September 2019 Meeting Minutes
Snoqualmie Valley Radio Club
Meeting Minutes for September 5, 2019
Business Meeting called to order 6:15 p.m. Duvall Fire Station 45 by Tom, WA7TBP.
15 members and guests present for business and meeting: Robin Amundson, Rowland Brasch, Paul Butzi, David Faires, Lindy Friedlander, Ken Kosters, Ralph Lease, Howard Mahran, Irvina Mizell, Jim Myers, Tom Needham, Dale Smith, Shawn Somers, Kirt White, Chuck Woolfolk.
Secretary Report—No corrections or additions to the August Minutes were requested. Lindy, KG7IFA, moved and Rowland, K7RWB, seconded approval. Approved by voice vote.
Treasurer Report—Lindy, KG7IFA, reported the current balance $7,035.64, not yet approved by CDCCC board. There was a second anonymous Charles Schwab donation for $1,000. The board and club are grateful to our anonymous donor, whose donations will allow us to purchase new equipment to pursue our emergency communications mission. There are 41 dues paid members as of this meeting. There were 50 paid members at this time last year. Dues checks can be made out to CDCCC and new short form applications are available on Groups.io and the website.
Lindy stated she would begin depreciating all equipment valued over $100 and deemed ready-to-use, whether or not first use has occurred. Tom is still storing equipment donated by Stillwater and needs help moving it. Lindy reminded CDCCC board approval is necessary for equipment purchases in excess of $500.
Shawn, K7ATA, moved and Jim, W7ABD seconded approval of Treasurer’s report. Approved.
Committee and Task Force Reports
Repeater task force—Shawn, K7ATA, reported September 11 there will be a scheduled power outage on Cougar Mountain between 9-11 a.m. for PSE upgrade of power feed line all the way up the mountain. Jim, W7ABD, volunteered to be on site to observe repeater back-up behavior. Jim reported the repeater was down on August 28 due to a random event with IRLP. He was able to reboot remotely.
Emergency planning and mobilization task force—Howard, WA1HEM, stepped up last month to chair the committee. The first meeting of the reconstituted Em Comm committee was held September 4 in the club shack at Carnation City Hall. Meetings will be held monthly on first Tuesdays, with an online conference option available for those unable to attend in person. The next meeting will be October 1 at 6 p.m. Howard reported on some of the topics discussed and task force assignments made. These include document editing, updating credentialing, 8900 training, announced and unannounced drills, making changes to the Thursday night 8 p.m. net to increase club and guest participation. Gamification will be a new feature of the net as well as drills, to include design of a wide area ongoing organized simplex experiment.
Education & community outreach task force—Irvina, W7IRM, discussed upgrading our tech class curriculum using Lake Washington Ham Club’s successful template, which varies substantially from ARRL. She noted there are 7 months until our next April tech class and it is not too soon to plan how we will do things differently.
Kirt, K7KDW, reported the Big Rock summer gatherings ended for the season. Robin, WA7CPA, and Kirt will be organizing social events at various venues, days and times, to accommodate as many people as possible over time. Shawn noted the importance of including spouses and other non-hams to make it easier and keep it social. Tom, WA7TBP, stressed the importance in club life of having regular social events to keep more people engaged and connected. Robin announced the first venue for social gathering would be at The Bindlestick in Snoqualmie at 12:15 on September 7. The venue was selected to coincide with and support the Summer Gathering at Valley Camp, where Tom, W7ABD will be presenting and elmering on APRS.
Carnation space—Paul, W7PFB and Jim, W7ABD. J-Pole is ready to go up, which Paul will do, but not a priority because radio is not ready. The repeater there is “deaf” due to band pass filtering issues, discussed. Tom referred the technical discussion to the technical committee. There was discussion regarding the club’s portable repeater and challenges of antenna and radio on Evac Hill. Power is still the stumbling block. Ken, W7ECK, volunteered to discuss mutual funding of Internet access with Snoqualmie Valley Power Authority (SVPA) with his contact, Lisa. An in-depth discussion of generator, solar, batteries, equipment storage on Evac Hill was discussed. Ongoing contacts and discussions with relevant outside parties are occurring.
Old Business—Rowland announced Sam Baker, SK. The widow has asked Rowland to help him with the equipment and is donating some items to the club. The family’s announcement has been published on our groups.io and Facebook page.
New Business—Tom, WA7TBP, announced the Valley Camp Summer Gathering would be Saturday, September 7 in North Bend. He will be presenting on APRS, using a “tribal knowledge” format. Other presenters will cover D-STAR, Packet, DMR, among others. A suggested $25 donation is requested.
Tom also proposed a vote to spend club funds on a Kenwood D710G with built-in TNC on sale for $529.95 plus RT Systems software $49.95 for the Carnation shack, as well as portable deployment. After discussion it was agreed the purchase would be requested of the CDCCC board. An additional discussion on the pros and cons of purchasing a generator for the club concluded it is inadvisable at this time due to logistics.
Ralph, KC7QXD, moved and Shawn, W7ATA, seconded a motion to close the business meeting.
Elmer Session: The Elmer meeting was devoted to discussing ideas for our next tech class, club equipment needs, and future topics for Elmer sessions. Each Elmer topic listed on the white board were scheduled for a future meeting with various people tasked (attached at the end of the minutes).
Upcoming Events
9/7/19: Social Gathering at 12:15 on patio of The Bindlestick in Snoqualmie. Sandwiches, coffee, and beer available for purchase.
9/11/19 7-9PM: CDCCC Bi-Monthly Meeting (for CERTs, Hams, and MRCs), Carnation FS: Topic: Upcoming Earthquake Drill
9/16/19 – 11/4/19 Fall CERT Class, Carnation Fire Station 6:30-9:00 Mondays
9/21/19 WA State Salmon Run QSO Party
9/28/19 Carnation EQ Evacuation Drill: 9am City residents meet at Tolt Middle School; 10 They will walk to evacuation hill
10/3/10 SnoVARC business meeting for those interested, 6:15 p.m. Duvall Fire Station before Elmer meeting.
10/3/19 SnoVARC Meeting, Thursday, 7 p.m. Duvall Fire Station, Elmer topic is messaging forms practice led by Rowland, K7RWB
10/5/19 Sandbagging Class/Generator Safety, Details TBD but probably Duvall Fire Station
10/19/19 Stop the Bleed Training, Details TBD but probably Carnation Fire Station
Minutes respectfully submitted by Robin, WA7CPA
2019-20 ELMER LIST FROM WHITEBOARD:
Month Subject Presenter or Arranger
October Messaging Forms Practice Rowland
November ICS 100/700 Overview and EOC Radio Training Ralph, Tom
December Dinner Robin
January Building Go Kits/Boxes Howard, Paul
February NVIS Antennas Robin, Paul, Jim, Kirt
March Packet Radio Lynn (Paul arranging)
April Mesh Network Shawn, Dale
May Radio Programming and show and tell Robin, Jim
June Field Day Club
July TBD**
August TBD
September TBD
October TBD
November TBD
**Rowland will be checking on the guest presenters list that Lynn Burlingame has created to possibly fill as many of these slots as possible. Also other subject ideas will pop up that could be great Elmer sessions
It was also decided that at every meeting from now on instead of introducing each member we will have someone play net control and have everyone check in from their seats (no radios involved). That way everyone will get a chance to be a net control and see how easy it is.
