Historical Electronics Museum Amateur Radio Club
DRAFT Minutes of the Meeting of
May 13, 2004
The meeting was called to order by President Jim Nowotarski N3GOO
at 6:00
PM.
Present on the sign-in sheet were (28):
Jim N3GOO, Heru W3WVV, Chip W4PBG, Uwe DF2IR, Sparky KD4KL, Fred
AI3Z,
John Paul AA3WI, Alan N3IKI, Ken KB3LEC, Alvin K0IQE, Joe K3JIS,
Jules
K0ZMA, Les WR3X, Jim N3ZPS, Norman WA6ABD, Robin KB3LBX, Bill WT3B,
Evan
Smith, Tim W1TRT, Rol K3RA, Gary W3GMY, Charles AA3FB, Rod WA0QII,
Brian
ND3F, Bill KB3JJS, Paul KD3JF, Bruce W3YVV, Nick N3NR
Minutes
A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes of the
April meeting
as distributed. The motion was approved by voice vote.
Treasurer's Report
Fred AI3Z reported that the Club ended April with $1,228.57 and
had
$145.43 in expenses including WorldRadio fees and the cost of
reserving
hemarc.org as a domain name. There was income of $168.55 leaving
a net
worth of $1,251.69. There are 46 Club members.
Norman WA6ABD read a list of the new Hams who earned their
licenses after
taking the Club's Technician's course. The new Hams are: Keith
Brown
KB3LBZ, William Duveneck KB3KYH, Ben Huebschman KB3KYE, Mindy
Meyer KB3LCA
(also passed code test), Robin Lee Smith KB3LBX, Reginald Wallace
KB3LBY
and William Wellman KB3KYG. Frances Hays KB3HGQ/AG upgraded to
General.
Norman congratulated the students as well as Les who taught the
course.
Each new Ham received a free one-year membership in the Club.
A motion was made and seconded to accept the Treasurer's Report
as
presented. The motion was approved by voice vote.
Programs
Nick K3NY was at the Dayton Hamfest but left a report. He
reported that
the new QSLs have arrived and samples are on display at the
Station. He
has started sending them out. The total cost was $349.46. Nick
was on
the air for about one hour on Saturday, May 8, and two hours on
Sunday
during the Mid Atlantic QSO Party. He had 34 QSOs and accumulated
1680
points. 40 m was the most productive. Les reported that the Club
Station
did not operate during the day on Saturday because the Museum was
hosting
Robot Day and some robot operators believed that the Club's
transmissions
were interfering with their radio controlled robots. May 22, 2004
is NG
Family Day. Nick will be in the Museum that day and he needs
operators
for the station. The next Technical Program will be on Digital
Broadcast
Radio for the broadcast band if Nick can get an engineer or
manager. If
that does not work out, we can focus on Field Day.
Operations
Les WR3X said that the station is doing very well and that noise
has been
down. Chip said that the noise has been good, but the propagation
was
rotten. A Ten-Tec keyer has been hooked up. The Bencher keyer in
the
drawer needs a connector. There are only three keys mounted on
boards for
the training class. This means three are missing. If anyone
borrowed
them, please return them. Thanks. The air conditioner on the roof
is due
to be replaced and we have been asked to remove our antenna from
the A/C.
Heru said he could help on Monday morning. Chuck and Les are
available
also. Jim can help on weekdays. Chip requested that we save the
satellite dipole.
Training
There are five General Class students. Rol is teaching. The
laptop for
code training is not working properly.
Antennas
Gene was at the Dayton Hamfest so there was no report.
FAR
Chip W4PBG said that the FarFest would be on September 11-12 in
Gaithersburg. Although they have lost money in the past, the
officers are
projecting a profit. Chip stressed that HEMARC was not
responsible for
any money lost by FAR. HEMARC will sponsor and staff the
equipment test
table. Six people are needed for coverage. AutoCAll for May-July
was
mailed May 11, 2004, so look for your copy in 7-8 days. July 1,
2004 is
the deadline for the next issue. Make sure that Chip gets
pictures and
reports for AutoCall. Chip was asked if FAR had considered a one-day
hamfest. Chip explained that you have to have a two-day event to
get the
quality vendors that used to come to one-day hamfests.
Jackets
No one has heard from Sam about jackets.
Old Business
Joe was selling tickets for a 50-50 Raffle
New Business
D-Day Special Event
The Special Event will take place on Saturday and Sunday, June 5-6,
2004
from 9 AM to 6 PM both days. We will be using the W3HEM Call Sign
and
will be operating CW and phone.
Guidelines for using W3HEM and W3GR Jim suggested that for most
operations
hosted at the Museum or for Museum related events we should use W3HEM
and
stress that the HEM stands for Historical Electronics Museum. W3GR
would
be used for events not associated with the Museum or not at the
Museum
site. W3GR would continue to be used for ATV. Rol suggested that
W3HEM
could be used at the Museum and W3GR could be used off-site for
Field Day.
GB2BP Blechly Park
Rol has not heard back from them yet. Rol gave an explanation of
the
significance of Blechly Park and the role they played in breaking
the
enigma code during World War II. Jim suggested sending a sample
coded
message. We could exchange a message with Blechly Park. Nick has
the
electronic version of the Enigma. We can send out messages and
give
certificates to those who decode them. We will try to contact
Blechly
Park 10-11 AM during our D-Day special event. We may be able to
attract
the press with this event. Rol and Nick discussed including the
Crypto
Museum in the event. Blechly will work with us this D-Day. Jim
suggested
July 24, 25 or 26 as possible dates for the event because on
these dates
in 1939 Polish cryptographers invited their British and French
counterparts to meet so they could turn over their Enigma
materials. Rol
suggested we could also celebrate Alan Turing's birthday in June.
We
could become the distributor of the e-Enigma machines. Les said
that the
Website that advertises the e-Enigma machines has about six
simulations
including Purple (Japanese). Joe pointed out that the Glenwood
bookstore
on Route 97 has good materials on codes and ciphers.
QCWA
Les said the QCWA (Chapter 20) will have its meeting and banquet
from 1 to
2 PM on May 23, 2004 at the Museum. The cost is $28 per person.
Field Day
Rol suggested that we need to discuss Field Day activities. John
Paul
said that Nick was not planning to ask the school for permission
to use
their site this year. He said we could go to Hammonds Park in
Brooklyn
Park. There is no electricity. Field Day will be a main topic at
our
next meeting.
50-50 Lottery
Chip won $13.50 in the 50-50 lottery drawing.
Adjournment
A motion was made and seconded to adjourn the meeting. The motion
was
approved by voice vote at 6:52 PM.
Technical Program
Bruce Carpenter W3YVV made a very interesting and useful
presentation on
Bonding and Grounding. He provided authoritative answers to
member's
questions and distributed an excellent handout. Thanks, Bruce!
Respectfully submitted by
Jim Smith N3ZPS, Secretary
June 3, 2004