdham.org/baarc-cq-ww-dx-contest-2017/
  • October 28th-29th.
    • Crow Wing County Fairgrounds
    • Friday 7:00PM Central to Sunday 7:00PM Central
    • The CQ WW is the largest Amateur Radio competition in the world. Over 35,000 participants took to the airwaves on the last weekend of October (SSB) and November (CW) with the goal of making as many contacts with as many different DXCC entities and CQ Zones as possible.
    • BAARC results:
  • 66 countries
  • 230 contacts
  • 4 bands
  • Two Radios and Two antennas
  • VE testing: 4 new members per Al providing a class. Laurel VE worked great.

The Board Meeting was adjourned at 4:57 PM.

THURSDAY-November 30, 2017 – 7:00 PM – BAARC MEMBERSHIP MEETING MINUTES – BRAINERD FIRE STATION

The President opened the Club membership business meeting at 7 PM with 28 members and guests present. Lyle KØLFV and Mitch ADØHJ presented a very interesting program on the new digital mode, FT8. Tutorial videos were shown by Mitch and a working demonstration station was set up by Lyle using an indoor HF antenna provided by Pat WØOPW.

–Respectfully submitted by Ron KØGOP, Secretary

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