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 (25)

• Sly Kapchinski (N5GQB)
• John Walpole (K5ZY)
• Ralph Cobb (W5RYC)
• Kerry Miller (WD5ABC)
• Gerald Golub (W5VUI)
• Marty Nau (W5MHN)
• Marvin Lowman (KG5MCN)
• Jim Snell (W0PMO)
• 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)
• Paul Bilke (KF5WGJ)

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
  • Raffle Tickets

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

• 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”
• 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