The next CMRA meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 10th, 1997, at 7:00 p.m. in the Community Room of Boone Electric Co-op. A VE exam session will follow the meeting ( provided there are three VE's on hand and any prospective examinees.)
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Unfortunately, I misplaced the minutes Dewey sent me. As I recall, the only unusual business at
the meeting was the discussion of the possible amendment of the Club Bylaw governing
Membership requirements. There should be a vote on this matter at the June meeting. Also at the
June meeting, the Club needs to work on plans for Field Day this year.
Our May breakfast was well attended, with about 11 people in attendance. The food was good,
the company better. As always, had a great time just visiting. The next breakfast will be held June
28th at 8:00 a.m. at Country Kitchens Restaurant on Providence Road. Hope you can make it.
Everyone (licensed or not) is welcome!
As mentioned in previous issues, we have an official date and place set up. The 1997 CMRA Hamfest will be held on September 6, 1997 between 8:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.. It will be held at Good Time Country on Highway 163, which is just South of Columbia. We will be able to get the doors open for vendors about 9:00 p.m. the Friday evening before the event to allow vendors to set up early. The Flea Market area will be indoors (as well as the commercial area).
Mark the date on your Calendar. Perry, N0NMC, has offered his services as Hamfest Chairman, so all hamfest correspondence can be addressed to him at his email address:
pogletre@mail.coin.missouri.edu
or to his mail address:
Perry Ogletree
3609 Bray Ave.
Columbia, Mo. 65203-0877
The Amateur Radio Display set up at the Memorial Day Salute to Veterans Air show was a big success, in several ways! The weather wasn't the best for the Air Show, but it wasn't too bad for us. In fact, the small showers we did get made the days much cooler than they would have been with two days of straight sun shine (that tarmac would have gotten pretty hot hi hi.)
We were active on 2 meters, HF, and packet. We made about 60 contacts on HF, both phone and cw. About 35 Q's were CQ CW WPX contacts, and about half of those were DX. Barney, N0YJW, made his portable tripod tower available, and Mac, K4CHS, brought out his beam. With that combination, we seemed to have a real nice signal. (The only one I remember that got away was a Russian call, RW1 something.) It was quite a feat working some QSO's when the local QRM included a LOUD PA or a LOUDER JET! If we do it again next year, we'll need to be sure to bring some headphones. Fortunately CW wasn't affected on xmit, but you often didn't need to tell the other OP that you were operating from an Air show if you had the mike keyed up during a fly over.
We had lots of passers-by stop and visit, and a surprising number of people introduced themselves as K0 such and such as soon as they were asked if they were familiar with amateur radio. We had about 10 people sign up on a sheet for people interested in receiving information about amateur radio. We also were given a QSL card from Tom Austin, K4OTM, one of the Pilots of the F6F-S Hellcat that was at the Show. Tom is out of Battle Creek, Mi.
Some of the Operators at the Air Show were:
K4CHS, W3DW, KB0YGY, AE0S, WY0B, KB0HCA, WB0VML, WB0TUA, KB0QHZ, KB0PHQ and Scott, and KF0GE and Chris. (Sorry if I left anyone out.)
WB0TUA, Derek, was responsible for getting our foot in the door at the Air Show, and he did a great job of seeing to our needs. The only request we made was some help with parking. He was able to get us the needed parking passes, as well as several hats, passes for food and drinks, a tent for us, a generator for us (more on that in a bit), and made us feel very welcome. In general, he was great to work with.
Also, a special Thanks goes to the Members of the Mid Mo. ARC in Jefferson City who were able to join us for a day or two; Ken, Joe, Daniel, and Kristi.
Back to the generator. The first generator provided for our use showed up late, then wouldn't start. Something about that pesky little dipstick that was broke in two, with the second half somewhere down in the crank case. Not a real big problem, we just ran the HF rig and one packet station off a battery and inverter. Around 1:00 p.m. it was apparent we were on our own, power wise, so we picked up a generator from the Club Station. We got it running by about 3:00, and it ran for the rest of the day. We stowed it in our tent for the night, and called it a day. Unfortunately, it also wouldn't start on Sunday morning, and was pumping out gasoline at an alarming rate. A second generator was provided for us, and this one ran the rest of Sunday without a hitch. If Murphy had to pay us a visit, at least he picked a piece of equipment we had lots of back up on! The Club generator has since been taken in for repairs and should be back on it's feet in time for Field Day.
All in all, I think this year's outing to the Air Show went great and I hope that everybody had as
good a time as I did! I'm already looking forward to next year!
If you haven't got your dues in yet, it's not too late. You can send them to John, KB0PHQ at :
Central Missouri Radio Association
PO Box 283
Columbia, Mo. 65205
Your dues help the club (and Amateur Radio in general) by supporting the K0SI repeater, our
Hamfests, this newsletter, and in lots of other ways. Dues are $15.00 per person / $20.00 per
family. Such a bargain!
There will be a Kid's Day Contest held on June 21st. See QST for details. This sounds like a good excuse to invite some youngsters to the Ol' Shack and hopefully get them interested in amateur radio.
Buy Sell or Trade
Bill, KB0TNM, is looking for a tuning knob and a hand mike for a Kenwood TS-440. He is looking for an eight pin mike with the up / down frequency control buttons. You can call Bill at 875-8758 or at work in Fulton at 592-4130.
A note from the Air Show:
James Harrison would like to sell an AOR-2500 Scanner. 573-896-5912.
Well, that's about it for this now. If you would like to submit an article to the Squelch Tail (or have an idea for an article) just let me know.
73, es CUL ...
de WY0B