Jullet06

The Central Missouri Radio Association is the oldest Amateur Radio Club in Columbia, Mo. Check out our web site: http://www.qsl.net/cmra . If you have ideas for Web content, see Jim, WY0B. To submit articles, for this newsletter, contact N0AXZ, Bill, at the next club meeting, or at N0AXZ@arrl.net. Also, if you have any changes in your mailing address or E-mail, send it to N0AXZ.

Our regularly scheduled monthly meeting will be held at Job Point (2116 Nellwood Drive) on July 11 at 7:00 p.m.

Each Monday evening (except the Monday preceding the meeting or holiday) join with the members at the club station on Worley St in the Red Cross building basement.

Each Wednesday is Club Net at 9:00 p.m. If you're interested or willing to volunteer for Net Control or if you have questions, contact WM0H, Dewey.

To renew your membership for 2006, see the treasurer, Bill Anglen, KCØACS, at the meeting, or mail a check for $20.00, ($25.00 per family) to: CMRA P.O. Box 283, Columbia, MO 65205.

Kansas State Convention
Central Kansas ARC
Salina, KS
Salina Bicentennial Center

Meeting opened at 7:00 PM. Introductions went all around. The minutes were read, amended & approved (Mike’s callsign is KCØPAH, not KØPAH; also, D&L Antennas is coming to the hamfest, not Amateur Accessories).

Old Business: Last month at the meeting it was discussed that the club should buy a safe for keeping the most important documents in. As it turns out, a safe has been graciously donated for the club’s use. The insurance papers, constitution, and other documents will be stored in it for safe keeping.

It was also discussed that the club officers’ page on the website was out of date. The page will be updated shortly to show this year’s officers.

New Business: At last month’s meeting, the club talked about renewing our not-for-profit status with the Secretary of State’s office. Our club’s not-for-profit papers hadn’t been renewed since 1999, so it was discussed that we might renew them. However, we found out that a lot of work would be involved in doing so (dissolving the club, reelecting officials, and renaming the club Central Missouri Radio Association instead of CMRA). So, the club voted not to renew the papers and just to leave everything as it is. The consensus was that it hadn’t affected our status with hamfests and such in the past, so it wasn’t necessary to change anything now.

Bill (NØAXZ) will be on vacation for a couple months, so Jim (WYØB) has been kind enough to take over the responsibilities of corresponding secretary in his absence. Thanks, Jim.

An update on hamfest. Hamfesters.com has agreed to be another vendor for us this year. They mostly do embroidery and name tags. Daniel said there has been no word from Memphis or D&L as far as prizes go, so that’s sort of in the air at the moment. Also, we are still in need of a PA system. Someone will be contacting John, NDØN soon about that.

The club auction is coming together nicely. We’ve contacted Brent Voorheis, and he has agreed to come as the auctioneer. Also, Carol Smith has been calling different places of business and collecting donations. Remember, the club auction is at this next meeting on July 11th at JOB POINT, so be sure to take money along and spend it on some great goodies J

Field Day is coming up on the 24^th, so be sure to attend. Monday night (the 19^th) some guys will be going to the Red Cross building to collect Field Day equipment and such. There will be three stations at FD this year; phone, digital, and CW. The COM bus will be there, and reporters from KMIZ, the Tribune, & the Missourian will be covering our event. There will be chicken from KFC, as well as food brought by the members (chips, cookies, soda, etc.). Next month will be a recap on Field Day to see how many total points we made from contacts.

Guess that’s about it for this month. Be sure to attend the next meeting at Job Point for the auction!

Well, another FB Field Day has come and gone. I hope you had a chance to visit, operate, and enjoy the camaraderie that makes the CMRA such a fine organization to be associated with!

The weather cooperated with us more so than the propagation. Doing a lot of the pregame activities early, such as the annual run to the Club Station to round up the required equipment which was done Monday evening, and setting up the antennas and generators Friday evening instead of Saturday morning made for a more relaxed start of the event.

Although I am still working on the final Field Day Log submission, I suspect we ended up a bit behind last year's efforts, likely due to being at the bottom of the sunspot cycle as well as being a little short of operators willing to take a seat at the various stations for the long haul.

A look at QSO numbers from previous years shows a steady increase until this year. The data I have on hand shows:

Year	Mode	QSO's	QSO Points	Total QSO Points
1999	CW	271	1078
	SSB	196	392
	FSK	33	132	1602
2003	CW	398	1592
	SSB	368	736
	FSK	33	132	2462
2004	CW	563	2252
	SSB	394	788
	FSK	42	168	3208
2005	CW	736	2944
	SSB	214	428
	FSK	150	600	3972
2006	CW	565	2260
	SSB	295	590
	FSK	101	404	3254

While we didn't break our club's QSO POINT record this year, these numbers show we are making a lot of progress in our emergency communications capabilities, which is a major reason for participating in Field Day. Having a blast doing it is just gravy!

We also had a number of welcomed visitors, including Jim McNabb, from the Columbia JCIC, Don Graham, KA0BWH, a New Haven, Mo. ham known to several of the local hams from trips to Dayton and other contests and Field Days, and Richard, KB0POP from Boonville. No doubt I've missed others.

There was no missing Greg Nunn, K0GN, and his family. It was great to see Greg come out of "Ham Retirement" and have a run at the CW station. It was also hard to miss the pizzas Jill provided Saturday evening. One of Greg's daughters (Jennifer?) spent the night along with dad, and occasionally used their dog for heat. You just gotta love any outdoor event in June that makes you need a blanket <g>.

As this year's Field Day Chair, I would welcome any and all thoughts on how we as a group could improve our efforts next year. I will pass along any such input to our 2007 FD Chair.

Well, out of column space for now, so will say 73 to all, and hope everyone has a chance to get more radio-active,