Minutes of the Meeting of 11 August 2005
Historical
The meeting was opened by President Jim
Nowotarski N3GOO at 6:04 PM.
Attending on the sign up sheet were: Les
Jamison WR3X, Chip Weems W4PBG,
Heru Walmsley W3WVV,
Bill Ferguson KB3JJS, Bruce Shetrone WB3BMI, Bill
Thompson WT3B, De Myerson AA3XY, Gary Ryan
W3GMY, Bill Corley NG3O, Steve
Stitzer WA3ZWC, John
Paul Howell AA3WI, Norman Smith WA6ABD, Gene Knapp
W3BAB, Bob Gardenghi
K3FQP, Chuck Angle AA3FB, Gene Kern KB3JHR, Paul Gates
KD3JF, Rol Anders K3RA, Shawn Rogers KF4LUP
and Allen Flinchum KB3JHC.
The minutes of the July 05 meeting were issued and copies made available
at the meeting. It was advised the Ross Kilgore KG3J had
become a silent
key some years
ago.. The July minutes were approved. The treasurer was
not present and there
was no financial report.
Station
Gene W3BAB and Heru W3WVV reported that the
ATV is no longer functioning.
The preamp has been powered up and noise snow
is apparent on the ATV
display. The new hotel may be blocking the
repeater. Heru will bring in
a sensitive receiver
to see what antenna work is required.
This activity
will be added to the
list for the next work day.
Chuck AA3FB reported that the GAP feedline has been repaired but that the
SWR is high on some bands. The effort to improve connection links and/or
tuning will be added
to the next work day.
Bob K3FQP recounted that during the NGF net he
found the rig locked in
transmit and funally figured out that he had inadvertently stepped on
the
foot switch. There was much empathy expressed.
The VHF receiver had been reported inoperative
and Nick K3NY had taken it
home for repair. Gene W3BAB reported that the problem was in
the
extension cable which
has developed an intermittent connection causing the problem.
The radio is OK.
Jim N3GOO reminded all that there is a
‘STATION TECHNICAL LOG’ to note
such things at the
operating desk. Operators are requested
to note any
problems, subsequent
repairs and operational information in
the log and to scan it
before
operating. Specific cable and hookup
information should also be
copied into the book.
The key lock power box has had intermittent
problems. For the time being
Les WR3X advised that the key should always be
removed after activation. A
good whack and/or
recycling is also a temporary measure.
At least until the
problem is resolved.
The high current 12VDC power supply is in the
lab and much work remains to
be installed.
The repaired Linear Amp was reported as
functioning quite well.
There is a problem that some QSO’s are entered on the Demo screen rather
than the W3HEM
screen on the logging PC. All operators are urged to be
cautious about this
and notice the line at the top of the screen which indicates the operating
mode.
National Conference of VEC’s
Meeting
The VEC/Question Pool meeting in
Rol K3RA.
Some of the magazine articles were acknowledged to be inaccurate.
The NCVEC has commented on the FCC proposed
rules on several occasions.
Rol K3RA is convinced that a consensus opinion
should be filed on all new
rules in the prevue
of the council. This group is responsible for amateur
exams, question pools
and testing. The council includes all 14 VEC’s. An
entry level class of
license was discussed but no action taken.
Les WR3X recounted the approach to code being
taken by a number of
countries.
Foundation for Amateur Radio Report
Auto Call subscriptions have dropped about 50
per quarter for some time now
and it has now
reached a point whereby only 500 issues will be published for
the September issue.
At this point the per
issue cost becomes prohibitive. William
Hatfield, the
EVP of FAR, who serves as the publisher of the
Auto Call, announced that if
capable volunteers to
publish, edit, sell advertising and service
subscriptions do not
step forward and take over the magazine by this
September 23, he will recommend that we
discontinue the magazine. A copy of
his letter to this effect
is appended as part of these minutes.
The cause of this was discussed and it appears
that both financial success
and the lack of
support from individual clubs and for responsible key staff
are significant
factors. It was noted that William Hatfield and a few others
have given it a very
strong effort for several years and the club consensus
was that the magazine
had improved considerably and continues to
serves a
unique purpose in the
area amateur community. When polled, 9
of the 21
attendees were
subscribers. It was noted by one member
that ATV and VHF/MW
was not fully
represented in the magazine.
William Hatfield also requested feedback from
the clubs on the magazine and
his letter. A CD format was recommended as a cost saver. The BRATS
newsletter has gone
on the internet with the exception of
hard copies for a
few members without
internet connections. All 9 of the 21
felt that they
would like to see
publication continue. All present had
neutral or positive
feelings about the
magazine.
A discussion then ensued on what functions
that Auto Call serves that would
be missed or could be
provided by alternative means. The
factor of being a
victim of
technological obsolesce was mentioned.
An annual scholarship
accounting was cited
as a necessity. The training class and
VEC schedule
was mentioned and it
was pointed out that the ARRL now has that service
online on a national
basis but that not enough clubs keep it up to date. An
internet site for
training classes in the region would be very valuable.
The club consensus was to recommend that if
Auto Call is terminate, a web
site should provided
for the local area that would include: Training
classes, information
on all the local clubs, the VEC schedule, information
on the scholarship
program and other items of local area interest.
This
should serve as a
bulletin board for all clubs to post information to the
local area amateur
radio community.
FARFest
HEMARC is committed to operate the equipment
test table at the FARFest on
September 10th and 11th. The September meeting will be a few days
before
this hamfest. Members are
needed to help others test their acquisitions.
We also can sell individual and club items at
our tables. We will have two
contiguous tables and
access to power. We need vehicles to
carry test
facilities at 6:30
Saturday morning from the museum to the
fairgrounds and back
that evening. The same will be required for Sunday.
