HEMARC February 04 Meeting Minutes
Minutes of the Meeting of
February 12, 2004
The meeting was called to order by President Jim Nowotarski N3GOO at 6:00
PM.
Present on the sign-in sheet were (31):
Chip W4PBG, Sparky KD4KL, Paul KD3JF, Heru W3WVV, Andrew KB3JUH, Gary
W3GMY, Fred AI3Z, Joe K3JIS, Les WR3X, Jim N3GOO, Jim N3ZPS, Ray K3ZC,
Alan N3IKI, George KB3IVE, Bill NG3O, Bob K3FQP, John Paul AA3WI, Bill
WT3B, Gary W3DTN, Jules K0ZMA, Charles K3JJD, George W3MPN, Mike KB3CPV,
Dean K3KHG, Carroll W3HHG, Norman WA6ABD, Bill KB3FFH, Nick K3NY, Steven
WA3ZWC, Gene W3BAB, Jason AG4DG
Minutes
Mike KB3CPV asked for his name to be added to the minutes of the January
8, 2004 meeting. A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes of
the January 8, 2004 meeting as amended. The motion was approved by voice
vote.
Treasurer's Report
Fred AI3Z reported that the Club has 37 paid members. He has received
$216 from Northrop Grumman ($9 for each of the 24 NG employees in the
Club). There is $916.17 in the bank, 167.25 cash on hand, for a total of
$1083.42. He will prepare a $25 donation to QSL.NET. A motion was made
and seconded to accept the Treasurer's Report as stated. The motion was
approved by voice vote.
Programs
Nick K3NY said that there are no activities in the next month or two. The
Club will participate in the new Mid-Atlantic QSO Party May 8-9. The
D-Day special event will take place on June 5-6.
QSL Cards
Nick reported that he had received another batch of cards. He has sent
out 146 certificates and QSL cards for the W2W 2003 Special Event with 456
contacts. He is still receiving cards for W2W 2001 and 2002. The Club
has about 700 W2W cards and about 800 W3GR QSLs left. He could easily
send those out to contacts.
FISTS
Nick said that 290 people are participating in the Code Buddies
Program. 30 new pairs have been matched in the past month and 12 still
need Elmers. About 10 have requested help even though they do not have HF
privileges or stations. They can use the Internet to send code to each
other. One pair consists of a person in India and one in South
Africa. One volunteer Elmer has no radio and no license.
FAR
Chip W4PBG said that AutoCall, now published quarterly, needs editors and
articles. It is no longer hemorrhaging dollars. The Fall-Fest earned
$3,000 for FAR. The 2004 Fall-Fest is scheduled for September
11-12. Tickets will be $6 each day or $10 for a two day pass. Tailgating
will be $30. HEMARC will have the same spot for the test table. The
scholarship program is rolling along.
Operations
Les WR3X reported that he and Gary tuned through the bands while turning
the beam. They received the most noise (S6-7) with the beam facing west
towards the NSA buildings. They received the same broad band noise from
160m to 10m. Glen Booth from BGE will be called to help locate the source
of the noise. We need some people to get behind the station to clean up
the wiring and put it into bundles.
The NG net has been going well with Bob, Chip, Gene and Les serving as
operators at 3 PM on Wednesday. More operators are needed. Operators are
also needed for Saturdays and weekdays for groups visiting the
Museum. The Franklin Museum threw out its ham club because no one came in
to operate the station.
See Les, Nick or Gary if you want to learn how to operate the
station. Les is at the Museum every Monday, Saturday (except the third
Saturday), Tuesday for classes and Wednesday for net. Nick and Gary are
at the Museum on the fourth Saturday and Gary is also there on
Monday. The Green Notebook at the station contains instructions for
operating the station except for the new rotor controller and the logging
program. Les said that it is very simple to operate the station from 4.5w
to 100w. Jim suggested operator training for a technical program; Nick
said that a station orientation program in May would be good.
Training
The class was cancelled two weeks ago due to weather. Last week
conditions were treacherous after class. Mandy, a 15-year-old student in
the Technician class, told her father that she would learn CW before the
next class. She studied for four days and took the CW test at the Odenton
Hamfest the following Saturday and PASSED. She may be eligible for a FAR
scholarship!
23 are signed up for the class; 16 are NG employees. 18-19 attend the
average class. 5 are attending for the CW training. Les says that 15 is
the best sized class.
