2022-01-11 Net Minutes

Check-ins (23)

shout out to KC5IMW, checking in all the way from Buffalo, TX!

Diamond X-300 Antenna is up!
- Not much activity on 20 m
- Actively listening to Costa Rica on 40 m
Annual January Meeting / Annual Luncheon
- 2022-01-15, This Saturday!
- food at 11:00, meeting at 12:00
- Different venue: Cooper’s Old-Time Pit Barbecue in College Station
  - 3055 Earl Rudder Fwy S, College Station, TX 77845
  - Llano Room
- We’ll need quorum for ratifying amendments to constutution and by-laws
On-the-Air
- HF contests for Malaysia, Hungary
- ARRL January VHF Contest

Let us know if you have ideas for additional after-meeting presentations
Save the Date: Field Day 2022 will be on 2022-06-25
- always looking for additional help with the Field Day Committee
- N5ZKF: ARRL is surveying amateur radio operators whether rule changes from prior years should remain in place.
Looking forward to seeing everyone on Saturday!

Expect minutes at the conclusion of the net as usual
Correction to minutes from last week:
- Don Hutchcraft (KE5ADX) is not giving presentation at January meeting
- We’ll see if we can get it scheduled for February meeting
I’m sad I won’t be able to make the meeting this weekend due to a funeral
- I will also miss next week’s net

Current balance: $6,953.93
Ended 2021 with 71 members
- Member dues are … due … at January 15 Meeting
  - $15 for regular membership
  - $20 for family
  - $5 for student
Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Question for conversation: Have you been on a fox hunt?

after we got repeater up back in 1973
- used to have fox hunts on the weekend and going out for ice cream
- cemetaries, parks, that area behind Groesbeck/Leonard by the old Knights of Columbus Hall
short center lead of coax to sheath for very low-sensitivity antenna

First and only fox hunt was at Radio in the Park a few years ago
learned a few fox hunting tips:
- tuning 3rd and 5th order harmonics when you get close
  - alternative to using an attenuator
- using your body as a shield if you don’t have a directional antenna
- If you have a very directional antenna, getting “vectors” from two points and finding where they intersect

Been on quite a few fox hunts (both hunting and hiding)
One of the best hiding spots we’ve found was in a red traffic cone in a construction zone

Lesson-learned (this could happen to you):
- plugged speaker in and couldn’t get any volume
- turns out there was a little corrosion in the gain control
- check contacts on switches and dials in your rig if it’s been a while since you last used it