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March minutes

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Sat Mar 18 2023, 10:38pm

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Tri-County Amateur Radio Club
Minutes of Meeting: 18 March 2023

A regular monthly meeting of the Tri-County Amateur Radio Club was held on Saturday, 18 March 2023 at 11:30 am EDT at Tres Amigos restaurant, 108 Randolph Street, Thomasville, NC, with the president, NL7UP-MeLinda, being in the chair. The meeting was called to order at 11:30 am.

Members Attending: KX4CAM, Camille; W4DAE, David; K4DSX, Rod; W8LWX, John; KK4NWR, Amy; KF4QDS, John; WB2RFK, Ken; NL7UP, MeLinda; KJ4UYR, Janice; and N2WOB, Susan.

Guests: KO4BEF, Jerry; Jonathan Gallimore; Karl Weeman.

Adoption of Agenda

A draft agenda had been distributed prior to commencement of the meeting, Members were invited to propose changes or additions if desired. By unanimous consent, the draft agenda was adopted without change.

Approval of Minutes from Previous Meeting

Without objection, reading of the draft minutes of the February 2023 meeting was waived and they were adopted.

Reports of Officers and Committees

Report of the Secretary. -- The club recently learned of the passing of KK4ZIV, Bruce Trexler, who became a silent key on 24 February 2023. Bruce had not been a member since 2016 but was known to many of us, very active, and highly valued for his friendship and on-air wit. He will be greatly missed.

As of the start of the meeting, the club had 42 members, of whom 33 (79 percent) were in good standing for 2023 and 9 (21 percent) still owed dues for 2023. The following 9 members still owed dues as of the meeting date:

KF4OVA, Keith
KK4VCH, Norman
KJ4IVP, Donnie
KO4UWS, Frank
KO4QOO, Keith
KJ4NUS, Steve
KJ4NUU, Vanda
KN4DGM, Evan, and
KK4RR, Richard

Each of these is a highly valued member, so we hope they will renew before the deadline of 21 April 2023. Members whose dues remain unpaid after that date will be automatically dropped from the roster.

Report of the Treasurer. -- For the month ending 28 February 2023, we still had $720 left over from our initial operating budget of $850. We had a total of $1,508.91 in "cash on hand," which includes the balances of our checking, savings, and PayPal accounts, plus any currency, coins, and checks awaiting deposit. After setting aside the funds dedicated to the operating budget, this means that, as of the end of the month, we had a net total of $788.91 in uncommitted resources available for other uses. For the 2023 membership year, we have received $445.05 in dues, donations, and interest, and have spent $140.61, resulting in net income of $304.44 as of month's end.

Report of the President. -- Work continues on a 445.975 MHz simplex link to the club's 145.290 MHz repeater. This link, intended to make it easier for members and others in the Thomasville area to use the club repeater even on HTs and other low-power set-ups, was successfully demonstrated as a "proof of concept" in January, using the president's own personal TYT 7800 rig at the president's QTH. However, this particular configuration was prone to overheating, even when powered down to just 1W output on the 440 side and 5W output on the 2m side. The next step was to try swapping out the TYT with the club's own Alinco DR-735 to see whether the Alinco can do a better job of handling the heat dissipation requirements. Unfortunately, the Alinco also overheated and shut itself down. Next, KF4QDS will look into possibilities for using a commercial-grade transceiver and/or the controller from the old 145.290 repeater that preceded the current one. Members' patience is requested as we work toward a working system.

Report of the Field Day Committee. -- On behalf of the Field Day Committee, W8LWX provided the following report, which had also been circulated in writing prior to commencement of the meeting:

REPORT & RECOMMENDATION OF THE FIELD DAY COMMITTEE
(KK4RR, Richard; and W8LWX, John)

18 March 2023

Committee's mandate: To "report back to the membership, not later than the April monthly meeting, with a recommendation on whether the club should participate in ARRL Field Day and, if so, exactly where and when and at what cost" (Minutes of 18 Feb. 2023 meeting).

Method and results: We sent an e-mail to members via the Groups.io member mailing list on 20 Feb. 2023, identifying each task involved in a Field Day event and inviting members to volunteer for them by 01 Mar. 2023. By March 1, only one member had volunteered for any task. We extended the deadline to March 10, resulting in some additional commitments.

In all, 5 members have volunteered to cover the following tasks: setting up antennas and equipment; casual radio operation (no particular time, day, or duration); meal prep; setting up logging software; preparing logs and submitting to ARRL; and tear-down. No one was willing to commit to any radio operation other than casual operation.

RECOMMENDATION:

We recommend that the club participate in ARRL Field Day from a picnic shelter reserved at Oak Hollow Park in High Point, reserving the shelter for 3 pm - 7 pm on Saturday, June 24, 2023, at a cost of $45.

In the event that we are unable to reserve the 3 pm - 7 pm slot that day, we recommend reserving the 10 am - 2 pm slot the same day.

In the event that neither slot is available, we recommend that the committee find some other site that it finds suitable within an hour's drive of Thomasville, at a cost of $100 or less, and secure it for the club's use for at least 4 continuous hours of Saturday, June 24, 2023.

Open Motions from Previous Meeting

There were no open motions from the previous meeting.

New Business

Adoption of Field Day Committee's report. -- KK4NWR moved that the report and recommendations of the Field Day Committee be adopted. The motion was adopted by unanimous vote.

Program and Announcements

There was no program.

KK4NWR announced that participation in the club's weekly net on Thursdays has been far below what might be expected of a club with 42 members. The net, held at 8 pm every Thursday night on the 145.290 MHz club repeater, typically attracts the same 5-10 members. Those members, including net controllers W4DAE, W8LWX, KK4NWR, KF4QDS (net manager), and KJ4UYR, always have fun but would don't want to keep it all to themselves. More members should try to remember the net and check in on Thursday nights if able. The repeater uses a negative offset and an 88.5 Hz tone.

W8LWX announced that dues for became payable on January 21 and are now past due. Dues can be paid in person by handing cash or a check to the treasurer (W8LWX) at a meeting, or by mailing to W8LWX at his QTH (65 Park Blvd., Winston-Salem, NC 27127), or via the PayPal link on NC4AR.org. If payment is made by check, it must be made payable to Tri-County Amateur Radio Club. Checks made out in any other way cannot be deposited into our account. Any member who owes dues but has not paid them by 21 April 2023 will be automatically dropped from the roster without further notice.

Reminder

Mailing list: The club mailing list on Groups.io is available for each and every member to use whenever he or she wishes to send out a radio-related announcement or information to all other club members. It's easy to do: just address the e-mail to members@nc4ar.groups.io and it will be automatically forwarded to all subscribed members. Just make sure the communication relates to ham radio (i.e., no politics, chain letters, advertising, religious proselytizing, etc.).

Adjournment

There being no further business on the agreed agenda, the meeting was adjourned without objection at 12:19 pm.

Respectfully submitted,
/s/ W8LWX-John
Secretary


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