Les is trying to get the classes certified for Continuing Education Units
(CEUs) credit from ARRL. The class is doing well with CW and is copying
QSOs. Students are from College Park, Reisterstown, Randallstown and
Annapolis. Les received calls from potential students from Virginia,
Frederick and the Eastern Shore. G4FON software is available. Super
Morse and Morse Academy are in use.
Old Business
ARRL Proposal to Change Amateur Licensing
Les suggested taking a look at the ARRL proposal to change the classes of
license. Les does not believe this arrangement will work in the US.
CAATN
CAATN will meet at the Museum on Sunday. Heru is hosting the meeting.
Vote on Rules and Regulations
Jim N3GOO said that by his count, we had a constitutional quorum of
Members present. He pointed out that we are not giving up W3GR, but we
are removing it from the Rules and Regulations (R&Rs) so that we can use
W3HEM or W3GR as warranted. There is no plan to stop anyone from using
W3GR. Rol is the custodian of both Call Signs.
Jim asked for a show of hands of those in favor of the motion read at the
last meeting and as posted on the Web. 27 Members voted for the motion
and the President had 5 proxies making a total of 33 votes for the
motion. No one voted against the motion. Since the constitutional quorum
was 23, the motion was carried.
March 10, 2004 is the next Board meeting for the Museum. Jim would like
the Annual Report to include the fact that we are the only Club in the
area teaching three levels of courses for Amateurs.
QSLs
Nick K3NY asked if he should order W3HEM QSLs and if he should order them
from the same source as before. There was general agreement that he
should.
Website
Mike said Steve Hanlon spoke to Al Waller of QSL.NET about a Website for
the Club. He learned that for an annual donation of $55 QSL.NET would
host a Website for www.HEMARC.org. The cost includes $20 to register the
domain and $35 to host it. This will give us an easier identification and
the ability to move the Website to another ISP if needed. A motion was
made and seconded to ask the Museum to pay 50% of the domain fee. Chip
said that we have tried not to ask the Museum for this type of thing, but
to ask for help with big things. Les said that we use the Museum for
meetings and copies for a $100 donation. We are here as a guest. The
question was called and the motion was defeated.
A motion was made to talk to Al Waller about establishing www.hemarc.org
for hosting on QSL.NET. The motion was approved by voice vote.
Jackets
Several Members stated that they had ordered a jacket (or another
jacket) to make sure the Club had enough orders to satisfy the minimum of
20. We need an update from Sam on the jacket order.
FM Simplex
Following up on Jim's suggestion that we establish an FM simplex frequency
for talk-in for meeting nights, the Members present discussed trying
147.525 MHz for the next meeting.
New Business
WorldRadio
A suggestion was made to list HEMARC in the "Visit Your Local Radio
Club" section of WorldRadio for $65 per year. In addition to the
advertising, the Club will receive 8 one-year subscriptions. These
subscriptions can be used as hamfest prizes. Also, when Club members
purchase a subscription, the club can keep $2 of the subscription price of
$15. A motion was made and seconded to have HEMARC listed in
WorldRadio. The motion was approved by a show of hands. A comment was
made that we could give the free subscriptions to students in the classes.
Scout Group Request for Tour
Jim and Nick had a request from a Boy Scout group that wanted a tour of
the station. Jim said that he has answered the request. A scout group
from Chevy Chase wanted to tour on Sunday the 22nd. Jim asked if they
could tour on the 28th instead.
Panel Meters
Chip said that he had a box with 20 0-100 microamp panel meters that the
Museum gave to the Club. He suggested that we could give them away in a
raffle or set a price for them. A price of $5 was established.
Help for Tuesday Night Classes
Les asked for a Tuesday night operator who could also greet visitors and
show them to the classroom. Les is in the building from 6:00 to 9:30 on
Tuesdays and needs someone from 6:00 to 8:00. Paul volunteered to
help. Thanks, Paul!
Hamfest
Nick said that the Club will have an exhibit table at the Hamfest at the
end of March. He would like to hear any ideas for a display for the
table.
Memberships
Members were reminded to pay their dues and pick up their membership cards
from the side table.
Adjournment
A motion was made and seconded to adjourn the meeting. The motion was
approved by voice vote at 7:30 PM.
Technical Program
The Technical Program was a presentation and demonstration of the Next
Generation Wattmeter by Jason Hsu.
Note: Club members who work on Kenwood TS950s or know someone who does,
are asked to contact Dean K3KHG.
Respectfully submitted by
Jim Smith N3ZPS, Secretary