eMinutes of the meeting of 8 September 2005

The meeting was opened at 5:59:15 PM by President Jim Nowotarski N3GOO.

Present on the sign in sheet were:

Les Jamison WR3X

Gary Ryan W3GMY

Chip Weems W4PBG

Jim Nowotarski N3GOO

Uwe Kulas DF2IR

Fred Heath AI3Z

Ed Myerson AA3XY

Nick Yokanovich K3NY

Heru Walmsley W3WVV

Gary Henderson W3DTN

Sam Dunkle KB3CYL

*Don Russell KB3MMC

Bill Corley NG3O

Bob Gardinghi K3FQP

Chuck Angel AA3FB

Bill Thompson WT3B

*Gary Mauler WB3CGE

Norm Smith WA6ABD

Steve Stitzer WA3ZWC

Bill Ferguson KB3JJS

Craig O'Donnell KB3PRN

Don Ruokonen K3PRN

Bruce Carpenter W3YVV

Shawn Rogers KF4LUP

Gene Kern KB3JHR

*Joined at the end of the meeting.

The minutes have been issued and corrected. There were accepted.

The treasurer, Fred AI3Z, reported a financial balance of $934.52 and a total of 53 paid members.

Nick K3NY reported the QSL input has become a trickle and we are still holding at 119 confirmed. We did get Martinique confirmed on CW.

It was announced that the Amateur Extra class will begin September 20, 2005. Flyers were noted to be on the table and members were requested to take and post them.

The FAR meeting for September will be next week. The FAR AutoCall staff has expressed appreciation for the considered comments made by HEMARC on the possible demise of AutoCall.

FARFest

HEMARC has tickets. We need volunteers for Saturday and Sunday. Norm AB6CBD, Bob K3FQP, Heru W3WVV, Sam KB3CYL and Uwe DF2IR have volunteered.

Station Operations

ATV problem has been essentially solved by replacement of an N/UHF adepter.

The GAP is operative on all its bands but with a little higher then optimal VSWR on a few bands.

The power box has been fixed and a new key switch has been obtained and will be installed soon.

The six meter band antenna was discussed. The tribander does load effectively on six thus it was decided that an additional antenna would be a major operation with dubious benefits.

JOTA

Gary Mauler WB3CGE discussed the upcoming Boy Scouts Jamboree on the Air weekend on October 15th at Fort Smallwood Park. Gary is asking for volunteers to help at the pavilion. They have a very nice location. There will be 400 to 500 4th & 5th graders present. There will be two stations. Demonstrations will expo them to several amateur modes and give some actual contact experience.

Even a few hours will help as 8AM to 5PM is a long day.

Any one interested in volunteering should contact: Gary Mauler WB3CGE.

Phone 410-551-8856 daytime 410-765-6601 or email rgmauler@comcast.net (Those from HEMARC who have volunteered for this event have enjoyed it and feel it is very worthwhile.)

Station

Les WR3X noted the solar flare that wiped out the HF bands and thus the NGF net. All were advised to be careful to always follow the shutdown procedure to shut down the computers before switching off the power.

Les proposed we can get the Museum's wireless internet connection if we buy the card for our computers. A motion was made and passed that we authorize Norman AB6CBD to purchase the cards/cards/router as appropriate to provide us the capability.

The monitor on one computer always stays on and need not concern anyone.

The museum wants to have the station look more like a room or Hamshack.

More on this will be communicated to us. It was proposed that we consider this type of extreme makeover at a HEMARC board meeting.

Les also indicated that we need to replace the black table covering where it keeps pealing off despite repeated attempts to re glue it down.

The Harrisburg ARC is having a special event station to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Middleburg, PA. The dates are October 1 and October 8 from 1400Z to 2000Z on 14.270MHz and 7.265MHz.

The article on Ham radio participation in the Katrina disaster that appeared in the Wall Street Journal had been sent out on the HEMARC elist. In the article there was an unfavorable comment about ham radio by a Motorola service manager. The Motorola apology for the comments was issued at the meeting. Several members expressed a high opinion of Motorola. The very different requirements for hardware communications infrastructure with commercial radio were also noted. Amateur radio with its flexible infrastructure has a greater point to point capability during disasters.

The article also noted that ham technology had not changed since WW2 and this was debated.

It was noted that September is Prostate month and several members bore witness that their lives had been saved by early diagnosis, thus advising all men to go and have it checked out at appropriate intervals.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:05PM

Submitted by Chip Weems W4PBG Secretary 12 September 2005