3M ARC January 2000 Meeting Minutes

The monthly meeting of the 3MARC was held on January 13, 2000 at the Serrano’s Restaurant on Hwy 620. There were 13 members present.

Since the club minutes are now posted on the web page every month, it was decided to forego reading of the minutes at the meetings. An announcement will be made every month asking for corrections or additions.

Since the business portion of the December meeting was skipped, the treasures report included the period of 11/11/99 to 1/13/00 and was read and accepted.

HF Antenna’s-The suggestion was made to connect the Kenwood TS440 and 940s, to the vertical and beam antennas. After discussion, a motion was passed to allow Tom Nevue to spend up to $30 for a two position switch, so the units can be switched without having to disconnect coax cables.

Tower-The final cost of installing the 40 meter beam on the antenna tower was $400. Also, during this installation, the 440 colinear antenna was inspected and found to be in poor condition and not repairable so it was disabled.

Repeater-The EMI and noise problem with the 2 meter repeater has been mostly eliminated by replacing a power supply and installing quieter fans on some of the units.

Packet/NOS-No report.

6 meter-The surplus aluminum elements on the roof will be used to construct a 6 meter antenna. There is also a rotor available for this unit.

Training station-A computer is set up in the shack to practice for ham licensing and upgrades. The program running on the computer is called Ham University and is easy to use. Anyone interested in getting or upgrading their license classification is encouraged to give it a go.

3M Half Marathon-The annual ½ marathon will be on February 6, 2000. Dan Cronch reported on last years event and asked for volunteers for this year.

Sky Warn-The annual SkyWarn event will be held on March 4^th at the 3M center. This is an important club function and volunteers are needed for this event. It has not yet been determined if the new customer center will be open and available, if not the event will be held in the cafeteria area as in previous years. The club officers will meet in the coming weeks to determine specific jobs that need to be done.

Field Day-This years Field Day will be on June 17, 18 and is tentatively planned to be held in the radio shack. Emergency power will be used to obtain a higher operating classification.

Motorola/Outlaw 100-Anyone interested in volunteering for this event can receive a free GPS unit from Motorola.

W2T Special event-The W2T special was a success with approximately 400 contacts made on 2, 10 15 and 20 meters. Tom Nevue distributed the logs to several club members for entry into an Excel spreadsheet. Tom will take care of printing the W2T certificates and will need help with addressing and mailing. A complete program on the W2T Special Event will follow tonight’s meeting.

Open House-There was a short discussion regarding the open house that was held in November. The turn out was very low and the discussion centered on what could be done to improve attendance and whether the club should try this again next fall. One item noted was the lack of advertising within the center. The possibility of another open house will be discussed at a later meeting.

Christmas Party-The annual Christmas party was a success. A thank you letter has been sent to Dan and Pat Reisem, thanking them for their efforts in making the party a success.

Club meeting site-John Benedict will check again with Mr. Gatti’s Restaurant to see if there is a space available for the monthly club meeting Anyone interested in attending the February 10^th meeting should check on the 2 meter message (dial 208) in the week preceding the meeting.

Magazine Subscriptions-A motion was made and passed to authorize the renewal of CQ, QST and 73 yearly magazine subscriptions when there become due during the year.

Antenna trade-A motion was made and passed to trade the 5 band beam antenna that is laying on the roof for the TS811 all mode 440 xmtr that belongs to Larry Gensch. This antenna has been assembled and lying on the roof for several years and the prospects of using it are small.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:47PM and will be followed by a program on the W2T Special Event and Ham license restructuring.