The members met at the Bellevue Senior Center, with 6 members and 2 visitors. The meeting began at about 6:50 PM.

Attending were members Van Kichline KD7QIT, Charles Beckmeier W7CEB, Dick Schwanke W9HXM, Edna Rideout KA7HNH, Virginia Hook N7CZI, and Doug Bell KD7KKR, our speaker Bill Herzberg AA7PI, and visitor Charles Holzschuh, who had been studying for his license.

Charles B. reported that Don Hickman WF7Z had surgery this day and proposed that PARS vote to send a bouquet to his home, since he was expected to be sent home the next day. Van agreed, and the vote was unanimous to do so.

Charles B. had received an email message this day from Monty Simpson K2MLS, Communication Manager of the Washington State Patrol Bremerton District Office, about the Amber Alert Web Portal (AAWP), asking if Charles would be willing to pass on AAWP information to PARS. Charles had sent an affimative reply, not only for PARS but for the ARES community. Van asked Charles to obtain information that PARS could put on its website about AAWP.

Charles B. reported that so far $45 dues had been collected from three members. At the time of this meeting, dues were past due. The 2/28/05 PARS bank statement showed an ending balance of $1632.09.

Van expressed happiness at having made it to this meeting, after having to miss the last general and board meetings. He has never been busier at work, and was ill at the time of the last board meeting. Also, Van's church is hosting Tent City 4, and he has been appointed head of the task force, chair of the medical committee, etc., "about a 26 hour a day job".

Past PARS member Bill Herzberg AA7PI gave a presentation about early PARS days and also his experiences as a ham in the 60's and 70's.

The door prize was a large package of AA batteries, and was won by our visitor, Charles Holzschuh.

We broke for goodies with a St. Patrick's Day theme.

There was a discussion about a computer disk partitioning problem. Van said that the XP help system is actually useful, as opposed to previous versions of Windows.

There was a discussion about storage and retrieval of digital photographs and digitization of slides.

There was a discussion about how no medium currently available will store information for long periods without judicious recopying.

Van asked if anyone has been doing anything interesting with radio.

Dick has been checking into a slow CW net on 3702 MHz at 1900 local time.

Van had been studying for his code test, but had gotten busy with other things, and needs to get back to studying code. His goal is to get his General license this year.

There was a discussion about how to study code.

Charles H. asked about ham testing. Dick told him about the testing with which he's a VE, at the Redmond Maintenance Operations Center, at the NE corner of 180th and 76th by the Target store.

There was a discussion about experiences studying for the ham written and code tests.

Van mentioned his new Toyota Prius, which has a radio link in the "key", so it unlocks the car from his pocket.

Van mentioned that the WiFi system widely used to interconnect computers is in a ham radio band, so if you get your ticket, you can run up to 1500 Watts and/or use fancy antennas to get DX on WiFi.

There was a discussion about amateur TV (ATV) vs slow scan TV.

There was a discussion about Van's portable satellite antenna and his PDA software for tracking satellites.

Charles H. asked about PARS membership.

Respectfully Submitted -
Doug Bell, KD7KKR
PARS Secretary