Volunteers for Friday night setup and Sunday
afternoon clean up were also
needed as well as
ticket takers at the gates. Rol K3RA
will provide the
Saturday to and from . Uwe DK2IR will
provide the R&S equipment and
demonstrate it as
well as us it to help test treasurers.
Norm WA6ABD
volunteered to work
Saturday Afternoon. Heru W3WVV asked if
it would be a
good idea to have An
‘
are needed. A better map than the one available on the
table will be
provided.
The FAR scholarship program continues to
function quite effectively. 54
scholarships granted this year and a new major
bequest has been received.
MDC QSO Party
This operating event is this coming Saturday
and Sunday. John Paul Howell
has volunteered to
lead the effort if he can obtain entrance to the museum.
Volunteer operators are needed for both days.
Standing Field Day Committee
Jim N3GOO proposed to set up a standing
committee for Field Day. It was
agreed that this
should be done and volunteers were solicited to lead the
various areas. More discussion on this will be held at the
next meeting.
Presentation on James Clerk Maxwell
Steve Stitzer WA3ZWC
announced that the IEEE will have a nationally know
speaker make a formal
presentation on the life of James Clerk Maxwell.
Maxwell developed the mathematical foundation for the
electromagnetic waves
that we all strive to
use effectively. This will be held in Pioneer Hall on
26 at 7:00 PM. This is not a technical paper and all
interested persons are
welcome.
The business meeting was concluded at 7:35
The technical program was an ARRL power point
presentation on NVIS antennas
with augmentation by
Rol K3RA and Les WR3X. There is a lot more to this than
most of us had
realized. Suddenly the writer better understood why his 80M
dipole which was very
low in the trees worked better between MD and NJ on a
net than some of the
NJ high flying inverted V’s etc. There
goes the old rule of thumb “the
higher the better.”
Submitted 12 August 2005
Chip Weems W4PBG
Secretary
Addendum:
Letter from the EVP of FAR:
(Note: In about a week a summary of the
discussion recorded in the August
minutes will be sent
as response from HEMARC. If you have any
comments
please email me. )
“Ladies and Gentlemen,
Those who attended the FAR meeting last night
learned a major part of
the Auto Call staff
will be unable to continue working on the
magazine beyond the
next issue.
If nothing else were done, Auto Call
publication would be suspended
after the November or
"Winter" scholarship issue.
FAR's intent is to
put this out to its members: If a new
team can be
formed that has the
needed skills, a business plan, and is
fully-staffed, FAR
will work with this new team to continue
periodical
publication.
Skills refers to ability and tools to produce
a publication to
schedule. A plan can be as simple as a forward growth
budget and the
steps that will be
taken to realize measurable goals. A
full staff
would have one or
more persons responsible for increasing the number
of subscribers, one
or more people responsible for selling the
advertising space in
the magazine, and two or more editors who would
assure the quality of
the publication and assemble and produce it.
FAR will help as it can. It expects make the remaining Auto Call
subscriber list
available. It has existing relationships
with a
printer and a mail
service. Individuals who have experience
with
Auto Call have already said they would be
available to help with
start up. Of course, publishing in FAR's
name means FAR will retain
control. FAR is open to new ideas: The publication that continues
after November may
look completely different and may have a different
publication
frequency. Different printing and
mailing solutions may
be used. Several individuals may identify themselves
or a club or
group of clubs could
take responsibility. Discussions with
individuals or member
clubs (or both) that want to do this will
determine further
details.
Based on what's known now, Auto Call's
contributing
departments--Rules&Regs, Gnoshes, VE
Testing, Public Service, DXDXDX,
AreaEvents--will be
available.
What will be hard about this is the
time--there's not much.
If a group salespeople and editors can step
forward to take over, FAR
has to know it by
Thursday 15 September.
There are two overriding reasons only 35 days
remain to do this.
First is the fact that doing the next issue of
an ongoing magazine is
very different from
doing a final issue. When the November
issue
closes and production
starts, FAR must know if it will be suspending
publication or
introducing a new successor publication.
Second, if
there is no workable
option by 15 September and FAR does suspend
publication, the
existing subscribers need to see a letter addressed
to them that explains
what is happening, gives them some choices, and
shows FAR's appreciation for their support--before they see the
last
issue.
In a few words
FAR is putting this matter out to its
member clubs
to see it they
want publication to continue and,
if so, whether
there are people who will do
Subscriptions
Advertising
Editing, and
Editing, layout, and design
Why is this coming to a decision now? There are two main reasons.
First, people are busy. In the last three weeks, schedule changes
affecting the lives
of three of the current Auto Call staff resulted
in their decisions to
not continue with Auto Call. Factors
include
increasing work
responsibility, big job relocations, or promotions.
However, the more somber and more serious side
is that, in terms of
subscribers,
advertisers, and even contributing authors, Auto Call's
overall trend over
the last 10 years has been down.
Improvements
since 2002, when FAR
re-assumed control of Auto Call, were done at
considerable effort
and included producing a high quality product,
having people in the
editorial process available at every FAR
meeting, and focusing
on a positive future for Auto Call.
These
editorial and
customer service improvements garnered words of praise
and appreciation but
only temporarily stemmed the decline of
advertising and
subscriber sales. Auto Call achieved
break-even only
when FAR cut printing
and postage 66 percent by publishing quarterly.
Again, FAR wants its members involved in
this. If you have any
questions or need
more information to help you take this to the
others in your clubs,
please just ask.
Send messages about interest in being part of
the new staff to
Thank you all for keeping an eye on the clock
and working within this
very short time
period.
Best regards, William Hatfield
Executive Vice President”