Indiana County Amateur Radio Newsletter for the Month

October 2007 News Letter

Prepared - September 9, 2007

By: Darrell R. Norris - WA3AJQ

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On August 21^st I visited my sister in Duncansville and on my return trip home to New Florence I visited Radio Shack in Ebensburg to determine what this particular store might be selling in the line of amateur equipment. I had learned sometime ago that the Ebensburg store is privately owned and can stock and sell items other Radio Shacks don't sell.

They don't have a lot of ham equipment however they have PL 259 and other connectors plus reels of stranded copper wire that I used many years ago to make dipole antennas. The owner assured me that ham equipment can still be ordered through Radio Shack on line.

I guess the world has changed we can no longer go to Radio Shack and purchase the many amateur radio items we did in years past.

Scheduled club activities.

We plan to hold our multi county breakfast at Eat*N*Park on Saturday, October 20^th starting around 9:00 AM. Feel free to spread the word and please feel free to bring a guest.

Our clubs covered dish picnic is scheduled for Sunday September 16^th at Richard Stinson's, KB3KBC, starting around 2:00 PM. The club will furnish the hot dogs, hamburgers etc as we did last year. Hope we have a good turn out and I hope the weather is nicer than last year. Richard asked us to bring a lawn chair. Remember that drinks are your responsibility.

Our Christmas party is scheduled for Sunday December 9^th at Fire Mountain in Indiana. Show up around 6:00 PM for some social time with dinner scheduled around 6:30 PM.

There is a Simulated Emergency Test (SET) is scheduled for October 6^th and 7^th. Visit our clubs website at www.qsl.net/w3bmd for details.

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Some Reminders.

We are still looking for Monday night net control operators. Please consider taking this for a month of Monday nights.

It's approaching the time when we need to give serious consideration to filling our club offices for 2008. I'll be completing a nomination list for the October meeting.

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General Notes:

We're always looking for new club members so if you know of anyone that might be interested in amateur radio and would like to join the club, please don't hesitate to invite them to a meeting.

Robert Zugates, KB3JOF, our ARES Emergency Coordinator now has identification cards he's issuing.

Please plan to attend our meetings. There the first Tuesday of each month at Eat*N*Park in Indiana. The board meets at 7:00 PM with the regular meeting at 7:30 PM.

For what it's worth, we have forty two (42) members in the club.

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Thanks and 73's,

Darrell R. Norris - WA3AJQ

President - 05 / 06 / 07

Meeting Minutes - Tuesday September 4th, 2007

President Darrell Norris, WA3AJQ, called the meeting to order at 7:38 PM. The meeting started a little late while awaiting the presence of members.

Minutes from last meeting: (August 7th 2007)

There were no additions or corrections to the August 7th meeting.

Financial Report: Kim Frech

We need to consider a future fund raiser such as the Sheetz coupons.

Old Business:

ARES: Emergency Coordinator: Robert Zugates, KB3JOF (Not at meeting)

Robert has new ARES Identification cards.

Simulated Emergency Test is scheduled for October 6^th & 7^th. We need more details and Robert needs volunteers.

There were no questions or comments regarding Kent Badger's presentation at the August meeting regarding message preparation and traffic handling.

Net Coordinator: Jerry Kiehl, WB3DUD (Not at meeting)

We need volunteers for net control for the remainder of the year. Please consider helping out.

RACES: Rusty O'Donnell, WB3EUQ

RACES ID card issuance is still not determined.

There's a rumor, (yes, a rumor) that the FCC may be doing away with RACES.

ECHOLINK: Rusty O'Donnell, WB3EUQ

Rusty indicated he needs a modem and would be receptive to setting Echolink up at his home. If anyone has a computer they would like to donate to the club, please do so!

Repeater Operation - Elmer Sorisio, KB3WG (Not at meeting)

Mini Field Day August 18^th. Dave Dzelsky, N3DZ

Dave, N3DZ, and Larry, N3LT, noted the mini field day on Saturday August 18th was great and the weather was perfect. All had a great time. Dave suggested he may consider another one this year.

Board & Regular Meeting. - Darrell Norris, WA3AJQ

Darrell reminded everyone that members as well as Board members are free to have agenda items added for discussion at the meetings.

Darrell will have a member's nomination list prepared for the October 2^nd meeting.

Darrell asked what we can do to make our meetings more interesting.

Cliff Miller, KB3AGT, volunteered to provide some amateur radio videos to be shown at several future meetings. The videos will be shown at the conclusion of the business meetings.

Darrell, WA3AJQ will check with Eat*N*Park to arrange for the use of their VCR.

50 /50 drawing was won by: Rusty O'Donnell -

He donated it to the club. Thanks Rusty.

New Business:

Multi County Breakfast - Darrell Norris, WA3AJQ

Darrell has scheduled the multi county breakfast for Saturday October 20^th at Eat*N*Park in Indiana starting around 9:00 AM. Darrell asked everyone to spread the word. Eat*N*Park has added this to their schedule.

VE Testing -- Bill McMillen, N3QM - 1^st Saturday in April & October (Not at the meeting)

Club Picnic

The covered dish picnic is scheduled for Sunday September 16^th at 2:00 pm at Richard Stinson's, KB3KBC. Richard asked all attending to bring a lawn chair.
In order to know about how many hamburgers and hot dogs to buy, a paper was passed around asking those planning to attend the picnic to sign up. Kim Frech, our secretary, will let Richard, KB3KBC know exactly what items the club will furnish.

Roger & Kathy Lute made arrangements at Fire Mountain for our Christmas party on Sunday evening December 9^th at 6:00 PM, dinner at 6:30 PM.

January 1, 2008 meeting - Darrell WA3AJQ

Darrell indicated the first Tuesday in January 2008 is on New Years Day. A motion was made by Richard Stinson, KB3KBC, and was second by Fred Maize, KM3M, to schedule the January meeting for Wednesday January 2^nd. Darrell, WA3AJQ, will discuss this with Eat*N*Park.

Notes or comments ??

We need to keep thinking about filling offices for 2008.

Darrell reminded everyone to Re-register their telephone "Do Not Call" with the States Attorney Generals office by September 15^th if their interested.

Motion to adjourn was made by: Richard Stinson and second by: Fred Maize
The meeting adjourned at: 8:19 PM. (Local time)

ATTENDANCE:

Respectively Submitted by:
Kim Frech, Secretary / Treasurer
05, 06 & 07

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